1.2.4 Types of Programming Language Exam Questions

Past paper questions

1. Question 1Practice question · H446/01 style3 marks

   Describe the characteristics of the procedural programming paradigm.

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   • The program is a sequence of instructions / statements executed in order • Code is organised into procedures / functions (subroutines) • Uses the constructs sequence, selection and iteration • Data is held in variables and passed between procedures as parameters (3 marks – 1 per point, max 3)

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2. Question 2Practice question · H446/01 style4 marks

   A Little Man Computer program is shown below. INP STA first INP ADD first OUT HLT first DAT State the output of the program when the inputs are 5 and then 3, and explain what the program does.

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   • Output: 8 • The first input is stored in the memory location labelled first • The second input is added to the value stored in first • The result is output (before the program halts) (4 marks – 1 per point)

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3. Question 3Practice question · H446/01 style4 marks

   Describe the difference between direct addressing and indirect addressing. Use the instruction ADD 12 to illustrate your answer.

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   Direct addressing: • The operand is the address of the data to use • So ADD 12 adds the contents of memory location 12 to the accumulator Indirect addressing: • The operand is the address of a location that holds the address of the data • So ADD 12 adds the contents of the location whose address is stored in location 12 (4 marks – 1 per point)

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4. Question 4Practice question · H446/01 style3 marks

   Explain how indexed addressing works and describe a situation in which it is useful.

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   • The address of the data is found by adding the operand to the value held in an index register • Changing the value in the index register accesses consecutive memory locations • Useful for iterating through / processing each element of an array or list (3 marks – 1 per point)

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5. Question 5Practice question · H446/01 style4 marks

   A program models vehicles using the classes Vehicle, Car and Lorry. Explain how inheritance and polymorphism could be used in this program.

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   Inheritance: • Car and Lorry inherit from (are subclasses of) Vehicle • They share the attributes and methods defined in Vehicle, e.g. registration, numberOfWheels, so the code is not repeated Polymorphism: • A method such as calculateTax() defined in Vehicle is overridden in Car and Lorry so that it behaves differently for each • The same method call can be made on any Vehicle object and the correct version for that object runs (4 marks – 1 per point, max 2 for each)

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6. Question 6Practice question · H446/01 style3 marks

   Explain what is meant by encapsulation and why it is used in object-oriented programming.

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   • Attributes are declared private so they cannot be accessed directly from outside the class • They are read or changed only through public methods (getters / setters) • This prevents data from being changed accidentally or set to invalid values, keeping the object consistent and reducing bugs (3 marks – 1 per point)

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7. Question 7Practice question · H446/01 style2 marks

   Explain why immediate addressing is used in some assembly language instructions.

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   • The operand is the actual value to use, not an address • No memory access is needed to fetch the data, so the instruction is faster / useful for constants (2 marks – 1 per point)

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8. Question 8Practice question · H446/01 style3 marks

   Explain why programming paradigms other than the procedural paradigm are needed.

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   • Different problems suit different ways of thinking / structuring a solution • Object-oriented languages model real-world objects and support reuse through classes and inheritance • Declarative languages (e.g. SQL) describe what result is wanted rather than how to compute it • Assembly language gives direct control of the hardware where performance or low-level access matters (3 marks – 1 per point, max 3)

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