AP Computer Science Principles Key Terms Comprehensive Questions And Accurate Detailed Answers.

Algorithm - correct answer A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Abstraction - correct answer Reducing information and detail to focus on essential characteristics. for loop - correct answer A particular kind of looping construct provided in many languages. Typically, this defines a counting variable that is checked and incremented on each iteration in order to loop a specific number of times. Heuristic - correct answer a problem-solving approach (algorithm) to find a satisfactory solution where finding an optimal or exact solution is impractical or impossible. while loop - correct answer a programming construct used to repeat a set of commands (loop) as long as (while) a boolean condition is true Conditionals - correct answer Statements that only run under certain conditions. Computing Innovation(s)/Computer - correct answer Any device that takes in data, transforms it, and then outputs it Linear Search - correct answer a method for finding a target value within a list. It sequentially checks each element of the list for the target value until a match is found or until all the elements have been searched. Binary Search - correct answer Looking for an item in an already sorted list by eliminating large portions of the data on each comparison Decidable problem - correct answer a problem for which there exists an algorithm that will always return a correct "Yes" or "No" answer solvable - correct answer a problem is solvable in practice if there exists an algorithm to solve it that runs in a reasonable amount of time unsolvable - correct answer a problem is unsolvable in practice if any algorithm to find a perfect solution will run in an unreasonable amount of time programming language - correct answer a set of abstractions for giving instructions to a computer in order to perform a task or a series of tasks Hardware Abstraction - correct answer Architecture dependent code used by the kernel to interact with different hardware architectures. Hardware is made of transistors and logic gates. object - correct answer collection of properties or more. A property is an association between a name and more. input - correct answer Data that is entered into the computer system. output - correct answer Transformed data that the computer lets out Variable - correct answer A value that can change by programming depending on its conditions. sequence - correct answer the order in which things happen or should happen. Step by step execution. Selection - correct answer After a question in the program is asked, it decides an action to answer that question. Conditionals. Iteration - correct answer Repeated execution of a set of programming statements. Looping. Boolean - correct answer A single value of either TRUE or FALSE Programming - correct answer giving commands to computers to perform tasks Functions - correct answer A line of code that contains necessary code to perform specific tasks (such as printing n times, adding two numbers, etc.). These help manage the abstractions by breaking the program into smaller parts, making the program easier to understand, and avoid repeating code over and over. Defining a Function - correct answer Teach the computer a new command and explain what it should do when receiving that command. Calling a function - correct answer Running the command to perform tasks and cause the actions to happen Decomposition - correct answer Breaking the program into smaller, manageable parts that are easier to understand. Top Down Design - correct answer a problem solving approach (also known as stepwise design) in which you break down a system to gain insight into the sub-systems that make it up. Documentation - correct answer a description of the behavior of a command, function, library, API, etc. Comments - correct answer Using descriptive text to explain portions of code. They do not change the way a robot behaves, but are important for the programmer to remember what the code does. preconditions - correct answer Things that must be true before a use case can start. postconditions - correct answer what must be true upon the successful completion of a use case procedural abstraction - correct answer Defining steps of a program without defining how each step works under the hood APIs - correct answer Application Programming Interface. Set of tools for building programs Debugging - correct answer Finding and fixing problems in your algorithm or program. Psuedocode - correct answer a notation resembling a simplified programming language, used in program design. Write code like English Parameters - correct answer Inputs into functions to help the function perform specific tasks. computers are used to: - correct answer collect, store, manipulate, and visualize data in order to answer questions and gain knowledge about the world data - correct answer information (numbers, words, measurements, observations, etc.) that is in a computer-readable form input data - correct answer - spreadsheets - images - mouse movements - keyboard inputs - HTTP request - etc. program - correct answer - takes in input data - analyzes and manipulates data - produces output data output data - correct answer - spreadsheets - images - sounds - HTTP response - etc. Why is data relevant? - correct answer data and information facilitate the creation of knowledge With this knowledge, you can: - correct answer - recognize patterns - gain new insights and knowledge - predict future events - realize problems - solve problems computing tools - correct answer essential when working with large data sets in order to extract useful information and gain knowledge they provide ways to research, filter, store, and visualize data concerns with data: - correct answer - storing and processing massive amounts of data efficiently is challenging - keeping data private is challenging - not everyone knows how much of their personal data is being tracked binary numbers - correct answer numbers that only use the digits 0 and 1 digital information - correct answer Information that can be expressed in a numerical form. encoding - correct answer the processing of information so that it can be stored data abstraction - correct answer The process of simplifying complicated data into manageable chunks "layers of abstraction" - correct answer digital data is represented by abstractions at different levels Pros of processing digital information - correct answer - can easily manipulate data once it is in digital form - can easily examine and filter digital information to gain knowledge - can easily store and load up information in digital form - virtually instant access (photos, movies, statistics, etc.) Code - correct answer Way of conveying information as symbols Program/Software - correct answer computer readable code programming language - correct answer Provides the standards, syntax, statements, and instructions for writing computer software. Compiler - correct answer A computer program created to read an entire program and convert it into a lower-level language and ultimately to assembly language used by the processor. Algorithm - correct answer A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Variable - correct answer What can holds a value Declaring a variable - correct answer A statement that defines a variable with a data type initializing a variable - correct answer the act of assigning its first value, often at the same time the variable is created Basic Types of Variables - correct answer Number (Integer or float), Boolean, or String Integers - correct answer whole numbers and their opposites. Used to count Floats - correct answer stores decimals Boolean - correct answer True or False string type - correct answer sequence of characters Naming Variables - correct answer -letters -numbers -underscore -$ -(can't start with a number and can't be a reserved word) -give a variable a value using an assignment statement -Case Sensitive readLine method - correct answer reads the line of inputted text and returns a String containing the contents of the line readInt - correct answer Allows for the reading of user input when an integer is used readFloat - correct answer Allows for the reading of user input when a float number is used addition operator - correct answer + subtraction operator - correct answer - Multiplication operator - correct answer * division operator - correct answer / modulus operator - correct answer % (or mod in the AP Exam) Modulus - correct answer divide and take the remainder increment - correct answer increase decrement - correct answer decrease by 1 x += y - correct answer x = x + y x -= y - correct answer x = x - y x /= y - correct answer x = x/y x *= y - correct answer x = x*y