Programming Fundamentals Exam Practice

This lesson brings together all the programming concepts covered in this course and provides exam-style questions with worked solutions. Practising these questions will prepare you for the programming section of your GCSE Computer Science exam (AQA Paper 1 / OCR J277 Paper 2).

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Key Topics to Revise

Before attempting practice questions, make sure you are confident with:

• Variables, constants, and data types (integer, real, Boolean, char, string)
• Input and output
• Arithmetic operators (including DIV and MOD)
• Selection (IF, ELIF, ELSE, SWITCH/CASE)
• Iteration (FOR, WHILE, DO...UNTIL)
• Arrays and lists (1D and 2D)
• String manipulation (length, substrings, concatenation, case conversion, ASCII)
• Subroutines (functions and procedures), parameters, return values, scope
• File handling (read, write, append)
• Validation and authentication

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Exam Question Types

Question Type	What to Expect
Trace table	Follow code step by step, recording variable values at each stage
Write pseudocode/Python	Write a program or subroutine to solve a given problem
Identify errors	Find and correct syntax or logic errors in given code
Explain code	Describe what a given piece of code does, line by line
State the output	Determine what a program will display when run
Compare constructs	Explain the difference between two programming concepts

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Practice Question 1: Trace Table

Trace the following pseudocode and complete the trace table.

x ← 5
y ← 3
FOR i ← 1 TO 4
    x ← x + y
    y ← y + 1
ENDFOR
OUTPUT x

Trace Table

Iteration	i	x	y
Start	—	5	3
1	1	8	4
2	2	12	5
3	3	17	6
4	4	23	7

Output: 23

Exam Tip: Work through each iteration carefully and update all variables in the correct order. A common mistake is updating variables in the wrong sequence within a single iteration.

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Practice Question 2: Write a Function

Write a function called is_even that takes an integer parameter and returns True if it is even and False otherwise.

Pseudocode Answer

SUBROUTINE is_even(number)
    IF number MOD 2 = 0 THEN
        RETURN True
    ELSE
        RETURN False
    ENDIF
ENDSUBROUTINE

Python Answer

def is_even(number):
    if number % 2 == 0:
        return True
    else:
        return False

Or more concisely:

def is_even(number):
    return number % 2 == 0

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Practice Question 3: Array Processing

Write a program that asks the user to enter 5 numbers, stores them in an array, and then outputs the total and the average.

Python Answer

numbers = []
for i in range(5):
    value = int(input(f"Enter number {i + 1}: "))
    numbers.append(value)

total = 0
for num in numbers:
    total += num

average = total / len(numbers)
print(f"Total: {total}")
print(f"Average: {average}")

Pseudocode Answer

numbers ← []
FOR i ← 1 TO 5
    OUTPUT "Enter number ", i, ":"
    value ← INT(USERINPUT)
    numbers.APPEND(value)
ENDFOR

total ← 0
FOR EACH num IN numbers
    total ← total + num
ENDFOR

average ← total / LEN(numbers)
OUTPUT "Total: ", total
OUTPUT "Average: ", average

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Practice Question 4: Identify the Error

The following code is supposed to check if a number is between 1 and 100 inclusive. Identify and fix the error.

number = input("Enter a number: ")
if number >= 1 and number <= 100:
    print("Valid")
else:
    print("Invalid")

Answer

The error is that input() returns a string, not an integer. The comparison with 1 and 100 will fail or produce unexpected results. The fix is:

number = int(input("Enter a number: "))
if number >= 1 and number <= 100:
    print("Valid")
else:
    print("Invalid")

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Practice Question 5: File Handling

Write a program that reads a file called "names.txt" and counts how many names are stored in it (one name per line).

Python Answer

count = 0
with open("names.txt", "r") as file:
    for line in file:
        if line.strip() != "":
            count += 1
print(f"Number of names: {count}")

Pseudocode Answer

count ← 0
file ← OPENREAD("names.txt")
WHILE NOT file.ENDOFFILE()
    line ← file.READLINE()
    count ← count + 1
ENDWHILE
file.CLOSE()
OUTPUT "Number of names: ", count

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Practice Question 6: String Manipulation

Write a function that takes a string and returns the number of uppercase letters it contains.

Python Answer

def count_uppercase(text):
    count = 0
    for char in text:
        if char.isupper():
            count += 1
    return count

print(count_uppercase("Hello World"))  # Output: 2

Pseudocode Answer

SUBROUTINE count_uppercase(text)
    count ← 0
    FOR i ← 0 TO LEN(text) - 1
        IF ASC(text[i]) >= 65 AND ASC(text[i]) <= 90 THEN
            count ← count + 1
        ENDIF
    ENDFOR
    RETURN count
ENDSUBROUTINE

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Practice Question 7: Validation with Authentication

Write a login system that allows a maximum of 3 attempts and validates that the username is not empty.

correct_user = "admin"
correct_pass = "Secure99"
attempts = 0

while attempts < 3:
    username = input("Username: ")
    if len(username) == 0:
        print("Username cannot be empty.")
        continue
    password = input("Password: ")
    if username == correct_user and password == correct_pass:
        print("Login successful!")
        break
    else:
        attempts += 1
        print(f"Incorrect. {3 - attempts} attempts remaining.")

if attempts == 3:
    print("Account locked.")

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Top Exam Tips

1. Read the question carefully — identify whether it asks for pseudocode or Python (or either).
2. Use meaningful variable names — score, total, count not x, y, z.
3. Show all working in trace tables — do not skip iterations.
4. Indent correctly — in both pseudocode and Python, indentation shows structure.
5. Test your code mentally — run through it with example data to check it works.
6. Remember edge cases — what happens with 0 items? An empty string? The maximum value?
7. Know the difference between = (assignment) and == (comparison).
8. Always cast input when comparing with numbers.
9. Close files after use in pseudocode (file.CLOSE()).
10. State whether a subroutine is a function or procedure and explain why.

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Visualising Exam Programming Workflow

flowchart TD
    A[Read question carefully] --> B{Pseudocode or Python?}
    B -->|Pseudocode| C[Use AQA keywords]
    B -->|Python| D[Use Python syntax]
    C --> E[Plan with comments]
    D --> E
    E --> F[Write the solution]
    F --> G[Trace with sample data]
    G --> H{Correct output?}
    H -->|No| I[Fix logic errors]
    I --> G
    H -->|Yes| J[Check edge cases]
    J --> K[Submit answer]

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Summary

• Practise trace tables regularly — they test your understanding of how code executes.
• Be confident writing pseudocode and Python for common tasks.
• Know how to identify and fix errors in given code.
• Always consider validation, edge cases, and meaningful identifiers.
• Revise all programming constructs: sequence, selection, iteration, plus arrays, strings, subroutines, and file handling.

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Extended Worked Examples

Extra Practice Question A: Nested loop trace

Trace the pseudocode and state the output:

total ← 0
FOR i ← 1 TO 3
    FOR j ← 1 TO 2
        total ← total + (i * j)
    ENDFOR
ENDFOR
OUTPUT total