APCSP Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield APCSP facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Which of the following BEST describes the difference between analog and digital data? → Analog data represents continuous values; digital data uses discrete binary values
2. What is the mean of the data set: 4, 8, 6, 10, 2? → 6
3. A company sends a large file across the internet. The file is broken into smaller units before transmission. What are these units called? → Packets
4. Which of the following is an example of structured data? → Rows and columns in a relational database table
5. Which Boolean expression is equivalent to NOT(A OR B) according to De Morgan's law? → NOT(A) AND NOT(B)
6. What is correlation? → A statistical relationship between two variables
7. Which of the following pairs shows abstraction at TWO different levels? → JavaScript code and the web browser's JavaScript engine
8. What is the primary purpose of a flowchart in algorithm design? → To visually represent the steps and decision points of an algorithm
9. Which of the following describes the concept of 'design thinking' as applied to program development? → A human-centered approach that emphasizes empathy, ideation, prototyping, and testing
10. A pharmaceutical company uses machine learning to accelerate drug discovery. This BEST illustrates which principle? → Computing enabling scientific breakthroughs that have large-scale positive human impact
11. Which type of error causes a program to produce incorrect results without crashing? → Logic error
12. A spam filter marks email as spam if: (has_suspicious_link OR from_unknown_sender) AND NOT(in_whitelist). When is email NOT marked as spam? → When the sender is in the whitelist
13. What is the role of a 'specification' in program development? → A document that describes what a program should do before it is built
14. A company stores passwords as plain text in its database. Why is this a critical security flaw? → A database breach exposes all passwords immediately
15. Which protocol is used to securely access a remote computer's command line over an encrypted connection? → SSH
16. According to De Morgan's first law, NOT(A AND B) is equivalent to: → NOT(A) OR NOT(B)
17. The hexadecimal color code #FF0000 represents which color? → Red
18. What is the difference between '==' and '=' in most programming languages? → '==' compares values; '=' assigns a value
19. Which of the following scenarios illustrates 'net neutrality' being violated? → An ISP throttling video streaming services to favor its own content
20. Which of the following best describes the role of iteration in the creative development process? → Repeatedly refining a program based on testing and feedback
21. A login system uses the condition (username_correct AND password_correct). When does the user gain access? → When both username and password are correct
22. What is the primary advantage of using pseudocode during program planning? → It allows developers to plan logic without worrying about syntax
23. In computational thinking, what does it mean to 'generalize' a solution? → Adapt a solution so it works for a broader class of problems
24. A student increases the number of particles in a physics simulation from 100 to 10,000. What is the most likely trade-off? → More particles increases accuracy but requires more computation time
25. A router receives a packet destined for 10.0.0.5 but its routing table has no specific entry for that address. What does it typically do? → Forwards the packet to a default gateway for further routing
26. When developing a website, which of the following programming languages is primarily used to design the structure of the page? → HTML
27. Why is continuing education important in Abstraction Concepts? → To stay current with evolving standards and practices
28. A programmer wants to repeat a block of code exactly 5 times. Which control structure is most appropriate? → REPEAT 5 TIMES loop
29. An attacker intercepts communication between two parties and secretly relays or alters messages. This is called a: → Man-in-the-middle attack
30. Environmental scientists use computing to model climate change. Which of the following BEST describes this as a beneficial digital impact? → Large-scale data processing enables more accurate predictions that inform policy decisions