ECOLIER

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

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 01 Bee Hive (Easy)

The bee is in the hive on its way to feed the larva. The bee wants to use the shortest path
possible to get there.
Question
Finish a sequence of directions to help her.
Answer

Shortest way form the bee to the larva is 5 steps long – there are also 5 boxes for the
directions. There are 3 such ways in the hive:

In the 2nd and 3rd way there is the same penultimate step – the bee has to go to left and
down. We have this step set as right and down.

Therefore the only way is the first one. We can easily write it down using the directions:

It’s informatics
In this task we create a sequence of instructions for the bee that describe how to get to the
larva on 5 steps. This sequence is an algorithm. Similar tasks are common in several areas of
informatics – e.g., in educational robotics when we need to navigate a robotic model or in turtle
graphics where we draw images as a turtle moves.
 02 Jeremy In The Bus (Easy)
Children are playing a robot game – Jeremy is the robot and he listens only to these orders:
forward, left, right. If he hears forward he walks right ahead until he hits an obstacle (building,
fence, bush). If the children say left, Jeremy turns left but doesn’t move. If the children say
right, he turns right but doesn’t move. Jeremy is in the left lower corner of the playground and
he looks at the cafeteria. Children want to navigate him into the bushes in the right upper
corner of the playground.

Question
Which orders will the children shout to navigate Jeremy into the bushes?
a) forward, right, forward, left, forward, right, forward, left, forward
b) right, forward, left, forward, left, forward
c) right, forward, left, forward, right, forward, right
d) forward, right, forward, left, forward, left, forward, left, forward
The correct answer is A
A) forward, right, forward, left, forward, right, forward, left, forward
In this case we need to trace each trail to determine which one is the correct one. One of the
easy ways is to draw them into the picture:

It's informatics
This task deals with navigation of a robot in this case a boy named Jeremy. Similar tasks are
common in several areas of informatics – e.g., in educational robotics when we need to
navigate a robotic model or in turtle graphics where we draw images as a turtle moves. The
description of Jeremy’s trail is in fact an algorithm.
 03 The Necklace Machine (Easy)

Jane wants a new necklace like this one:

She has a machine that needs to be set up with a pattern of beads to produce the necklace.
Question
Build the sequence of beads she should enter if she wants a necklace like the one above:
Answer

We need to find the correct sequence of four beads which the machine will place one after
another on the string. The first bead is already set – red round one. According to this we know
that the machine began to string the beads from the top end. If the red round bead was the
first the second is the blue hexagon, then again a red round one and a yellow rectangle. Thus
we have found all four beads. We can check if the pattern is right by examining rest of the
necklace on the picture – our sequence repeats itself over the whole necklace.

It’s informatics
In this task we create a sequence of beads – this pattern when repeated will form a necklace. In
informatics and in programming it is often important to find such sequence. If we find one we
can write better program for a computer or a machine. One of the first programmable
machines were looms that made colorful fabric according to such programs.
 04 In the Forest (Medium)

Rupert went for a walk in the forest. He chose a path and at the end he found the dog.

Question
Which trees has he passed along his path? The trees are presented in the order in which he has
seen them.
The correct answer is C

We need to trace Rupert’s path. The easiest way is to do it from the end – from the dog. We
can see that last tree before the dog is. Now we can exclude the path a) since it ends with a
different tree. The only possible tree before the last one is . If we look at all remaining answers
we see that only answer c) has both of these trees at the end. We can be sure that c) is the
correct one even without tracing all the paths from Rupert.

It’s informatics
The whole map of the forest is in fact a so called graph, an important structure in informatics.
Here trees are vertices and paths between them are edges. Finding a path in a graph has many
applications, for instance in route planning. Finding a solution backwards is an important
strategy used by computer programmers for solving certain problems.
 05 Ladybug Dotty (Medium)

Ladybug Dotty walks from the bottom left corner to the top right corner. She has to step on the
same number of squares depicting flowers and water.

On the picture above she moved according to these commands: 2R, 3U, 2R, 1U
R – go right
U – go up
Number before the command means how many times Dotty moves in that direction.

Question
Which one of these four paths also took Dotty from the bottom left corner to the top right
corner while she stepped on the same number of squares depicting flowers and water?
a) 1U, 3R, 2U, 1R, 1U
b) 3R, 3U, 1R, 1U
c) 1U, 1R, 3U, 3R
d) 1R, 2U, 1R, 1U, 2R, 1U
The right answer is A
In this case we need to trace each path and count the number of flower and water squares
crossed:

a) 1U, 3R, 2U, 1R, 1U b) 3R, 3U, 1R, 1U

c) 1U, 1R, 3U, 3R d) 1R, 2U, 1R, 1U, 2R, 1U

It's informatics
Ladybird’s path is described by a sequence of commands. Apart from tracing the path (by
executing ladybird’s commands) we have to count the number of flower and water squares on
its way. We are checking if a specific condition was met. Execution of orders and checking
conditions are fundamental concepts of programming.
 06 Rotation tool (Medium)
There is a rotate tool on the computer.
If you select a picture and use this tool, the picture
will turn clockwise (see picture). You can use it
several times on the same picture.

Question
Which of puzzle pieces A, B, C, D is impossible to get from the puzzle piece X with the
rotate tool?

Answer
Correct answer is B.
A is one rotation anticlockwise.
C is one rotation clockwise.
D is two rotations (anti-) clockwise.
B is mirror-inverted, so you can't get it with rotations.

It's informatics
To know how to work with computer means not only to use its tools but to understand
how they work and what they are able to do.
The good way how to decide which solution is impossible is to compare all images and
search for distinguishing feature.
 07 Signal Fire (Hard)
A long time ago in Japan, some Ninjas served the shogun ate government. In case of
emergency, they used smoke signals to communicate with each other.

In the above figure, the red point is the location of the shogun ate government. Each blue point
is a location where a smoke signal should be lit. Also, two points are joined by a line if their
smoke signals can be seen from each other. At every point, there are some Ninjas who stand on
all day long. They fire a smoke when they see a signal from a point joined to theirs, just 1
minute after this signal was fired.

Question
How much later will there be a signal lit at all points?
A. 4 minutes
B. 5 minutes
C. 6 minutes
D. 8 minutes
The correct answer is B
The lights in the locations adjacent to Shogun ate will be fired in 1 minute, so you can write “1”
at the places next to the Shogun ate. After 2 minutes from the beginning the lights adjacent to
ones already lightened are fired, so you can write “2” at the places next to the places with “1”
and continue like that:

After you just have to look for the higher lit time among the points.

It's informatics
To solve the problem like this you can use a graph. A graph is a representation of a set of
objects (in this case smoke signals) which are connected in some way. Objects are represented
by vertices and connections by edges. Graphs can be used to represent any kind of networks,
for example networks of communication or the structure of a website. Most known graph
algorithms are graph coloring algorithms and distance finding algorithm. Here we used a
Breadth-First Search algorithm.
 08 The Highest Tree (Hard)

The map shows the trees in the Beaver Forest, and their heights. Beavers can't see far in the
forest since there are too many rocks and beavers are too small to look over them. Two trees in
the map are connected if they are visible from each other.

Beaver Jacob wants to impress Sarah by cutting down the highest tree he can find. How will he
look for it? He starts at the tree of height 5, as shown in the picture. He will walk to the highest
tree he can see in the vicinity (for instance, he can initially choose between 4, 7 and 8, so he
goes towards 8). He repeats this until he finds such a tree that all trees he can see around are
smaller.
How tall is the tree he will eventually find and cut down?

Answer (Multiple Choice)

It's Informatics
This search algorithm is called local optimization and the task also shows its weakness: when
computer (or a beaver) uses it, it can get stuck in a local optimum instead of finding a global
one. From the didactic perspective, this is an exercise in strictly following a list of prescribed
instructions to the point of getting a "wrong" (or, more accurately, undesired) answer although
the "correct" (desired) answer is obvious.
 09 Rescue action (Hard)
Rescue brigade is searching for deaf boy lost in the cave system. They start to search from the
entrance to the cave (below in the map) and when there is a crossroad of the tunnels, half of
men go left, and the other half go right (if there is an odd number of men, number of men
turning right is one more than number of men turning left).

In which tunnel will there be the greatest number of men, knowing that there are initially 21
in the entrance tunnel?

A) tunnel A
B) tunnel B
C) tunnel C
D) tunnel D
The correct answer is B.

It's Informatics!
Tree traversals are very important to solve a lot of different problems in informatics. In this
problem, there is also a kind of recursive definition for the rule that explains how the spiders
are split at each intersection. The whole tree has to be explored since we are trying to find the
maximum number of men, which is an optimization problem.