Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
Please write clearly, in BLOCK CAPITALS and black ink
Centre number Candidate number
First name (s)
Surname
Date of Exam Time allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes
GCSE (9–1) Computer Science
1CP2/01 Paper 1: Principles of Computer Science
Total Marks
PAPER 1A
Instructions
• Write in black ink
• Write your answer to each question in the space provided
• Answer all questions
• You are not allowed to use a calculator
Information
• The total mark for this paper is 75
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets ( )
• The student version of this paper has 12 pages
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start to answer it
• Try to answer every question
• Answer questions in the space provided – there may be more space than you need
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
Answer ALL questions. Write your answers in the spaces provided.
Some questions must be answered with a cross in a box .
If you change your mind about an answer, put a line through the box and then
mark your new answer with a cross .
1 Data
(a) Identify the number of bits contained in one nibble. (1)
A 2
B 4
C 8
D 1000
(b) Identify the maximum denary number that an 8-bit binary number can represent. (1)
A 16
B 127
C 255
D 256
(c) A smartphone takes photographs that are each 3 mebibytes in size. A user places a
64-gibibyte SD card into the phone to store their photographs.
Construct an expression to show how many photographs they will be able to store.
You do not need to carry out the calculation. (3)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
(d) (i) Convert the binary number 01001101 to denary. (1)
(ii) Calculate the result of applying a logical left shift to the binary
number 01001101. (1)
(iii) Explain the error that will occur if two logical left shifts are applied to 01001101
and the result is to be stored as an 8-bit number. (2)
(e) (i) Convert the hexadecimal number 7D to binary. (2)
(ii) Explain why hexadecimal notation is often used by programmers. (2)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
(f) (i) A computer makes use of 7-bit ASCII to represent each character.
Explain how the number of bits used to represent each character affects the
number of characters that can be used on the computer. (2)
(ii) The character ‘A’ is represented in 7-bit ASCII by the binary 1000001.
State the binary for the character ‘B’. (1)
(g) An address book has been created that stores names, addresses and phone number
of contacts.
To save storage space, compression is used.
Explain why lossy compression would not be suitable for this. (2)
(Total for Question 1 = 18 marks)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
2 Computers
(a) Identify two components that are inside a CPU. (2)
1.
2.
(b) A user has opened a word-processor and is half-way through writing a letter in it.
State two types of data that will be stored in RAM as a result of these actions. (2)
1.
2.
(c) Describe the effect of increasing the clock speed on a computer. (2)
(d) (i) A portable film player has a screen and plays Blu-ray discs.
Identify the way that the films are stored on this device. (1)
A Magnetic
B Optical
C Solid state
D Cloud
(ii) Explain why the Blu-ray player is an embedded system. (2)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
(e) A desktop computer makes use of an operating system. Two functions that the
operating system provides are file management and process management.
(i) State one other function that an operating system provides. (1)
(ii) The operating system is able to run many programs at the same time even
though it only has one CPU. Describe how the operating system’s process
management enables multiple programs to run at the same time. (4)
(iii) Give one feature that is likely to be provided by the operating system’s file
management. (2)
(f) Explain how an interpreter differs from a compiler in the way it translates high-level
code into machine code. (2)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
(Total for Question 2 = 18 marks)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
3 Networks
(a) Draw lines between these devices to show a bus network topology diagram. (2)
(b) A smartphone connects to a wireless network with a transmission rate of 40 Mbps.
Construct an expression to find the time it takes to download an 2 GiB video file. (4)
(c) The protocol used to connect to the wireless network is Wi-Fi.
Name a suitable protocol that will be used by a smartphone to connect to
a user’s bank account via their bank’s website. (1)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
(d) An outdoor adventure company offers activities such as mountain biking, hiking and
rock climbing. They have a building located in a remote area.
Discuss the characteristics of different network topologies that make them appropriate
for the network that the outdoor adventure company could use.
Your answer should consider the appropriateness of the following network topologies in
maintaining a robust and reliable network:
• Bus
• Star
• Mesh (6)
(Total for Question 3 = 13 marks)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
4 Issues and impact
(a) State two impacts that the manufacture of smartphones has on the environment. (2)
1.
2.
(b) A news website has found that it can use artificial intelligence to write many of the
articles that appear.
Explain one ethical issue with the news website adopting this technology. (2)
(c) Describe how a hacker can obtain a user’s password by making use of a key logger. (2)
(d) A company is concerned about the risk of flooding or fire on the data held by their
servers. Explain how backups help to protect their data. (2)
(Total for Question 4 = 8 marks)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
5 Computational thinking
(a) State one benefit of using decomposition when solving a problem. (1)
(b) A cash machine asks the user to enter the amount of money that they wish to
withdraw.
• A user can only withdraw up to 300 pounds.
• The cash machine only holds 20 pound notes, so the amount entered must be
divisible exactly by 20.
• If the user enters an amount that isn’t divisible exactly by 20, the cash machine
will let them know the reason why the amount was not accepted before asking
them to enter an amount again.
Complete the flowchart to show this process. (6)
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
(c) A list of names is given as follows:
Ellie Freddie Grace Harley Max Ruby Sofia
Describe how a binary search works to find the name Max. (3)
(d) The following algorithm is used in a program.
(i) Complete the trace table showing the execution of the program with the input 3.
You may not need to fill in all the rows in the table. (6)
I x total Display
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Sample Question Paper 1A
GCSE Edexcel Computer Science
(ii) Explain one problem with the efficiency of the algorithm. (2)
(Total for Question 5 = 18 marks)
TOTAL FOR PAPER = 75 MARKS
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