What is on the
AP Computer Science A exam?

The multiple-choice section, unit by unit

42 questions in 90 minutes.

The shape of it

Forty-two questions in ninety minutes, which is the most generous clock of any AP we sell. Data Collections and Selection and Iteration together are two thirds of the section.

What this covers, and what it does not

No AP exam is entirely multiple choice, and AP Computer Science A is no exception. The multiple-choice section is 55% of your total score. The rest is four free-response coding questions in 90 minutes: methods and control structures, class design, array and ArrayList work, and 2D arrays.

Our practice exam is the multiple-choice section only. Code you write by hand needs a human reader; forty-two questions about what a loop does can be marked exactly, and each wrong option can be told back to you as the tracing slip it was. We would rather say that plainly than sell you something described as a full AP Computer Science A exam that is not one.

What actually moves the score

Most wrong answers here are not misunderstandings, they are tracing errors. The fix is to write the value of each variable down the margin as you read a loop, every time, until you stop needing to.

Two exams, calibrated against each other

There are two forms of this exam and they share no questions, so the second one measures whether the tracing habit stuck rather than whether you memorized an output. Both unlock together for five credits. Every wrong option carries its own explanation saying what the student who picked it was probably thinking.