Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

February 1970 5-a-day

Every sheet in February 1970

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

  1. 1st February 1970What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?
  2. 2nd February 1970Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
  3. 3rd February 1970Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
  4. 4th February 1970Convert the 8-bit binary number 10110100 directly to hexadecimal by splitting it into nibbles.
  5. 5th February 1970A 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.
  6. 6th February 1970A 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.
  7. 7th February 1970Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
  8. 8th February 1970Two 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.
  9. 9th February 1970State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
  10. 10th February 1970An array named temps holds 12 values. State the index of the first item and the index of the last item.
  11. 11th February 1970State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
  12. 12th February 1970State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
  13. 13th February 1970State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
  14. 14th February 1970Write one line of pseudocode that converts the string stored in heightInput into a real number and stores it in a variable called height.
  15. 15th February 1970A 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.
  16. 16th February 1970Order these units of data from smallest to largest: megabyte, byte, gigabyte, kilobyte.
  17. 17th February 1970State the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, and give one situation where HTTPS is essential.
  18. 18th February 1970Give one example of erroneous test data for a field that only accepts whole numbers from 1 to 10.
  19. 19th February 1970A 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;
  20. 20th February 1970Each 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.
  21. 21st February 1970Which flowchart symbol shape is used to represent a decision point (e.g. a yes/no branch)?
  22. 22nd February 1970State the two values a Boolean data type can hold.
  23. 23rd February 1970Convert the 8-bit binary number 01011010 to denary.
  24. 24th February 1970Calculate the number of cables needed to connect 8 computers in a full mesh topology, where every computer connects directly to every other computer.
  25. 25th February 1970State why a program written in a high level language must be translated.
  26. 26th February 1970Convert the hexadecimal number 1A to denary.
  27. 27th February 1970Convert the denary number 156 to an 8 bit binary number.
  28. 28th February 1970Which type of malware can replicate itself and spread across a network without attaching to another program or needing a user to run it?