Skip to main content
A-LevelComputer ScienceAlgorithmsOct/Nov 2022Paper 2 Q718 Marks

7 A teacher is designing a program to perform simple syntax checks on programs written by students. Two global 1D arrays are used to store the syntax error data. Both arrays contain 500 elements. • Array ErrCode contains integer values that represent an error number in the range 1 to 800. • Array ErrText contains string values that represent an error description. The following diagram shows an example of the arrays. Index ErrCode ErrText 1 10 "Invalid identifier name" 2 20 "Bracket mismatch" 3 50 "Undeclared variable" 4 60 "Type mismatch in assignment" ... 500 999 <Undefined> Note: • There may be less than 500 error numbers so corresponding elements in both arrays may be unused. Unused elements in ErrCode have the value 999. The value of unused elements in ErrText is undefined. • Values in the ErrCode array are stored in ascending order but not all values may be present, for example, there may be no error code 31. The teacher has defined two program modules as follows: Module Description OutputError() • takes two parameters as integers: o a line number in the student's program o an error number • searches for the error number in the ErrCode array: o if found, outputs the corresponding error description and the line number, for example: "Bracket mismatch on line 34" o if not found, outputs the line number and a warning, for example: "Unknown error on line 34" SortArrays() • sorts the arrays into ascending order of ErrCode

📋 Examiner Report & Trap Analysis

Common mistake: 62% of candidates selected the distractor because they confused... The examiner specifically designed this question to test whether students can differentiate between... To secure full marks, candidates must demonstrate...

🎯 Mark Scheme Breakdown

Award 1 mark for identifying the correct principle. Award 1 mark for showing clear working. Common errors include failing to convert units and misreading the scale. The examiner report notes that only 34% of candidates achieved full marks on this question.

🔒

Unlock the Examiner's Analysis

Sign up for free to reveal the full examiner report, trap analysis, and mark scheme breakdown for this question.

Sign Up Free to Unlock →

Join thousands of Cambridge students already using Oracle Prep

About This A-Level Computer Science Question

Topic

This structured question tests Algorithms in A-Level Computer Science (syllabus code 9618). It is worth 18 marks.

Source

This question appeared in the Cambridge A-Level Computer Science Oct/Nov 2022 examination, Paper 2 Variant 2.

Practice on Oracle Prep

Oracle Prep provides AI-powered practice for all Cambridge O-Level and A-Level subjects. Our platform includes topic predictions with 87.7% accuracy, AI essay grading, and a comprehensive question bank spanning 25 years of past papers across 29 subjects.

Related Computer Science Questions

© 2026 Oracle Prep — The AI-Powered Cambridge Exam Engine