Video lessons

One video per sub-topic, in syllabus order. Start the playlist and it keeps playing in a corner of the screen while you read the written notes — it does not stop when you move to another page.

65Videos available
8h 21mTotal runtime

Trailer

IGCSE Computer Science 0478 - Complete Course Trailer

Cambridge IGCSE Computer Science 0478 — the complete course. Every topic, every sub-topic, one video each: 64 lessons across all 10 topics, matched to the 2026–2028 syllabus. Where something has to be seen to be understood, it is shown working rather than described.

2:38

Topic 1 · Data Representation

1.1.1

Number Systems - Binary, Denary and Hexadecimal

Why computers count in twos and programmers count in sixteens

Written notes 7:23
1.1.2

Binary and Denary Conversion

Converting both ways, and the maximum a byte can hold

Written notes 6:00
1.1.3

The Hexadecimal System

Base 16, why programmers use it, and converting both ways

Written notes 6:56
1.1.4

Binary Addition and Overflow

Adding bits, carrying, and what happens when a byte runs out of room

Written notes 8:00
1.2.1

Character Sets

ASCII and Unicode — how a computer that only holds numbers stores letters

Written notes 6:55
1.2.2

Representing Text

Turning characters into bits, and calculating what the file will cost

Written notes 6:26
1.2.3

Digital Images

Pixels, colour depth, and calculating what an image costs to store

Written notes 6:49
1.2.4

Digital Sound

Sampling a wave, and the two settings that decide quality and size

Written notes 7:06
1.3.1

Binary Prefixes

Why a 1 TB drive shows as 931 GB — the two standards, and converting between units

Written notes 6:17
1.3.2

Data Compression

Lossy and lossless — and the run-length encoding you can do by hand

Written notes 7:15

Topic 2 · Data Transmission

2.1.1

Methods of Data Transmission

Direction, serial and parallel, and why distance changes the answer

Written notes 6:54
2.1.2

Data Transmission Analogies

Memory hooks for serial, parallel, duplex and USB — and where each one breaks

Written notes 6:18
2.1.3

Transmission Media

Wired and wireless, and how to justify a choice in an exam

Written notes 6:44
2.1.4

Packet Switching

Splitting data, routing each piece independently, and putting it back together

Written notes 6:37
2.2.1

Error Detection Methods

Parity, checksums, echo checks, ARQ and check digits — and which one actually repairs the data

Written notes 11:25
2.3.1

Encryption - Symmetric and Asymmetric

Why a stolen message can be useless, and why only one of the two methods survives an interceptor

Written notes 8:51

Topic 3 · Hardware

3.1.1

The CPU and Architecture

The stored program idea, what sits inside the processor and what does not, and the instruction set

Written notes 8:53
3.1.2

Registers and the FDE Cycle

What each register holds, which bus carries what, and why the program counter is incremented

Written notes 8:25
3.1.3

Buses

What each bus carries, why only one is one-way, and what bus width decides

Written notes 8:11
3.1.4

Cores, Cache and Clock Speed

The three things that make a CPU faster — and why each one stops helping

Written notes 8:31
3.2.1

Input Devices

How each device turns something physical into binary — and why the order of the steps is the answer

Written notes 11:37
3.2.2

Output Devices

Screens, projectors, the three printers and the speaker — each one as a sequence you can write down

Written notes 10:36
3.2.3

Sensors and Actuators

Fourteen sensors, the ADC, and the control loop that has to repeat

Written notes 9:07
3.3.1

Primary Memory

RAM and ROM, the two types of each, and why cache is made of different stuff from main memory

Written notes 8:06
3.3.2

Secondary Storage

Magnetic, optical and solid state — how each one physically holds a bit, and which to choose

Written notes 8:41
3.3.3

Virtual Memory

Using the hard disk as extra RAM — what it buys, and the point at which it stops helping

Written notes 7:02
3.3.4

Cloud Storage

Someone else's data centre — the three deployment types, and what you give up for what you gain

Written notes 7:24
3.4.1

Network Hardware

Every device on the diagram, and the one question that tells them apart

Written notes 8:46
3.4.2

MAC and IP Addressing

Two addresses on every device — what each identifies, and why one of them changes

Written notes 9:34

Topic 4 · Software

4.1.1

The Operating System

System, application and firmware — and the seven jobs the OS is actually doing

Written notes 7:29
4.1.2

Interrupts and Buffers

Why the CPU stops, how it resumes, and why a printer needs both mechanisms at once

Written notes 8:05
4.1.3

Utility Software

The programs that maintain the system rather than serve the user

Written notes 7:40
4.2.1

Programming Languages

High-level and low-level, and why the choice is about who the code is written for

Written notes 7:53
4.2.2

Program Translators

Compiler, interpreter, assembler — and the tools that sit around them

Written notes 7:21

Topic 5 · The Internet and its Uses

5.1.1

The Internet and the WWW

The network and what runs on it — plus how a typed address becomes a page on your screen

Written notes 7:51
5.1.2

Cookies

Small text files a website stores on your device — what they can and cannot do

Written notes 7:08
5.2.1

Blockchain and Digital Currency

Money with no bank behind it — and the ledger that replaces the bank

Written notes 7:39
5.3.1

Cyber Security Threats

What each attack targets — the machine, the password, or the person

Written notes 8:40
5.3.2

Cybersecurity Protection Measures

Matching the defence to the threat — and why one measure can never be enough

Written notes 9:00

Topic 6 · Automated and Emerging Technologies

6.1.1

Automated Systems

Sensors, microprocessor, actuators — the loop that runs without anyone watching

Written notes 7:30
6.1.2

Monitoring and Control Systems

The one difference that decides which kind of system you are describing

Written notes 7:20
6.2.1

Robotics

What makes a machine a robot, where they are used, and what they cost as well as save

Written notes 8:04
6.3.1

Artificial Intelligence

What AI is, the three types, and how an expert system actually reaches a conclusion

Written notes 8:58
6.3.2

Machine Learning

Learning the rules from data instead of being given them

Written notes 8:02

Topic 7 · Algorithm Design and Problem-Solving

7.1

Computational Thinking

Abstraction, decomposition, and the development cycle they sit inside

Written notes 7:23
7.2

Flowchart Symbols

Six shapes, and the rules that decide which one you need

Written notes 7:37
7.3

Structure Diagrams

Decomposing a system into sub-systems — and describing each by what goes in and out

Written notes 6:41
7.4

Trace Tables

Following an algorithm line by line — the skill that finds logic errors

Written notes 6:41
7.5

Standard Methods of Solution

Six patterns that appear in almost every algorithm question

Written notes 9:03
7.6

Validation and Verification Checks

Two different jobs — is the data sensible, and is it what was meant?

Written notes 7:31
7.7

Test Data and Test Plans

Four kinds of test data, and how to choose values that actually prove something

Written notes 7:55
7.8

Identifying and Correcting Errors

The five faults that appear most often — and a method for finding any of them

Written notes 8:20

Topic 8 · Programming

8.1.1

Declarations and Data Types

The five data types, variables against constants, and why declaring things matters

Written notes 7:16
8.1.2

Basic Constructs

Sequence, selection and iteration — and which loop to reach for

Written notes 7:06
8.1.3

Library Routines & Operators

The operators you compute with, and the routines you are given for free

Written notes 7:00
8.1.4

Procedures, Functions and Variable Scope

Subroutines, what they return, what they can see, and what they can change

Written notes 8:18
8.1.5

Worked Examples

Two full programs, assembled from patterns you already know

Written notes 6:45
8.2.1

Arrays - 1D, 2D and Iteration

One name for many values — and the nested loop that walks a table

Written notes 7:35
8.3.1

File Handling

Making data survive the program closing — in the pseudocode the paper uses

Written notes 6:18

Topic 9 · Databases

9.1

Single-Table Database Design

Fields, records, the primary key, and choosing the right data type

Written notes 7:12
9.2

SQL Basics

Asking a database a question — and seeing exactly which rows come back

Written notes 6:40

Topic 10 · Boolean Logic

10.1

The Six Standard Logic Gates

What each gate does, and the truth table that defines it

Written notes 6:59
10.2

Logic in Real-Life Systems

Turning a written scenario into an expression and a truth table

Written notes 8:09
10.3

Logic Expressions

Moving between expression, truth table and circuit — in every direction the syllabus asks for

Written notes 9:23