Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

November 1974 5-a-day

Every sheet in November 1974

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

  1. 1st November 1974A 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.
  2. 2nd November 1974Convert the hexadecimal number 1A to denary.
  3. 3rd November 1974Convert the denary number 156 to an 8 bit binary number.
  4. 4th November 1974Which type of malware can replicate itself and spread across a network without attaching to another program or needing a user to run it?
  5. 5th November 1974An array named temps holds 12 values. State the index of the first item and the index of the last item.
  6. 6th November 1974An image uses a colour depth of 2 bits per pixel. Calculate the maximum number of different colours it can represent.
  7. 7th November 1974A CPU's cache has a hit rate of 80%. During a task the CPU makes 4000 requests for data. Calculate the number of cache hits and cache misses.
  8. 8th November 1974Describe two negative consequences of throwing away old computer hardware instead of recycling it.
  9. 9th November 1974Write a function called isEven that takes one integer parameter, num, and returns True if num is even and False otherwise.
  10. 10th November 1974State the key difference between a procedure and a function.
  11. 11th November 1974A company backs up its files onto magnetic tape cartridges, each with a capacity of 3 TB. The company needs to back up 20 TB of data. Calculate the minimum number of cartridges needed.
  12. 12th November 1974State the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, and give one situation where HTTPS is essential.
  13. 13th November 1974Explain why iterative testing, carried out throughout development, tends to make errors cheaper to fix than relying only on final testing.
  14. 14th November 1974Give one advantage of a relational database over a flat-file database.
  15. 15th November 1974Define the term 'interrupt' as used to describe a signal received by a CPU.
  16. 16th November 1974An array called items contains [12, 45, 7, 30, 19] at indices 0 to 4. Describe how a linear search would locate the value 30, stating the number of comparisons needed.
  17. 17th November 1974Evaluate X = NOT A AND B when A = 0 and B = 1.
  18. 18th November 1974Convert the hexadecimal number 3F to denary.
  19. 19th November 1974Give one advantage of a star topology compared with a mesh topology.
  20. 20th November 1974State why a program written in a high level language must be translated.
  21. 21st November 1974Add the 8-bit binary numbers 00101101 and 00010011, giving your answer as an 8-bit binary number.
  22. 22nd November 1974State the three stages of the fetch-decode-execute cycle in the order they occur.
  23. 23rd November 1974State one weakness of a simple shift cipher compared to modern encryption methods used on networks.
  24. 24th November 1974Describe what a nested loop does when it processes a 2D array.
  25. 25th November 1974Define the term 'pixel'.
  26. 26th November 1974Order these from fastest access speed to slowest: RAM, cache, registers, secondary storage.
  27. 27th November 1974Which piece of UK legislation makes it a criminal offence to gain unauthorised access to a computer system?
  28. 28th November 1974Evaluate the expression 23 DIV 4.
  29. 29th November 1974A 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.
  30. 30th November 1974A 1 TB hard disk drive costs 40 pounds. A 500 GB solid-state drive costs 60 pounds. Calculate the cost per gigabyte of each device, and state which is cheaper per GB. Use 1 TB = 1000 GB.