CAPE Computer Science Syllabus 2026

Students will state the purpose of main computer components, including I/O devices, memory, storage, power protection, and different computer types.

Students will describe the fundamental digital logic components including truth tables, logic gates, flip-flops, registers, counters, and adders.

Students will interpret how logic gates, flip-flops, and registers interact to form more complex digital circuits within a computer.

Students will explain how data, including fixed, floating-point numbers, and characters, is represented in binary format using various number bases.

Students will describe the CPU's main characteristics, its components, instruction formats, the fetch-decode-execute cycle, and advanced features.

Define fundamental terms like problem-solving, problem, solution, algorithm, and program, understanding their interrelations.

Explore top-down, bottom-up, and step-wise refinement methods for solving problems, using hierarchy charts for representation.

Describe each stage of the problem-solving process, from definition and analysis to solution selection, implementation, and review.

Identify the essential characteristics of effective algorithms, such as generality, clarity, finite steps, and controlled flow.

Learn various methods for representing algorithms, including narrative descriptions, flowcharts, and pseudocode.

This chapter introduces the fundamental characteristics of procedural, object-oriented, functional, and declarative programming paradigms.

Explore the roles of assemblers, compilers, virtual machines, and interpreters in executing high-level languages, detailing the stages of program translation.

Declare variables with appropriate names and types, assign values, and perform input/output operations for data handling and formatted display.

Implement conditional statements like if-else and case, and iterative loops such as for and while, to control program flow.

Understand how to declare, read, modify, and output data from arrays, including character arrays for string manipulation.

Apply structured decomposition to break down programs into smaller, clear, and orthogonal functions for better organization.

Introduce the fundamental characteristics and classifications of abstract data types (ADTs), including common examples like stacks and queues.

Distinguish among common abstract data types such as stacks, queues, circular queues, and singly linked lists, and explain their core operations.

Learn how to programmatically implement basic abstract data types such as stacks, queues, and circular queues using one-dimensional arrays.

Implement and understand common sorting algorithms like selection sort and bubble sort, and searching algorithms such as linear and binary search using arrays.