Welcome to our Computer Science Trivia Post! It’s a treasure trove of fascinating facts and intriguing questions all about the world of computer science. From the basics of programming to the complexities of machine learning, we’ve covered a wide spectrum of topics that will challenge both beginners and experts alike.
In this post, you’ll find 80 questions, each followed by its corresponding answer. These questions dive into various areas including software development, operating systems, web development, data structures, algorithms, AI, and much more. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or simply a tech enthusiast, these questions are sure to test your knowledge and maybe even teach you something new.
So, are you ready to put your knowledge to the test? Let’s dive into the world of computer science and uncover some of its fascinating mysteries. Enjoy the trivia!
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1. Who is known as the father of the computer? Reveal Answer Charles Babbage 2. What is the binary system used in computer science? Reveal Answer A system of numerical notation to the base 2, in which each place of a number, expressed as 0 or 1, represents a power of 2. 3. What is the name of the first computer? Reveal Answer ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) 4. Who proposed the idea of the World Wide Web? Reveal Answer Tim Berners-Lee 5. What is a Turing Machine? Reveal Answer A theoretical computing machine invented by Alan Turing that is used in thought experiments about the limits of mechanical computation. 6. What does HTML stand for? Reveal Answer HyperText Markup Language 7. What is an algorithm in computer science? Reveal Answer An algorithm is a set of instructions designed to perform a specific task. 8. Who invented the Python programming language? Reveal Answer Guido van Rossum 9. What is ‘big data’? Reveal Answer Big data is a field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software. 10. What does HTTP stand for? Reveal Answer HyperText Transfer Protocol 11. What is a ‘bit’ in computer science? Reveal Answer Bit is short for ‘binary digit’. It is the smallest unit of information in computing. 12. What does ‘GUI’ stand for? Reveal Answer Graphical User Interface 13. What does SQL stand for? Reveal Answer Structured Query Language 14. What is ‘cloud computing’? Reveal Answer Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. 15. Who invented the C programming language? Reveal Answer Dennis Ritchie 16. What is the time complexity of the quicksort algorithm in the average case? Reveal Answer O(n log n) 17. Who developed the concept of ‘Object-oriented Programming’? Reveal Answer Alan Kay 18. What does ‘URL’ stand for? Reveal Answer Uniform Resource Locator 19. Who is credited with coining the term ‘artificial intelligence’? Reveal Answer John McCarthy 20. What is the principle of ‘information hiding’ in software engineering? Reveal Answer It is a principle that some of the information associated with an object should be hidden from external entities to ensure object integrity. 21. What does the ‘Boolean’ datatype represent? Reveal Answer It represents two values: true and false. 22. What does ‘ASCII’ stand for? Reveal Answer American Standard Code for Information Interchange 23. What does ‘CSS’ stand for? Reveal Answer Cascading Style Sheets 24. What is ‘data mining’? Reveal Answer Data mining is the process of discovering patterns in large data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems. 25. Who invented the JavaScript programming language? Reveal Answer Brendan Eich 26. What does ‘DOS’ stand for in computer terms? Reveal Answer Disk Operating System 27. What is Moore’s Law? Reveal Answer It’s the observation made by Gordon Moore in 1965 that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. 28. What is a deadlock in computer science? Reveal Answer A deadlock is a state where each member of a group is waiting for another member, including itself, to take action, such as sending a message or more commonly releasing a lock. 29. What is ‘packet switching’? Reveal Answer Packet switching is a method of grouping data that is transmitted over a digital network into packets. 30. Who is known for the development of the COBOL programming language? Reveal Answer Grace Hopper 31. What does ‘BIOS’ stand for in computing? Reveal Answer Basic Input Output System 32. What is the von Neumann architecture? Reveal Answer It is a design model for a stored-program digital computer that uses a processing unit and a single separate storage structure to hold both instructions and data. 33. What is ‘time complexity’ in computer science? Reveal Answer Time complexity is the computational complexity that describes the amount of computer time taken by an algorithm to run. 34. What is a ‘firewall’ in computer terms? Reveal Answer A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. 35. What is a ‘cookie’ in web terminology? Reveal Answer A cookie is a small piece of data stored on the user’s computer by the web browser while browsing a website. 36. What is the difference between ‘lossy’ and ‘lossless’ compression? Reveal Answer Lossy compression reduces file size by eliminating redundant information, but it can cause a decrease in image quality. Lossless compression reduces file size without losing any quality. 37. What is ‘object-oriented programming’? Reveal Answer Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of ‘objects’, which can contain data and code: data in the form of fields, and code, in the form of procedures. 38. Who developed the Linux operating system? Reveal Answer Linus Torvalds 39. What is ‘cryptography’? Reveal Answer Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties. 40. What does ‘API’ stand for in computing? Reveal Answer Application Programming Interface 41. What is a ‘computer virus’? Reveal Answer A computer virus is a type of malicious software program that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. 42. What does ‘AI’ stand for in technology? Reveal Answer Artificial Intelligence 43. What is ‘machine learning’? Reveal Answer Machine Learning is a type of artificial intelligence that allows software applications to become more accurate at predicting outcomes without being explicitly programmed to do so. 44. What is the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT)? Reveal Answer The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the network of physical objects — ‘things’ — that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the internet. 45. What is ‘augmented reality’? Reveal Answer Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information. 46. What is ‘virtual reality’? Reveal Answer Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. 47. What is the ‘CAPTCHA’ used for? Reveal Answer CAPTCHA is a type of challenge–response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human. 48. What does ‘JPEG’ stand for? Reveal Answer Joint Photographic Experts Group 49. What is a ‘compiler’ in computer science? Reveal Answer A compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language into another language. 50. What does ‘TCP/IP’ stand for? Reveal Answer Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol 51. What does ‘FTP’ stand for in computer terms? Reveal Answer File Transfer Protocol 52. What does ‘RDBMS’ stand for? Reveal Answer Relational Database Management System 53. What does ‘NaN’ stand for in computing? Reveal Answer Not a Number 54. What is ‘quantum computing’? Reveal Answer Quantum computing is a type of computation that uses quantum bits, or ‘qubits’, which can be in superpositions of states, to perform calculations. 55. What does ‘UUID’ stand for in computing? Reveal Answer Universally Unique Identifier 56. What does ‘MVC’ stand for in software engineering? Reveal Answer Model-View-Controller 57. What does ‘IDE’ stand for in computing? Reveal Answer Integrated Development Environment 58. What is ‘software as a service’ (SaaS)? Reveal Answer Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. 59. What does ‘XML’ stand for? Reveal Answer eXtensible Markup Language 60. What is a ‘singleton’ in software engineering? Reveal Answer A singleton is a software design pattern that restricts the instantiation of a class to a single instance. 61. What is a ‘graph’ in computer science? Reveal Answer In computer science, a graph is an abstract data type that is meant to implement the undirected graph and directed graph concepts from mathematics. 62. What is ‘recursion’ in computer science? Reveal Answer Recursion is a method of solving problems where the solution to a particular instance of a problem is obtained using simpler instances of the same problem. 63. What is ‘hacker’? Reveal Answer In computing, a hacker is any skilled computer expert that uses their technical knowledge to overcome a problem. 64. What is ‘data structure’ in computer science? Reveal Answer A data structure is a data organization, management, and storage format that enables efficient access and modification. 65. What does ‘GPU’ stand for in computing? Reveal Answer Graphics Processing Unit 66. What is ‘malware’ in computer terms? Reveal Answer Malware is any software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network. 67. What does ‘ROM’ stand for in computing? Reveal Answer Read-Only Memory 68. What is the time complexity of binary search algorithm? Reveal Answer O(log n) 69. What is ‘cryptography’ in computer science? Reveal Answer Cryptography is the practice and study of secure communication in the presence of adversaries. 70. What is ‘blockchain’ technology? Reveal Answer Blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. 71. What is ‘Kubernetes’ in cloud computing? Reveal Answer Kubernetes, also known as K8s, is an open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. 72. What is ‘agile methodology’ in software development? Reveal Answer Agile methodology is a type of project management process, mainly used for software development, where demands and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customers. 73. What is ‘deep learning’? Reveal Answer Deep learning is a subset of machine learning in artificial intelligence (AI) that has networks capable of learning unsupervised from data that is unstructured or unlabeled. 74. What is ‘neural network’ in AI? Reveal Answer A neural network is a series of algorithms that endeavors to recognize underlying relationships in a set of data through a process that mimics the way the human brain operates. 75. What does ‘SDK’ stand for in software development? Reveal Answer Software Development Kit 76. What is ‘Docker’ in software development? Reveal Answer Docker is an open-source platform that uses OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. 77. What is ‘Scrum’ in Agile methodology? Reveal Answer Scrum is an agile framework for managing knowledge work, with an emphasis on software development. 78. What does ‘SDLC’ stand for in software engineering? Reveal Answer Software Development Life Cycle 79. What is a ‘pixel’ in computer graphics? Reveal Answer A pixel is the smallest unit of a digital image or graphic that can be displayed and represented on a digital display device. 80. What is ‘DevOps’ in software development? Reveal Answer DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) with the aim to shorten the system development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. Sharing is Caring: