Cambridge IGCSE™

COMPUTER SCIENCE 0478/23

Paper 2 Algorithms, Programming and Logic May/June 2024
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 2024 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 18 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 descriptions 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.

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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.

Mark scheme abbreviations

/ separates alternative words / phrases within a marking point

// separates alternative answers within a marking point
underline actual word given must be used by candidate (grammatical variants accepted)
max indicates the maximum number of marks that can be awarded
( ) the word / phrase in brackets is not required, but sets the context

Note: No marks are awarded for using brand names of software packages or hardware.

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Question Answer Marks

1 A 1

Question Answer Marks

2(a) One mark for each correct line 4

Logic gate symbol Logic function

AND

XOR

NOT

NAND

OR

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Question Answer Marks

2(b) 4
A B C Z

0 0 0 0

0 0 1 1

0 1 0 0

0 1 1 0

1 0 0 1

1 0 1 0

1 1 0 0

1 1 1 0

Four marks for eight correct outputs.

Three marks for six or seven correct outputs.
Two marks for four or five correct outputs.
One mark for two or three correct outputs

Question Answer Marks

3 One mark for a correct statement about each data type and one mark for a correct example of data for each data type. 4

For example:

String A group of characters consisting of letters, numbers and special characters [1], Cambridge2024 [1]

Char A single character [1] X [1]

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Question Answer Marks

4(a) One mark per mark point, max four 4

 Line 01 / DECLARE People : ARRAY[1:50, 1:3] OF REAL

should be DECLARE People : ARRAY[1:50, 1:3] OF STRING
 Line 10 / Count  100
should be Count  1
 Line 12 / CASE OF
should be REPEAT
 Line 27 / UNTIL NOT Count
should be UNTIL NOT Continue // UNTIL Continue = FALSE

Correct algorithm:

01 DECLARE People : ARRAY[1:50, 1:3] OF STRING

02 DECLARE Count : INTEGER
03 DECLARE Response : CHAR
04 DECLARE Continue : BOOLEAN
05 FOR I  1 TO 50
06 FOR J  1 TO 3
07 People[I, J]  ""
08 NEXT J
09 NEXT I
10 Count  1
11 Continue  TRUE
12 REPEAT
13 OUTPUT "Enter the last name"
14 INPUT People[Count, 1]
15 OUTPUT "Enter the first name"
16 INPUT People[Count, 2]
17 OUTPUT "Enter the city"
18 INPUT People[Count, 3]
19 OUTPUT "Do you want to enter another name (Y or N)?"
20 INPUT Response

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Question Answer Marks

4(a) 21 IF Response = 'N'

22 THEN
23 Continue  FALSE
24 ELSE
25 Count  Count + 1
26 ENDIF
27 UNTIL NOT Continue // UNTIL Response = 'N'

4(b)  Use of appropriate loop 4

 Method to check array maximum not exceeded
 Method to check current / next array element not empty
 Output of all three array elements per array row (and no more)

Example algorithm:

Count  1
WHILE Count <= 50 AND People[Count, 1] <> "" DO
OUTPUT People[Count, 1]
OUTPUT People[Count, 2]
OUTPUT People[Count, 3]
Count  Count + 1
ENDWHILE

4(c) One mark per mark point, max four 4

MP1 Declare/use a variable that is set to the maximum size of the array
MP2 … at the start of the program
MP3 After line 18
MP4 … check that the value of the counting variable is not greater than the array maximum variable
MP5 … and if it is do not allow any more entries / set the value of Response to 'N' / add additional condition to UNTIL
statement that checks if the counting variable is at maximum

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Question Answer Marks

5(a) MP1 Correct L column 6

MP2 Correct S column
MP3 Correct T column
MP4 Correct A column
MP5 Correct Limit, Count and Value columns
MP6 Correct OUTPUT columns

L S T A Limit Count Value OUTPUT

0 10000 0 0 10 1 30

30 30 2 18

18 48 3 8

8 56 4 25

81 5 12

93 6 17

110 7 2

2 112 8 50

50 162 9 15

177 10 5

182 18.2 11 L = 50 S = 2
T = 182 A = 18.2

5(b) One mark per mark point, max two 2

 Any two from finds / outputs the largest, smallest, total and average of a set of numbers
 All four of finds / outputs the largest, smallest, total and average of a set of numbers

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Question Answer Marks

5(c)  (The identifiers L, S, T and A) are single letters 3

 … so do not give any indication of what values they hold.
 For programs to be maintainable, identifiers should have meaningful names.

5(d) One mark for every two appropriate identifiers, max two 2

Original identifier Improved identifier

L Largest / Maximum

S Smallest / Minimum

T Total / Sum

A Average / Mean

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Question Answer Marks

6(a) One mark for each appropriate piece of test data for a range of 1 to 80 inclusive 3

Example:

Normal 75
Abnormal 101
Extreme 80

6(b) Test data to test the limits of acceptable data entry 2

… that will only accept the largest and smallest acceptable values.

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Question Answer Marks

7(a) One mark per mark point 4

MP1 Assignment of given string to FullText

MP2 Correct use of SUBSTRING and assignment of reduced string to own variable
MP3 Correct use of UCASE
MP4 Output of both strings

Example:

FullText  "IGCSE Computer Science at Cambridge"

PartText  SUBSTRING(FullText, 7, 16)
OUTPUT PartText, UCASE(FullText)

7(b) One mark per mark point 3

MP1 Opening the correct text file for writing

MP2 Writing the variable from part (a) to the file
MP3 Closing the text file after writing

Example:

OPENFILE "Subjects.txt" FOR WRITE

WRITEFILE "Subjects.txt", PartText
CLOSEFILE "Subjects.txt"

Question Answer Marks

8(a) Fields – 6 2
Records – 11

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Question Answer Marks

8(b) MP1 Correct models of planes selected 4

MP2 Correct Years of planes selected
MP3 Correct numbers of engines selected with data all matching for each record
MP4 Data sorted correctly with no additional fields or punctuation

Correct output:

314 Clipper 1936 4

C-47 Dakota 1942 2
Nimrod 1966 4
DC-10 1970 3
Concorde 1973 4

8(c) MP1 Correct additional keywords used – FROM, WHERE 4

MP2 Correct SELECT field – Model with no additional fields
MP3 Correct table name - Hangar1
MP4 Correct search criteria - Airworthy = Y // Airworthy

Correct code:

SELECT ID, Model

FROM Hangar1
WHERE Airworthy = Y;// Airworthy;

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Question Answer Marks

9  AO2 (maximum 9 marks) 15

 AO3 (maximum 6 marks)

Data Structures required with names as given in the scenario:

Arrays or lists Teams[], Results[]

Variables Played

Requirements (techniques):

R1 Input and store number of games played, teams, number of games won, drawn and lost, with validation for input of
numbers (iteration, range check, input, output).
R2 Calculate and store the number of points. Sort the arrays by number of points (calculation, sort, (nested) iteration).
R3 Finding and outputting top team(s) (finding max, counting and output).

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Question Answer Marks

9 Example 15-mark answer in pseudocode

// input number of games

REPEAT
OUTPUT "How many games have been played (Maximum 18)? "
INPUT Played
UNTIL Played <=18
// input of data as a single loop – a loop for the teams and
// another loop for the data is also acceptable.
FOR InLoop  1 TO 10
OUTPUT "Enter the name of the team"
INPUT Teams[InLoop]
// input of games results with validation
REPEAT
OUTPUT "Enter the number of games won, drawn and lost for ", Teams[InLoop]
INPUT Won, Drawn, Lost
IF Won + Drawn + Lost <> Played
THEN
OUTPUT "Your inputs must total ", Played, " please try again"
ENDIF
UNTIL Played = Won + Drawn + Lost
Results[InLoop, 1]  Won
Results[InLoop, 2]  Drawn
Results[InLoop, 3]  Lost
// calculating and storing points
Results[InLoop, 4]  Results[InLoop, 1] * 3 + Results[InLoop, 2]
NEXT InLoop
// sorting section
Flag  TRUE
WHILE Flag DO
Flag  FALSE
FOR Sort  1 TO 9
IF Results[Sort, 4] < Results[Sort + 1, 4]
THEN

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Question Answer Marks

9 // swapping if points not higher then next element

TempString  Teams[Sort]
Temp1  Results[Sort, 1]
Temp2  Results[Sort, 2]
Temp3  Results[Sort, 3]
Temp4  Results[Sort, 4]
Teams[Sort]  Teams[Sort + 1, 1]
Results[Sort, 1]  Results[Sort + 1, 1]
Results[Sort, 2]  Results[Sort + 1, 2]
Results[Sort, 3]  Results[Sort + 1, 3]
Results[Sort, 4]  Results[Sort + 1, 4]
Teams[Sort + 1]  TempString
Results[Sort + 1, 1]  Temp1
Results[Sort + 1, 2]  Temp2
Results[Sort + 1, 3]  Temp3
Results[Sort + 1, 4]  Temp4
Flag  TRUE
ENDIF
NEXT Sort
ENDWHILE
// checking for tie
Count  1
Finish  FALSE
REPEAT
IF Results[Count, 4] = Results[Count + 1, 4]
THEN
Count  Count + 1
ELSE
Finish  TRUE
ENDIF
UNTIL Finish

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Question Answer Marks

9 // outputting the results

FOR OutLoop  1 TO Count
OUTPUT "Winning Team(s): ", Teams[OutLoop]
NEXT OutLoop
OUTPUT "Winning Points: ", Results[1, 4]

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Marking Instructions in italics

AO2: Apply knowledge and understanding of the principles and concepts of computer science to a given context, including the
analysis and design of computational or programming problems

0 13 46 79

No creditable response. At least one programming technique Some programming techniques used The range of programming techniques
has been used. are appropriate to the problem. used is appropriate to the problem.
Any use of selection, iteration, More than one technique seen applied All criteria stated for the scenario have
counting, totalling, input and output. to the scenario, check list of been covered by the use of
techniques needed. appropriate programming techniques,
check list of techniques needed.

Some data has been stored but not Some of the data structures chosen The data structures chosen are
appropriately. are appropriate and store some of the appropriate and store all the data
Any use of variables or arrays or data required. required.
other language dependent data More than one data structure used to The data structures used store all the
structures e.g. Python lists. store data required by the scenario. data required by the scenario.

Marking Instructions in italics

AO3: Provide solutions to problems by:

 evaluating computer systems
 making reasoned judgements
 presenting conclusions

0 12 34 56

No creditable response. Program seen without relevant Program seen with some relevant The program has been fully
comments. comment(s). commented.

Some identifier names used are The majority of identifiers used are Suitable identifiers with names
appropriate. appropriately named. meaningful to their purpose have
Some of the data structures used Most of the data structures used have been used throughout.
have meaningful names. meaningful names. All of the data structures used have
meaningful names.

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Marking Instructions in italics

AO3: Provide solutions to problems by:

 evaluating computer systems
 making reasoned judgements
 presenting conclusions

0 12 34 56

The solution is illogical. The solution contains parts that may The program is in a logical order.
be illogical.

The solution is inaccurate in many The solution contains parts that are The solution is accurate.
places. inaccurate. Solution logically performs all the
Solution contains few lines of code Solution contains lines of code with tasks given in the scenario. Ignore
with errors that attempt to perform a some errors that logically perform minor syntax errors.
task given in the scenario. tasks given in the scenario. Ignore
minor syntax errors.

The solution attempts at least one of The solution attempts to meet most of The solution meets all the
the requirements. the requirements. requirements given in the question.
Solution contains lines of code that Solution contains lines of code that Solution performs all the tasks given
attempt at least one task given in the attempt most tasks given in the in the scenario.
scenario. scenario.

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