The Create Performance Task is the through-course project in AP Computer Science Principles where you design and program your own app or program, then submit your code, a video of it running, and a Personalized Project Reference. It counts for 30% of your AP score.
The Create Performance Task (often just called the Create Task or CPT) is the project half of AP Computer Science Principles. Instead of answering questions about someone else's code, you build your own program on a topic you choose, using any programming language your class supports (text-based or block-based, it doesn't matter to College Board).
Your program has to hit specific requirements. It needs input and output, a list (or other collection type) that helps manage complexity, and a student-developed procedure that has a parameter and contains both selection (if-statements) and iteration (loops), plus a call to that procedure somewhere in your program. You get at least 9 hours of in-class time to develop it. When you're done, you submit your final program code, a short video showing the program running, and a Personalized Project Reference containing the code segments for your list and your procedure. On exam day, you answer written response questions that reference that project. The task is due to the College Board's Digital Portfolio in the spring, before the exam.
The Create Task is where Big Idea 3 (Algorithms and Programming) and Big Idea 1 (Creative Development) stop being abstract and become your actual grade. It's worth 30% of your AP score, which makes it the single largest scored component outside the multiple-choice section. Every programming skill the CED builds toward, like writing procedures with parameters, using lists to manage complexity, combining selection and iteration, and testing your program, gets demonstrated here in one artifact. It also tests the development process itself, including how you design, iterate, debug, and document a program. If you can explain why your procedure works and how your list manages complexity, you've internalized exactly what the course wants you to know.
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Abstraction (Big Idea 3)
Your student-developed procedure IS the abstraction requirement in action. By wrapping logic in a procedure with a parameter, you make code reusable and easier to manage, which is the whole point of procedural abstraction. The exam-day written responses often ask you to explain exactly this about your own code.
Debugging (Big Idea 1)
The CED's Creative Development ideas about testing and iterative refinement show up directly in the Create Task. You're expected to test your program, find errors, and fix them, and being able to describe how you tested your procedure is fair game for the written responses.
Pseudocode (Big Idea 3)
The multiple-choice section tests algorithms using College Board's exam pseudocode, while the Create Task lets you use any real language. Planning your Create Task program in pseudocode first is a smart move because it forces you to nail down your selection and iteration logic before you write a single line of code.
User Interface Design (Big Idea 1)
Your program needs input and output, which means somebody has to interact with it. Thinking about how a user provides input and sees results connects the Create Task to the course's ideas about designing programs around the people who use them.
The Create Task isn't tested with MCQs about its definition. It IS a scored exam component, worth 30% of your AP score. You submit three things to the Digital Portfolio before the deadline in the spring. First is your final program code as a PDF. Second is a video (about a minute long) showing your program running and demonstrating its functionality. Third is your Personalized Project Reference, which contains the code segments for your list and your student-developed procedure. Then, during the end-of-course exam, you answer written response questions that point back to your Personalized Project Reference, asking you to explain or modify your own code. That means you can't just get your program working and forget it. You need to genuinely understand how your procedure and list work, because you'll be writing about them from memory of your own logic, months later, in a timed setting.
AP CSP used to have two performance tasks. The Explore Task was a research-style project about a computing innovation, and it was discontinued after the 2020 exam. The Create Task is the only performance task now. If you find old study materials mentioning Explore, ignore them; impacts of computing are tested in the multiple-choice section instead, and Create carries the full 30% project weight.
The Create Performance Task is worth 30% of your AP CSP score, with the multiple-choice section covering the other 70%.
Your program must include input, output, a list that manages complexity, and a student-developed procedure with a parameter, selection, and iteration, plus a call to that procedure.
You submit three things: your program code, a short video of the program running, and a Personalized Project Reference with your list and procedure code segments.
On exam day, you answer written response questions about your own project, so you need to understand your code well enough to explain it months after writing it.
You get at least 9 hours of in-class time to develop the project, and it's due to the Digital Portfolio in the spring before the exam.
You can use any programming language, block-based or text-based, as long as your program meets the requirements.
It's the project component of AP Computer Science Principles where you design and code your own program, then submit your code, a video, and a Personalized Project Reference to College Board. It counts for 30% of your AP score.
No. Your teacher facilitates class time and checks that you're following the rules, but the task is scored by College Board through the exam-day written responses tied to your submitted project, not by your teacher.
Partially. You can collaborate on developing parts of your program, but the procedure and list you put in your Personalized Project Reference must be your own independent work, your video must show your program, and the exam-day written responses are completed alone.
The Explore Task was a separate research project on a computing innovation that College Board discontinued after 2020. The Create Task is a programming project and is now the only performance task in the course.
No. Any programming language works, including block-based ones like Scratch or App Lab and text-based ones like Python or JavaScript, as long as your program meets the requirements (input, output, a list, and a procedure with a parameter, selection, and iteration).