CSE/CIS Placement Exam

CSE 2221 Placement Test

Passing the CSE 2221 placement test is an alternative for taking one of the prerequisite programming classes (CSE 1222 or 1223). Students will not be awarded credit for any entry level course by passing but are eligible to register for CSE 2221 assuming they meet the other prerequisites. Students who have credit for or are planning on taking CSE 1222 or 1223 should not take the placement test. It is intended for students who believe they already know how to program reasonably well.

Topics

• Variables, types, expressions, and assignment statements
• Fundamental or built-in types for working with integer-, real-, Boolean-, character-, and text-string-valued data
• Simple input from a keyboard or a file, and simple output to a monitor or a file
• Conditional control structures such as "if" and "if-else"
• Iterative control structures such as "while"

Programming Language

Students are asked to write, as a paper-and-pencil exercise, short programs or program segments. Students may write their answers using any programming language they know well. However, experience shows that students who know only the BASIC programming language, or its visual variants, often are not well prepared for the CSE Placement Exam.

Sample Question

Write a program, in a programming language of your choice, that repeatedly prompts a user to input a positive integer value. At any point, if the user enters 0 or a negative integer value, then the program should print the minimum of all of the positive integer values entered by the user, and then terminate execution. For example, if a user enters the values 4 13 8 11 2 66 5 0, then the program should report that the smallest of the positive values entered is 2. Program output should include appropriate user-friendly headings.

Test Registration

Please schedule your exam through the Testing Center by going to this webpage and then clicking "Online Registration" to sign up for a time to take the test online. Once the test is completed, it is graded by a faculty member and an advisor will email you the result as soon as it is available. Results could take up to a week.