CAIE 0478 & 9618 Exam Conventions

1. Pseudocode in Examined Components

Cambridge pseudocode formatting conventions: font, indentation, uppercase keywords, line numbering, comments, and BNF notation for CAIE CS exams.

The following conventions describe how pseudocode appears in Cambridge examination papers (IGCSE 0478 and AS & A Level 9618).

Font & Indentation

Pseudocode is presented in a monospaced font (e.g. Courier New). Lines are indented by three spaces to indicate nesting within a containing statement.

Case Convention

Keywords are in UPPER CASE (e.g. IF, REPEAT, PROCEDURE). Identifiers use mixed case / camelCase (e.g. NumberOfPlayers). Meta-variables are enclosed in angle brackets < >.

Line Numbering

When lines are numbered, numbers appear to the left and are consecutive. Skipped numbers indicate missing code. Continuation lines are not numbered.

Comments

Comments are preceded by // and continue to the end of the line. Multi-line comments use // on each line. Comments normally appear on a separate line before the code they describe.

PSEUDOCODE Run in Sandbox

// runnable
// SWAP Procedure Example
// this procedure swaps
// values of X and Y
PROCEDURE SWAP(BYREF X : INTEGER, BYREF Y : INTEGER)
   DECLARE Temp : INTEGER
   Temp <- X    // temporarily store X
   X <- Y
   Y <- Temp
ENDPROCEDURE
DECLARE First, Second : INTEGER
First <- 4
Second <- 9
CALL SWAP(First, Second)
OUTPUT First, ", ", Second