Syllabus Overview
Course Structure
AS Level: Foundation course covering sections 1-12
A Level: Complete course covering all sections 1-20
Exam Series: June and November
AS Level
Paper 1: Theory Fundamentals (1h 30m)
Paper 2: Problem-solving & Programming (2h)
Grades: A-E
A Level
All AS papers +
Paper 3: Advanced Theory (1h 30m)
Paper 4: Practical (2h 30m)
Grades: A*-E
Programming Languages
Students should have experience of using one of:
- Java (console mode)
- Python (console mode)
- Visual Basic (console mode)
🎯 Quiz Setup
Select topics to test your knowledge
Select Topics:
📚 All Topics
AS Level Topics
🔢 Data Representation
📡 Communication & Internet
⚙️ Hardware
💻 Processor Fundamentals
🧠 Memory & Storage
🖥️ System Software
🔒 Security & Privacy
⚖️ Ethics & Ownership
🗄️ Database & SQL
🔄 Algorithm Design
⌨️ Programming
📱 Software Development
A2 Level Topics
🔍 Searching, Sorting & Complexity
🔬 Data Representation (A Level)
📨 Communication & Protocols
🔌 Hardware & Logic Circuits
♾️ Recursion
📊 Data Structures (ADT)
📂 File Organisation
🎯 Object-Oriented Programming
🧩 Programming Paradigms
🖥️ System Software (A Level)
🔐 Security & Encryption (A Level)
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
Question 1 of 10
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Key Concepts
🧠 Computational Thinking
Fundamental skills including abstraction, decomposition, and algorithmic thinking to produce solutions using various technologies and programming languages.
💻 Programming Paradigms
Different approaches to problem-solving including procedural, object-oriented, and declarative programming styles.
📡 Communication
Data transfer between devices and components, covering internal computer systems to internet video transfer.
🔧 Computer Architecture
Internal operation design, component organization, and how hardware functions with software.
📊 Data Representation
Binary interpretation, data organization for efficient access and transfer.
Assessment Structure
Paper 1: Theory Fundamentals (AS)
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Marks: 75
Weighting: 50% of AS Level, 25% of A Level
Content: Sections 1-8
Format: Written paper with short and extended answers testing knowledge and application
Paper 2: Problem-solving & Programming (AS)
Duration: 2 hours
Marks: 75
Weighting: 50% of AS Level, 25% of A Level
Content: Sections 9-12
Format: Written paper using pseudocode (not actual programming code)
Paper 3: Advanced Theory (A Level only)
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Marks: 75
Weighting: 25% of A Level
Content: Sections 13-20
Format: Written paper with short and extended answers
Paper 4: Practical (A Level only)
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
Marks: 75
Weighting: 25% of A Level
Content: Sections 19-20 (excluding low-level and declarative)
Format: Computer-based programming tasks in Java, Python, or Visual Basic
Note: No internet or email access during exam
Assessment Objectives
AO1: Knowledge & Understanding (30%)
AO2: Application & Analysis (30-40%)
AO3: Design, Program & Evaluate (30-40%)
Routes to Qualification
Route 1: AS Level only (Papers 1 & 2)
Route 2: Staged A Level (AS first, then Papers 3 & 4)
Route 3: Full A Level (All papers in one series)
Glossary of Key Terms
📝 Recent Changes & Updates
Stay up to date with the latest improvements and additions to this site.
🚀 New Extension Sheets
- New "Extension Sheets" tab in the A Level menu, next to the keyword sheets
- Sheets are optional and go beyond the 9618 syllabus, so they are not examined. Each one lists the syllabus section it builds on, is 2-3 pages long, and keeps the worked answers on a separate final page so you can try the questions first
- All worked examples (Hamming and Huffman codes, RSA, Diffie-Hellman, heaps, gradient descent, dynamic programming and more) were checked by calculation
- New Extension Sheets: optional stretch material for the strongest students, with one downloadable PDF for every AS and A Level topic (1-20)
- Each sheet takes the topic one step beyond the syllabus (for example Huffman and Hamming codes, RSA and Diffie-Hellman worked by hand, gradient descent, dynamic programming), then ends with three challenge questions and full worked answers
🎯 Quiz Mode Rebuilt & New Keyword Sheets
- Quiz question bank rewritten: every question now has an explanation, wrong answers are more realistic, answer positions are balanced and duplicates are gone
- Quiz topics now follow the 9618 syllabus: added Programming Paradigms, System Software (A Level), Security & Encryption (A Level) and Artificial Intelligence, and removed the off-specification Software Engineering topic
- "All Topics" now only draws from A Level topics, and the IGCSE page has its own question set for each of its 10 topics
- The IGCSE page now has its own Quiz Mode with topic selection, scores by topic and a "retry the ones I got wrong" option
- Quiz accessibility: answer with keys 1-4 or A-D and press Enter for the next question, visible keyboard focus, screen-reader announcements for feedback, and a "See Results" button on the last question
- Keyword sheets and quiz questions checked against the official 0984 and 9618 syllabuses: out-of-syllabus items removed (e.g. functional programming at A Level, multi-table databases at IGCSE) and missing syllabus points added (e.g. IGCSE network hardware, A Level thin/thick clients and CSMA/CD)
- IGCSE textbook: added the missing Network Hardware pages (NIC and MAC addresses, IP addresses, the role of a router), File Handling pages (why store data in files, and opening, closing, reading and writing) and a page on creating maintainable programs
- IGCSE Databases: trimmed to the single-table syllabus. The "Primary and foreign keys" page is now "Primary keys", the "Database relationships" page was removed, and the foreign key and relational database glossary entries were removed
- IGCSE SQL pages rewritten to the 0984 syllabus: SELECT, FROM, WHERE, ORDER BY ASC/DESC, SUM, COUNT, AND and OR, with "complete the script" and "work out the output" practice. BETWEEN, LIKE, IN, AVG, MAX, MIN and subqueries were removed
- A Level topic 20: removed the Functional Programming page and references to it, because it is not in the 2026 syllabus (the paradigms are low-level, imperative, object-oriented and declarative)
- Corrected the IGCSE assessment notes: coding answers in Paper 2 must be written in pseudocode (programming languages are only allowed in the 15-mark scenario question), and the language is Visual Basic
- New Keyword Sheets: a downloadable PDF of key terms and definitions for every AS and A Level topic (1-20), with a tick column for self-testing
- New EAL Keyword Sheets: simpler meanings, example sentences and a space to write each word in your own language. IGCSE versions are on the IGCSE page
🛠️ Pseudocode Compiler: Smarter Error Messages & Fixes
- Errors now work like a real compiler: every syntax and type error in your program is listed at once, each with the line and column, the offending line of code underlined with a caret, and a hint on how to fix it
- "Did you mean…?" suggestions for mistyped keywords, variable names and data types (e.g.
OUTPT→OUTPUT,Totl→Total) - Clearer messages for common slips:
=used instead of<-, missingTHEN/DO, unclosed IF/WHILE/FOR/CASE blocks, mismatchedNEXT, and unfinished strings - New checks: calling procedures or functions that don't exist, wrong argument counts or types,
RETURNin the wrong place, array indexes out of bounds, duplicate CASE values and division by zero - Several variables of the same type can now be declared on one line, e.g.
DECLARE a, b, c : INTEGER - Procedures can now use variables declared later in the program, and BYREF output parameters no longer trigger a false "used before assignment" error
- Fixed the code editor showing "ghost" text that was out of step with your code, and fixed
OTHERWISEin a CASE statement auto-indenting incorrectly - Fixed negative values such as
-1 :in CASE branches and negative CONSTANT values not being accepted
⚙️ New Feature: CIE 9618 Assembler
- Added an in-browser assembler for the 9618 assembly language instruction set: write a program, then run it or step through it one instruction at a time
- Supports immediate, direct, indirect and indexed addressing, input and output, comparisons and conditional jumps, bitwise AND/OR/XOR and logical shifts
- Memory, Trace and Reference tabs show what the machine is doing and list every instruction with its syntax
- Built-in examples include adding two numbers, counting loops, multiplication by repeated addition, summing an array, pointers and shifts
- Undo/redo, and save and open your programs as files
- Linked from the Overview page and the sidebar
📗 A Level Content Aligned to the 2026 CIE 9618 Specification
- Corrected topics 17, 19 and 20 to match the current official syllabus structure — the previous content was based on an older specification
- Topic 16 (System Software): added the missing OS process management content (multi-tasking, process states, scheduling algorithms) and grammar/BNF/Reverse Polish Notation coverage
- Topic 17 (Security): removed off-specification malware content, added Quantum Cryptography and expanded SSL/TLS coverage
- Topic 18 (AI): added the missing Graphs, A* and Dijkstra's algorithm content
- Topic 19 (Computational Thinking and Problem-solving): renumbered to 19.1 Algorithms / 19.2 Recursion, and added linear/binary search, insertion/bubble sort, Big O notation, and a Dictionary ADT page — none of which existed on the site before
- Topic 20 (Further Programming): removed the redundant Software Development Lifecycle pages (already covered at AS level), added Low-level Programming (addressing modes) and a new File Processing and Exception Handling section
💻 New Feature: Pseudocode Compiler
- Added a full in-browser CIE pseudocode compiler and runner — write, run, and debug pseudocode directly on the site, no installation needed
- Includes a code editor with syntax highlighting, a console for program input/output, virtual file handling, and an IR code viewer
- Comes with built-in examples covering IF/CASE, loops, arrays, procedures & functions, string handling, sorting, file handling, and user-defined types
- Linked from the Overview page, the sidebar, and the relevant Programming topic pages in both AS and A Level content
🎥 New Feature: Video Course
- Added a dedicated Videos tab with all 30 "Pass CS" YouTube lessons, organised by AS Level topic (1–12) plus an introduction video
- Videos play in an embedded pop-up viewer, matching the existing PDF course notes viewer
- Fixed an accordion bug that could clip the last item inside any expandable topic card
- Fixed a YouTube "configuration error" by correctly passing the page origin to the embedded video player
📘 New Site: GCSE Computer Science (0984) Explorer
- Launched a companion explorer covering all 10 topics of the Cambridge IGCSE Computer Science 0984 syllabus
- Added a dedicated GCSE glossary with 180+ terms
- Built using the same interactive textbook-style page format as the A Level explorer
📗 A Level Content Rebuilt as Interactive Textbook
- Converted A Level topics 13–20 (Further Programming & OOP, Computational Thinking, Security and more) from static bullet lists into a paginated, searchable textbook format with course-note links
- Brought the remaining AS Level topics (8–12: Databases through Software Development) in line with the same format
- Refreshed and reorganised the quiz question bank
🏠 Homepage Redesign & New Quiz Game
- Redesigned the homepage with GCSE / A Level choice cards
- Added "Code Breaker Academy" — a gamified quiz mode with levels and streaks
- Linked the new quiz game from the homepage as a "Side Quest"
✨ Major Update: Expanded Glossary
- Expanded 28 glossary terms with comprehensive definitions
- All short definitions now include detailed explanations, examples, and context
- Improved consistency across all glossary entries
🎴 New Feature: Flashcard Mode
- Added interactive flashcard mode for glossary terms
- Includes shuffle and navigation controls
- Perfect for active learning and revision
🧮 New Interactive Tools
- Added a Quiz Question Editor for maintaining the question bank
- Added standalone interactive simulators: Binary Adder, Two's Complement Converter, Number System Counter (binary/denary/hex), and Binary Arithmetic & Overflow Simulator
- Consolidated glossary data into a single merged glossary file (330+ terms)
📚 Initial Release
- Complete Cambridge CS 9618 syllabus coverage
- Interactive topic explorer with expandable sections
- Comprehensive glossary with 200+ terms
- Search functionality across all content
- Assessment information and guidelines