Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

September 1980 5-a-day

Every sheet in September 1980

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

  1. 1st September 1980A simple cipher shifts every letter 2 places forward in the alphabet, wrapping around so Y becomes A and Z becomes B. Encrypt the plaintext CAT using this cipher.
  2. 2nd September 1980An array named temps holds 12 values. State the index of the first item and the index of the last item.
  3. 3rd September 1980A mono sound clip has a sample rate of 4000 Hz and lasts 2 seconds. Calculate the total number of samples taken.
  4. 4th September 1980State the type of program that is typically stored in ROM.
  5. 5th September 1980State one reason a small business might choose to use open source software instead of proprietary (closed source) software.
  6. 6th September 1980A FOR loop runs: total = 0, FOR i = 1 TO 4, total = total + i, NEXT i. State the value of total after the loop finishes.
  7. 7th September 1980State the key difference between a procedure and a function.
  8. 8th September 1980State the typical maximum capacity of a single-layer DVD.
  9. 9th September 1980State the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, and give one situation where HTTPS is essential.
  10. 10th September 1980State what is meant by a syntax error.
  11. 11th September 1980Give one advantage of a relational database over a flat-file database.
  12. 12th September 1980What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?
  13. 13th September 1980Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
  14. 14th September 1980Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
  15. 15th September 1980Convert the hexadecimal number 3F to denary.
  16. 16th September 1980A 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.
  17. 17th September 1980State why a program written in a high level language must be translated.
  18. 18th September 1980Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
  19. 19th September 1980Two 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.
  20. 20th September 1980State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
  21. 21st September 1980Describe what a nested loop does when it processes a 2D array.
  22. 22nd September 1980State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
  23. 23rd September 1980State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
  24. 24th September 1980State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
  25. 25th September 1980Write one line of pseudocode that converts the string stored in heightInput into a real number and stores it in a variable called height.
  26. 26th September 1980A 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.
  27. 27th September 1980Order these units of data from smallest to largest: megabyte, byte, gigabyte, kilobyte.
  28. 28th September 1980Give two reasons why network communication is divided into layers.
  29. 29th September 1980Give one example of erroneous test data for a field that only accepts whole numbers from 1 to 10.
  30. 30th September 1980A table called bookings has fields bookingId, customerName and eventDate. Write an SQL statement that deletes the booking with bookingId 45.