Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

September 1995 - GCSE Computer Science 5-a-day

Every sheet in September 1995

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 1995State the key difference between a procedure and a function.
  2. 2nd September 1995State the typical maximum capacity of a single-layer DVD.
  3. 3rd September 1995Give two reasons why network communication is divided into layers.
  4. 4th September 1995State what is meant by a syntax error.
  5. 5th September 1995Give one advantage of a relational database over a flat-file database.
  6. 6th September 1995What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?
  7. 7th September 1995Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
  8. 8th September 1995Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
  9. 9th September 1995Convert the hexadecimal number 3F to denary.
  10. 10th September 1995A 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 September 1995Explain why an interpreter is often preferred while a program is being written.
  12. 12th September 1995Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
  13. 13th September 1995Two 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 September 1995State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
  15. 15th September 1995A 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.
  16. 16th September 1995State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
  17. 17th September 1995State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
  18. 18th September 1995State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
  19. 19th September 1995Write 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 September 1995A 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.
  21. 21st September 1995Order these units of data from smallest to largest: megabyte, byte, gigabyte, kilobyte.
  22. 22nd September 1995State the layer that IP operates in, and describe its job.
  23. 23rd September 1995Give one example of erroneous test data for a field that only accepts whole numbers from 1 to 10.
  24. 24th September 1995A table called bookings has fields bookingId, customerName and eventDate. Write an SQL statement that deletes the booking with bookingId 45.
  25. 25th September 1995Each 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 September 1995Which flowchart symbol shape is used to represent a decision point (e.g. a yes/no branch)?
  27. 27th September 1995State the two values a Boolean data type can hold.
  28. 28th September 1995Convert the denary number 39 to an 8-bit binary number, showing your working.
  29. 29th September 1995Calculate 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 September 1995Describe what syntax highlighting is and how it helps a programmer.