PMT

Cambridge International AS & A Level

* 6 6 4 6 7 4 9 2 2 0 *

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9618/22

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 (KN/SW) 303772/3
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Refer to the insert for the list of pseudocode functions and operators.

1 (a) A programmer is testing a program using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

The programmer wants the program to stop when it reaches a specific instruction or program
statement in order to check the value assigned to a variable.

Give the technical term for the position at which the program stops.

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(b) The following table lists some activities from the program development life cycle.

Complete the table by writing the life cycle stage for each activity.

Activity Life cycle stage

An identifier table is produced.

Syntax errors can occur.

The developer discusses the program requirements with the customer.

A trace table is produced.

[4]

(c) An identifier table includes the names of identifiers used.

State two other pieces of information that the identifier table should contain.

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(d) The pseudocode statements in the following table may contain errors.

State the error in each case or write 'NO ERROR' if the statement contains no error.

You can assume that none of the variables referenced are of an incorrect type.

Statement Error

Status TRUE AND FALSE

IF LENGTH("Password") < "10" THEN

Code LCASE("Electrical")

Result IS_NUM(-27.3)

[4]

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2 An algorithm is described as follows:

1. Input an integer value.
2. Jump to step 6 if the value is less than zero.
3. Call the function IsPrime() using the integer value as a parameter.
4. Keep a count of the number of times function IsPrime() returns TRUE.
5. Repeat from step 1.
6. Output the value of the count with a suitable message.

Draw a program flowchart to represent the algorithm.

START

END

[4]

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3 (a) The module headers for five modules in a program are defined in pseudocode as follows:

Pseudocode module header

FUNCTION Mod_V(S2 : INTEGER) RETURNS BOOLEAN
PROCEDURE Mod_W(P4 : INTEGER)
PROCEDURE Mod_X(T4 : INTEGER, BYREF P3 : REAL)
PROCEDURE Mod_Y(W3 : REAL, Z8 : INTEGER)
FUNCTION Mod_Z(F3 : REAL) RETURNS INTEGER

An additional module Head() repeatedly calls three of the modules in sequence.

A structure chart has been partially completed.

(i) Complete the structure chart to include the information given about the six modules.

Do not label the parameters and do not write the module names.

B C D

E F

[3]

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(ii) Complete the table using the information in part 3(a) by writing each module name to
replace the labels A to F.

Label Module name

F
[3]

(b) The structure chart represents part of a complex problem. The process of decomposition is
used to break down the complex problem into sub-problems.

Describe three benefits of this approach.

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4 (a) A procedure LastLines() will:

• take the name of a text file as a parameter
• output the last three lines from that file, in the same order as they appear in the file.

Note:
• Use local variables LineX, LineY and LineZ to store the three lines from the file.
• You may assume the file exists and contains at least three lines.

Write pseudocode for the procedure LastLines().

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(b) The algorithm in part (a) is to be amended. The calling program will pass the number of lines
to be output as well as the name of the text file.

The number of lines could be any value from 1 to 30.

It can be assumed that the file contains at least the number of lines passed.

Outline three changes that would be needed.

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5 Study the following pseudocode. Line numbers are for reference only.

10 PROCEDURE Encode()
11 DECLARE CountA, CountB, ThisNum : INTEGER
12 DECLARE ThisChar : CHAR
13 DECLARE Flag : BOOLEAN
14 CountA 0
15 CountB 10
16 Flag TRUE
17 INPUT ThisNum
18 WHILE ThisNum <> 0
19 ThisChar LEFT(NUM_TO_STR(ThisNum), 1)
20 IF Flag = TRUE THEN
21 CASE OF ThisChar
22 '1' : CountA CountA + 1
23 '2' : IF CountB < 10 THEN
24 CountA CountA + 1
25 ENDIF
26 '3' : CountB CountB - 1
27 '4' : CountB CountB - 1
28 Flag FALSE
29 OTHERWISE : OUTPUT "Ignored"
30 ENDCASE
31 ELSE
32 IF CountA > 2 THEN
33 Flag NOT Flag
34 OUTPUT "Flip"
35 ELSE
36 CountA 4
37 ENDIF
38 ENDIF
39 INPUT ThisNum
40 ENDWHILE
41 OUTPUT CountA
42 ENDPROCEDURE

(a) Procedure Encode() contains a loop structure.

Identify the type of loop and state the condition that ends the loop.

Do not include pseudocode statements in your answer.

Type ..........................................................................................................................................

Condition ..................................................................................................................................

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(b) Complete the trace table below by dry running the procedure Encode() when the following
values are input:

12, 24, 57, 43, 56, 22, 31, 32, 47, 99, 0

The first row is already complete.

ThisNum ThisChar CountA CountB Flag OUTPUT

0 10 TRUE

[6]

(c) Procedure Encode() is part of a modular program. Integration testing is to be carried out on
the program.

Describe integration testing.

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6 A string represents a series of whole numbers, separated by commas.

For example:
"12,13,451,22"

Assume that:
• the comma character ',' is used as a separator
• the string contains only the characters '0' to '9' and the comma character ','.

A procedure Parse will:

• take the string as a parameter
• extract each number in turn
• calculate the total value and average value of all the numbers
• output the total and average values with a suitable message.

Write pseudocode for the procedure.

PROCEDURE Parse(InString : STRING)

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7 A programming language has string functions equivalent to those given in the insert.

The language includes a LEFT() and a RIGHT() function, but it does not have a MID() function.

(a) Write pseudocode for an algorithm to implement your own version of the MID() function
which will operate in the same way as that shown in the insert.

Do not use the MID() function given in the insert, but you may use any of the other functions.

Assume that the values passed to the function will be correct.

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(b) The values passed to your MID() function in part (a) need to be validated.

Assume that the values are of the correct data type.

State two checks that could be applied to the values passed to the function.

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8 A program allows a user to save passwords used to log in to websites. A stored password is then
inserted automatically when the user logs in to the corresponding website.

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

Note:
• For security, the passwords are stored in an encrypted form, shown as "" in the
example.
• The passwords cannot be used without being decrypted.
• You may 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
• Takes two parameters:
○ a string
○ a character
Exists()
• Performs a case-sensitive search for the character in the string
• Returns TRUE if the character occurs in the string, otherwise
returns FALSE
• Takes a password as a parameter of type string
Encrypt()
• Returns the encrypted form of the password as a string
• Takes an encrypted password as a parameter of type string
Decrypt()
• Returns the decrypted form of the password as a string

Note: in a case-sensitive comparison, 'a' is not the same as 'A'.

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(a) Write pseudocode for the module Exists().

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(b) A new module SearchDuplicates() will:

• search for the first password that occurs more than once in the array and output a
message each time a duplicate is found.
For example, if the same password was used for the three websites ThisWebsite.com,
website27.net and websiteZ99.org, then the following messages will be output:

"Password for ThisWebsite.com also used for website27.net"

"Password for ThisWebsite.com also used for websiteZ99.org"

• end once all messages have been output.

The module will output a message if no duplicates are found.

For example:
"No duplicate passwords found"

Write efficient pseudocode for the module SearchDuplicates(). Encrypt() and

Decrypt() functions have been written.

Note: It is necessary to decrypt each password before checking its value.

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(c) A password has a fixed format, consisting of three groups of four alphanumeric characters,
separated by the hyphen character '-'.

An example of a password is:

"FxAf-3haV-Tq49"

Each password must:

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

An algorithm is needed for a new function GeneratePassword(), which will generate and
return a password in this format.

Assume that the following modules have already been written:

Module Description
• Takes two parameters:
○ a string
○ a character
Exists() • Performs a case-sensitive search for the character in the
string
• Returns TRUE if the character occurs in the string, otherwise
returns FALSE
• Generates a single random character from within one of the
following ranges:
○ 'a' to 'z'
RandomChar()
○ 'A' to 'Z'
○ '0' to '9'
• Returns the character

Note: in a case-sensitive comparison, 'a' is not the same as 'A'.

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Describe the algorithm for GeneratePassword().

Do not use pseudocode statements in your answer.

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Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced online in the Cambridge
Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is a department of the University of Cambridge.

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