2.1

Question 1

What is computational thinking?

Answer 1

Formulating a problem and expressing its solution in such a way that a computer can carry out.

Question 2

What are the 3 basic steps of computational thinking?

Answer 2

Abstraction
Decomposition
Algorithmic thinking

Question 3

What is abstraction?

Answer 3

Identifying the key parts of the problem and hiding those that aren’t important so that it becomes easier to solve.

Question 4

What is decomposition?

Answer 4

Breaking down a complex problem into smaller, more manageable parts which are easier to solve.

Question 5

How do you carry out decomposition?

Answer 5

• Identify the main problem
• List the main components, functions or tasks
• Break down these into smaller smaller tasks which can be completed separately

Question 6

What is algorithmic thinking?

Answer 6

The consideration that goes into how to solve a problem using one or more algorithms.

Question 7

What is an algorithm?

Answer 7

The series of steps that a program needs to perform to solve the problem.

Question 8

What is a structure diagram used for?

Answer 8

To show the structure of a problem, its subsections and links to other subsections.

Question 9

What are flowcharts?

Answer 9

Useful tools that can be used to develop solutions to a problem.

Question 10

What is a trace table used for?

Answer 10

To show how the values of variables change during the execution of a program.

Question 11

When does a syntax error occur?

Answer 11

If a statement is written that doesn’t obey the rules of the programming language.

Question 12

When does a logic error occur?

Answer 12

If the program doesn’t do what the user intended.

Question 13

How does a binary search work?

Answer 13

It searches a list by repeatedly dividing in half the portion of the list that could contain the required data item.

Question 14

How does a linear search work?

Answer 14

Each item is checked one by one for the desired item

Question 15

How does a bubble sort work?

Answer 15

It repeatedly goes through the list to be sorted and sorts it by swapping adjacent elements if they are in the wrong order

Question 16

How does a merge sort work?

Answer 16

In the first stage, the list is divided in half repeatedly until each element has its own list. In the second stage, each set of sub-lists is repeatedly merged to produce a sorted list.

Question 17

How does an insertion sort work?

Answer 17

Starting with the second item in the list, it looks at each remaining item and places it in the correct position in the list.

Question 18

Evaluate a binary search?

Answer 18

Only works on a sorted list

Question 19

Evaluate a linear search?

Answer 19

Slow in a large list, but can be used on unsorted lists

Question 20

Evaluate a bubble sort?

Answer 20

Can be used at any time and is easy to program but is very inefficient for large data sets

Question 21

Evaluate a merge sort?

Answer 21

Very fast, especially with larger data sets

Question 22

Evaluate an insertion sort?

Answer 22

More efficient than the bubble sort, especially in smaller data sets as it skips the sorted values