AP Computer Science Principles (Updated Fall 2017) Check Availability

While Computer Science A is the fastest growing A.P. course, it doesn’t attract many girls or underrepresented minorities. So the College Board, at the urging of the National Science Foundation, has created a second course. Computer Science Principles is less coding heavy, more project-oriented and strives to be real-world relevant.

The course was introduced this school year with 2,600 teachers, the largest A.P. launch by far. Demographics from the 2015-16 pilot courses were promising: 16 percent of students were African-American (compared with 4 percent in Computer Science A), 18 percent were Hispanic (9 percent in C.S.A.) and 28 percent were girls (22 percent in C.S.A.).

Because teachers can choose the programming language of their choice, students taking the exam have access to a "quick reference" guide to commands. But we chose sample questions we thought even a coding virgin could answer.