AP CS Principles Terms and Vocab 2023

List

List

ordered collection of elements

Element

individual value in a list that is assigned a unique index

Index

number used for referencing the elements in a list or string

Iteration

repetitive portion of an algorithm which repeats a specified number of times or until a given condition is met

Infinite Loop

occurs when the ending condition of an ineration will never evaluate to true

Traversal

accessing each item in a list one at a time

Append

adding an element to the end of a list

Data Abstraction

collection of data to manage complexity without referencing specific details of the representation

Logic Error

mistake in the algorithm or program that causes it to behave incorrectly or unexpectedly

Simulation

abstractions of more complex objects or phenomena for a specific purpose.

Substring

part of an existing string

User Interface

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

Input

data sent to a computer for processing by a program

Output

data sent from a program to a device

Program Statement

code command or instruction

Program

collection of program statements.

Sequential Programming

program statements run in order, from top to bottom

Event Driven Programming

when program statements run when triggered by an event

Documentation

written description of how/why a command or piece of code works or was developed.

Comment

documentation written into the program to be read by people and which do not affect how a program runs

Pair Programming

collaborative style in which two programmers switch between the roles of writing code and tracking or planning high level progress

Debugging

finding and fixing problems in an algorithm or program

Development process

steps or phases used to create a piece of software (e.g. investigating, designing, prototyping, and testing)

Event

associated with an action and supplies input data to a program, and can be generated by any action that affects the flow of execution

Incremental Development Process

breaks the problem into smaller pieces and makes sure each piece works before adding it to the whole

Iterative Development Process

requires refinement and revision based on feedback, testing, or reflection, and may require revisiting earlier phases

Plagiarism

use of material created by someone else without permission and presented as one's own

Program Specification

describes how a program functions and may include requirements or a description of user interactions that a program must provide

Syntax Error

mistake in the program where the rules of the programming language are not followed

Software

program or a collection of programs

Citizen Science

scientific research conducted in whole or part by distributed individuals, many of whom may not be scientists, who contribute relevant data to research using their own computing devices

Cleaning Data

process that makes the data uniform without changing its meaning (e.g. replacing all equivalent abbreviations, spellings, and capitalizations with the same word)

Correlation

relationship between two pieces of data

Crowdsourcing

obtaining input or information from a large number of people via the Internet.

Information

collection of facts and patterns extracted from data

Data bias

data that does not accurately reflect the full population or phenomenon being studied

Data filtering

choosing a smaller subset of a data set to use for analysis, for example by eliminating / keeping only certain rows in a table

Computing Innovation

includes a program as an integral part of its function. Can be physical, non-physical computing software, or non-physical computing concepts

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

information about an individual that identifies, links, relates, or describes them

Phishing

technique that attempts to trick a user into providing personal information

Keylogging

program to record every keystroke made by a computer user in order to gain fraudulent access to passwords and other confidential information

Malware

software intended to damage a computing system or to take partial control over its operation

Rogue Access Point

wireless access point that gives unauthorized access to secure networks.

Encryption

encoding messages to keep them secret, so only "authorized" parties can read it

Decryption

taking a secret message and reproducing the original plain text (reverses encryption)

Symmetric Key Encryption

involves one key for both encryption and decryption

Public Key Encryption

pairs a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. The sender does not need the receiver's private key to encrypt a message, but the receiver's private key is required to decrypt the message

Computing Innovation

includes a program as an integral part of its function. Can be physical (e.g. self-driving car), non-physical computing software (e.g. picture editing software), or non-physical computing concepts (e.g., e-commerce).

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

information about an individual that identifies, links, relates, or describes them.

Freeware

software that can be acquired at no monetary cost, so users should be wary it does not contain malicious code

Multi-factor Authentication

requires at least two steps to unlock protected information; each step adds a new layer of security that must be broken to gain unauthorized access

Strong Password

something that is easy for a user to remember but would be difficult for someone else to guess based on knowledge of that user

Virus

malicious program that can copy itself and gain access to a computer in an unauthorized way - often attach themselves to legitimate programs and start running independently on a computer

Expression

combination of operators, values, and or procedure calls that evaluates to a single value

Assignment Operator

allows a program to change the value represented by a variable

Variable

named reference to a value that can be used repeatedly throughout a program

Boolean Value

data type that is either true or false

Function

named group of programming instructions, and also referred to as a "procedure"

Function Call

command that executes the code within a function

Arithmetic Operators

addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and modulus operators (+, -, *, /, %)

Boolean Expression

evaluates to either true or false

Concatenation

joins together two or more strings end-to-end to make a new string

Conditional Statement

affect the sequential flow of control by executing different statements based on the value of a Boolean expression.

Evaluate

producing a single value from an expression

Logical Operators

used in evaluating Boolean expressions (NOT, AND, OR, !, &&, ||)

Procedure

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

Relational / Comparison Operators

used to test the relationship between two expressions (=, ≠, >, <, ≥, and ≤)

Selection

determines which parts of an algorithm are executed based on a condition being true or false

String

ordered sequence of characters

Computing Device

machine that can run a program, including computers, tablets, servers, routers, and smart sensors

Computing System

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

Computing Network

group of interconnected computing devices capable of sending or receiving data

Path

series of connections between computing devices on a network starting with a sender and ending with a receiver.

Bandwidth

maximum amount of data that can be sent in a fixed amount of time (usually measured in bits per second)

Protocol

agreed-upon set of rules that specify the behavior of some system

IP Address

unique number assigned to each device on the Internet

Internet Protocol (IP)

protocol for sending data across the Internet that assigns unique numbers (IP addresses) to each connected device

Router

type of computer that forwards data across a network

Redundancy

inclusion of extra components so that a system can continue to work even if individual components fail

Fault Tolerant

can continue to function even in the event of individual component failures

HTTP (HyperTest Transfer Protocol)

protocol used for transmitting web pages over the Internet

Internet

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

Packet

chunk of data sent over a network that may arrive at the destination in order, out-of-order, or not at all

Packet Metadata

helps route packets through the network and reassemble the original message

Routing

finding a path from sender to receiver

UDP

A protocol used on the internet for fast transmission of information but with minimal error checking

World Wide Web

a system of linked pages, programs, and files.

Router

A type of computer that forwards data across a network

Certificate authority

issue digital certificates that validate the ownership of encryption keys used in secure communications and are based on a trust model

Digital Divide

differing access to computing devices and the Internet, based on socioeconomic, geographic, or demographic characteristics

Bit

the single unit of information in a computer, typically represented as a 0 or 1

Byte

8 bits

Overflow Error

error from attempting to represent a number that is too large

Round-off Error

error from attempting to represent a number that is too precise

Analog Data

values that change continuously, or smoothly, over time

Digital Data

values that change discretely through a finite set of possible values

Sampling

creating a digital representation of analog data by measuring the analog data at regular intervals called samples

Lossless Compression

reducing the number of bits needed to represent something without losing any information. This process is reversible

Lossy Compression

reducing the number of bits needed to represent something in which some information is lost or thrown away. This process is not reversible

Binary

way of representing information using only two options (0 & 1)