AP CSP Performance Task

Learn more about the AP CSP Performance task

Zach Galant avatar
Written by Zach Galant
Updated over a week ago

Watch this webinar recording to hear from Erik Magness, a CodeHS Teacher Trainer and CS Teacher at Villa Maria Academy High School in Pennsylvania, on how he prepares students for the AP CSP Create Performance Task. View the slides here.


AP CSP Create Performance Task

The Performance Task consists of three components: Program Code, Video, and Written Response. Students will need to create a program that contains an input and an output and uses a list or array. Students should also develop and use a procedure or function containing an algorithm that includes sequencing, selection, and iteration. As long as students can answer the written response questions about their program, they can make anything they want.

Students can develop their Performance Task in the Performance Task unit of the course or in the CodeHS Sandbox but will need to upload a final submission to the College Board AP Digital Portfolio containing a video demonstrating execution of their code, the code itself, and answers to the prompts.

Sample Performance Tasks

The College Board has published samples with scoring guidelines. You can see these samples and how the College Board scored those submissions here.

The following are examples on the CodeHS site with theoretical scores and scoring guidelines:

Submitting Performance Tasks to the College Board

To submit Performance Tasks, teachers will need to create classes using College Board's digital portfolio site. Then students can join their teacher's class to submit their Performance Tasks to the College Board.

CodeHS cannot give students access to College Board's Digital Portfolio site and cannot submit Performance Tasks to College Board. Students and teachers must make sure they have access to the AP Digital Portfolio site and submit their Performance Tasks by the College Board deadline for their Performance Tasks to be scored.

For more information, check out the College Board's Digital Portfolio Guide.

Downloading Program Code

Students can download a .txt or a .zip file of their Program Code from their Sandbox or from the Create Performance Task assignment. Check out this article for instructions on how to download student code.

Because the Program Code component must be uploaded as a .pdf without names or personally identifying information, students can click More > Print > Print Without Name and choose to save the file as a .pdf to generate an acceptable file for the Performance Task:

screenshot of the opened More tab of the IDE pointing to Print

Video Recording

Students should submit video files no larger than 30MB and fewer than 60 seconds in length. The supported file types for the Video submission are: .mp4, .wmv, .avi, and .mov

While students can use any method to produce the video -- including recording their program with a phone -- screen capture tools can generally help create appropriately sized files. Here are a couple of examples of web-based screen capture tools:

Remember: Students must not publicly post or share any portions of their performance task components.

You can find more information about our AP CSP courses in our AP CSP Hub.


Still have questions? Contact our team at hello@codehs.com to learn more!

Did this answer your question?