Cambridge International Examinations

Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level

* 4 4 2 0 5 0 2 9 9 4 *

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9608/23

Paper 2 Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills October/November 2018
2 hours
Candidates answer on the Question Paper.
No Additional Materials are required.
No calculators allowed.

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

Write your Centre number, candidate number and name in the spaces at the top of this page.
Write in dark blue or black pen.
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DO NOT WRITE IN ANY BARCODES.

Answer all questions.

No marks will be awarded for using brand names of software packages or hardware.

At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.

The maximum number of marks is 75.

This document consists of 16 printed pages.

DC (NH/CT) 151783/3
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Question 1 begins on the next page.

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Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is itself a department of the University of Cambridge.

© UCLES 2018 9608/23/O/N/18

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1 (a) The following table contains statements written in pseudocode.

Show the type of programming construct each statement represents.

Put a tick (3) in the appropriate column for each statement.

Repetition
Statement Assignment Selection
(Iteration)
CASE OF TempSensor1
ELSE
REPEAT
ENDFOR
DayNumber DayNumber + 1
Error TRUE
[6]

(b) (i) The following table contains statements written in pseudocode.

Give the most appropriate data type for the variable used in each statement.

Statement Data type

Revision 500
FuelType 'P'
MinValue -6.3
ServiceDue FALSE
ModelRef "W212DEC15"
[5]

(ii) The following table contains statements written in pseudocode.

Complete the table by evaluating each expression using the values from part (b)(i).

If any expression is invalid, write “ERROR” in the Evaluates to column.

For the built-in functions list, refer to the Appendix on page 16.

Expression Evaluates to
"Month: " & MID(ModelRef, 5, 3)
INT(MinValue * 2)
ASC(Revision)
Revision > 500
ServiceDue = TRUE OR FuelType = 'P'
[5]

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2 Shop customers have a discount card with a unique card number. Customers collect points when
they buy items. At the end of each year, customers are given bonus (extra) points related to the
total amount they have spent during the year, and the number of points they have on their card.

The function CalcBonus() takes the card number as a parameter. It returns the bonus points for
the customer. A flowchart for the function is shown.

The function uses the following variables and functions.

Identifier Data type Description

CardNum STRING A numeric string representing the unique card number
Points INTEGER The number of points collected
Spend REAL The total amount that customer has spent during the year
Bonus INTEGER The number of bonus points
Takes the card number as a parameter and returns the
GetPoints() FUNCTION
number of points already collected
Takes the card number as a parameter and returns the
GetSpend() FUNCTION
total amount that customer has spent during the year

START

Points
GetPoints(CardNum)

Spend
GetSpend(CardNum)

Is YES
Points > 2000 ?

NO

Is YES
Spend > 1000 ?

NO

Bonus 10 Bonus 50 Bonus 100

RETURN Bonus

END

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(a) (i) Write pseudocode for the CalcBonus() function.

Your solution should follow the flowchart for the function as closely as possible.

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(ii) The function GetCardNumber() prompts the user to input a card number until the
number input is valid.

A valid card number has 16 characters. Each character is a numeric character ('0' to
'9').

Write pseudocode to complete the GetCardNumber() function.

You should refer to the function IS_NUM() in the Appendix on page 16.

FUNCTION GetCardNumber() RETURNS STRING

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ENDFUNCTION
[6]
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(b) The function CalcBonus() is written in a high-level language.

(i) The function is tested using black-box testing and does not contain any syntax errors.

Name and describe one other type of error that black-box testing could find.

Name .................................................................................................................................

Description ........................................................................................................................

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[2]

(ii) The function CalcBonus() is tested using white-box testing.

State two different pairs of values for Spend and Points that can be used to test
different paths through the function. Justify your choices.

Spend ........................................ Points ......................................

Justification .......................................................................................................................

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Spend ........................................ Points ......................................

Justification .......................................................................................................................

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[4]

(c) Name two types of program maintenance and state the reason why each is needed.

Name ........................................................................................................................................

Reason .....................................................................................................................................

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Reason .....................................................................................................................................

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[4]

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3 An array contains 100 integer values. An algorithm will find the maximum and minimum values
stored in the array.

(a) A programmer has started to write this program using a conditional loop.

Name a more appropriate loop structure for this task and justify your choice.

Name ........................................................................................................................................

Justification ...............................................................................................................................

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[2]

(b) Outline the steps the program will need to follow to implement the algorithm.

Do not write pseudocode or program code.

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Question 4 begins on the next page.

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4 Part of a program written in pseudocode is shown.

010 DECLARE ThisArray : ARRAY [1:100, 1:10] OF STRING

011 DECLARE LastElement : INTEGER

…
100 FUNCTION Update(NewData : STRING) RETURNS INTEGER
101 DECLARE ArrayIndex : INTEGER
102 DECLARE Found : BOOLEAN
103
104 ArrayIndex 1
105 Found FALSE
106
107 WHILE ArrayIndex <= LastElement AND Found = FALSE
108 IF ThisArray[ArrayIndex, 1] > NewData
109 THEN
110 Found TRUE
111 ELSE
112 ArrayIndex ArrayIndex + 1
113 ENDIF
114 ENDWHILE
115
116 IF Found = TRUE
117 THEN
118 CALL Insert(ArrayIndex, NewData)
119 ELSE
120 ArrayIndex 0
121 ENDIF
122
123 RETURN ArrayIndex
124 ENDFUNCTION

(a) (i) Examine the pseudocode and complete the following table.

Answer
The name of a global identifier
The name of a user-defined procedure
The scope of ArrayIndex
The number of dimensions of ThisArray
The scope of NewData
[5]

(ii) Describe in detail, the purpose of lines 107 to 114 in the Update() function.
Do not use pseudocode in your answer.

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(b) Line 118 of the function Update() calls the subroutine Insert(). A designer decides to
convert Insert() from a procedure to a function. Insert() returns TRUE or FALSE.

A programmer must amend the function Update() as follows:

• If Insert() returns FALSE then the function Update() returns -1
• If Insert() returns TRUE then the function Update() returns the value as before.

Write program code to implement the amended Update() function.

Visual Basic and Pascal: You should include the declaration statements for variables.
Python: You should show a comment statement for each variable used with its data type.

Programming language .............................................................................................................

Program code

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(c) The function Update() is an example of a module within a program.

Describe the mechanism that supports the transfer of values between modules.

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(d) (i) CharArray is a 1D array of type CHAR. It contains 200 elements.

Write program code to change all the numeric characters ('0' to '9') in CharArray
to '*'.

Programming language .....................................................................................................

Program code

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(ii) A programmer decides to declare LastElement as a constant instead of a variable.

Write a statement in pseudocode to declare LastElement as the value 200.

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Question 5 begins on the next page.

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5 The function ReadFileLine() returns a specific line from a text file.

The function takes two parameters:

Identifier Data type Description

FileName STRING The name of the text file
FileLine INTEGER The line number that is required

The following pseudocode gives an example of the use of the function.

FileData ReadFileLine(FileName, FileLine)

The function ReadFileLine() will:

• open the file, FileName

• read each line from the file until line FileLine is found or the end of the file is reached
• if the line exists, return the string from this line; otherwise return the string "****"

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Write pseudocode for the ReadFileLine() function.

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Appendix
Built-in functions (pseudocode)
Each function returns an error if the function call is not properly formed.

MID(ThisString : STRING, x : INTEGER, y : INTEGER) RETURNS STRING

returns a string of length y starting at position x from ThisString

Example: MID("ABCDEFGH", 2, 3) returns string "BCD"

LEFT(ThisString : STRING, x : INTEGER) RETURNS STRING

returns leftmost x characters from ThisString

Example: LEFT("ABCDEFGH", 3) returns string "ABC"

RIGHT(ThisString: STRING, x : INTEGER) RETURNS STRING

returns rightmost x characters from ThisString

Example: RIGHT("ABCDEFGH", 3) returns string "FGH"

LENGTH(ThisString : STRING) RETURNS INTEGER

returns the integer value representing the length of ThisString

Example: LENGTH("Happy Days") returns 10

INT(x : REAL) RETURNS INTEGER

returns the integer part of x

Example: INT(27.5415) returns 27

ASC(ThisChar : CHAR) RETURNS INTEGER

returns the ASCII value of ThisChar

Example: ASC('A') returns 65

IS_NUM(ThisString : STRING) RETURNS BOOLEAN

returns the value TRUE if ThisString contains only numeric characters ('0' to '9').

Example: IS_NUM("1234X67") returns FALSE

Operators (pseudocode)

Operator Description
Concatenates (joins) two strings
&
Example: "Summer" & " " & "Pudding" produces "Summer Pudding"
Performs a logical AND on two Boolean values
AND
Example: TRUE AND FALSE produces FALSE
Performs a logical OR on two Boolean values
OR
Example: TRUE OR FALSE produces TRUE
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