University of Waterloo Logo and CEMC Banner

2020 Beaver Computing Challenge
(Grade 5 & 6)

Questions

Part A

Bear Selection

Story

Ren is allowed to bring one of his four teddy bears to school.

The first bear wears glasses, a scarf and has a star. The second bear wears a bow. The third bear wears glasses, a bow, a scarf and has a star. The fourth bear wears a scarf and has a star.

Ren brings the bear that has a star on one of its feet, and is wearing a scarf or a bow, but not glasses.

Question

Which bear did Ren bring to school?

  1. The first bear wears glasses, a scarf and has a star.
  2. The second bear wears a bow.
  3. The third bear wears glasses, a bow, a scarf and has a star.
  4. The fourth bear wears a scarf and has a star.

Bowls

Story

Whenever a customer orders soup, a bowl is taken from the top of the stack shown.

A description of stack follows.

Question

What is the fewest number of soup orders that need to be filled so that three identical bowls are used?

  1. 13
  2. 14
  3. 15
  4. 16

Bird Watching

Story

A family went for a walk. They started from their home and walked along some paths, eventually returning home. They did not walk on any path more than once.

A description of the diagram follows.

During their walk they saw exactly four birds. Three of the four birds they saw are shown below:

The orange bird The red bird The yellow bird

Question

Which other bird must they have seen?

  1. The purple bird
  2. The blue bird
  3. The pink bird
  4. The green bird

Rare Mushrooms

Story

Colby wants to take a picture of a rare mushroom. To determine whether or not a mushroom is rare, Colby assigns points to the stem and cap according to the following tables:

Points for stem
Picture
Type of Stem Plain Layered
Points 0 2

Points for cap
Picture
Type of Cap Dotted Horned Striped
Points 1 3 4

A mushroom that scores 5 points or more is rare and a mushroom that scores less than 5 points is not rare.

Question

Which one of the following four mushrooms is rare?

  1. mushroom with plain stem and dotted cap
  2. mushroom with layered stem and horned cap
  3. mushroom with layered stem and dotted cap
  4. mushroom with plain stem and striped cap

Part B

Moving Packages

Story

A robotic arm takes packages from three conveyor belts (labelled A, B, and C) and moves them to the conveyor belt labelled OUT. The rules for the robotic arm are as follows:

If the robotic arm is ready to take a package from a particular belt, but no package is available there, the robotic arm will shut down.

There are 4 boxes on belt A, 2 boxes on belt B, and 3 boxes on belt C.

Question

Given the arrangement of packages on the three belts as shown, how many packages will the robotic arm move before shutting down?

  1. 9
  2. 8
  3. 7
  4. 6

Skyline

Story

A skyline consists of 14 towers as shown. The height of a tower is measured from the bottom of its base to its highest point, including any flagpoles or antennas.

A description the diagram follows.

Question

If the towers are listed from shortest to tallest, which tower would be 10th in the list?

  1. the twelfth tower
  2. the eleventh tower
  3. the sixth tower
  4. the fifth tower

Market Exchange

Story

A beaver goes to a market to trade items. It has one carrot but needs one fir tree .

Each stall of the market allows a different trade as shown:

Stall Give Get
\(P\) carrot fish
\(Q\) coin fish
\(R\) ring cupcake
\(S\) carrot cupcake
\(T\) coin fir tree
\(U\) ring fir tree
\(V\) cupcake ring
\(W\) carrot leaf

Question

Which of the following sequences of stalls should the beaver visit in order to trade its carrot for one fir tree ?

  1. \(P, Q, T\)
  2. \(W, T, U\)
  3. \(S, V, U\)
  4. \(S, R, U\)

Beaver Homes

Story

Beaver homes are identified using symbols rather than digits according to the table shown:

An alternative format for the table follows.

The symbol assigned to a row and the symbol assigned to a column are combined to form a new single symbol. This symbol represents the digit where that row and column meet.

For example, the symbol semi-circle with one stripe represents the digit 5, since it is a combination of its row symbol semi-circle and its column symbol one stripe.

In the table, the digit in the row of the semi-circle and the column of the one stripe is 5.

Here is a picture of one beaver’s home:

The home has four symbols in a row: a square with two stripes, a semi-circle with an arrow, a semi-circle with three stripes, and a square with a triangle.

Question

What four-digit number is represented by the symbols on this beaver’s home?

  1. 1874
  2. 1923
  3. 1824
  4. 1973

Part C

Museum Tour

Story

A new museum with seven rooms has been constructed. The builders are now trying to decide where to place the doors between rooms, so that visitors can enter, walk through the rooms, and exit.

The following possible layout of doors shows how guests might walk through the museum. Notice that some rooms are visited multiple times.

A description of the diagram follows.

In an ideal layout, guests should be able to visit each room without having to walk through any room more than once.

Question

Which one of the following layouts makes it possible for guests to tour the museum by visiting each room exactly once?

  1. In this layout, doors connect the two rooms in the left section, the two rooms in the middle section, and adjacent rooms in the right section. Also, doors connect the bottom-left room to each of the rooms in the middle section and the bottom-middle room to the bottom-right room.
  2. This layout has the same doors as in the layout in option B except there is no door beween the bottom rooms in the middle and right sections.
  3. This layout has all doors from the layout in option A along with two additional doors: a door connecting the top rooms in the left and middle sections, and a door connecting the top rooms in the middle and right sections.
  4. This layout has the same doors as in the layout in option B except there is no door beween the top two rooms in the right section.

Weighing Boxes

Story

There are five boxes, each featuring a different shape, and each having a different mass. Using a scale we can compare the masses of two boxes.

For example, the following scale shows that the box with a heart is heavier than the box with a circle:

Five comparisons were made, and the results are shown on the following scales:

A description of the diagram follows.

Question

If we arrange the boxes in order from heaviest to lightest, which box would be in the middle?

  1. heart
  2. star
  3. pentagon
  4. square

Jumping Kangaroo

Story

Kanga Roo is jumping home along the vertical and horizontal paths. Kanga jumps over exactly one pile of bricks with each jump. Kanga cannot jump over brick piles that have a height of 3 bricks.

Question

If Kanga wants to jump home using the fewest jumps possible, how many jumps must Kanga make?

  1. 8
  2. 13
  3. 14
  4. 16

Theatre Performance

Story

Four characters are in a play. They enter and leave the stage according to the order shown, read from left to right. The play has two acts and one break between the acts.

A description of the diagram follows.

Question

Which statement is not true?

  1. The snail and the butterfly were together on the stage.
  2. The turtle and the bird were together on the stage.
  3. The snail entered the stage after the break.
  4. The snail and the bird were together on the stage.