The Create performance task

What you submit

• Your program code, as one PDF. Comments are allowed here, and code you did not write yourself (from a classmate, a website or an AI tool) must be credited in a comment.
• A video of the program running: at most 1 minute and 30 MB, showing input, at least one feature, and the output. No voice narration (captions are fine) and nothing that identifies you.
• A Personalized Project Reference: screenshots of your procedure (where it is defined and where it is called) and of your list (where data goes into it and where it is used). No comments at all, and text large enough to read.

All three are marked final in the digital portfolio by 30 April at 11:59 pm Eastern time. You also need to sit the exam: a task submitted without the exam gets no score.

What the program needs

1. Input: typed by the user, from a file, a device or another program.
2. A list, or another collection such as a dictionary, that stores data the program then uses, and that makes the program simpler to write or change.
3. A procedure you wrote, with at least one parameter that changes what it does. The main program and event handlers do not count.
4. An algorithm inside that procedure that uses sequencing, selection (an if) and iteration (a loop).
5. A call to that procedure.
6. Output based on the input and on what the program did with it.

A list with one element, a list that is never used, or an if or loop that changes nothing earns no credit.

Check your program

Paste your Python program to see which of the six parts it has, with line numbers. Your code stays in your browser.

On exam day

The written-response section asks two questions, in four parts, about your own program. You get a printed copy of your Personalized Project Reference, so the screenshots in it are what you will be looking at. The parts ask about:

• the program's design, purpose and how a user interacts with it;
• how your algorithm works and how a change to it would change the result;
• errors and testing: what a call does, and how a different input would behave;
• how your list and your procedure manage complexity, and what the program would look like without them.

Working with others and with AI

• The program code may be written with a partner or a group. The video and the Personalized Project Reference must be your own work.
• AI tools are allowed as a resource, for understanding ideas, writing code and debugging, the same way help from a classmate is. Credit any code they wrote, and make sure you can explain every line: the written responses ask about it.
• Code from anyone or anything else that is not credited counts as plagiarism and scores zero for the whole task.

Class time and teachers

Schools give at least 9 hours of class time to the task. Teachers can explain the rules, help with technical problems and run practice tasks beforehand. They cannot choose your topic, write, fix or test your code, or comment on your work until all three parts are final.

A plan for three weeks of class: in week one, pick an idea and build the procedure and the list; in week two, finish, test with ordinary and edge-case inputs, and credit any borrowed code; in week three, record the video, make the reference, and practise explaining your code aloud.