AP Computer Science A (AP CSA) FRQ Practice

Practice released AP CSA free-response questions.

2026 AP Computer Science A FRQ 1

Account

Write the Account constructor, which generates an available username by appending successive integers to a requested name using a provided isAvailable helper, and write getShortenedName, which removes each hyphen and the character before it from a username.

Recommended time

22 minutes

Difficulty

Medium

Self-check coverage

0 / 7

Open the official prompt for the exact examples and wording. This practice page focuses on writing, self-checking, and improving your response.

Open Official Prompt

What to write

Part A: use the provided isAvailable helper to test requestedName, and if unavailable, test requestedName + "1", requestedName + "2", and so on until an available username is found, then assign it to the instance variable.
Part B: scan username and build a new string that omits every hyphen and the single character immediately before each hyphen.

Starter shape

public Account(String requestedName)
{
    // Write part (a) here.
}

public String getShortenedName()
{
    // Write part (b) here.
}

Common traps

Only checking isAvailable(requestedName) once and never trying numbered variations.
Off-by-one errors when appending the integer suffix, such as starting at 0 instead of 1.
Removing the hyphen but forgetting to also remove the character directly before it.
Rebuilding the result with string concatenation but forgetting that removing "the character before it" means deleting the last character already added to the result, not skipping a character in the source string.

Your response

Cleared when this page reloads. 20 words.

Rule-based feedback

This checks for common structural signals. It is not official scoring.

Calls isAvailable to test each candidate username.Mark manually if your code satisfies this with a different valid approach.Builds new candidates by appending an integer to requestedName.Mark manually if your code satisfies this with a different valid approach.Repeats until an available username is found.Mark manually if your code satisfies this with a different valid approach.Assigns the found username to the instance variable username.Mark manually if your code satisfies this with a different valid approach.Scans through username to check for hyphens.Mark manually if your code satisfies this with a different valid approach.Checks for the hyphen character.Mark manually if your code satisfies this with a different valid approach.Skips both the hyphen and the character immediately before it.Mark manually if your code satisfies this with a different valid approach.

Reflection after checking

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