AP Computer Science Principles Exam Review

Flashcards to help students review their lecture notes and prepare for their exam.

Creative development

Programming is a collaborative and creative process that brings ideas to life through the development of software

Computing innovation

Uses a computer program to take in data, transform data and output data

User interface

The inputs and outputs that allow a user to interact with a piece of software

Input

Data that is sent to a computer for processing into a device

Output

Data sent from a program to a device

Program

A collection of instructions that a computing device executes

Code segments

Smaller collection of statements that are a part of a program

Program Event

An action or occurrence that takes place within a computer program, such as a button click, mouse movement, or keyboard input.

Event driven program

A type of program that respond to events triggered by user actions, system events or other sources

Sequential program

Happens in order

Program Documentation library

A collection of functions that can be used in different programs

Iterative development process

Programmers develop working prototypes of their programs and go back through the stages of their development method

Incremental development process

Programmers break the program they are working on into smaller pieces and make sure that each piece works before adding it to the whole

Syntax Errors

The spelling and/or punctuation rules of the programming language aren't followed

Logic Errors

A mistake in a program's base logic that causes unexpected behavior

Run-Time Errors

An error that occurs when the program is running

Overflow Errors

An error that occurs when a computer tries to handle a number that’s outside of its defined range of values

Debugging

The process of finding and fixing errors

Data

Collection of facts

Number base

The number of digits or digit combos that a system uses to represent values

Binary system

Only uses combinations of 0 and 1

Bit

Smallest unit of info stored or manipulated on a computer (0/1)

Byte

8 bits form a

Analog Data

Data that is measured continuously and changes very smoothly like the volume of music

Sampling

Recording an analog signal at regular discrete moments and converting them or digital signals

Data Abstraction

Filtering out specific details to focus on the info needed to process the data

Data compression

Set of steps of packing data into a smaller space while allowing for the original data to be seen

Lossless Data Compression

Allows you to reduce your file size without sacrificing any of the original data in the process

Run length encoding

Run length encoding works by replacing repeating data with a run that represents the number and value of the repeated data

Lossy Data Compression

Sacrifices some data in order to achieve greater compression

Correlations

Refer to the statistical relationship between two or more variables

Metadata

Data about data

Data mining

The process of examining very large data sets to find useful information such as patterns

Data Transformation

Modifying every element of a data set

Bar-Chart

A chart or graph that presents categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represents

Scatter plots

Uses dots to represent values for two different numeric variables

Variable

A placeholder in your program for a value

Global Variable

Can be used anywhere

Local variable

Used only in part of the code it was created, deleted once onevent is done

Data types

Different categories of data that your computer can represent

Substring

Part of an existing string

Boolean

Can only represent two values: true or false

List

Ordered sequence of elements

Nested conditional statements

Conditional statements inside conditional statements

Element

An individual value in a list

Data abstraction

Simplified set of data by representing it in some general way

Removing

Eliminates an element from the list

Filter a List

Creating a subset of elements from the original list

Linear search

Checks each element of a list in order until the desired value is found or all elements in the list have been checked

Binary Search

Starts in the middle of a sorted data set and eliminates half of the data based on what it’s looking for

Procedure

A group of programming instructions

Parameters

The input variables of a procedure

Arguments

Values passed into the procedure

Selection

Making a decision based on a condition or criteria

Iteration

The repetition of a set of instructions until a specific condition is met

Algorithm

A set of instructions used to accomplish a specific task or solve a problem

Sequencing

Consists of steps that go in order

Infinite loops

Loops that continue to repeat indefinitely because the condition controlling the loop is always true or there is no condition at all

MOD operator

A is divided by b and MOD gives you what the remainder would be

Simulations

The process of creating a model or representation of a real world system or phenomenon on a computer

Problem

A task that an algorithm is trying to solve while an instance of the problem is a problem with a specific input

Algorithm’s efficiency

An estimate of how many computational resources (power, memory, time) it uses

Internet

A computer network consisting of interconnected networks that use standardized, open (NONPROPRIETARY) communication protocols

Computing network

A group of computing devices that can share data with each other

Computing system

Group of computing devices and programs working together for a common purpose

Packets

Contain a section of the data you want to send and comes with a header that contains metadata to tell the routers where the packet is from, where it’s going and how it should be reassembled

Paths

Sequences of connected computing devices

Routing

The process of finding a path to take

Bandwidth

The rate of data transfer it allows from one device to another

Computing device

A physical machine that can run a program

Latency

How late the bits arrive

IP ADDRESSES

Unique numerical label assigned to each device

Protocol

Open or NONPROPRIETARY standard set of rules that everyone agrees on

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

UDP

Used Datagram Protocol

World Wide Web

A system of web pages, programs and files

Scalability

The capacity for the system to change in size and scale to meet new demands

Fault tolerance

Functions properly even in the event of one part failing

Redundancy

The inclusion of extra components that can be used to mitigate failure of a system of other components fail

Parallel Computing

A program is broken into smaller sequential computing operations using multiple PROCESSORS

Sequential computing

Traditional method of executing instructions in a sequential order

Distributed computing

Multiple DEVICES are used to run a program

Sequential

A sequential solution takes as long as the sum of all steps in the program

The speed up

This is calculated by dividing the time it took to complete the task sequentially by the time it took to complete the task in parallel

Digital divide

The gaps between those who have access to technology and the internet and those who don’t

Biases

Tendencies or inclinations, especially those that are unfair or prejudicial

Machine learning models

Computer programs that can learn from data and make predictions or decisions without being programmed

Citizen science

Scientific research that the general population helps to conduct

Crowdsourcing

The practice of getting a large amount of input or information from people on the internet

Intellectual Property

The creations of the mind such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs and images used in commerce

Public Domain

Creative works that are free to use without permission

Copyright

The legal right that the creator of a work has to it

Plagiarism

Means if you claimed the said content was your own

Fair Use

Allows the use of copyrighted material without permission for limited purposes such as new reporting

Open sourcing

Allows for work to be freely distributed, and modified

Open access

Research available to the general public free of restrictions like academic journals

Personally Identifiable Information

Information that can be used to identify you

Virus

A malicious program that can gain unauthorized access to something and copy itself and must be activated by the user

Worms

Can operate independently

Malware

Malicious software that is intended to damage