Cambridge International AS & A Level

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9618/21

Paper 2 Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills May/June 2023
MARK SCHEME
Maximum Mark: 75

Published

This mark scheme is published as an aid to teachers and candidates, to indicate the requirements of the
examination. It shows the basis on which Examiners were instructed to award marks. It does not indicate the
details of the discussions that took place at an Examiners’ meeting before marking began, which would have
considered the acceptability of alternative answers.

Mark schemes should be read in conjunction with the question paper and the Principal Examiner Report for
Teachers.

Cambridge International will not enter into discussions about these mark schemes.

Cambridge International is publishing the mark schemes for the May/June 2023 series for most
Cambridge IGCSE, Cambridge International A and AS Level and Cambridge Pre-U components, and some
Cambridge O Level components.

This document consists of 11 printed pages.

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Generic Marking Principles

These general marking principles must be applied by all examiners when marking candidate answers.
They should be applied alongside the specific content of the mark scheme or generic level descriptors
for a question. Each question paper and mark scheme will also comply with these marking principles.

GENERIC MARKING PRINCIPLE 1:

Marks must be awarded in line with:

 the specific content of the mark scheme or the generic level descriptors for the question
 the specific skills defined in the mark scheme or in the generic level descriptors for the question
 the standard of response required by a candidate as exemplified by the standardisation scripts.

GENERIC MARKING PRINCIPLE 2:

Marks awarded are always whole marks (not half marks, or other fractions).

GENERIC MARKING PRINCIPLE 3:

Marks must be awarded positively:

 marks are awarded for correct/valid answers, as defined in the mark scheme. However, credit
is given for valid answers which go beyond the scope of the syllabus and mark scheme,
referring to your Team Leader as appropriate
 marks are awarded when candidates clearly demonstrate what they know and can do
 marks are not deducted for errors
 marks are not deducted for omissions
 answers should only be judged on the quality of spelling, punctuation and grammar when these
features are specifically assessed by the question as indicated by the mark scheme. The
meaning, however, should be unambiguous.

GENERIC MARKING PRINCIPLE 4:

Rules must be applied consistently, e.g. in situations where candidates have not followed
instructions or in the application of generic level descriptors.

GENERIC MARKING PRINCIPLE 5:

Marks should be awarded using the full range of marks defined in the mark scheme for the question
(however; the use of the full mark range may be limited according to the quality of the candidate
responses seen).

GENERIC MARKING PRINCIPLE 6:

Marks awarded are based solely on the requirements as defined in the mark scheme. Marks should
not be awarded with grade thresholds or grade descriptors in mind.

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Question Answer Marks

1(a) For example: 4

Could set a breakpoint to stop the program at a particular point / instruction

then the value of variables could be checked using a report/watch window
while single stepping can be used to execute one statement/line at a time.

Marks available as follows:

 One mark for each underlined term

 One mark for an explanation of each term

Note: max 4 marks

1(b) One mark for correct description of: 3

Error 1: Brackets mismatch // 2/value should be added after

brackets/function // Addition between a string and a number is not valid //
STR_TO_NUM / the function needs to be passed a string / not an integer

Error 2: No Error

Error 3: MONTH() returns an integer and this is being compared with a

character/string // Integer cannot be compared to a string // 6 should not be
in quotes

1(c)(i) 2
Expression Evaluation

1 (Points > 99) OR Active TRUE

2 (Points MOD 2 = 0) OR Exempt FALSE

3 (Points <= 75) AND (Active OR Exempt) TRUE

4 (Active OR NOT Active) AND NOT Exempt TRUE

One mark for any two rows correct

Two marks for all rows correct

1(c)(ii) NOT Exempt 1

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Question Answer Marks

2(a) 4

One mark per point:

1 Both prompts
2 Both inputs using correct identifiers as given in question, MyChar and
MyCount
3 Initialise MyString to empty string and subsequent output after loop
4 Loop MyCount iterations including decrement MyCount
5 Use of Concatenate or equivalent pseudocode statement inside loop

Max 4 Marks

2(b) One mark for declaration: 3

DECLARE StartDate : DATE

One mark for each underlined part of assignment:

StartDate  SETDATE (15, 11, 2005)

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Question Answer Marks

3(a)(i) One mark for structure 4

Structure: Record

One mark for each point

Advantage:
 A set of data / all data related to one customer
 of different types
 is held under a single identifier/entity

3(a)(ii) A (1D) array of records // An array of the given type could be used 2

One mark per underlined word

3(b) One mark for reference to each: 5

1 Reference to the use of constants or variables for the two threshold

values of 10 and 100 // Input amount spent (by customer and store in a
numeric variable)
2 Work out one band that amount maps to
3 Work out all bands that amount maps to
4 Calculate rounded value of amount / whole number part of amount
5 Calculate the points by multiplying the (rounded) amount by the
appropriate value for appropriate band /all bands
6 Output the number of points

Note: Max 5 from available points

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Question Answer Marks

4 Function Replace(OldString : STRING, Char1, Char2 : 6

CHAR) __ RETURNS : STRING
DECLARE NewString : STRING
DECLARE ThisChar : CHAR
DECLARE Index : INTEGER

NewString  ""
FOR Index  1 TO LENGTH(OldString)
ThisChar  MID(OldString, Index, 1)
IF ThisChar = Char1 THEN
ThisChar  Char2
ENDIF
NewString  NewString & ThisChar
NEXT Index

RETURN NewString
ENDFUNCTION

Mark as follows:
1 Function heading and ending, including parameters and return type
2 Declaration of local variables used including loop counter
3 Loop for length of OldString
4 Extract char and test in a loop
5 Use of concatenate to build NewString replace char if necessary,
in a loop
6 Return NewString after reasonable attempt

Question Answer Marks

5(a)(i) Reasons include: 2

1 No working software until late in the life cycle so slower to market than
competitors // Does not allow the creation of early versions/prototypes
(which can be updated later)
2 More difficult/slower to cope with changes to the requirements //
website slower to be updated to reflect new requirements
3 Needs high involvement/feedback of the stake holders /customer / client

One mark per point

Max 2 marks

5(a)(ii) Iterative / Rapid Application Development / RAD 1

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Question Answer Marks

5(b) One mark for Stage 3

Stage: Beta testing

Max 2 marks for Description

Description:
1 Testing carried out by a small group of (potential) users
2 Users will check that the website/software works as required / works in
the real world //User will identify errors in the website/software
3 Users will feedback (problems) / suggestions for improvement
4 Problems / suggestions identified are addressed (before the program is
sold)

Question Answer Marks

6 PROCEDURE Mix() 6
DECLARE Count, Total ThisNum : INTEGER
DECLARE ThisUser, ThisSample : INTEGER

FOR ThisSample  1 TO 128

Count  0
Total  0
FOR ThisUser  1 TO 6
IF Sample[ThisUser, ThisSample] > 10 THEN
Count  Count + 1
Total  Total + Sample[ThisUser, ThisSample]
ENDIF
NEXT ThisUser
Result[ThisSample]  INT(Total / Count)
NEXT ThisSample

ENDPROCEDURE

Mark as follows:

1 Declaration and initialisation before inner loop of Count and Total

2 Outer Loop for 128 iterations
3 Inner loop for six iterations
4 Test for sample > 10 in a loop
5 and if true sum Total and increment Count
6 Calculate average value and assign to Result array after inner loop
and within outer loop
7 Use of INT()/ DIV to convert average to integer

Max 6 Marks

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Question Answer Marks

7(a) Examples include: 3

Module: GetOverdueLoan()
Use: Identifies an overdue book

Module: IdentifyStudent()
Use: Identifies a student (with an overdue book)1

Module: GetStudentEmail()
Use: Gets the email address of a student with an overdue book

Module: CreateEmail()
Use: Generates an email to a student with an overdue book

Module: SendEmail()
Use: Sends an email to a student with an overdue book

One mark for name and use

Note: Max 3 marks

7(b)(i) One mark per point: 2

 Module-A calls the other three modules
 The process is repeated

7(b)(ii) 3

One mark per bullet point:

 All rectangles correctly labelled and interconnected
 All and only parameters as shown
 Selection diamond

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Question Answer Marks

8(a) FUNCTION IsNewSupp(ThisString : STRING) RETURNS BOOLEAN 7

DECLARE Index : INTEGER
DECLARE ThisChar : CHAR

IF LENGTH(ThisString) <> 5 THEN

RETURN FALSE // invalid SupplierCode length
ENDIF

IF SuppExists(ThisString) THEN
RETURN FALSE // SupplierCode already exists
ENDIF

FOR Index  1 TO 5
ThisChar  TO_LOWER(MID(ThisString, Index, 1))
IF ThisChar < 'a' OR ThisChar > 'z'THEN
RETURN FALSE
ENDIF
NEXT Index

RETURN TRUE
ENDFUNCTION

Mark as follows:

1 Check ThisString is exactly 5 characters in length

2 Use of SuppExists() with a string of 5 characters as a parameter
3 Loop for 5 iterations // loops for length of string parameter
4 Extract a character in a loop
5 Test if char is alphabetic in a loop
6 …catering for both upper and lower case
7 Return Boolean following a reasonable attempt

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Question Answer Marks

8(b) FUNCTION CheckNewItem(NewLine : STRING) RETURNS BOOLEAN 7

DECLARE NotFound : BOOLEAN
DECLARE NewItemNum, ThisItemNum, ThisLine : STRING

NotFound  TRUE

OPENFILE "Stock.txt" FOR READ

NewItemNum  LEFT(NewLine, 4)
ThisItemNum  "0000" //rogue initial value

WHILE NOT EOF("Stock.txt") AND NotFound = TRUE AND__

ThisItemNum < NewItemNum
READFILE("Stock.txt", ThisLine) //brackets optional
ThisItemNum  LEFT(ThisLine, 4)
IF ThisItemNum = NewItemNum THEN
NotFound  FALSE
ENDIF
ENDWHILE

CLOSEFILE "Stock.txt"

RETURN NotFound
ENDFUNCTION

Mark as follows:

1 Open Stock.txt in READ mode and subsequently close

2 Extract NewItemNum from parameter
3 Conditional loop until EOF("Stock.txt")
4 ... OR NewItemNum found
5 ... OR when ThisItemNum < NewItemNum
6 Read a line from Stock.txt AND extract ThisItemNum in a
loop
7 If ThisItemNum = NewItemNum then terminate loop / set flag in
a loop
8 Return Boolean after reasonable attempt

Max 7 marks

Max 6 if function wrapper (heading and ending) missing or incorrect

8(c)(i) Integration testing 1

8(c)(ii) Two marks for the description: 2

 A dummy/simple module is written to replace the module that does not

work properly
 The dummy/simple module will return an expected value // will output a
message to show it has been called

8(d) Append 1

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Question Answer Marks

8(e) One mark for each part: 3

 The algorithm / search / iteration can stop /only iterates

 if the current value read from the file // current line in file
 is greater than the value being searched for

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