Please write clearly in block capitals.

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Surname

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INTERNATIONAL GCSE
COMPUTER SCIENCE
PAPER 1 PROGRAMMING

Date of exam Session Time allowed: 2 hours

Materials For Examiner’s Use

For this paper you must have access to: question Mark
• a computer 1
• a printer
2
• appropriate software.
3
• An electronic version of the Skeleton Program.
• A hard copy of the Preliminary Material. 4
Information 5
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets. 6
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
7
• No extra time is allowed for printing and collating.
• The question paper is divided into three sections. 8
• You may use a bilingual dictionary. 9
• You may not use an English dictionary.
• You are not allowed to use a calculator. TOTAL
Instructions
• Type the information required on the front of your Electronic Answer Document.
• Answer all questions.
• Enter your answers into the Electronic Answer Document.
• Before the start of the examination make sure your centre number, candidate name and
candidate number are shown clearly in the footer of every page of your Electronic Answer
Document (not the front cover).

Secure all your printed Electronic Answer Document pages and hand them to the
invigilator
 2

Section A (Non-programming questions)

You are advised to spend no more than 30 minutes on this section.

Type your answers to Section A in your Electronic Answer Document.

You must save this document at regular intervals.

The questions in this section are about programming and how the Skeleton Program works. You
should not make any changes to the Skeleton Program whilst answering these questions.

0 1 . 1 The Skeleton Program makes use of integer type variables, for example Row.

Explain the difference between an integer variable and a real variable.

[2 marks]

0 1 . 2 The Skeleton Program is decomposed into subroutines.

Describe three advantages of decomposing a program into subroutines.

[3 marks]

0 1 . 3 Indefinite iteration is used in the subroutine PlayGame.

State the command that is used in PlayGame to achieved indefinite iteration.

[1 mark]

0 1 . 4 How many parameters does the subroutine DisplayBoard have?

[1 mark]

0 1 . 5 Describe two advantages of using parameters in subroutine definitions.

[2 marks]

0 1 . 6 State the name of a local variable that is used in the DisplayBoard subroutine.
[1 mark]

0 1 . 7 Explain how local variables differ from global variables.

[2 marks]
 3

0 2 . 1 In the subroutine PlaceSnakesAndLadders index 72 of the Board array has

the value 20 assigned to it.

Explain what effect this assignment has within the game.

[3 marks]

0 2 . 2 The subroutine CalculateSquare converts a pair of Row and Column values

to a Square number.

Explain why the calculation performed is different for odd and even numbered
rows.
[1 mark]

0 2 . 3 The board is displayed as a grid, but a one-dimensional array has been chosen to
represent this instead of a two-dimensional array.

Explain why this is an appropriate choice for this game.

[2 marks]

0 2 . 4 In the subroutine PlayGame the MOD operation is used in the following

assignment statement:

PlayerNum = (PlayerNum + 1) MOD 2

Note the MOD operation is written as % in Python and C#.

Explain what the purpose of this assignment statement is and what the MOD
operation does in the assignment statement.
[2 marks]

Turn over for the next question

Turn over 
 4

Section B (Short programming questions)

You are advised to spend no more than 45 minutes on this section.

Include the evidence required for your answers to Section B in your Electronic Answer Document.

You must save this document at regular intervals.

The questions in this section require you to make changes to the Skeleton Program.

Note that all of the programming questions in sections B and C can be answered
independently of each other. Therefore, if you cannot answer one of the questions you can
still attempt to solve later questions.

You are advised to keep a backup copy of the original Skeleton Program so that you can go
back to it if you accidentally make changes to the program which means it can no longer be
compiled/executed while answering the questions in sections B and C.

0 3 The Skeleton Program is to be improved so that it displays some additional

information to help the player play the game.

The message "WELCOME TO SNAKES AND LADDERS!" should be displayed at

the start of a game.

Modify the subroutine PlayGame so that this message is displayed once at the
start.

Test that your change has worked by running the Skeleton Program.

Evidence that you need to provide

Include the following in your Electronic Answer Document.

0 3 . 1 Your amended PROGRAM SOURCE CODE for the subroutine PlayGame.

[2 marks]

0 3 . 2 SCREEN CAPTURE(S) to show that the message is displayed at the start of the
game.
[1 mark]
 5

0 4 For each turn, the message "You have landed on square: X", where X
is the number of the square that the player has landed on is to be displayed.

If the player has landed on a ladder or a snake, X should be the number of the
square that the player is on after they have moved up or down the ladder/snake.

This message should be displayed after the existing message that tells the player
what value the die has rolled and before the board is redisplayed to show the player’s
new position.

Modify the subroutine MakeMove so that the message is displayed when a turn is
taken.

Test that your change has worked by running the Skeleton Program and taking one
turn.

Evidence that you need to provide

Include the following in your Electronic Answer Document.

0 4 . 1 Your amended PROGRAM SOURCE CODE for the subroutine MakeMove.

[4 marks]

0 4 . 2 SCREEN CAPTURE(S) to show that the message is displayed after one turn.
[1 mark]

Turn over 
 6

0 5 If the player lands on a snake or a ladder the Skeleton Program currently displays
the message "You have landed on a snake or ladder".

The information provided in this message is to be changed so that the player is told
whether they landed either on a snake or a ladder and, if so, between which two
squares they will be moving.

For example:

"You are climbing up a ladder from square X to square Y"

or

"You are sliding down a snake from square X to square Y"

where X is the square that the player landed on when the die was rolled and Y is the
square that the snake or ladder took them to.

Modify the subroutine MakeMove so that an appropriate message is displayed when

a turn is taken if the player lands either on a snake or a ladder.

Test that your change has worked by running the Skeleton Program and taking one
turn. When taking the turn, select option J and jump to square 58.

Evidence that you need to provide

Include the following in your Electronic Answer Document.

0 5 . 1 Your amended PROGRAM SOURCE CODE for the subroutine MakeMove.

[6 marks]

0 5 . 2 SCREEN CAPTURE(S) to show that a suitable message is displayed when the

player lands on square 58.
[2 marks]
 7

0 6 The Skeleton Program lets the player play the game only once. After this, the player
must run the program again to play a second game.

The Skeleton Program is to be changed so that after a game finishes, the

message "Do you want to play again (Y/N)?" is displayed.

If the player types in a letter Y the game should automatically play again. If N is
typed, then the program should exit.

Modify the subroutine Main so that the game can be played again, as described
above.

To test that your change has worked:

• run the Skeleton Program

• select option J and jump to square 99, which will cause the game to finish
• when asked if you want to play again, answer Y and check that the game
starts again.

Evidence that you need to provide

Include the following in your Electronic Answer Document.

0 6 . 1 Your amended PROGRAM SOURCE CODE for the subroutine Main.

[7 marks]

0 6 . 2 SCREEN CAPTURE(S) to show that when the game ended, and you asked to play
again, a new game started.

In your SCREEN CAPTURE(S) it must be possible to see that the player has
entered Y and that the game has restarted.
[1 mark]

Turn over 
 8

0 7 In the Skeleton Program the game finishes when a player lands on square 99 or
goes past it.

The game is to be changed so that it finishes only when a player lands on square 99.
If a player rolls a number on the die that would take them past square 99 they should
not move on that turn.

For example:

• If a player is on square 94 and rolls a 5 they will land on square 99 and the
game should finish.

• If a player is on square 95 and rolls a 5 the roll would take them past square
99 to square 100, so the player should stay on square 95 for that turn.

If the player cannot move because their roll would take them past square 99 then the
message "Turn missed as roll too high" should be displayed.

Modify the subroutine MakeMove so that if a die roll would take the player past
square 99 the player does not move and the required message is displayed.

To test that your change has worked:

• run the Skeleton Program

• select option J and jump to square 98
• press the Enter key so that player 1 has a turn.
• press the Enter key so that player 0 has a second turn. If the number rolled
is greater than 1 then the message should be displayed to say that the player
has missed a turn. If, when the computer rolls the die, the value rolled is
1 you will need to re-run the test so that a number higher than 1 is rolled
to prove that the player does not move if their roll would take them past
square 99.

Evidence that you need to provide

Include the following in your Electronic Answer Document.

0 7 . 1 Your amended PROGRAM SOURCE CODE for the subroutine MakeMove.

[4 marks]

0 7 . 2 SCREEN CAPTURE(S) to show that when the die roll takes the player past square
99 they stay on their current square and the required message is displayed.
[2 marks]
 9

Section C (Longer programming questions)

You are advised to spend no more than 45 minutes on this section.

Include the evidence required for your answers to Section C in your Electronic Answer Document.

You must save this document at regular intervals.

The questions in this section require you to make changes to the Skeleton Program.

0 8 A new feature is to be implemented so that if a player lands on the square that is

already occupied by the other player then one of the players will be sent back to the
start of the board.

The player to be sent back will be chosen at random with an equal chance of each
player being chosen.

Suitable message(s) will need to be displayed so that the players understand what
has happened.

For example, if Player 0 is on square 23 and Player 1 then lands on square 23 then
one of the two players, selected at random, will be moved back to square 0 whilst the
other will stay on square 23.

Create a new subroutine called MoveBackIfSameSquare. This subroutine

should test if the two players are on the same square and, if they are, should send
one of the players back to square 0. The positions of the players should be passed to
the subroutine as parameters.

The new subroutine should be called from the PlayGame subroutine, after
the MakeMove subroutine has been called.

If you are unable to implement this feature by creating a new subroutine with
parameters, you will still be able to get most of the marks for it if you write all of the
code to implement it in the PlayGame subroutine instead.

To test that your change has worked

• run the Skeleton Program

• select option J and jump to square 15
• select option J and jump to square 15

Evidence that you need to provide

Include the following in your Electronic Answer Document.

0 8 . 1 Your amended PROGRAM SOURCE CODE for the new subroutine

MoveBackIfSameSquare and the amended subroutine PlayGame.
[12 marks]

0 8 . 2 SCREEN CAPTURE(S) that show the two players landing on square 15 and that
after this one player is moved to square 0 whilst the other remains on square 15.
[2 marks]

Turn over 
 10

0 9 The snakes and ladders are currently placed at fixed positions on the board.

The Skeleton Program should be changed so that the five ladders are placed at
random positions on the board and are of random lengths.

The snakes should stay in their current fixed positions.

When placing the ladders:

• A ladder can start at any square from 1 to 89.

• A ladder should be of a random length between 10 and 40 squares.

• Both ends of a ladder must be on the board. For example, a ladder starting at
square 87 could not be 20 squares long as this would lead to square 107,
which is not on the board. The maximum length of a ladder starting at square
87 would be 12.

• A ladder should not start in a square that already contains a snake or a

ladder, so before placing a new ladder you should check that its start square
is empty and choose a different location for it if the square is not empty.

Modify the PlaceSnakesAndLadders subroutine so that the ladders are placed

at random positions on the board.

Test that your changes have worked by running the program and checking that the
list of snakes and ladders displayed at the start of the game fulfils as many of the
requirements of the task as you can.

Evidence that you need to provide

Include the following in your Electronic Answer Document.

0 9 . 1 Your amended PROGRAM SOURCE CODE for the

subroutine PlaceSnakesAndLadders.
[14 marks]

0 9 . 2 SCREEN CAPTURE(S) that show the list of ladder positions on the board.
[2 marks]

END OF QUESTIONS

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