Daily Practice · GCSE Computer Science
May 2026 - GCSE Computer Science 5-a-day
Every GCSE Computer Science sheet published in May 2026, with answers. Systems, data representation, networks, algorithms and programming.
Every sheet in May 2026
The same date always regenerates the same five questions, so a sheet you print today is the sheet a classmate prints tomorrow.
- 1st May 2026Calculate the number of cables needed to connect 8 computers in a full mesh topology, where every computer connects directly to every other computer.
- 2nd May 2026Describe what syntax highlighting is and how it helps a programmer.
- 3rd May 2026Convert the hexadecimal number 1A to denary.
- 4th May 2026Convert the denary number 156 to an 8 bit binary number.
- 5th May 2026Which type of malware can replicate itself and spread across a network without attaching to another program or needing a user to run it?
- 6th May 2026Trace this algorithm with data = [4, 9, 2, 9, 7] and state the final output. total = 0; count = 0; for i = 0 to 4: if data[i] > 5 then total = total + data[i] and count = count + 1; next i; print(total, count).
- 7th May 2026An image uses a colour depth of 2 bits per pixel. Calculate the maximum number of different colours it can represent.
- 8th May 2026A CPU's cache has a hit rate of 80%. During a task the CPU makes 4000 requests for data. Calculate the number of cache hits and cache misses.
- 9th May 2026Describe two negative consequences of throwing away old computer hardware instead of recycling it.
- 10th May 2026Write a function called isEven that takes one integer parameter, num, and returns True if num is even and False otherwise.
- 11th May 2026Write 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.
- 12th May 2026A company backs up its files onto magnetic tape cartridges, each with a capacity of 3 TB. The company needs to back up 20 TB of data. Calculate the minimum number of cartridges needed.
- 13th May 2026Explain the role of TCP when a large file is downloaded.
- 14th May 2026Explain why iterative testing, carried out throughout development, tends to make errors cheaper to fix than relying only on final testing.
- 15th May 2026State what a foreign key is used for.
- 16th May 2026Define the term 'interrupt' as used to describe a signal received by a CPU.
- 17th May 2026An array called items contains [12, 45, 7, 30, 19] at indices 0 to 4. Describe how a linear search would locate the value 30, stating the number of comparisons needed.
- 18th May 2026Evaluate X = NOT A AND B when A = 0 and B = 1.
- 19th May 2026A 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.
- 20th May 2026Give one advantage of a star topology compared with a mesh topology.
- 21st May 2026Give one advantage and one disadvantage of using a compiler.
- 22nd May 2026Add the 8-bit binary numbers 00101101 and 00010011, giving your answer as an 8-bit binary number.
- 23rd May 2026State the three stages of the fetch-decode-execute cycle in the order they occur.
- 24th May 2026State one weakness of a simple shift cipher compared to modern encryption methods used on networks.
- 25th May 2026Write a loop in pseudocode that outputs every element of a 1D array named names of length 6.
- 26th May 2026Define the term 'pixel'.
- 27th May 2026Order these from fastest access speed to slowest: RAM, cache, registers, secondary storage.
- 28th May 2026Which piece of UK legislation makes it a criminal offence to gain unauthorised access to a computer system?
- 29th May 2026Evaluate the expression 23 DIV 4.
- 30th May 2026State the value returned by LENGTH(word) if word stores the string 'Computer'.
- 31st May 2026A 1 TB hard disk drive costs 40 pounds. A 500 GB solid-state drive costs 60 pounds. Calculate the cost per gigabyte of each device, and state which is cheaper per GB. Use 1 TB = 1000 GB.