Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

May 1976 5-a-day

Every sheet in May 1976

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 1976Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
  2. 2nd May 1976Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
  3. 3rd May 1976Convert the 8-bit binary number 10110100 directly to hexadecimal by splitting it into nibbles.
  4. 4th May 1976A 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.
  5. 5th May 1976State why a program written in a high level language must be translated.
  6. 6th May 1976Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
  7. 7th May 1976Two 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.
  8. 8th May 1976State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
  9. 9th May 1976Describe what a nested loop does when it processes a 2D array.
  10. 10th May 1976State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
  11. 11th May 1976State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
  12. 12th May 1976State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
  13. 13th May 1976Write one line of pseudocode that converts the string stored in heightInput into a real number and stores it in a variable called height.
  14. 14th May 1976A 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.
  15. 15th May 1976Order these units of data from smallest to largest: megabyte, byte, gigabyte, kilobyte.
  16. 16th May 1976Give two reasons why network communication is divided into layers.
  17. 17th May 1976Give one example of erroneous test data for a field that only accepts whole numbers from 1 to 10.
  18. 18th May 1976A 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;
  19. 19th May 1976Each 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.
  20. 20th May 1976Which flowchart symbol shape is used to represent a decision point (e.g. a yes/no branch)?
  21. 21st May 1976State the two values a Boolean data type can hold.
  22. 22nd May 1976Convert the 8-bit binary number 01011010 to denary.
  23. 23rd May 1976Calculate the number of cables needed to connect 8 computers in a full mesh topology, where every computer connects directly to every other computer.
  24. 24th May 1976Explain why an interpreter is often preferred while a program is being written.
  25. 25th May 1976Convert the hexadecimal number 1A to denary.
  26. 26th May 1976Convert the denary number 156 to an 8 bit binary number.
  27. 27th May 1976Which type of malware can replicate itself and spread across a network without attaching to another program or needing a user to run it?
  28. 28th May 1976A 2D array grid is declared as grid[4][6]. State how many rows and columns it has and how many elements it holds in total.
  29. 29th May 1976An image uses a colour depth of 2 bits per pixel. Calculate the maximum number of different colours it can represent.
  30. 30th May 1976A 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.
  31. 31st May 1976Describe two negative consequences of throwing away old computer hardware instead of recycling it.