AP Computer Science Summer Preview

The AP Computer Science course teaches important programming concepts related to Object-Oriented Design (OOD) principles in accordance with the AP Computer Science A specifications. Students may wish to take this course in order to develop essential programming skills, prepare for the APCS exam, or to prepare for a school course equivalent. This four-week course explores essential programming and code design topics including (but not limited to) elementary data structures, objects and OOD, inheritance and polymorphism, and rudimentary algorithms and algorithm analysis - the syllabus is outlined below. Students will learn and apply their skills using a hands-on coding approach in a friendly, close-knit, collaborative environment.

Requirements: basic exposure to any Object-Oriented programming language (C++, Java, etc.), algebra

Helpful but not required: fluency in any Object-Oriented programming language

Textbook (helpful but not required): TBD

Syllabus

Class Topic
1 Programming introduction:

  • Primitive data types
  • Binary representations
  • Boolean operations
  • Conditionals
  • Loops
2 Methods & recursion

Package handling

Javadocs
3 Objects:

  • Classes
  • Constructors
  • Object references
4 Arrays and ArrayLists
5 Inheritance & polymorphism
6 Introduction to algorithms:

  • Binary search
  • Sorting algorithms
  • Runtime analysis
7 Strings

Code design

Review

 

Class 8-10, practice  problems