Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

August 1956 5-a-day

Every sheet in August 1956

The same date always regenerates the same five questions, so a sheet you print today is the sheet a classmate prints tomorrow.

  1. 1st August 1956State what the term malware means.
  2. 2nd August 1956Explain why a running maximum should be initialised to the first element of the array rather than to 0.
  3. 3rd August 1956An uncompressed file is 6000 KB. After lossless compression it is 1500 KB. Calculate the compression ratio in the form n:1 (original size : compressed size).
  4. 4th August 1956Which of RAM and ROM is volatile, meaning its contents are lost when the power is removed?
  5. 5th August 1956Which piece of UK legislation controls how organisations must store and use people's personal data?
  6. 6th August 1956Given x = 5 and y = 8, state whether x < y AND x > 0 evaluates to True or False.
  7. 7th August 1956A programmer wants any syntax error in their program to be reported before the program starts running at all. State whether a compiler or an interpreter behaves this way, and explain why.
  8. 8th August 1956Give one reason why RAM on its own is not enough, and a computer also needs secondary storage.
  9. 9th August 1956Name the four layers of the TCP/IP model in order from the one closest to the user.
  10. 10th August 1956A password field requires between 6 and 12 characters. State two boundary data values that should be used to test this field.
  11. 11th August 1956A table called bookings has fields bookingId, customerName and eventDate. Write an SQL statement that deletes the booking with bookingId 45.
  12. 12th August 1956State one function carried out by the operating system of a computer.
  13. 13th August 1956In computational thinking, what is meant by the term 'decomposition'?
  14. 14th August 1956Given A = 1 and B = 1, state the value of A AND B.
  15. 15th August 1956Convert the denary number 39 to an 8-bit binary number, showing your working.
  16. 16th August 1956Define a peer-to-peer network.
  17. 17th August 1956A program compiles and runs but always outputs an average that is too small. State the type of error and explain why the translator did not report it.
  18. 18th August 1956Convert the denary number 5 to a 4-bit binary number.
  19. 19th August 1956A CPU has a clock speed of 4.0 GHz. Calculate how many clock cycles it completes in 2 seconds.
  20. 20th August 1956A simple cipher shifts every letter 2 places forward in the alphabet, wrapping around so Y becomes A and Z becomes B. Encrypt the plaintext CAT using this cipher.
  21. 21st August 1956An array named temps holds 12 values. State the index of the first item and the index of the last item.
  22. 22nd August 1956A mono sound clip has a sample rate of 4000 Hz and lasts 2 seconds. Calculate the total number of samples taken.
  23. 23rd August 1956State the type of program that is typically stored in ROM.
  24. 24th August 1956State one reason a small business might choose to use open source software instead of proprietary (closed source) software.
  25. 25th August 1956A FOR loop runs: total = 0, FOR i = 1 TO 4, total = total + i, NEXT i. State the value of total after the loop finishes.
  26. 26th August 1956Give one specific way this code could be refined without changing what it does: a = 5, b = 3, c = a + b, PRINT c
  27. 27th August 1956State the typical maximum capacity of a single-layer DVD.
  28. 28th August 1956State the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, and give one situation where HTTPS is essential.
  29. 29th August 1956State what is meant by a syntax error.
  30. 30th August 1956A table called members has fields memberId, firstName, lastName and joinYear. Write an SQL statement that adds a new record with memberId 12, firstName 'Priya', lastName 'Shah' and joinYear 2026.
  31. 31st August 1956What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?