HKDSE ICT 2024 Python Questions — Full Analysis

Paper Overview

The 2024 ICT Paper 1 continued the trend of heavier Python content, with over 55% of programming marks drawn from Python questions. Topics concentrated on lists, functions, and file handling.

Paper 1A — Key Python Questions

Q6: Tracing a nested loop

for i in range(3):
    for j in range(i+1):
        print("*", end="")
    print()

Expected output: a right-triangle of stars. Many candidates misread range(i+1) as range(i) and produced an off-by-one error.

Q9: Counting characters

def count_vowels(s):
    return sum(1 for ch in s.lower() if ch in "aeiou")

Paper 1B — Scenario

Students built a simple "school canteen" ordering system: a menu dictionary, a list of orders, and a totals function. Full marks required handling out-of-stock items and formatting the bill to two decimal places.

Sample solution

MENU = {"rice": 18.0, "noodles": 22.5, "soup": 15.0}

def total(orders):
    return sum(MENU[item] * qty for item, qty in orders.items() if item in MENU)

Lessons Learned

• Format output exactly — f"${x:.2f}" was worth 1 mark.
• Handle edge cases — missing items, zero quantities.
• Use dictionaries for look-ups rather than long if/elif chains.