*** In 2025 this external will be an Online Examination held on WEDNESDAY 12th NOVEMBER - PM ***
Candidates will receive a printed resource booklet to support their answers.
Candidates will be required to respond in short and / or extended answers (800–1500 words in total) to questions relating to their choice of ONE of the following areas of computer science:
Complexity and tractability
Computer vision
Computer graphics
Special notes:
Teachers are encouraged to help their students to develop answering techniques to ensure that they are able to respond clearly and concisely within the total recommended word limit. Responses that exceed this may not be considered for assessment past the 1500-word limit.
Teachers are strongly encouraged to prepare students to be able to apply their understanding of computer science to unfamiliar contexts.
Teachers should prepare students to identify and articulate instances where overlap with various areas of computer science occurs, e.g. with artificial intelligence.
For Complexity and tractability, questions may cover: polynomial and non-polynomial time complexity, Big O notations O(1), O(log n), O(n) , O(n^k), O(2^n), O(n!), and best-case, worst-case, and average-case time complexity, complexity classes (P, NP, NP-complete), solving complex problems (approximation algorithms / heuristics), algorithm design and optimisation, optimal solutions (Travelling Salesman / knapsack, etc.).
For computer graphics, questions may cover: bitmap and vector graphics, matrices and transformations, line and circle algorithms (e.g. Bresenham's line algorithm, midpoint circle algorithm), image rendering (raytracing vs rasterisation), texture mapping, lighting, and lighting effects and reflections.
For computer vision, questions may cover: noise, thresholding, edge detection, image processing for computer vision, applications in fields of obstacle detection (e.g. Lidar and stereo vision), feature extraction (e.g. Viola Jones, Haar-like features) and medical detection, and the application of techniques to medical diagnosis (e.g. convolutional neural networks, decision trees, and random forests).
2022 Exam
Formal languages
Computer graphics
Computer vision
2023 CAT A
Computer Graphics
Big Data
Network Communication Protocols
2023 CAT B
Computer Graphics
Big Data
Network Communication Protocols
2024 Derived Grade
Network Communication Protocols
Big Data
Complexity and tractability