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AP Computer Science Principles (CSP) Study Guide - Unit 1

BIG IDEA 1: CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

1.1 Program Design and Development

  • Program Purpose: Identifying the goals and intended uses of a program
  • Program Design: Creating algorithms, flowcharts, and pseudocode
  • Incremental Development: Building and testing programs in small, functional pieces
  • Collaboration Tools: Using version control systems (Git), pair programming techniques
  • Documentation: Creating readable code with comments and documentation

1.2 Program Abstraction

  • Procedural Abstraction: Creating modular code with functions/procedures
  • Data Abstraction: Using variables, data structures, and APIs
  • Levels of Abstraction: Understanding abstraction from high-level languages to binary
  • Hiding Implementation Details: Creating clean interfaces and APIs
  • Parameters and Return Values: Passing and returning data in functions

1.3 Program Design and Implementation

  • Problem-Solving Strategies: Breaking down complex problems
  • Algorithm Design: Creating step-by-step solutions
  • Programming Language Features: Variables, control structures, functions
  • Libraries and APIs: Using pre-built tools and frameworks
  • Testing and Validation: Ensuring program correctness

1.4 Identifying and Correcting Errors

  • Types of Errors: Syntax, logic, and runtime errors
  • Debugging Techniques: Print statements, debuggers, tracing
  • Testing Strategies: Boundary cases, edge cases, normal cases
  • Error Handling: Try/catch blocks and error messages
  • Code Review: Collaborative error finding and fixing