Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science
December 2020 - GCSE Computer Science 5-a-day
Every GCSE Computer Science sheet published in December 2020, with answers. Systems, data representation, networks, algorithms and programming.
Every sheet in December 2020
The same date always regenerates the same five questions, so a sheet you print today is the sheet a classmate prints tomorrow.
- 1st December 2020Convert the 8-bit binary number 01011010 to denary.
- 2nd December 2020Define a peer-to-peer network.
- 3rd December 2020Give one advantage and one disadvantage of using a compiler.
- 4th December 2020Convert the denary number 5 to a 4-bit binary number.
- 5th December 2020A CPU has a clock speed of 4.0 GHz. Calculate how many clock cycles it completes in 2 seconds.
- 6th December 2020A 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.
- 7th December 2020Write a loop in pseudocode that outputs every element of a 1D array named names of length 6.
- 8th December 2020A mono sound clip has a sample rate of 4000 Hz and lasts 2 seconds. Calculate the total number of samples taken.
- 9th December 2020State the type of program that is typically stored in ROM.
- 10th December 2020State one reason a small business might choose to use open source software instead of proprietary (closed source) software.
- 11th December 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.
- 12th December 2020Write the pseudocode header and body for a function called isAdult that takes one integer parameter called age and returns True if age is 18 or over.
- 13th December 2020State the typical maximum capacity of a single-layer DVD.
- 14th December 2020A 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?
- 15th December 2020State what is meant by a syntax error.
- 16th December 2020State what a foreign key is used for.
- 17th December 2020What type of utility software reorganises files on a hard disk so fragmented parts are stored closer together?
- 18th December 2020Calculate the maximum number of comparisons required by a binary search on a sorted list of 512 items.
- 19th December 2020Given P = 0 and Q = 1, state the value of P OR Q.
- 20th December 2020A pseudocode algorithm is: count <- 0, x <- 10, WHILE x > 0, count <- count + 1, x <- x - 3, ENDWHILE, OUTPUT count. Complete a trace table for x and count, laid out as x | count, then state the value output.
- 21st December 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.
- 22nd December 2020Name the translator used for assembly language and describe how it differs from a compiler.
- 23rd December 2020Convert the 4-bit binary number 1101 to denary.
- 24th December 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.
- 25th December 2020State why an organisation might employ penetration testers to test its network.
- 26th December 2020Explain what happens if a program tries to read index 5 of an array declared with 5 elements.
- 27th December 2020State one example of a file format that commonly uses lossy compression.
- 28th December 2020State how many bits are in one byte, and how many bytes are in one kibibyte (KiB).
- 29th December 2020State whether the source code of proprietary (closed source) software is normally available for the public to view.
- 30th December 2020Write one line of pseudocode that converts the string stored in heightInput into a real number and stores it in a variable called height.
- 31st December 2020State the value returned by LENGTH(word) if word stores the string 'Computer'.