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Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science

January 2020 - GCSE Computer Science 5-a-day

Every GCSE Computer Science sheet published in January 2020, with answers. Systems, data representation, networks, algorithms and programming.

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January 2020

31 sheets · 155 questions · GCSE

January 2020 compilationAll answers

Every sheet in January 2020

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

  1. 1st January 2020A mono sound clip has a sample rate of 4000 Hz and lasts 2 seconds. Calculate the total number of samples taken.
  2. 2nd January 2020State the type of program that is typically stored in ROM.
  3. 3rd January 2020State one reason a small business might choose to use open source software instead of proprietary (closed source) software.
  4. 4th January 2020A FOR loop runs: total = 0, FOR i = 1 TO 4, total = total + i, NEXT i. State the value of total after the loop finishes.
  5. 5th January 2020State the pseudocode operator commonly used to join (concatenate) two strings, then show how it joins 'Rev' and 'ision' to produce 'Revision'.
  6. 6th January 2020State the typical maximum capacity of a single-layer DVD.
  7. 7th January 2020State the difference between HTTP and HTTPS, and give one situation where HTTPS is essential.
  8. 8th January 2020State what is meant by a syntax error.
  9. 9th January 2020Define the term 'primary key' as used in a database table.
  10. 10th January 2020What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?
  11. 11th January 2020Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
  12. 12th January 2020Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
  13. 13th January 2020Convert the 8-bit binary number 10110100 directly to hexadecimal by splitting it into nibbles.
  14. 14th January 2020A 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.
  15. 15th January 2020State why a program written in a high level language must be translated.
  16. 16th January 2020Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
  17. 17th January 2020Two 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.
  18. 18th January 2020State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
  19. 19th January 2020Describe what a nested loop does when it processes a 2D array.
  20. 20th January 2020State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
  21. 21st January 2020State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
  22. 22nd January 2020State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
  23. 23rd January 2020Write one line of pseudocode that converts the string stored in heightInput into a real number and stores it in a variable called height.
  24. 24th January 2020A 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.
  25. 25th January 2020Order these units of data from smallest to largest: megabyte, byte, gigabyte, kilobyte.
  26. 26th January 2020Give two reasons why network communication is divided into layers.
  27. 27th January 2020Give one example of erroneous test data for a field that only accepts whole numbers from 1 to 10.
  28. 28th January 2020A table called staff has fields staffId, name, department and salary, storing these records: staffId | name | department | salary, 1 | Ben | Sales | 24000, 2 | Chloe | IT | 31000, 3 | Dan | Sales | 27000. State which staffId(s) would be returned by: SELECT staffId FROM staff WHERE department = 'Sales' AND salary > 25000;
  29. 29th January 2020Each 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.
  30. 30th January 2020Which flowchart symbol shape is used to represent a decision point (e.g. a yes/no branch)?
  31. 31st January 2020State the two values a Boolean data type can hold.