The readiness bar

You are ready for dedicated AP CSA exam preparation when you can do all of the following WITHOUT looking anything up:

• Read: given unfamiliar code, say what each variable holds at each line, which method runs, and what is returned or printed.
• Write: given a prose spec, produce a compiling method that matches the signature and honors pre/postconditions.
• Debug: classify an error (compile/runtime/logical) and repair it at the cause.
• Design: decompose a small problem into classes with private fields, constructors, accessors, and behavior methods.
• Reason: state the iteration count and complexity class of a loop structure, and choose the right traversal.

The capstone challenge below touches all four units of the revised framework: objects and methods, selection and iteration, class creation, and data collections. Work it on paper first — the exam gives you a pencil, and the habit starts now.