I took the class/exam around 20 years ago when they were using C++, and it definitely covered basic data structures, like implementing linked lists. Glancing at this exam, it does seem like a step backwards.
Until 2009, the subject APCS included two courses: A (roughly CS1) and AB (roughly CS2, or perhaps CS1+CS2 depending how it was taught). Linked lists, trees, recursion, interfaces, and two-dimensional data were all part of the AB course and not A. When College Board decided to stop offering the AB course, some of those (2D data, interfaces, and, to a minimal extent, recursion) were shifted into the A course, but the data structures stuff was left out. (Interfaces have since been removed from the A exam.)
Sounds like you took the AB course (and exam); had you taken APCS A, I think you would see a modern APCS A exam as easier in some ways and harder in others.
Any problem written for an exam like this is going to be at least a little contrived. :) But that "airline seat" one---2002? Some people still talk about that one! It's Q4 in https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/apc/compsci_a_frq_02_1... if you'd like to revisit it...
