Programming II papers at this level usually run for 2 to 3 hours and carry around 60–70 marks in the exam itself, with continuous assessment making up the rest. The most common structure is one compulsory question (often 20–25 marks, split into three or four short parts) plus any two or three others from a choice of four or five (usually 15 marks each). Some papers instead ask for any four or five questions of equal weight. Read the rubric twice before you write anything: answering one question too many earns nothing, and skipping the compulsory one is the costliest mistake in the room.

The questions come from two worlds, and papers often lean towards one of them. The Java side asks you to define class, object and constructor, explain the four pillars of OOP, differentiate overloading from overriding, write a small class with a constructor and a couple of methods, or explain exceptions and the event-delegation model. The software-engineering side asks you to define the SDLC and justify it, walk a named system through the Waterfall model, explain project management and its tools (Gantt, PERT, WBS, the fishbone diagram), describe questionnaires, the SRS and object-oriented analysis, and explain modularity, coupling and cohesion, the qualities of good code and software, and black-box versus white-box testing. Expect at least one "with the aid of a diagram" and at least one question that names a real setting (a hospital, a bank, a school portal) and wants your answer tied to it.

Strategy: share your time by marks. A 3-hour, 70-mark paper gives you about 2½ minutes a mark, so roughly an hour for a 25-mark compulsory question and 35–40 minutes for each 15-mark one. Aim to finish a few minutes early so you can read your answers through. Start with the question you know best to settle your nerves. Examiners reward three things: a crisp definition first, then numbered points with one sentence of explanation each, then a labelled diagram wherever the question says "with the aid of a diagram". Count the marks and give at least that many points. A rough sketch with clear labels beats a beautiful drawing with none.