These are original Marlbridge practice questions, not past exam questions. All scenarios are fictional. The rubrics are a suggested Marlbridge rubric to help you check your work; they are not an official scoring guideline. No calculator is needed.
Question 1 (multiple choice · foundation)
A fictional team of five students builds a language-learning app. Which action best reflects collaboration that incorporates multiple perspectives?
- (A) Each member builds a separate version, and the team picks the version with the fewest lines of code.
- (B) The team interviews learners of different ages and backgrounds, and revises the design using what they hear.
- (C) The team asks its most experienced programmer to make all design decisions.
- (D) The team releases the app and waits for users to find the problems.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Consulting a range of potential users brings in perspectives the team may lack, and revising the design in response is collaboration with users.
- (A) compares lines of code, which says nothing about perspectives or users.
- (C) relies on a single viewpoint, which is the opposite of multiple perspectives.
- (D) skips consultation and treats users as testers after release.
Question 2 (multiple choice · foundation)
Which statement about pair programming is accurate?
- (A) One person writes all the code while the other waits until the program is finished.
- (B) Two people work together at one computer, with one writing code and the other reviewing it, and they swap roles.
- (C) Two people each write half of the program separately and combine them at the end.
- (D) It only works when both programmers have the same level of experience.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Pair programming is a shared, real-time way of working in which the driver and navigator regularly swap.
- (A) misses the reviewing role of the navigator and the swapping.
- (C) describes dividing the work, not working together on the same code.
- (D) is false: pairs with different experience often learn from each other.
Question 3 (multiple choice, select two · core)
A fictional school team builds a lost-property app. Which two of the following are examples of collaboration with potential users?
- (A) Running a short survey with students and teachers about what they lose most often
- (B) Choosing the app colours by majority vote of the team members
- (C) Watching five students try a paper sketch of the app and noting where they hesitate
- (D) Splitting the coding between two team members
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A) and (C). Both gather input from people who will use the app: one by survey, one by direct observation of a prototype.
- (B) is a decision inside the team, not input from users.
- (D) is team organisation, not user consultation.
Question 4 (multiple choice · core)
A fictional fitness-tracking team consists of four developers who are all young adults in good health. Their app asks users to set a goal of 10,000 steps per day and cannot be changed. Which is the most likely problem, and the best remedy?
- (A) The app will run slowly; the team should add more developers.
- (B) The goal may not suit users with different abilities or ages; the team should consult a wider range of users and make the goal adjustable.
- (C) The app has a syntax error; the team should use pair programming.
- (D) The goal is too low; the team should raise it to 20,000 steps.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). The team’s own experience led them to assume one goal fits everyone. Consulting varied users would reveal different needs.
- (A) confuses a design assumption with speed.
- (C) a fixed goal is a design decision, not a syntax error.
- (D) changes the number but keeps the same single-perspective assumption.
Question 5 (multiple choice · core)
Two team members disagree about which feature to build first. They list the program’s purpose, look at the survey results together and agree to build the feature that more survey respondents asked for. Which skills are most clearly shown?
- (A) Consensus building and conflict resolution
- (B) Encryption and authentication
- (C) Debugging and testing
- (D) Compression and sampling
Answer and explanation
Answer: (A). They settled a disagreement (conflict resolution) by working toward a decision both could accept, based on shared evidence (consensus building).
- (B), (C), and (D) name real computing ideas, but none describe how the two people worked through a disagreement.
Question 6 (multiple choice · stretch)
A fictional company assigns two groups to design a navigation app for people who walk. Group X has members from many age groups, including a wheelchair user, and interviews pedestrians. Group Y has four members of the same age and tests only with its own members. Which conclusion is best supported?
- (A) Group X’s app will certainly contain no bias.
- (B) Group X is more likely to notice barriers such as steps or steep slopes, but it should still test its app with real users.
- (C) Group Y’s app will be faster because there are no disagreements.
- (D) Both apps will be equally good because both groups have four members.
Answer and explanation
Answer: (B). Wider perspectives raise the chance of noticing problems; testing remains necessary.
- (A) overclaims: diversity improves odds but gives no guarantee.
- (C) assumes speed is the measure and that fewer disagreements is better; neither is supported.
- (D) team size is not what matters; the range of perspectives is.
Question 7 (constructed response · core)
A fictional team of students is building a website that lists volunteering opportunities for teenagers in their area. All five students attend the same school and are all active in student council.
(a) Describe one perspective the team might be missing and explain a problem it could cause. (2 points)
(b) Describe one way the team could gather that perspective and explain how it would improve the website. (2 points)
Answer and explanation
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Award when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | names a specific missing perspective (for example, teenagers who are not in student council, who attend other schools, who have disabilities or who have limited transport) |
| 2 | links it to a concrete problem (for example, the site lists only opportunities near the school or ones that need transport) |
| 3 | describes a specific method (survey at other schools, interviews, testing a prototype with a youth group) |
| 4 | explains the improvement (for example, listing opportunities reachable by public transport) |
Sample response. (a) The team may be missing teenagers who have no easy transport. They might only list opportunities close to school or reachable by car, so those teenagers cannot use the site. (b) They could survey and interview teenagers in other neighbourhoods and at a youth centre. The answers would show where people live and how they travel, so the site could add a filter for places reachable by bus.
Alternative valid answers are accepted if they name a real perspective, a method and a link to improvement.
Question 8 (constructed response · core)
Explain two ways in which online tools can support a team that is developing a program, and say why each helps. (4 points)
Answer and explanation
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points: 2 per way).
| Point | Award when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1, 3 | names a type of tool or feature (shared document, comment thread, change tracking for code, chat, video meeting) |
| 2, 4 | explains the benefit (people can give feedback on the same document, the team can see who changed what, members who are in different places can still contribute) |
Sample response. A shared document lets all members edit the design plan at once, so everyone sees the latest version and can comment, which avoids confusion. A tool that tracks changes to code records who changed which line and when, so the team can find when a bug appeared and combine work from several people.
Do not award points for naming a product without explaining the benefit.
Question 9 (constructed response · stretch)
Two teammates, Chen and Dara, keep rewriting each other’s code without discussion. Their program now has parts that do not work together. Identify two interpersonal skills they should practise, and describe what each would look like in their next meeting. (4 points)
Answer and explanation
Suggested Marlbridge rubric (4 points).
| Point | Award when the response… |
|---|---|
| 1 | identifies communication (or another well-chosen skill) |
| 2 | describes a specific action (agree who owns which part, say what each plans to change before changing it, listen to the reason for a choice) |
| 3 | identifies a second skill (conflict resolution, negotiation or consensus building) |
| 4 | describes a specific action (discuss the difference in their approaches, compare them against the program’s requirements, and agree on one approach or a compromise) |
Sample response. Communication: at the start of the meeting each describes which part they will work on and why, so no one overwrites the other. Consensus building: they compare their two versions of the disputed function against the requirements and agree which to keep, taking the good parts of each.
How did you do?
Questions 1 to 6 check recall and judgement; 7 to 9 check written reasoning. If you missed 3 or 4, re-read “What diverse perspectives actually change” in the study guide. If a written answer lost points, check whether you named a specific perspective or skill and linked it to the situation. When ready, use the checklist.