AP CSP Exam

Not reasonable time (Big Idea - Algorithms)

Usually exponential in the number of steps, like doubling every time your input grows by one

Binary number (Big Idea - Abstraction)

A base-2 numeral system which represents numeric values using two different symbols: typically 0 (zero) and 1 (one).

Hexadecimal number (Big Idea - Abstraction)

A numeral system made up of 16 symbols (base 16). The standard numeral system is called decimal(base 10) and uses ten symbols: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Hexadecimal uses the decimal numbers and includes six extra symbols. There are no symbols that mean ten, or eleven etc. so these symbols are letters taken from the English alphabet: A, B, C, D, E and F. Hexadecimal A = decimal 10, and hexadecimal F = decimal 15. Also known as just hex.

Open Access (Big Idea - Global Impact)

A policy that allows people to have read access to things, e.g., libraries or online data.

Undecidable (Big Idea - Algorithms)

A problem that is so difficult, we can't ever create a solution that would be able to answer yes or no, like determining if a user's program would always stop and not run forever

Linear search (Big Idea - Algorithms)

A search that starts at the beginning of a list of values, and checks 1 by 1 in order for the result you are looking for.

Binary search (Big Idea - Algorithms)

A search that starts in the middle of a sorted array, and determines which side (if any) the value you are looking for is on. requires the list to be sorted in order.

Peer-to-peer networks (Big Idea - Global Impact)

A system where one user's computer connects through the Internet to another user's computer without going through an intermediary computer to manage the connection.

packet (Big Idea - Internet)

A unit of data that is routed between an origin and a destination on the Internet or any other packet-switched network. When any file (e-mail message, HTMLfile, Graphics Interchange Format file, Uniform Resource Locator request, and so forth) is sent from one place to another on the Internet, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) layer of TCP/IP divides the file into "chunks" of an efficient size for routing. Each of these packets is separately numbered and includes the Internet address of the destination. The individual packets for a given file may travel different routes through the Internet. When they have all arrived, they are reassembled into the original file (by the TCP layer at the receiving end).

Creative Commons (Big Idea - Global Impact)

An alternative to copyright that allows people to declare how they want their artistic creations to be shared, remixed, used in noncommercial contexts, and how the policy should propagate with remixed versions.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) (Big Idea - Internet)

An attack that is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources. They target a wide variety of important resources, from banks to news websites, and present a major challenge to making sure people can publish and access important information. Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuYNXgO_f3Y

APIs (Big Idea - Programming)

Application Programming Interface, how you define libraries and call them

Citizen Science (Big Idea - Global Impact)

Asking lots of people to help with a scientific project, like asking everyone around the world to count the butterflies they see one day)

Lossless (Big Idea - Data & Information)

Compressing data in a way that preserves all data away and allows full recovery of the original, good compression -- usually not as good as lossy, like PNG images

Lossy (Big Idea - Data & Information)

Compressing data in a way that throws some data away and makes it almost impossible to recover the original, great compression, like JPEG images

Moore's Law (Big Idea - Global Impact)

George Moore noticed the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 months. is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. Generally refers to the exponential growth of technology.

Program documentation (Big Idea - Programming)

In computer hardware and software product development, the information that describes the product to its users.

High-level Programming Low-level Programming (Big Idea - Programming)

In computer science, a high-level programming language is a programming language with strong abstraction from the details of the computer. In comparison to low-level programming languages, it may use natural language elements, be easier to use, or may automate (or even hide entirely) significant areas of computing systems (e.g. memory management), making the process of developing a program simpler and more understandable relative to a lower-level language. The amount of abstraction provided defines how "high-level" a programming language is.

Heuristic (Big Idea - Algorithms)

In computer science, a technique designed for solving a problem more quickly when classic methods are too slow, or for finding an approximate solution when classic methods fail to find any exact solution. using a "rule" to guide an algorithm, like always walking toward the north star if you were stuck in a forest.

Modulo (Big Idea - Programming)

In computing, the modulo operation finds the remainder after division of one number by another (sometimes called modulus). For example 30 mod 4 = 2

Phishing (Big Idea - Internet)

The attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Digital divide (Big Idea - Global Impact)

The idea that some communities / populations have less access to computing than others

Fault tolerance (Big Idea - Internet)

The property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of (or one or more faults within) some of its components.

Sequencing (Big Idea - Algorithms)

This means that the computer will run your code in order, one line at a time from the top to the bottom of your program. It will start at line 1, then execute line 2 then line 3 and so on till it reaches the last line of your program.

Selection (Big Idea - Algorithms)

a boolean condition to determine which of two algorithmic paths are taken, aka if-then Sometimes you only want some lines of code to be run only if a condition is met, otherwise you want the computer to ignore these lines and jump over them. This is achieved using IF statements. e.g. If a condition is met then lines 4, 5, 6 are executed otherwise the computer jumps to line 7 without even looking at line 4,5 and 6.

Domain Name System (DNS) (Big Idea - Internet)

a hierarchical decentralized naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Most prominently, it translates more readily memorized domain names to the numerical IP addresses needed for the purpose of locating and identifying computer services and devices with the underlying network protocols.

Metadata (Big Idea - Data & Information)

a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. data about data, like a camera storing the location, aperture, shutter speed, etc. for a digital photo

IP Address (Big Idea - Internet)

a unique string of numbers separated by periods that identifies each computer using the Internet Protocol to communicate over a network.

ISP Internet Service Provider (Big Idea - Internet)

an organization that provides services for accessing and using the Internet.

SMS Short Message Service (Big Idea - Internet)

commonly referred to as "text messaging," is a service for sending short messages of up to 160 characters (224 characters if using a 5-bit mode) to mobile devices, including cellular phones, smartphones and PDAs.

Overflow (Big Idea - Abstraction)

error that results when the number of bits is not enough to hold the number, like a car's odometer "rolling over" http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zjfgjxs/revision/3

Round-off (Big Idea - Abstraction)

error that results when the number of bits is not enough to represent the actual number, like 3 digits to represent π as 3.14. "Rounding error is a natural consequence of the representation scheme used for integers and floating-point numbers in digital computers. Rounding can produce highly inaccurate results as errors get propagated through repeated operations using inaccurate numbers. Proper handling of rounding error may involve a combination of approaches such as use of high-precision data types and revised calculations and algorithms. Mathematical analysis can be used to estimate the actual error in calculations." Above quote taken from: https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~introcs/Fa15/extras/Rounding/index.html

Boolean (Big Idea - Programming)

is a binary variable, having two possible values called "true" and "false."

Cloud Computing (Big Idea - Global Impact)

is a type of Internet-based computing that provides shared computer processing resources and data to computers and other devices on demand. Using distributed calculations and/or storage for big data or a web application.

Digital Certificate (Big Idea - Internet)

is an electronic "passport" that allows a person, computer or organization to exchange information securely over the Internet using the public key infrastructure (PKI). A digital certificate may also be referred to as a public key certificate.

Creative Common License (Big Idea - Internet)

is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. A CC license is used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that they have created.

Crowdsourcing (Big Idea - Global Impact)

is the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet. Asking lots of users online to help with something, like funding a project, or running SETI@Home to help look for extraterrestrial signals

Reasonable time (Big Idea - Algorithms)

polynomial in the number of steps an algorithm takes in the worst case based on the input size

Cookies (Big Idea - Internet)

small files which are stored on a user's computer. They are designed to hold a modest amount of data specific to a particular client and website, and can be accessed either by the web server or the client computer.

Iteration (Big Idea - Algorithms)

using a looping control structure, like while, for, foreach, repeat, repeat-until, etc. Sometimes you want the computer to execute the same lines of code several times. This is done using a loop. There are three types of loops: For loops, while loops and repeat until loops. That's handy as it enables you not to have to copy the same lines of code many times.