Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

October 1979 5-a-day

Every sheet in October 1979

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

  1. 1st October 1979Write the pseudocode header and body for a function called isAdult that takes one integer parameter called age and returns True if age is 18 or over.
  2. 2nd October 1979State the typical maximum capacity of a single-layer DVD.
  3. 3rd October 1979Explain the role of TCP when a large file is downloaded.
  4. 4th October 1979State what is meant by a syntax error.
  5. 5th October 1979State what a foreign key is used for.
  6. 6th October 1979What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?
  7. 7th October 1979Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
  8. 8th October 1979Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
  9. 9th October 1979A pseudocode algorithm is: count <- 0, x <- 10, WHILE x > 0, count <- count + 1, x <- x - 3, ENDWHILE, OUTPUT count. Complete a trace table for x and count, laid out as x | count, then state the value output.
  10. 10th October 1979A 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.
  11. 11th October 1979Give one advantage and one disadvantage of using a compiler.
  12. 12th October 1979Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
  13. 13th October 1979Two 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.
  14. 14th October 1979State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
  15. 15th October 1979Write a loop in pseudocode that outputs every element of a 1D array named names of length 6.
  16. 16th October 1979State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
  17. 17th October 1979State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
  18. 18th October 1979State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
  19. 19th October 1979Write one line of pseudocode that converts the string stored in heightInput into a real number and stores it in a variable called height.
  20. 20th October 1979State the value returned by LENGTH(word) if word stores the string 'Computer'.
  21. 21st October 1979Order these units of data from smallest to largest: megabyte, byte, gigabyte, kilobyte.
  22. 22nd October 1979A 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?
  23. 23rd October 1979Give one example of erroneous test data for a field that only accepts whole numbers from 1 to 10.
  24. 24th October 1979A table called books has fields bookId, title, authorId and copiesAvailable. Write an SQL statement that selects the title of every book with more than 2 copies available.
  25. 25th October 1979Each 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.
  26. 26th October 1979Which flowchart symbol shape is used to represent a decision point (e.g. a yes/no branch)?
  27. 27th October 1979State the two values a Boolean data type can hold.
  28. 28th October 1979State how many different values can be represented using 5 bits, and explain your reasoning.
  29. 29th October 1979Calculate the number of cables needed to connect 8 computers in a full mesh topology, where every computer connects directly to every other computer.
  30. 30th October 1979Name the translator used for assembly language and describe how it differs from a compiler.
  31. 31st October 1979Convert the hexadecimal number 1A to denary.