Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

May 1966 5-a-day

Every sheet in May 1966

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

  1. 1st May 1966State the typical maximum capacity of a single-layer DVD.
  2. 2nd May 1966A user reads the same email on a phone and a tablet, and deleting it on one deletes it on the other. Which protocol is in use and why?
  3. 3rd May 1966State what is meant by a syntax error.
  4. 4th May 1966Define the term 'primary key' as used in a database table.
  5. 5th May 1966What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?
  6. 6th May 1966Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
  7. 7th May 1966Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
  8. 8th May 1966Convert the 8-bit binary number 10110100 directly to hexadecimal by splitting it into nibbles.
  9. 9th May 1966A network administrator is connecting 10 computers in a server room. Calculate the number of cables needed for a full mesh topology, and state the number needed for a star topology with one central switch.
  10. 10th May 1966Name the translator used for assembly language and describe how it differs from a compiler.
  11. 11th May 1966Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
  12. 12th May 1966Two CPUs are compared for a task optimised for multiple cores: CPU A has 2 cores at 4.2 GHz; CPU B has 6 cores at 3.0 GHz. Explain which CPU is likely to perform better for this task.
  13. 13th May 1966State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
  14. 14th May 1966Explain what happens if a program tries to read index 5 of an array declared with 5 elements.
  15. 15th May 1966State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
  16. 16th May 1966State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
  17. 17th May 1966State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
  18. 18th May 1966Write one line of pseudocode that converts the string stored in heightInput into a real number and stores it in a variable called height.
  19. 19th May 1966A function is defined as: FUNCTION addTax(price) RETURN price x 1.2 ENDFUNCTION. Another line of code runs: total <- addTax(20) + addTax(30). Trace both function calls and state the final value of total.
  20. 20th May 1966Order these units of data from smallest to largest: megabyte, byte, gigabyte, kilobyte.
  21. 21st May 1966Define the term protocol.
  22. 22nd May 1966Give one example of erroneous test data for a field that only accepts whole numbers from 1 to 10.
  23. 23rd May 1966A table called staff has fields staffId, name, department and salary, storing these records: staffId | name | department | salary, 1 | Ben | Sales | 24000, 2 | Chloe | IT | 31000, 3 | Dan | Sales | 27000. State which staffId(s) would be returned by: SELECT staffId FROM staff WHERE department = 'Sales' AND salary > 25000;
  24. 24th May 1966Each pair from the previous question is stored using 2 bytes. Calculate the compression ratio achieved, given the uncompressed row (1 byte per pixel) uses 8 bytes.
  25. 25th May 1966Which flowchart symbol shape is used to represent a decision point (e.g. a yes/no branch)?
  26. 26th May 1966State the two values a Boolean data type can hold.
  27. 27th May 1966Convert the 8-bit binary number 01011010 to denary.
  28. 28th May 1966Calculate the number of cables needed to connect 8 computers in a full mesh topology, where every computer connects directly to every other computer.
  29. 29th May 1966Explain the purpose of a breakpoint.
  30. 30th May 1966Convert the hexadecimal number 1A to denary.
  31. 31st May 1966Convert the denary number 156 to an 8 bit binary number.