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AP Computer Science Principles Diagnostic Test

AP Computer Science Principles Diagnostic Test

This diagnostic test covers the full AP Computer Science Principles syllabus. There are 20 questions spanning 5 core topics. The test uses adaptive difficulty, selecting questions based on your performance to target areas of weakness.

Recommended time: 30 minutes. The test presents up to 15 questions drawn from the pool, adaptively ordered by your answers.


How the Diagnostic Scoring Works

After completing the test, you receive a results breakdown:

  • Topic Breakdown — each topic shows your score, colour-coded green (strong, 80%+), amber (moderate, 50-79%), or red (weak, below 50%).
  • Strengths — topics where you scored 80% or above.
  • Needs Improvement — topics where you scored below 50%.
  • Recommended Study Topics — all topics where you did not score in the strong range.

The adaptive engine targets weak topics first, so your weakest areas are tested more thoroughly. Use the results to prioritise which topic pages to revise.


Question 1 of 150s
Computational ThinkingDifficulty 3

A binary search is performed on a sorted list of 1,024 elements. In the worst case, how many comparisons are needed to determine that an element is not in the list?

--- ## Topic Coverage | Topic | Questions | Revision Guide | | -------------------------- | --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Computational Thinking | 4 | Computational Thinking | | Computing Systems | 4 | Computing Systems | | Algorithms and Programming | 4 | Algorithms and Programming | | Data Analysis | 4 | Data Analysis | | Networks and the Internet | 4 | Networks and the Internet |