Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science
October 2008 - GCSE Computer Science 5-a-day
Every GCSE Computer Science sheet published in October 2008, with answers. Systems, data representation, networks, algorithms and programming.
Every sheet in October 2008
The same date always regenerates the same five questions, so a sheet you print today is the sheet a classmate prints tomorrow.
- 1st October 2008State why a program written in a high level language must be translated.
- 2nd October 2008Convert the denary number 5 to a 4-bit binary number.
- 3rd October 2008A CPU has a clock speed of 4.0 GHz. Calculate how many clock cycles it completes in 2 seconds.
- 4th October 2008A 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.
- 5th October 2008Describe what a nested loop does when it processes a 2D array.
- 6th October 2008A mono sound clip has a sample rate of 4000 Hz and lasts 2 seconds. Calculate the total number of samples taken.
- 7th October 2008State the type of program that is typically stored in ROM.
- 8th October 2008State one reason a small business might choose to use open source software instead of proprietary (closed source) software.
- 9th October 2008A FOR loop runs: total = 0, FOR i = 1 TO 4, total = total + i, NEXT i. State the value of total after the loop finishes.
- 10th October 2008State the pseudocode operator commonly used to join (concatenate) two strings, then show how it joins 'Rev' and 'ision' to produce 'Revision'.
- 11th October 2008State the typical maximum capacity of a single-layer DVD.
- 12th October 2008Give two reasons why network communication is divided into layers.
- 13th October 2008State what is meant by a syntax error.
- 14th October 2008Define the term 'primary key' as used in a database table.
- 15th October 2008What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?
- 16th October 2008Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
- 17th October 2008Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
- 18th October 2008Convert the 8-bit binary number 10110100 directly to hexadecimal by splitting it into nibbles.
- 19th October 2008A 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.
- 20th October 2008Explain why an interpreter is often preferred while a program is being written.
- 21st October 2008Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
- 22nd October 2008Two 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.
- 23rd October 2008State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
- 24th October 2008A 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.
- 25th October 2008State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
- 26th October 2008State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
- 27th October 2008State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
- 28th October 2008Write one line of pseudocode that converts the string stored in heightInput into a real number and stores it in a variable called height.
- 29th October 2008A 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.
- 30th October 2008Order these units of data from smallest to largest: megabyte, byte, gigabyte, kilobyte.
- 31st October 2008State the layer that IP operates in, and describe its job.