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Can you think of an algorithm for walking around the outside of a square?

Algorithms - Introduction

This Computer Science quiz is called 'Algorithms - Introduction' and it has been written by teachers to help you if you are studying the subject at elementary school. Playing educational quizzes is an enjoyable way to learn if you are in the 3rd, 4th or 5th grade - aged 8 to 11.

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Computers are machines. They use electricity to make decisions. Computers have to be designed and built. Then when they are built, they have to be told what to do. That’s where algorithms come in. Algorithm is a hard word to say, and a hard word to spell! The definition of an algorithm is a list of steps to solve a problem or to get something done.

1 .

Algorithms help us to solve problems or get things done. Algorithms are a list of _____.

Steps

Numbers

Codes

Letters

Codes come later

2 .

Which one of these spellings is correct?

Algorhythm

Algaerithm

Algorithm

Algarhythm

It’s not easy! Try writing it out

3 .

Computers need algorithms to work. They need to be told the steps to make things happen.

An algorithm is like a list of instructions. But it’s not just computers that need instructions. We do, too.

Which one of these everyday examples is an algorithm?

A cake recipe

Loud music

Bright colors

A poem

The recipe is a list of instructions to make the cake

4 .

There is a big red square painted on the school playground. Mrs Smith is a teacher. She takes her class out to the playground. Mrs Smith gives instructions about how to walk once round the big red square.

Mrs Smith asks Alice to stand at one corner of the big red square. Mrs Smith tells Alice to walk to the next corner of the square. She then tells Alice to turn right.

What is Mrs Smith’s next instruction to Alice?

Walk backwards

Turn right

Turn left

Walk to the next corner

Can you write down an algorithm for walking once round the big red square?

5 .

How do you write an algorithm?

As a story

One step at a time

As a poem

In any order

It’s really good to write stories and poems, but it’s also good to be able to write algorithms

6 .

Which one of these is an algorithm?

Telling a robot how to walk once round a square

Giving a robot a name

Watching a robot

Listening to a robot

This algorithm is just like the one with the big red square

7 .

Computers can be told how to do sums. Which one of these is a sum?

Coloring a picture

Adding up tens and units

Writing a story

Running round the playground

Computers can be told how to add up, take away, multiply, and divide

8 .

Luke writes an algorithm just for brushing his teeth. Which one of these steps does he write down first?

Spit out

Rinse with cold water

Brush teeth

Open toothpaste

Luke needs to open the tube of toothpaste before he can put some on his brush

9 .

Connor is writing down a simple algorithm. He writes down all the steps. The steps must be:

Backwards

In the wrong order

All jumbled up

In the right order

If the steps are in the wrong order, the algorithm will not work

10 .

Luke thinks about getting up in a morning. He writes an algorithm. Luke writes down the steps, one by one.

The first step he writes down is: ‘Wake up’. What is the next step?

Brush teeth

Put on clothes

Have shower

Get out of bed

All the steps in an algorithm have to be in the right order

Author: David Bland