Python Syllabus for CBSE ( Class 11, Class 12)

The CBSE curriculum is broadly divided into Scholastic and Non-Scholastic areas. Languages, Academic Electives and Skill Subjects fall into the Scholastic section.

Computer Science and Information Practices both fall into the Scholastic section.

The CBSE board wants students to gain knowledge and skills, develop a scientific attitude. They are looking for practical knowledge. They want students to use and apply their knowledge.

Python has been introduced to students in Computer Science as well as Information Practices.

How can I learn Python at home?

Python is best learnt visually and I have found that videos help a lot in acquiring new skills.

My daughter has signed up for a course which explains all the concepts in detail. This has been developed by a Programmer who walks you step by step through each of the modules.

You also have the ability to ask the instructor questions and get feedback.

You get assignments and can work at your own pace. Plus as an added bonus you receive a certificate of completion.

Quick Tip:

Ask your child to practice coding. Python cannot be learnt theoretically. You need to learn to code, fix mistakes and a hands-on approach will ensure that the student will remember what they have learnt.

CBSE Class 11 Computer Science Syllabus

CBSE has updated their Python syllabus and here is the new and revised version.

Computer Science (New) – CLASS-XI (Code No. 083) – 2019-20

Learning Outcomes

1. Ability to understand basic computational thinking.
2. Ability to understand the notion of data types, data structures.
3. Ability to appreciate the notion of an algorithm, and understand its structure,
   including how algorithms handle corner cases.
4. Ability to develop a basic understanding of computer systems – architecture, OS, mobile and cloud computing.
5. Ability to learn basic SQL programming.
6. Ability to learn all about cyber safety.

Distribution of Marks and Periods

Unit 1: Computer Systems and Organisation

• Basic computer organisation: description of a computer system and mobile system, CPU, memory, hard disk, I/O, battery.
• Types of software: application, System, utility.
• Memory Units: bit, byte, MB, GB, TB, and PB.
• Boolean logic: OR, AND, NAND, NOR, XOR, NOT, truth tables, De Morgan’s laws
• Information representation: numbers in base 2, 8, 16, binary addition
• Strings: ASCII, UTF8, UTF32, ISCII (Indian script code), Unicode
• Basic concepts of Flowchart
• Concept of Compiler & Interpreter
• Running a program: Notion of an operating system, how an operating system runs a program, idea of loading, operating system as a resource manager.
• Concept of cloud computing, cloud (public/private), introduction to parallel computing.

Unit 2: Computational Thinking and Programming

Basics of Computational Thinking: Decomposition, Pattern Recognition/ Data representation, Generalization/ Data Abstraction and algorithm.

Familiarization with the basics of Python programming: a simple “hello world” program, process of writing a program (Interactive & Script mode), running it, and print statements; simple data-types: integer, float, string

• Features of Python, Python Character Set, Token & Identifiers, Keywords, Literals, Delimiters, operators.
• Comments: (Single line & Multiline/ Continuation statements), Clarity & Simplification of expression.
• Introduce the notion of a variable, and methods to manipulate it (concept of Lvalue and R-value even if not taught explicitly).
• Knowledge of data types and operators: accepting input from the console, assignment statement, expressions, operators and their precedence.
• Operators & types: Binary operators-Arithmetic, Relational operators, Logical Operators, Augmented Assignment operators.
• Conditional statements: if, if-else, if-elif-else; simple programs: e.g.: absolute value, sort 3 numbers,and divisibility.
• Notion of iterative computation and control flow: for(range(),len()), while, flowcharts, suggested programs: interest calculation and factorials, etc.
• Idea of debugging: errors and exceptions; debugging: pdb, break points.
• Lists, tuples and dictionary: finding the maximum, minimum, mean; linear search on list/tuple of numbers, and counting the frequency of elements in a list using a dictionary. Introduce the notion of accessing elements in a collection using numbers and names.
• Sorting algorithm: bubble and insertion sort;count the number of operations while sorting.
• Strings: Traversing, compare, concat, substring.
• Introduction to Python modules: Importing math (sqrt, cell, floor, pow, fabs, sin, cos, tan, random (random, randint, randrange), statistics (mean, median, mode) modules.

Unit 3: Data Management

• Relational databases: Concept of a database, relations, attributes and tuples, keys- candidate key, primary key, alternate key, foreign key;Degree and cardinality of a table.
• Use SQL – DDL/ DML commands to CREATE TABLE, INSERT INTO,
• UPDATE TABLE , DELETE FROM, ALTER TABLE,MODIFY TABLE, DROP TABLE, keys, and foreign keys; to view content of a table: SELECT-FROM WHERE-ORDER BY alongwith BETWEEN, IN, LIKE, (Queries only on single table)
• Aggregate functions – MIN,MAX,AVG,COUNT,SUM
• Basics of NoSQL databases.

Unit 4: Society, Law and Ethics – Cyber safety

• Cyber safety: safely browsing the web, identity protection, confidentiality, social networks, cyber trolls and bullying
• Appropriate usage of social networks: spread of rumours, and common social networking sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook) and specific usage rules.
• Safely accessing web sites: adware, malware, viruses, Trojans
• Safely communicating data: secure connections, eavesdropping, phishing and identity verification.

Practical

Programming in Python

At least the following Python concepts should be covered in the lab sessions: expressions, conditionals, loops, list, dictionary, and strings. The following are some representative lab assignments.

• Find the largest and smallest numbers in a list.
• Find the third largest number in a list.
• Test for primarily.
• Find whether a string is a palindrome or not.
• Given two integers x and n, compute x n
• Compute the greatest common divisor and the least common multiple of two integers.
• Test if a number is equal to the sum of the cubes of its digits. Find the smallest and largest such numbers.

Data Management

SQL Commands At least the following SQL commands should be covered during the labs: create, insert, delete, select, and join.

The following are some representative assignments.

Create a student table with the student id, name, and marks as attributes where the student id is the primary key.

• Insert the details of a new student in the above table.
• Delete the details of a particular student in the above table.
• Use the select command to get the details of the students with marks more than 80.
• Create a new table (name, date of birth) by joining two tables (student id, name) and (studentid, date of birth).
• Create a new table (order ID, customer Name, and order Date) by joining two tables (order ID, customer ID,and order Date) and (customer ID, customer
• Name, contact Name, country).

Src: CBSE Official Website

Download Computer Science Book from CBSE Class XI

Class XII Python Sylabus

Class 12 starting 2 chapters are a repetition of Class XI

Hence it is crucial students focus on class 11 portion as this is the basis for the next topics.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the concept of functions and recursion.
2. Learn how to create and use Python libraries.
3. Learn file handling.
4. Learn about the concept of efficiency in algorithms and computing in general.
5. Learn basic data structures: lists, stacks, and queues.
6. Get a basic understanding of computer networks: network stack, basic network hardware, basic protocols, and basic tools.
7. Connect a Python program with an SQL database, and learn aggregation functions in SQL.
8. Have a clear understanding of cyber ethics and cybercrime. Understand the value of technology in societies, gender and disability issues, and the technology behind biometric ids.

Distribution of Marks

Unit 1: Programming and Computational Thinking (PCT-1) (80 Theory + 70 Practical)

• Familiarization with the basics of Python programming: a simple “hello world” program, process of writing a program, running it, and print statements; simple data-types: integer, float, string
• Introduce the notion of a variable, and methods to manipulate it (concept of L-value and Rvalue even if not taught explicitly)
• Knowledge of data types and operators: accepting input from the console, assignment statement, expressions, operators and their precedence.
• Conditional statements: if, if-else, if-elif-else; simple programs: e.g.: absolute value, sort 3 numbers, and divisibility.
• Notion of iterative computation and control flow: for, while, flowcharts, decision trees and pseudo code; write a lot of programs: interest calculation, primarily testing, and factorials.
• Idea of debugging: errors and exceptions; debugging: pdb, break points.
• Lists, tuples and dictionary: finding the maximum, minimum, mean; linear search on list/tuple of numbers, and counting the frequency of elements in a list using a dictionary. Introduce the notion of accessing elements in a collection using numbers and names.
• Sorting algorithm: bubble and insertion sort; count the number of operations while sorting.
• Strings: compare, concat, substring; notion of states and transitions using state transition diagrams.

Unit 2: Computer Systems and Organisation (CSO) (20 Theory + 6 Practical)

Basic computer organisation: description of a computer system and mobile system, CPU, memory, hard disk, I/O, battery, power.

• Types of software: application, OS, utility, libraries.
• Language of Bits: bit, byte, MB, GB, TB, and PB.
• Boolean logic: OR, AND, NAND, NOR, XOR, NOT, truth tables, De Morgan’s laws
• Information representation: numbers in base 2, 8, 16, unsigned integers, binary addition
• Strings: ASCII, UTF8, UTF32, ISCII (Indian script code)
• Execution of a program: basic flow of compilation – program
• binary execution
• Interpreters (process one line at a time), difference between a compiler and an interpreter
• Running a program: Notion of an operating system, how an operating system runs a program, idea of loading, operating system as a resource manager.
• Concept of cloud computers, cloud storage (public/private), and brief introduction to parallel computing.

Unit 3: Data Management (DM-1) (30 Theory+ 24 Practical)

Relational databases: idea of a database and the need for it, relations, keys, primary key, foreign key; use SQL commands to create a table, keys, foreign keys; insert/delete an entry, delete a table.

• SQL commands: select, project, and join; indexes, and a lot of in-class practice.
• Basics of NoSQL databases – Mongo DB.

Unit 4: Society, Law and Ethics (SLE-1) – Cyber safety (10 Theory)

Cyber safety: safely browsing the web, identity protection, confidentiality, social networks, cyber trolls and bullying

• Appropriate usage of social networks: spread of rumours, and common social networking sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook) and specific usage rules.
• Safely accessing web sites: adware, malware, viruses, Trojans
• Safely communicating data: secure connections, eavesdropping, phishing and identity verification.

Practical

Programming in Python

At least the following Python concepts should be covered in the lab
sessions: expressions, conditionals, loops, list, dictionary, and strings. The following are some representative lab assignments.

• Find the largest and smallest numbers in a list.
• Find the third largest number in a list.
• Test for primarily.
• Find whether a string is a palindrome or not.
• Given two integers x and n, compute x to the power of n
• Compute the greatest common divisor and the least common multiple of two integers.
• Test if a number is equal to the sum of the cubes of its digits. Find the smallest and largest such numbers.

Data Management

SQL Commands At least the following SQL commands should be covered
during the labs: create, insert, delete, select, and join. The following are some representative assignments.

• Create a student table with the student id, name, and marks as attributes where the student id is the primary key.
• Insert the details of a new student in the above table.
• Delete the details of a particular student in the above table
• Use the select command to get the details of the students with marks more than 80.
• Create a new table (name, date of birth) by joining two tables (student id, name) and (student id, date of birth).
• Create a new table (order ID, customer Name, and order Date) by joining two tables (order ID, customer ID, and order Date) and (customer ID, customer Name, contact Name, country).

Unit 1: Programming and Computational Thinking (PCT-2) (80 Theory + 70 Practical)

• Revision of the basics of Python
• Functions: scope, parameter passing, mutable/immutable properties of data objects, pass arrays to functions, return values, functions using libraries: mathematical, and string functions.
• File handling: open and close a file, read, write, and append to a file, standard input, output, and error streams, relative and absolute paths.
• Using Python libraries: create and import Python libraries
• Recursion: simple algorithms with recursion: factorial, Fibonacci numbers; recursion on arrays: binary search
• Idea of efficiency: performance defined as inversely proportional to the wall clock time, count the number of operations a piece of code is performing, and measure the time taken by a program. Example: take two different programs for the same problem, and understand how the efficient one takes less time.
• Data visualization using Pyplot: line chart, pie chart, and bar chart.
• Data-structures: lists, stacks, queues.

Unit 2: Computer Networks (CN) (30 Theory + 10 Practical)

Structure of a network: Types of networks: local area and wide area (web and internet), new technologies such as cloud and IoT, public vs. private cloud, wired and wireless networks; concept of a client and server.

• Network devices such as a NIC, switch, hub, router, and access point.
• Network stack: amplitude and frequency modulation, collision in wireless networks, error checking, and the notion of a MAC address, main idea of routing. IP addresses: (v4 and v6), routing table, router, DNS, and web URLs, TCP: basic idea of retransmission, and rate modulation when there is congestion (analogy to a road network), Protocols: 2G, 3G, 4G, WiFi. What makes a protocol have a higher bandwidth?
• Basic network tools: traceroute, ping, ipconfig, nslookup, whois, speed-test.
• Application layer: HTTP (basic idea), working of email, secure communication: encryption and certificates (HTTPS), network applications: remote desktop, remote login, HTTP, FTP, SCP, SSH, POP/IMAP, SMTP, VoIP, NFC.

4.3 Unit 3: Data Management (DM-2) (20 Theory + 20 Practical)

• Write a minimal Django based web application that parses a GET and POST request, and writes the fields to a file – flat file and CSV file.
• Interface Python with an SQL database
• SQL commands: aggregation functions – having, group by, order by.

Unit 4: Society, Law and Ethics (SLE-2) (10 Theory)

Intellectual property rights, plagiarism, digital rights management, and licensing (Creative Commons, GPL and Apache), open source, open data, privacy.

• Privacy laws, fraud; cyber-crime- phishing, illegal downloads, child pornography, scams; cyber forensics, IT Act, 2000.
• Technology and society: understanding of societal issues and cultural changes induced by technology.
• E-waste management: proper disposal of used electronic gadgets.
• Identity theft, unique ids, and biometrics.
• Gender and disability issues while teaching and using computers.

Practical

Some sample lab assignments are as follows

5.1. Programming in Python

• Recursively find the factorial of a natural number.
• Read a file line by line and print it.
• Remove all the lines that contain the character `a’ in a file and write it to another file.
• Write a Python function sin(x, n) to calculate the value of sin(x) using its Taylor series expansion up to n terms. Compare the values of sin(x) for different values of n with the correct value.
• Write a random number generator that generates random numbers between 1 and 6 (simulates a dice).
• Write a recursive code to find the sum of all elements of a list.
• Write a recursive code to compute the nth Fibonacci number.
• Write a Python program to implement a stack and queue using a list data-structure.
• Write a recursive Python program to test if a string is a palindrome or not.
• Write a Python program to plot the function y = square(x) using the pyplot or matplotlib libraries.
• Create a graphical application that accepts user inputs, performs some operation on them, and then writes the output on the screen. For example, write a small calculator. Use the tkinter library.
• Open a webpage using the urllib library.
• Compute EMIs for a loan using the numpy or scipy libraries.
• Take a sample of 10 phishing e-mails and find the most common words.

5.2. Data Management: SQL and web-server

• Find the min, max, sum, and average of the marks in a student marks table.
• Find the total number of customers from each country in the table (customer ID, customer name, country) using group by.
• Write a SQL query to order the (student ID, marks) table in descending order of the marks.
• Integrate SQL with Python by importing the MySQL module
• Write a Django based web server to parse a user request (POST), and write it to a CSV file.

Project

The aim of the class project is to create something that is tangible and useful. This should be done in groups of 2 to 3 students, and should be started by students at least 6 months before the submission deadline. The aim here is to find a real world problem that is worthwhile to solve.

Students are encouraged to visit local businesses and ask them about the problems that they are facing. For example, if a business is finding it hard to create invoices for filing GST claims, then students can do a project that takes the raw data (list of transactions), groups the transactions by category, accounts for the GST tax rates, and creates invoices in the appropriate format. Students can be extremely creative here. They can use a wide variety of Python libraries to create user friendly applications such as
games, software for their school, software for their disabled fellow students, and mobile applications, Of course to do some of this projects, some additional learning is required; this should be encouraged. Students should know how to teach themselves.

If three people work on a project for 6 months, at least 500 lines of code is expected. The committee has also been made aware about the degree of plagiarism in such projects. Teachers should take a very strict look at this situation, and take very strict disciplinary action against students who are cheating on lab assignments, or projects, or using pirated software to do the same. Everything that is proposed can be achieved using absolutely free, and legitimate open source software.

Src: CBSE Official Website

Download Computer Science Class XII Book

How can I learn Python for free ?

Python is one of the simplest and easiest languages to learn. Compared to other programming languages you will find that Python has a short learning curve.

You can either google or search on YouTube for Python material. There are tons of resources online.

I would recommend investing a little bit of money for a professional course ( which can help you move through and master Python quickly.

Any programming language is best learnt through practice.

Logic is something which has to be acquired. Some people just get it quickly, while others learn by repeating or practising the code often.

Unless you get onto the computer and practice coding you will never be able to master the subject.

Recommended Courses

For Basic Python check out this course – Complete Python Bootcamp

For Connecting and working with MySQL I recommend this course – Using MySQL Database with Python

Philip Guo provides help on Python on his website – http://www.pythontutor.com