AQA 8525 3.1.4: Sorting algorithms
The free BugBot lessons that teach this point, a robot to try it on, and the past-paper questions that test it.
Lessons that teach it
- F5.7 Bubble sort Algorithms
Passes and swaps, stopping early, and hearing a tune become a scale. - F5.8 Insertion sort Algorithms
Building a sorted part one item at a time, on the robot's readings.
Try it on a robot
The task from F5.7 Bubble sort, running here. Change the program and press Run.
Past paper questions on this
Real exam questions that test this, each worked through with a program you can run.
- AQA 8525 June 2025 Paper 1, Question 6: Show a bubble sort and a merge, compare them, and justify a binary search 10 marks
- AQA 8525 June 2022 Paper 1, Question 12: Trace a bubble sort on three items 8 marks
- AQA 8525 Sample Paper 1, Question 7: A bubble sort with a swapsMade flag: data type, identifiers, and a trace table 10 marks
- OCR J277 June 2023 Paper 2, Question 3: Insertion sort: temp, the inner loop, and bubble sort compared 8 marks
- OCR J277 Sample Paper 2, Question 6: Show a bubble sort on words and a binary search for zebra 8 marks
- Edexcel 1CP2 June 2025 Paper 1, Question 5(d), (e): Computational thinking: best and worst cases, and a binary search table for a missing value 10 marks
The specification is AQA's own document; this page says which of our lessons teach point 3.1.4 and is not endorsed by the board.