Exam patterns and behaviour
What each paper looks like, which topics it leans on, and how much of it repeats. Built from the actual papers.
What the papers have in common
What the papers show
Counted from all 269 papers (MAD1: 132, MAD2: 137; 2022 to 2026) on the practice site:
- A Quiz is 50 marks and about 16 questions; an End Term is 100 marks and about 32 questions.
- Almost everything is MCQ (one right option) or MSQ (one or more right options, strict marking). Numeric answers (SA) are rare: under 3 percent of questions.
- About 8 in 10 questions contain a picture, and in most of them the picture is code or a terminal: a Flask file, a Jinja template, an SQLAlchemy model, an HTML page, a JavaScript snippet, a Vue component, a Celery config. Reading code and predicting what it does is the main skill.
- The rest are short concept questions: HTTP status codes, which statement is false, accessibility principles, character encoding, which tool does what.
How to prepare, in one page
- Learn to predict output. For every code idea in a lesson, cover the answer, say what the code prints, renders or returns, then check. This is the single most useful habit.
- Read the options for the trap. MSQ questions are marked strictly: one wrong tick loses the question. Check each option separately as true or false.
- Keep the fundamentals warm. HTTP, HTML, CSS, SQL and JavaScript basics appear in every exam, including the later quizzes and the End Term.
- Practise with real questions. Each lesson ends with a link to real questions for that week, with the original screenshots and the answer key. Use the text under a picture (the "copyable" text) to run the code on your computer.
- Rehearse the viva ideas. The same understanding that answers MSQ traps also answers the viva "why" questions. Use the viva prep section.
Tip
Which weeks does each exam cover? The official course pages do not say. Judging by the topics in the papers: Quiz 1 is mostly weeks 1 to 4, Quiz 2 mostly weeks 5 to 8, and the End Term all twelve weeks, but Quiz 2 papers still ask HTTP, HTML and SQL, and the End Term leans on the early weeks heavily. Treat the week ranges as a guide, not a promise.