Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

December 1996 - GCSE Computer Science 5-a-day

Every sheet in December 1996

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

  1. 1st December 1996State the typical maximum capacity of a single-layer DVD.
  2. 2nd December 1996A 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?
  3. 3rd December 1996State what is meant by a syntax error.
  4. 4th December 1996Give one advantage of a relational database over a flat-file database.
  5. 5th December 1996What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?
  6. 6th December 1996Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
  7. 7th December 1996Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
  8. 8th December 1996Convert the hexadecimal number 3F to denary.
  9. 9th December 1996A 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.
  10. 10th December 1996Name the translator used for assembly language and describe how it differs from a compiler.
  11. 11th December 1996Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
  12. 12th December 1996Two 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.
  13. 13th December 1996State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
  14. 14th December 1996Explain what happens if a program tries to read index 5 of an array declared with 5 elements.
  15. 15th December 1996State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
  16. 16th December 1996State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
  17. 17th December 1996State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
  18. 18th December 1996Write one line of pseudocode that converts the string stored in heightInput into a real number and stores it in a variable called height.
  19. 19th December 1996A 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.
  20. 20th December 1996Order these units of data from smallest to largest: megabyte, byte, gigabyte, kilobyte.
  21. 21st December 1996Define the term protocol.
  22. 22nd December 1996Give one example of erroneous test data for a field that only accepts whole numbers from 1 to 10.
  23. 23rd December 1996A table called bookings has fields bookingId, customerName and eventDate. Write an SQL statement that deletes the booking with bookingId 45.
  24. 24th December 1996Each 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.
  25. 25th December 1996Which flowchart symbol shape is used to represent a decision point (e.g. a yes/no branch)?
  26. 26th December 1996State the two values a Boolean data type can hold.
  27. 27th December 1996Convert the denary number 39 to an 8-bit binary number, showing your working.
  28. 28th December 1996Calculate the number of cables needed to connect 8 computers in a full mesh topology, where every computer connects directly to every other computer.
  29. 29th December 1996Explain the purpose of a breakpoint.
  30. 30th December 1996Convert the hexadecimal number 1A to denary.
  31. 31st December 1996Convert the denary number 156 to an 8 bit binary number.