AP Computer Science Principles Tutoring for the May Exam
AP Computer Science Principles looks gentle, but part of the score depends on a program the student builds during the year and must then explain on exam day from screen captures of their own code. The multiple-choice section adds College Board’s own pseudocode, data, networks and the social impact of computing, which programming practice alone does not cover.
Short answer
AP Computer Science Principles is offered online, one-to-one or in a group class.
A private lesson runs 90 minutes and starts at USD 65 per lesson; the group course runs 50 lessons of 90 minutes for USD 1,755, and a class never takes more than 6 students.
No group class runs for this exam.
From USD 65 per lesson
- 2 scored components, from AP Central
- Live online lessons of 90 minutes
- From USD 65 per lesson
How AP Computer Science Principles is assessed
Set and scored by College Board and reported on the 1–5 AP scale. Each university sets its own rule on which scores earn credit or placement. Component names are as College Board prints them.
College Board
AP Computer Science Principles · AP Central exam page
| Component | Share of score | Length | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section I: End-of-Course Multiple-Choice Exam | 70% | 2 hours | 70 questions in 2 hours, each with 4 answer options: 57 single-select questions, 5 single-select questions on a reading passage about a computing innovation, and 8 multiple-select questions where you choose 2 answers. The exam reference sheet is provided in Bluebook, and calculators are not allowed. |
| Section II: Create Performance Task and Written Response | 30% | 1 hour | Over the year you get 9 hours of class time to write a program of your choice, record a video of it running and build a Personalized Project Reference, all submitted as final in the AP Digital Portfolio by 30 April 2027. On exam day, 2 written-response questions (4 prompts, 60 minutes) ask about the code in your Personalized Project Reference, which you can see while you answer. |
- The whole exam is taken in College Board’s Bluebook app.
- 2027 exam date: 14 May 2027.
Checked on 8 October 2026
College Board revises individual exams between years. The exam page linked above is the authority for your sitting.
The AP Computer Science Principles syllabus
Topic names are left in English, as they appear on the paper and in the mark scheme.
Big Idea 1: Creative Development (10–13%)
Collaboration · Program design and development
Big Idea 2: Data (17–22%)
Data compression · Extracting information from data
Big Idea 3: Algorithms and Programming (30–35%)
Developing algorithms · Simulations · Algorithmic efficiency
Big Idea 4: Computer Systems and Networks (11–15%)
The Internet · Parallel and distributed computing
Big Idea 5: Impact of Computing (21–26%)
The digital divide · Computing bias · Safe computing
Where AP Computer Science Principles marks are usually lost
Comments left in the Personalized Project Reference
The Personalized Project Reference holds screen captures of the student’s own code, and it must contain no comments and no course content. College Board’s rule is strict: including them results in a score of zero for the whole Create performance task, written responses included. Students who annotate their code during development must strip those annotations from the reference and check that every capture is legible before submitting it as final.
Counting list positions from zero
Exam questions use College Board’s pseudocode, in text and block form, and in it the first element of a list is at index one. Students who learned Python or JavaScript, where lists start at zero, misread loops and list operations by one place and pick plausible wrong answers. The exam reference sheet is provided in Bluebook, but the time to learn its conventions is before the exam, not during it.
Written responses about a program you only half wrote
The exam-day written-response prompts ask about the student’s program: its design and purpose, an algorithm in it, how it was tested, and how its list and procedure manage complexity. Students who built the program mainly from a partner’s code or from generative AI find they cannot explain it in detail. College Board allows AI as a supplementary tool, but the student must understand any code it helped write.
AP Computer Science Principles coursework
The Create performance task is completed during the year, in class time the school sets aside. The student writes a program of their choice, possibly with a partner, then works alone on a short video of it running and on the Personalized Project Reference. All three parts are submitted as final through the AP Digital Portfolio by the end of April 2027, and the reference is on screen during the exam-day written responses. Once the official task begins, only a partner may help write, debug or revise the program, so a tutor prepares the student beforehand with practice programs and works on the student’s own code only after final submission.
A tutor can explain the criteria, question a draft and point to what is weak. The research, the writing and every decision in it stay the student’s own, as the awarding body’s rules require.
How we teach AP Computer Science Principles
A tutor works on two tracks through the year. The first is the Create performance task, prepared before the official task begins: small practice programs that each include a list, a procedure with a parameter, selection and iteration, and clear input and output, so the student learns what a manageable scope looks like and how to explain each part in writing. Timed written responses on the student’s own code come after final submission, since College Board allows no outside help with the real task before then. The second track is the multiple-choice section: reading College Board’s pseudocode fluently, tracing algorithms, and the content on data, the internet, safe computing and the impact of computing that programming practice does not reach. Short sets of questions, including the multiple-select kind, keep every big idea current.
There is no separate diagnostic, because there is no single test that stands in for two years of a school syllabus. The first lesson is the assessment: the tutor works through your recent marked work, past-paper questions from your own specification, and the units your school has already covered, and reads current level, gaps, exam technique and where school work stands. It is a normal paid lesson and it teaches as it assesses.
Related subjects and pages
AP Computer Science A
AP Computer Science A tutoring in Java, live online: hand-tracing code, ArrayList and 2D arrays, classes, and free-response code typed in Bluebook.
AP Cybersecurity
AP Cybersecurity tutoring online ahead of the first exam in May 2027: reading logs and network evidence, firewall rules, file permissions, risk analysis.
AP Statistics
AP Statistics tutoring online for the revised 2026-27 course: investigative questions, study design, inference in context and typed answers in Bluebook.
AP Tutoring
Online AP tutoring for the May 2027 exams: calculus, sciences, economics, history, English and more, for American-curriculum students across Africa.
AP prices
AP tutoring from USD 65 per 90-minute lesson. Compare lesson packages, group courses and self-study products.
AP Computer Science Principles: reviews from our students
Students and parents who prepared with us write these reviews themselves. We check each one before publishing it and never change its words or its star rating.
Nobody has reviewed this programme here yet. If you prepared with us, tell other students across Africa how it went.
Frequently asked questions
Short, direct answers. If yours is not here, ask us.
Talk to us about AP Computer Science Principles
Tell us your board or level, your predicted grade and when you sit it. We will tell you honestly whether you need a tutor, and which one.