OCR GCSE Computer Science Paper 2 Practice 2025 - Free Practice Questions and Study Guide

The choice of a FOR loop is appropriate for scenarios where the number of iterations is known beforehand. This type of loop is structured with an initialization statement, a condition that is checked before each iteration, and an increment or decrement operation to update the loop variable, making it ideal for iterating over a finite range of values.

In practice, when you need to repeat a block of code a specific number of times—such as iterating through elements of an array or performing a calculation a set number of times—the FOR loop provides clear syntax and control. For instance, one might generate a sequence of numbers or process each item in a list where the total count is predetermined.

Other loop types serve different purposes. A while loop is typically used when the number of iterations is not known in advance and depends on a condition being true during the execution of the loop. Similarly, a do-while loop guarantees that the code block will execute at least once while still checking the condition afterwards. Nested loops can be utilized for more complex scenarios, such as iterating through multi-dimensional arrays, but they do not inherently define a specific number of iterations as a FOR loop does.

Therefore, the FOR loop is distinctly suited for situations with a predetermined quantity of iterations, reinforcing its role