COMPUTATIONAL &

ALGORITHMIC THINKING
Upper Primary Years 5 & 6
(Australian school years)

TUESDAY 2 APRIL 2019

NAME:

INSTRUCTIONS
• Do not open the CAT paper until told to do so.
• Maintain silence at all times.
• Do not bring mobile phones into the room.
• You may use calculators and printed language dictionaries.
• You may NOT borrow equipment without a supervisor’s permission.
• There are 9 questions. Questions 1–6 are multiple-choice with five possible answers given.
Questions 7–9 (each with three parts) require a three-digit answer. Attempt all questions.
Penalties do not apply.
• You are allowed working time of one hour (60 minutes). There is no extra reading time.
• Diagrams are NOT drawn to scale. They are intended only as aids.
• The questions have been thoroughly checked. Each question stands as written.
No further explanation of questions can be provided.
• You must not leave your seat. If you have any other questions or problems, please raise
your hand and wait for a supervisor.
• If you wish to leave the room a supervisor must accompany you.
• Record all your answers on the answer sheet provided.
• Use B or 2B lead pencils only. Ball point and ink pen markings may not activate the
optical scanner.
• Do not make any other marks on the answer sheet as these may make the sheet unreadable.
• If you make an error, use a plastic eraser to completely remove all lead marks and smudges.
• Check the number of the answer you are filling in is the same as the number of the question
you are answering. This is particularly important if you decide to leave a question blank.
• To ensure the integrity of the CAT and to identify outstanding students, the AMT
reserves the right to re-examine students before deciding whether to grant official status
to their score.
Reminder: You may sit this competition once, in one division only, or risk no score.

Copyright © 2019 Australian Mathematics Trust AMTT Limited ACN 083 950 341
 2019 CAT — Upper Primary

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2019 (Upper Primary) 1

Part A: Questions 1–6

Each question should be answered by a single choice from A to E.
Questions are worth 3 points each.

1. MazeBot
MazeBot is a robot designed to find its way through a maze. The maze consists of
rooms, each with a number.

• MazeBot will always travel to the neighbouring room with the highest number.

• MazeBot will never travel to a room it has already been in.

30
For instance, if it started in room 30 in this maze, MazeBot
would move to room 26, then 22, then 12. 26 22

15 12

In the following maze, MazeBot starts in room 50 at the centre. Which room does it end
up in?

36

36
34

40
45
41

50 48 35 38

40
46
34

32
44

30

(A) 30 (B) 32 (C) 34 (D) 36 (E) 38

2019 CAT — Upper Primary

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2019 (Upper Primary) 2

2. Grid Walk
In the grid below you are in the cell marked with a . You can only walk horizontally
or vertically one cell at a time, and you cannot cross a thick line.

A B

C D E

Which lettered cell would take the most steps to reach, if you go by the shortest route?

(A) A (B) B (C) C (D) D (E) E

3. Fusing Numbers
Two numbers can be fused by putting one in front of the other to make the largest
number possible. For example, 29 and 71 can be fused to form 7129.
A list of numbers can be fused by repeatedly fusing pairs of numbers of the same length
to form the biggest number possible.
For example, given the sequence 1 3 4 2, the 1 and 3 are fused to give 31 and the 4 and
2 are fused to give 42. Then the 31 and 42 are fused to give 4231.

31

3
4231
4

42

If the original sequence is 4 7 5 6 8 2 1 3, what is the last digit of the final fused number?

(A) 1 (B) 2 (C) 3 (D) 4 (E) 5

 2019 CAT — Upper Primary

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2019 (Upper Primary) 3

4. Spider
The spider at on the 4th floor wants to get to (anywhere on) the bottom floor. On
each floor there are holes with spider webs it can slide down. But it needs to walk to the
hole.

What is the smallest distance the spider has to walk?

(The dashed lines are 1 unit apart.)

(A) 6 (B) 7 (C) 8 (D) 9 (E) 10

5. Weakest Link
1. When two chains are joined The chain
end to end, they are only as 16 14

strong as the weaker of the

has the same strength as the chain
two. 14

2. When two chains are joined The chain

side by side, they are as 8

strong as the sum of the two.

7

has the same strength as the chain

15

What is the strength of the chain below?

13 7 11 5 12 9 10
7 6 8

(A) 6 (B) 7 (C) 8 (D) 9 (E) 10

2019 CAT — Upper Primary

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2019 (Upper Primary) 4

6. Mirror Maze
A laser is fired into a room with double-sided mirrors. The laser reflects off several
mirrors and then exits the room.

In this room, the laser reflects off mirrors three

times.

In this room, the laser reflects off mirrors seven

times.

How many times would the laser reflect off a mirror before exiting the room below?

(A) 13 (B) 16 (C) 19 (D) 22 (E) 25

 2019 CAT — Upper Primary

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2019 (Upper Primary) 5

Part B: Questions 7–9

Each question has three parts, each of which is worth 2 points.
Each part should be answered by a number in the range 0–999.

7. Invitations
You have to deliver some birthday party invitations. You don’t want to travel further
than you need to, and you will only visit each house once. So you estimate the distances
between the houses.
In the maps following, the circles represent the houses where you have to deliver an
invitation.
For each, what is the shortest distance you have to travel to deliver the invitations and
return home?

A.

5 7
5
6
Home
5
5

B.
5
Home

3
6
5 5
5
4

C.
Home 5

5 5 3
5
8 7

4
5
5
2019 CAT — Upper Primary

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2019 (Upper Primary) 6

8. Wormholes
You are planning your trip from Earth to Gallifrey. You will have to slingshot around
a planet◦ to a wormhole . You will then move instantly to one of the other
wormholes. (You can choose which one, but it must be a different wormhole.) After
exiting from that wormhole, you will have to slingshot around another planet to reach
Gallifrey.
On the maps below, the numbers represent the number of days it takes to reach a planet
or wormhole. For each map, what is the shortest time to get from Earth to Gallifrey?

A.

5
5
2
3
4
E G
3
5
2
5
5

B.
2
4

3 3
2 4

E G

4 3
3 4

3
5
 2019 CAT — Upper Primary

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking 2019 (Upper Primary) 7

C.

6
7

4
7
6 6
5
5
5
E G
8
8
6
6 7
8
6

3
3

9. Fridge Magnets
Jenny is obsessed with keeping shapes together. The refrigerator in her house has
magnets of two shapes on the door: green squares and blue circles. Jenny wants all
squares together and all circles together.
Someone has messed up the magnets.
How many swaps will it take Jenny to restore order?
Note:
• A swap is where you swap the positions of a square and a circle.

• It doesn’t matter whether squares are on the left or the right: choose whichever
one that will lead to the smallest number of swaps.

• In a swap the square and the circle do not have to be side by side.

A.            
B.             
C.             
 CAT 2019 Answers

Upper Primary

1 E

2 C

3 E

4 B

5 E

6 E

7a 21

7b 23

7c 28

8a 13

8b 11

8c 20

9a 2

9b 3

9c 2