AQA 8525 3.2.8: String handling operations in a programming language
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
- F3.1 String handling Strings, lists and records
Length, indexing, slicing, searching and joining strings, and f-strings. - F3.2 Character codes and conversion Strings, lists and records
ord and chr, ASCII, comparing strings, and a Caesar cipher.
Try it on a robot
The task from F3.1 String handling, 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 8: Trace a loop that compares two binary strings with OR, NOT and AND 6 marks
- AQA 8525 June 2025 Paper 1, Question 11: Trace findLetter, then write the word game that calls it 14 marks
- AQA 8525 June 2024 Paper 1, Question 1: LEN, POSITION, a data type, assignment, and a two line program 6 marks
- AQA 8525 June 2024 Paper 1, Question 7: Build a stock code with string indexing and concatenation 4 marks
- AQA 8525 June 2023 Paper 1, Question 13: Validate a grid reference until it is correct 6 marks
- AQA 8525 June 2022 Paper 1, Question 3: Rewrite two lines: concatenate strings, change a calculation 2 marks
- AQA 8525 June 2022 Paper 1, Question 9: String indexing, LEN and SUBSTRING 5 marks
- AQA 8525 Sample Paper 1, Question 8: Output LOWER or NOT LOWER for a character 7 marks
- OCR J277 June 2025 Paper 2, Question 5(d): Validate a 4 character PIN that must not be 1234 or 4321 6 marks
- OCR J277 June 2024 Paper 2, Question 6: String methods: upper, left, right with a cast, and concatenation 6 marks
- OCR J277 June 2023 Paper 2, Question 6(c): Find the concatenation, a variable, a function call and the constructs 6 marks
- OCR J277 Sample Paper 2, Question 4: Usernames from a flowchart, then an algorithm for teachers and students 8 marks
The specification is AQA's own document; this page says which of our lessons teach point 3.2.8 and is not endorsed by the board.