AQA A-level Computer Science (7517): papers, NEA and grade boundaries

AQA A-level Computer Science assessment at a glance

The specification is AQA A-level Computer Science 7517. It is linear, so exams are sat at the end of the course. In Paper 1 you answer short questions and write, adapt or extend programs in an Electronic Answer Document. AQA issues Preliminary Material, a Skeleton Program in each supported language, and test data where appropriate, so you can study the program before the exam. The languages are C#, Java, Python and VB.NET.

What AQA A-level Computer Science covers

• Paper 1: fundamentals of programming, data structures, algorithms and theory of computation.
• Paper 2: data representation, computer systems, computer organisation and architecture, consequences of uses of computing, communication and networking, databases, big data, and functional programming.
• Non-exam assessment: a computing practical project that you plan, build, test and evaluate.

Worked examples in AQA style

Data representation: two's complement

Write −45 as an 8-bit two's complement number. Write 45 in binary, invert the bits and add 1:

Check the pattern: the leading 1 shows a negative number, and 11010011 = −128 + 64 + 16 + 2 + 1 = −45. Try it in the Two's Complement Calculator.

Algorithms: how many comparisons?

A binary search on a sorted list of 1000 items needs at most 10 comparisons, because 2⁹ = 512 is less than 1000 and 2¹⁰ = 1024 is more. A linear search could need 1000.

Programming: recursion

Trace this recursive function for factorial(4):

SUBROUTINE factorial(n)
  IF n = 0 THEN
    RETURN 1
  ELSE
    RETURN n * factorial(n - 1)
  ENDIF
ENDSUBROUTINE

The calls expand to 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 × 1, which is 24. The base case n = 0 stops the recursion. Practise counting the halvings of a binary search in our Search Algorithms course, then press Mark to check your answer in the course:

AQA A-level Computer Science grade boundaries

These are AQA's subject grade boundaries from its document "Grade boundaries, June 2026 exams: A-level", published on 13 August 2026. Each figure is the lowest total mark, out of 375 (two papers of 150 and the 75-mark project), that earns that grade. The boundaries are the same for every programming language.

Use the daily paper as a short timed mock

Uni-Sine publishes a free daily paper on theA-level Computer Sciencetrack. It is a short timed paper of 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks, not a full AQA paper, and it is not written by AQA. It covers number representation and floating point, regular expressions, processor architecture, recursion, data structures, graph traversal, databases and SQL, object-oriented programming, networking, compression and encryption, complexity, finite state machines, Boolean algebra and the theory of computation. It is a theory mock for Paper 2 and parts of Paper 1; write programs separately for the on-screen paper.

Common mistakes in AQA A-level Computer Science

• Studying the skeleton program too late. Know what each subroutine does before the exam.
• Forgetting the base case in recursion.
• Overflow in binary arithmetic. Say how many bits you have.

Exam answers

The answers and a worked mark scheme come with today's paper once it is marked. We do not publish official or past paper answers. Every question on the daily paper is our own.

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UK · A-levelAQA A-level Computer Science grade boundaries 2026AQA's official June 2026 A-level Computer Science (7517) grade boundaries, A* to E out of 375, compared with 2025, with a worked example.