Cambridge International AS & A Level

* 6 7 8 5 4 5 4 5 5 5 *

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9618/21

Paper 2 Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills May/June 2022

2 hours

You must answer on the question paper.

You will need: Insert (enclosed)

INSTRUCTIONS
● Answer all questions.
● Use a black or dark blue pen.
● Write your name, centre number and candidate number in the boxes at the top of the page.
● Write your answer to each question in the space provided.
● Do not use an erasable pen or correction fluid.
● Do not write on any bar codes.
● You may use an HB pencil for any diagrams, graphs or rough working.
● Calculators must not be used in this paper.

INFORMATION
● The total mark for this paper is 75.
● The number of marks for each question or part question is shown in brackets [ ].
● No marks will be awarded for using brand names of software packages or hardware.
● The insert contains all the resources referred to in the questions.

This document has 20 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

DC (RW/CGW) 303754/3
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Refer to the insert for the list of pseudocode functions and operators.

1 (a) A programmer draws a program flowchart to show the sequence of steps required to solve a
problem.

Give the technical term for a sequence of steps that describe how to solve a problem.
algorithm
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(b) The table lists some of the variables used in a program.

(i) Complete the table by writing the most appropriate data type for each variable.

Variable Use of variable Data type

Temp Stores the average temperature real

PetName Stores the name of my pet string

To calculate the number of days until my next

MyDOB int
birthday

LightOn Stores state of light; light is only on or off boolean

[4]

(ii) One of the names used for a variable in the table in part 1(b)(i) is not an example of
good practice.

Identify the variable and give a reason why it is not good practice to use that name.

Variable .............................................................................................................................
MyDOB

Reason ..............................................................................................................................
could be mistaken for the date of birth

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[2]

(c) Complete the table by evaluating each expression.

Expression Evaluation

INT((31 / 3) + 1) 11

MID(TO_UPPER("Version"), 4, 2) SI

TRUE AND (NOT FALSE) TRUE

NUM_TO_STR(27 MOD 3) "0"

[4]

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2 Examine the following state-transition diagram.

Button-Y
Button-Z | Output-C

START
S1 Button-Z S3

Button-Y
Button-Y | Output-A

Button-X
S2
S4

Button-Z | Output-B

(a) Complete the table with reference to the diagram.

Answer
The number of different inputs 3

The number of different outputs 3

The single input value that could result in S4 Button Y

[3]

(b) The initial state is S1.

Complete the table to show the inputs, outputs and next states.

Input Output Next state

Button-Y A S4

Button y none S4

Button-Z B S2

Button X none S2

[4]

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3 The manager of a cinema wants a program to allow users to book seats. The cinema has several
screens. Each screen shows a different film.

(a) Decomposition will be used to break the problem down into sub-problems.

Describe three program modules that could be used in the design.

Module showing which screen shows what movies
Module 1 ...................................................................................................................................

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Module buying tickets for movies
Module 2 ...................................................................................................................................

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Module to show which seats are booked and how many seats left
Module 3 ...................................................................................................................................

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[3]

(b) Two types of program modules may be used in the design of the program.

Identify the type of program module that should be used to return a value.
Function
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4 A stack is created using a high-level language. Memory locations 200 to 207 are to be used to
store the stack.

The following diagram represents the current state of the stack.

TopOfStack points to the last value added to the stack.

Stack Pointer
Memory
Value
location
200

201

202

203 'F' TopOfStack

204 'C'

205 'D'

206 'E'

207 'H'

(a) Complete the following table by writing the answers.

Answer

The value that has been on the stack for the longest time. 'H'

The memory location pointed to by TopOfStack if three POP

operations are performed. 'E'

[2]

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(b) The following diagram shows the current state of the stack:

Stack Pointer
Memory
Value
location
200

201

202 'W' TopOfStack

203 'Y'

204 'X'

205 'Z'

206 'N'

207 'P'

The following operations are performed:

POP
POP
PUSH 'A'
PUSH 'B'
POP
PUSH 'C'
PUSH 'D'

Complete the diagram to show the state of the stack after the operations have been
performed.

Stack Pointer
Memory
Value
location
200

201 'D' <-

202 'C'

203 'A'

204 'X'

205 'Z'

206 'N'

207 'P'

[4]

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5 Each line of a text file contains data organised into fixed-length fields as shown:

<Field 1><Field 2><Field 3>

An algorithm is required to search for the first instance of a given value of Field 2 and, if found, to
output the corresponding values for Field 1 and Field 3.

Describe the algorithm needed.

Do not include pseudocode statements in your answer.

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6 (a) An algorithm will:

• output each integer value between 100 and 200 that ends with the digit 7, for example,
107
• output a final count of the number of values that are output.

Write pseudocode for this algorithm.

Any variables used must be declared.

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(b) Study the following pseudocode.

CASE OF MySwitch
1: ThisChar 'a'
2: ThisChar 'y'
3: ThisChar '7'
OTHERWISE: ThisChar '*'
ENDCASE

Write pseudocode with the same functionality without using a CASE structure.

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7 A string is a palindrome if it reads the same forwards as backwards.

The following strings are examples of palindromes:

"Racecar"
"madam"
"12344321"

Upper-case and lower-case characters need to be treated the same. For example, 'A' is equivalent
to 'a'.

(a) A function IsPalindrome() will take a string parameter. The function will return TRUE if the
string is a palindrome and will return FALSE if the string is not a palindrome.

Write pseudocode for IsPalindrome().

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(b) Strings may consist of several words separated by spaces.

For example, the string "never odd or even" becomes a palindrome if the spaces are removed.

The program flowchart represents an algorithm to produce a string OutString by removing

all spaces from a string InString.

START

Set Index to 1

NO
B
E

YES
F
C

D
END

Complete the table by writing the text that should replace each of the labels B, C, D, F and G.

Note: the text may be written as a pseudocode statement.

Label Text

A Set OutString to ""

E Set Index to Index + 1

G
[4]
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8 A program allows a user to save passwords used to login to websites. A stored password is
inserted automatically when the user logs into the corresponding website.

A student is developing a program to generate a password. The password will be of a fixed format,
consisting of three groups of four alphanumeric characters. The groups are separated by the
hyphen character '-'.

An example of a password is: "FxAf-3haV-Tq49"

A global 2D array Secret of type STRING stores the passwords together with the website domain
name where they are used. Secret contains 1000 elements organised as 500 rows by 2 columns.

Unused elements contain the empty string (""). These may occur anywhere in the array.

An example of a part of the array is:

Array element Value

Secret[27, 1] "www.thiswebsite.com"

Secret[27, 2] ""
Secret[28, 1] "www.thatwebsite.com"

Secret[28, 2] ""

Note:
• For security, passwords are stored in an encrypted form, shown as "" in the
example.
• The passwords cannot be used without being decrypted.
• Assume that the encrypted form of a password will not be an empty string.

The programmer has started to define program modules as follows:

Module Description
RandomChar() • Generates a single random character from within one of the
following ranges:
○ 'a' to 'z'
○ 'A' to 'Z'
○ '0' to '9'
• Returns the character
Encrypt() • Takes a password as a parameter of type string
• Returns the encrypted form of the password as a string
Decrypt() • Takes an encrypted password as a parameter of type string
• Returns the decrypted form of the password as a string

For reference, relevant ASCII values are as follows:

Character range ASCII range

'a' to 'z' 97 to 122

'A' to 'Z' 65 to 90

'0' to '9' 48 to 57

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(a) Write pseudocode for module RandomChar().

You may wish to refer to the insert for a description of the CHR() function. Other functions
may also be required.

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(b) A new module is defined as follows:

Module Description
FindPassword() • Takes a website domain name as a parameter of type string
• Searches for the website domain name in the array Secret
• If the website domain name is found, the decrypted password
is returned
• If the website domain name is not found, a warning message
is output, and an empty string is returned

Write pseudocode for module FindPassword().

Assume that modules Encrypt() and Decrypt() have already been written.

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(c) The modules Encrypt() and Decrypt() are called from several places in the main
program.

Identify a method that could have been used to test the main program before these modules
were completed. Describe how this would work.

Method ......................................................................................................................................

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

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(d) A validation function is written to check that the passwords generated are valid.

To be valid, each password must:

• be 14 characters long
• be organised as three groups of four case-sensitive alphanumeric characters. The
groups are separated by hyphen characters
• not include any duplicated characters, except for the hyphen characters.

Note: lower-case and upper-case characters are not the same. For example, 'a' is not the
same as 'A'.

Give two password strings that could be used to test different areas of the validation rules.
A1B2-C3D4-E5F6
Password 1 ...............................................................................................................................
a1b2-c3d4-e5f6
Password 2 ...............................................................................................................................
[2]

(e) The RandomChar() module is to be modified so that alphabetic characters are generated
twice as often as numeric characters.

Describe how this might be achieved.

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