AP Exam Vocab

Question 1

General Programming

What is a program?

Answer 1

a collection of program statements that performs a specific task when run by a computer

aka software

Question 2

General Programming

What is a code segment?

Answer 2

collection of program statements that are part of a program

Question 3

General Programming

What is a code statement?

Answer 3

a part of program code that expresses an action to be carried out

Question 4

General Programming

What is an expression?

Answer 4

it consists of a value, a variable, an operator, or a procedure call that returns a value

Question 5

General Programming

Is ‘if num> 10):’ an expression?

Answer 5

Yes, because it returns either True or False.

Question 6

General Programming

What is program behavior?

Answer 6

• how a program functions when it is running
• often described by how a user interacts with it.

Question 7

General Programming

What is program output?

Answer 7

• any data sent from a program to a device
  Ex. tactile, audio, visual, or text

Question 8

General Programming

What is an iterative development process?

Answer 8

• Iterative refers to repetition, so this process requires repeated refinement and revision based on feedback, testing, or reflection
• May involve revisiting earlier phases

Question 9

General Programming

What is an incremental development process?

Answer 9

Increments refers to smaller segments, so this process involves breaking the problem into smaller pieces and making sure it works before adding it to the whole

Question 10

General Programming

What is a simulation?

Answer 10

• representation that uses varying sets of values to reflect the changing state of a phenomenon
• real world models that abstract details away to get a simplified view → help learn about the world or predict events
• NOTE: may contain bias due to abstraction

Question 11

Debugging

What is a syntax error, and provide an example.

Answer 11

• When rules of the programming language are not followed
• Ex. Incorrect parentheses, incorrect indentation, etc.

Question 12

Debugging

What is a runtime error, and provide an example.

Answer 12

• When mistakes occur during the execution of a program
• Ex. Dividing by zero, index is out of bounds (going past the length or using a negative number depending on the language), etc.
• • NOTE: programming languages define their own run-time errors

Question 13

Debugging

What is a logical error?

Answer 13

• When the algorithm or program behave incorrectly or unexpectedly
• Hard to pick up on

Question 14

Debugging

What is testing?

Answer 14

• Uses defined inputs to ensure that an algorithm/program is producing the expected outcomes
• Results from testing are used to revise algorithms/programs

Question 15

Debugging

What is a comment?

Answer 15

a form of program documentation written into the program to be read by people and do not affect how a program runs
- Ex. In CMU, hashtags were used for this.

Question 16

Debugging

What is program documentation?

Answer 16

a written description of the function of a code segment, event, procedure, or program and how it was developed

Question 17

Procedural Abstraction

What is a procedure?

Answer 17

a named group of programming instructions that may have parameters and return values.

aka a function

Question 18

Debugging

What are parameters?

Answer 18

input variables of a procedure
- Ex. For this function, drawLine(x1, y1, x2, y2), x1, y1, x2, y2 are parameters

Question 19

Debugging

What are arguments?

Answer 19

• specify the values of the parameters when a procedure is called
• must be in the correct order of the parameters
  and only use after they are defined
• Ex. For this function, drawLine(x1, y1, x2, y2), 1, 5, 6, 5 are arguments

Question 20

Debugging

What is program input?

Answer 20

• any data sent to a computer for processing by a program
  Ex. tactile, audio, visual, or text

Question 21

Debugging

What is modularity?

Answer 21

the subdivision of a computer program into separate subprograms

Question 22

Data Abstraction

What is a variable?

Answer 22

• an abstraction inside a program that can hold a value, and each has associated data storage that represents one value at a time, but that value can be a list or other collection that in turn contains multiple values
• NOTE: Global variables are defined in to-level code, outside of any functions, can be used anywhere, but should be used lightly. Local variables can only be used in the function where they are defined.

Question 23

Debugging

What is an event?

Answer 23

• associated with an action and supplies input data to a program
• Ex. onMousePress OR onEvent (“Home Button”)

Question 24

Data Abstraction

What is an element?

Answer 24

• an individual value in a list that is assigned a unique index
  Ex. For list = [“Jayla”, “Jayden”, “Jaylen”], “Jayla” is an element.

Question 25

# Data Abstraction What is an **index**?

Answer 25

- a common method for referencing the elements in a list or string using natural numbers Ex. For list = ["Jayla", "Jayden", "Jaylen"], "Jayla" is at index 1 since index starts at 1.