Cambridge International AS & A Level

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9618/21

Paper 2 Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills May/June 2024

INSERT 2 hours

INFORMATION
*8416100942-I*

● This insert contains all the resources referred to in the questions.

● You may annotate this insert and use the blank spaces for planning. Do not write your answers on the
insert.

This document has 4 pages.

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An error will be generated if a function call is not properly formed or if the parameters are of an incorrect
type or an incorrect value.

String and character functions

• A string of length 1 may be considered to be either of type CHAR or STRING

• A CHAR may be assigned to, or concatenated with, a STRING
• A STRING of length greater than 1 cannot be assigned to a CHAR

LEFT(ThisString : STRING, x : INTEGER) RETURNS STRING

returns leftmost x characters from ThisString
Example: LEFT("ABCDEFGH", 3) returns "ABC"
RIGHT(ThisString : STRING, x : INTEGER) RETURNS STRING
returns rightmost x characters from ThisString
Example: RIGHT("ABCDEFGH", 3) returns "FGH"
MID(ThisString : STRING, x : INTEGER, y : INTEGER) RETURNS STRING
returns a string of length y starting at position x from ThisString
Example: MID("ABCDEFGH", 2, 3) returns string "BCD"
LENGTH(ThisString : STRING) RETURNS INTEGER
returns the integer value representing the length of ThisString
Example: LENGTH("Happy Days") returns 10
TO_UPPER(x : <datatype>) RETURNS <datatype>

<datatype> may be CHAR or STRING

returns an object of type <datatype> formed by converting all characters of x to upper case.
Examples:
• TO_UPPER("Error 803") returns "ERROR 803"
• TO_UPPER('a') returns 'A'
TO_LOWER(x : <datatype>) RETURNS <datatype>

<datatype> may be CHAR or STRING

returns an object of type <datatype> formed by converting all characters of x to lower case.
Examples:
• TO_LOWER("JIM 803") returns "jim 803"
• TO_LOWER('W') returns 'w'
NUM_TO_STR(x : <datatype1>) RETURNS <datatype2>
returns a string representation of a numeric value.
<datatype1> may be REAL or INTEGER, <datatype2> may be CHAR or STRING
Example: NUM_TO_STR(87.5) returns "87.5"
If x is a negative value, the returned value will be a string beginning with the '–' character.
STR_TO_NUM(x : <datatype1>) RETURNS <datatype2>
returns a numeric representation of a string.
<datatype1> may be CHAR or STRING, <datatype2> may be REAL or INTEGER
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Example: STR_TO_NUM("23.45") returns 23.45

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If the string begins with the '–' character, the returned value will be negative.
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IS_NUM(ThisString : <datatype>) RETURNS BOOLEAN

returns TRUE if ThisString represents a valid numeric value.
<datatype> may be CHAR or STRING
Example: IS_NUM("-12.36") returns TRUE
ASC(ThisChar : CHAR) RETURNS INTEGER
returns an integer value (the ASCII value) of character ThisChar
Example: ASC('A') returns 65, ASC('B') returns 66
CHR(x : INTEGER) RETURNS CHAR
returns the character whose integer value (the ASCII value) is x
Example: CHR(65) returns 'A', CHR(66) returns 'B'

Numeric functions

INT(x : REAL) RETURNS INTEGER

returns the integer part of x
Example: INT(27.5415) returns 27
RAND(x : INTEGER) RETURNS REAL
returns a real number in the range 0 to x (not inclusive of x).
Example: RAND(87) could return 35.430729

Date functions
Date format is assumed to be DD/MM/YYYY unless otherwise stated.

DAY(ThisDate : DATE) RETURNS INTEGER

returns the day number from ThisDate
Example: DAY(04/10/2003) returns 4
MONTH(ThisDate : DATE) RETURNS INTEGER
returns the month number from ThisDate
Example: MONTH(04/10/2003) returns 10
YEAR(ThisDate : DATE) RETURNS INTEGER
returns the year number from ThisDate
Example: YEAR(04/10/2003) returns 2003
DAYINDEX(ThisDate : DATE) RETURNS INTEGER
returns the day index number from ThisDate where Sunday = 1, Monday = 2 etc.
Example: DAYINDEX(09/05/2023) returns 3
SETDATE(Day, Month, Year : INTEGER) RETURNS DATE
returns a value of type DATE with the value of <Day>/<Month>/<Year>
Example: SETDATE(26, 10, 2003) returns a date corresponding to 26/10/2003
TODAY() RETURNS DATE
returns a value of type DATE corresponding to the current date.
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Text file functions

EOF(FileName : STRING) RETURNS BOOLEAN

returns TRUE if there are no more lines to be read from file FileName
will generate an error if the file is not already open in READ mode.

Operators
An error will be generated if an operator is used with a value or values of an incorrect type.

concatenates (joins) two strings.

& Example: "Summer" & " " & "Pudding" evaluates to "Summer Pudding"
may also be used to concatenate a CHAR with a STRING

performs a logical AND on two Boolean values.

AND
Example: TRUE AND FALSE evaluates to FALSE

performs a logical OR on two Boolean values.

OR
Example: TRUE OR FALSE evaluates to TRUE

performs a logical NOT on a Boolean value.

NOT
Example: NOT TRUE evaluates to FALSE

finds the remainder when one number is divided by another.

MOD
Example: 10 MOD 3 evaluates to 1

finds the quotient when one number is divided by another.

DIV
Example 10 DIV 3 evaluates to 3

Comparison operators

used to compare two items of the same type.

=
evaluates to TRUE if the condition is true, otherwise evaluates to FALSE
>
Notes:
<
• may be used to compare types REAL and INTEGER
• may be used to compare types CHAR and STRING
>=
• case sensitive when used to compare types CHAR and/or STRING
• cannot be used to compare two records
<=
Examples:
<>
• "Program" = "program" evaluates to FALSE
• Count = 4 evaluates to TRUE when Count contains the value 4

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
m

Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
co

at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

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Cambridge Assessment International Education is part of Cambridge Assessment. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of the University of Cambridge
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 Cambridge International AS & A Level
* 8 4 1 6 1 0 0 9 4 2 *

COMPUTER SCIENCE 9618/21

Paper 2 Fundamental Problem-solving and Programming Skills May/June 2024

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 24 pages. Any blank pages are indicated.

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Refer to the insert for the list of pseudocode functions and operators.

1 An algorithm is developed in pseudocode before being coded in a programming language.

(a) The following table shows four valid pseudocode assignment statements.

Complete the table by giving an appropriate data type to declare each of the variables A, B, C
and D.

Assignment statement Data type

A LEFT(MyName, 1)
B Total * 2
C INT(ItemCost) / 3
D "Odd OR Even"
[4]

(b) Other variables in the program have example values as shown:

Variable Value

Sorted False

Tries 9

ID "ZGAC001"

Complete the table by evaluating each expression, using the example values.

Expression Evaluates to

Tries < 10 AND NOT Sorted

Tries MOD 4

TO_LOWER(MID(ID, 3, 1))

LENGTH(ID & "xx") >= Tries

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(c) The variable names A, B, C and D in part (a) are not good programming practice.

(i) State why these variable names are not suitable.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Identify one problem that these variable names might cause.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(iii) The choice of suitable variable names is one example of good programming practice.

Give one other example.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

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2 An algorithm has three steps. It will:

1. repeatedly input a pair of numeric values A and B
2. count the number of pairs that are input until A has been greater than B 10 times
3. output the number of pairs that were input.

(a) Complete the program flowchart.

START

INPUT A, B

Yes

No

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(b) Step 1 of the algorithm is changed.

A variable ThisSequence is used to enter a sequence of 10 pairs of numeric values, using

a single input statement.

Following the input of ThisSequence the revised algorithm will extract the pairs of numbers.

Describe the variable ThisSequence and how the numbers are extracted.

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

............................................................................................................................................. [2]

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3 The diagram shows an Abstract Data Type (ADT) representation of a linked list after data items
have been added.

• PS is the start pointer.

• PF is the free list pointer.
• Labels Df, Dc, Db and Dy represent the data items of nodes in the list.
• Labels Fg, Fh, Fm and Fw represent the data items of nodes in the free list.
• The symbol Ø represents a null pointer.

PS
Df Dc Db Dy Ø

PF
Fg Fh Fm Fw Ø

(a) Describe the linked list immediately after initialisation, before any data items are added.

...................................................................................................................................................

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(b) A program will be written to include a linked list to store alphanumeric user IDs.

The design uses two variables and two 1D arrays to implement the linked list.
Each array element contains data of a single data type and not a record.

The statements below describe the design.

Complete the statements.

The two variables will be of type ............................................................................................. .

The two variables will be used as ....................................................................... to the arrays.

The values stored in the two variables will indicate ..................................................................

................................................................................................................................................. .

The first 1D array will be of type ............................................................................................. .

The first 1D array will be used to ............................................................................................ .

The second 1D array will be of type ....................................................................................... .

The second 1D array will be used to ...................................................................................... .

[5]

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4 A global 1D array Data contains 100 elements of type integer.

A function Check() will:

• total the element values in odd index locations (1, 3, 5 ... 97, 99)
• total the element values in even index locations (2, 4, 6 ... 98, 100)
• return one of three strings ‘Odd’, ‘Even’ or ‘Same’ to indicate which total is the greater, or
whether the totals are the same.

Write pseudocode for the function Check().

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5 A global 1D array of strings contains three elements which are assigned values as shown:

Data[1] "aaaaaa"
Data[2] "bbbbbb"
Data[3] "cccccc"

Procedure Process() manipulates the values in the array.

The procedure is written in pseudocode as follows:

PROCEDURE Process(Format : STRING)

DECLARE Count, Index, L : INTEGER
DECLARE Result : STRING
DECLARE C : CHAR

Result "****"

FOR Count 1 TO LENGTH(Format) STEP 2

C MID(Format, Count, 1)
L STR_TO_NUM(MID(Format, Count + 1, 1))

Index (Count + 1) DIV 2

CASE OF C
'X' : Result TO_UPPER(Data[Index])
'Y' : Result TO_LOWER(Data[Index])
'Z' : Result "**" & Data[Index]
ENDCASE

Data[Index] LEFT(Result, L)
NEXT Count

ENDPROCEDURE

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(a) Complete the trace table by dry running the procedure when it is called as follows:

CALL Process("X3Y2W4")

Count C L Index Result Data[1] Data[2] Data[3]

[6]

(b) The procedure is to be modified. If variable C is assigned a value other than 'X', 'Y' or 'Z',
then procedure Error() is called and passed the value of variable C as a parameter.

This modification can be implemented by adding a single line of pseudocode.

(i) Write the single line of pseudocode.

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) State where this new line should be placed.

..................................................................................................................................... [1]
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6 Three points on a grid form a triangle with sides of length A, B and C as shown in the example:

10
9
8
7
6
5 B C
4
3
2 A
1
x
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

A triangle is said to be right-angled if the following test is true (where A is the length of the longest
side):

A2 = B2 + C2

A2 means A multiplied by A, for example 32 means 3 × 3 which evaluates to 9

You can calculate A2, B2 and C2 by using the coordinates of the endpoints of each line.

For example, B2 is calculated as follows:

10
9
8
7
P2
6 (x2, y2)
5 B
4
3
P1
2 (x1, y1)
1
x
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The endpoints, P1 and P2, have the coordinates (3, 2) and (6, 6).

The value B2 is given by the formula:

B2 = (x1 − x2)2 + (y1 − y2)2

In this example:

B2 = (3 − 6)2 + (2 − 6)2
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(a) A function IsRA() will:

• take three sets of integers as parameters representing the coordinates of the three
endpoints that form a triangle
• return TRUE if the endpoints form a right-angled triangle, otherwise return FALSE.

In pseudocode, the operator ‘^’ represents an exponent, which is the number of times a value
is multiplied by itself. For example, the expression Value2 may be written in pseudocode as
Value ^ 2

Complete the pseudocode for the function IsRA().

FUNCTION IsRA(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3 : INTEGER) RETURNS BOOLEAN

...................................................................................................................................................

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ENDFUNCTION
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(b) The test used to check if a triangle is right-angled can be written in two ways:

A2 = B2 + C2

or

A = √(B2 + C2)

The symbol √ represents the square root operation. For example, √81 = 9

A new function SQRT() is written to perform the square root operation. The function takes an
integer number as a parameter and returns a positive real value representing the square root
of the number.

During testing it is found that the SQRT() function returns a value that is only accurate to
4 decimal places.

For example, SQRT(25) returns 5.0000125 rather than the correct value of 5.0

The function IsRA() from part (a) is modified to use the new SQRT() function to test if a
triangle is right-angled.

Describe a problem that might occur when using the modified IsRA() function and suggest
a solution that still allows the SQRT() function to be used.

Problem ....................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

Solution .....................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[2]

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7 A fitness club has a computerised membership system. The fitness club offers a number of
different exercise classes.

The following information is stored for each club member: name, home address, email address,
mobile phone number, date of birth and the exercise(s) they are interested in.

(a) When an exercise class is planned, a new module will send personalised text messages to
each member who has expressed an interest in that exercise. Members wishing to join the
class send a text message back. Members may decide not to receive future text messages
by replying with the message ‘STOP’.

The process of abstraction is used to filter out unnecessary information.

(i) State one advantage of applying abstraction to this problem.

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Identify three items of information that will be required by the new module.
Justify your choices with reference to the given scenario.

Item 1 required ..................................................................................................................

Justification .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Item 2 required ..................................................................................................................

Justification .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Item 3 required ..................................................................................................................

Justification .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[3]

(iii) Identify two operations that would be required to process data when the new module
receives a text message back from a member.

Operation 1 .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Operation 2 .......................................................................................................................

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(b) The structure chart illustrates part of the membership program:

Update

A
P2

T1
Name P1

Sub-A Sub-B Sub-C

Data item notes:

• Name contains the name of a club member

• P1 and T1 are of type real.

(i) Explain the meaning of the diamond symbol (labelled with the letter A) in the chart.

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................... [2]

(ii) Write the pseudocode module headers for Sub-A and Sub-B.

Sub-A

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Sub-B

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
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8 A teacher is designing a program to process pseudocode projects written by her students.

Each student project is stored in a text file.

The process is split into a number of stages. Each stage performs a different task and creates a
new file named as shown:

File name Comment

MichaelAday_src.txt student project file produced by student Michael Aday

MichaelAday_S1.txt file produced by stage 1

MichaelAday_S2.txt file produced by stage 2

The teacher has defined the first program module as follows:

Module Description
DeleteComment() • called with a parameter of type string representing a line of
pseudocode from a student’s project file
• returns the line after removing any comments

Note on comments:
A comment starts with two forward slash characters and includes all the
remaining characters on the line.

The following example shows a string before and after the comment has
been removed:

Before: IF X2 > 13 THEN //check if limit exceeded

After: IF X2 > 13 THEN

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(a) Complete the pseudocode for module DeleteComment().

FUNCTION DeleteComment(Line : STRING) RETURNS STRING

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ENDFUNCTION
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(b) A second module is defined:

Module Description
Stage_1() • called with a parameter of type string representing a student name
• creates a new stage 1 file
• copies each line from the student’s project file to the stage 1 file after
removing any comment from each line
• does not write blank lines to the stage 1 file
• returns the number of lines written to the stage 1 file

Write pseudocode for module Stage_1().

Module DeleteComment() must be used in your solution.

...................................................................................................................................................

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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
m

Assessment International Education Copyright Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download
co

at www.cambridgeinternational.org after the live examination series.

e.
at
-m

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.
am

© UCLES 2024 9618/21/M/J/24

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