Cambridge A Level Computer Science

Syllabus 9618 · 2026 · sourced from Cambridge Assessment International Education — official syllabus PDF, verified 2026-08-19.

1. 1. Information representation (AS)

   • 1.1 Data Representation
   • 1.2 Multimedia – Graphics, Sound
   • 1.3 Compression

2. 2. Communication (AS)

   • 2.1 Networks including the internet

3. 3. Hardware (AS)

   • 3.1 Computers and their components
   • 3.2 Logic Gates and Logic Circuits

4. 4. Processor Fundamentals (AS)

   • 4.1 Central Processing Unit (CPU) Architecture
   • 4.2 Assembly Language
   • 4.3 Bit manipulation

5. 5. System Software (AS)

   • 5.1 Operating Systems
   • 5.2 Language Translators

6. 6. Security, privacy and data integrity (AS)

   • 6.1 Data Security
   • 6.2 Data Integrity

7. 7. Ethics and Ownership (AS)

   • 7.1 Ethics and Ownership

8. 8. Databases (AS)

   • 8.1 Database Concepts
   • 8.2 Database Management Systems (DBMS)
   • 8.3 Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML)

9. 9. Algorithm Design and Problem-solving (AS)

   • 9.1 Computational Thinking Skills
   • 9.2 Algorithms

10. 10. Data Types and Structures (AS)

    • 10.1 Data Types and Records
    • 10.2 Arrays
    • 10.3 Files
    • 10.4 Introduction to Abstract Data Types (ADT)

11. 11. Programming (AS)

    • 11.1 Programming Basics
    • 11.2 Constructs
    • 11.3 Structured Programming

12. 12. Software Development (AS)

    • 12.1 Program Development Life cycle
    • 12.2 Program Design
    • 12.3 Program Testing and Maintenance

13. 13. Data Representation (A)

    • 13.1 User-defined data types
    • 13.2 File organisation and access
    • 13.3 Floating-point numbers, representation and manipulation

14. 14. Communication and internet technologies (A)

    • 14.1 Protocols
    • 14.2 Circuit switching, packet switching

15. 15. Hardware and Virtual Machines (A)

    • 15.1 Processors, Parallel Processing and Virtual Machines
    • 15.2 Boolean Algebra and Logic Circuits

16. 16. System Software (A)

    • 16.1 Purposes of an Operating System (OS)
    • 16.2 Translation Software

17. 17. Security (A)

    • 17.1 Encryption, Encryption Protocols and Digital certificates

18. 18. Artificial Intelligence (AI) (A)

    • 18.1 Artificial Intelligence

19. 19. Computational thinking and Problem-solving (A)

    • 19.1 Algorithms
    • 19.2 Recursion

20. 20. Further Programming (A)

    • 20.1 Programming Paradigms
    • 20.2 File Processing and Exception Handling