| Summary: | Recent changes in the Swedish curriculum have given programming a bigger role in the Swedish upper secondary school. As a result, more students will need to read long chunks of code, a skill teachers perceive that students have problems with. Previous research has shown that when novice programmers read code, they understand the syntax but fail to understand the purpose of the code. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the problems and misconceptions Swedish upper secondary school students have when reading longer chunks of code. The purpose of the thesis was also to investigate how a two-dimensional assessment rubric designed for smaller tasks could be used for larger programs.This was done by collecting data through a qualitative interview studyat NTI Gymnasiet in Uppsala Sweden. The data collected through the studywas analyzed using inductive content analysis which showed that students have problems understanding nested loops, position in list, temporary values, and syntax. Another result of this study showed that the students only need to figure out parts of a program, to understand the program's purpose. Furthermore, the thesis discusses how the two dimensional rubric becomes complex for larger programs. The thesis also discusses the lack of an abstraction category in the rubric, where students show the ability to generalize subjects into a new and untaught domain.
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