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INTERNATIONAL GCSE
COMPUTER SCIENCE
Paper 2 Concepts and principles of computer science

Thursday 7 November 2024 07:00 GMT Time allowed: 2 hours

Materials
You will need no other materials. For Examiner’s Use

Question Mark
Instructions
1
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Fill in the boxes at the top of the page. 2
• Answer all questions. 3
• You must answer the questions in the spaces provided. Do not write 4
outside the box around each page or on blank pages.
• If you need extra space for your answer(s), use the lined pages at the end of 5
this book. Write the question number against your answer(s). 6
• Do all rough work in this booklet. Cross through any work you do not 7
want to be marked.
8
• You are not allowed to use a calculator.
9
Information 10
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets. 11
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
12
• You may use a bilingual dictionary.
• You may not use an English dictionary. 13

TOTAL

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Answer all questions in the spaces provided. box

0 1 . 1 What is a computer network?

[1 mark]

A computer network is a collection of devices that can communicate with each other

0 1 . 2 What does WAN stand for?

[1 mark]

W Wide A Area N Network

0 1 . 3 Tick () one box to indicate which of the statements is true.

[1 mark]

Statement Tick () one

A A LAN usually carries more data than a WAN.

A WAN can link together computers that are on

B
more than one site.

C A WAN is usually a private network.

A WAN is usually owned by a single person or

D
organisation.

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0 1 . 4 Describe the layout of a network that uses a star topology. box

[2 marks]

In a star topology, each device is connected to a central hub. All communication

between devices goes through this central node.

0 1 . 5 State one advantage of using a bus topology instead of a star topology.

[1 mark]

Less wires needed

0 1 . 6 Devices connected to a network use protocols to communicate.

Define the term protocol.

[1 mark]

set of rules that devices have when communicating with each other

Turn over for the next question

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0 2 Figure 1 shows the list 32, 85, 18, 4, 10, 72, 41 being sorted using the merge sort box

algorithm.

Some of the boxes have been left empty.

Complete the empty boxes in Figure 1 to show how the merge sort algorithm would
be applied to the list.
[2 marks]

Figure 1

32 85 18 4

32 85 18 4

32 85 4 18

4 18 32 85

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ANSWER IN THE SPACES PROVIDED

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0 3 . 1 State what compression is. box

[1 mark]

it reduces the amount of data when storing a file

0 3 . 2 State one reason why data is compressed.

[1 mark]

to reduce storage space

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0 3 . 3 The word SELFLESSNESS is to be represented using Huffman coding. box

Draw a Huffman tree that could be used to encode the word SELFLESSNESS.
[4 marks]

Working:

Final answer (Huffman tree):

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0 4 . 1 State an example of an embedded system. box

[1 mark]

smart watches

0 4 . 2 Describe three common differences between embedded systems and

desktop computers.
[3 marks]

Difference 1

embedded systems have specific purpose and desktop computers are general
purpose.

Difference 2

Embedded systems often have less memory while desktop computers have more memory .

Difference 3

Embedded systems are usually designed to perform a fixed set of tasks and desktop
computers can many software applications.

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ANSWER IN THE SPACES PROVIDED

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0 5 A relational database has been created to store data about the dishes that are served box

on different days in a school and the ingredients that are used to make them.

There are three tables in the database: Menu, Dish and Ingredient.

Figure 2 shows some of the data in the three tables.

Figure 2

Menu
Day DishID
Monday 1
Monday 2
Monday 3
Monday 4
Monday 5
Tuesday 6
Tuesday 4
Wednesday 7

Dish
DishID DishName Course
1 Vegetarian lasagne Main
2 Chicken salad Main
3 Chicken burger Main
4 Chocolate brownie Dessert
5 Flapjack Dessert
6 Lamb kofta Main
7 Doughnut Dessert

Ingredient
DishID IngredientName Quantity Category
1 Butternut squash 1 Vegetable
1 Red pepper 3 Vegetable
2 Chicken breast 0.5 Meat
3 Burger bun 1 Bread
3 Chicken breast 1 Meat
5 Oats 200 Cereal
6 Minced lamb 500 Meat

0 5 . 1 State a suitable data type for the Quantity field in the Ingredient table.
[1 mark]

real

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0 5 . 2 Write an SQL query that lists the ingredient names and quantities of all the vegetables box

that are needed to make the dishes that the canteen serves on a Monday.
[4 marks]

SELECT IngredientName, Quantity

FROM Menu, Ingredien

WHERE Menu.Day = "Monday"

AND Ingredient.Category = "Vegetable"

AND Ingredient.DishID = Menu.DishID

0 5 . 3 Flapjacks are now made using chocolate chips, which are a new ingredient.
Chocolate chips are in the category Confectionery and 100 chocolate chips are
used to make flapjacks.

Complete the SQL code to add the new ingredient to the Ingredient table.
[2 marks]

INSERT INTO Ingredient

VALUES ( 5, "Chocolate chips", 100, "Confectionery" )

0 5 . 4 The database design could be improved as the Ingredient table includes

redundant data.

Describe an example of redundant data in the Ingredient table.

[1 mark]

Chicken breast

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0 6 Two methods that can be used to improve the security of a network are a firewall and box

MAC address filtering.

0 6 . 1 Describe how a firewall works to keep a computer network secure.

[2 marks]

A firewall works by blocking any data packets that do not meet a set of protocols.
It acts as a barrier between the network and the outside world
preventing unauthorized access.

0 6 . 2 Describe how MAC address filtering works to keep a computer network secure.
[2 marks]

MAC address filtering works by allowing only devices with specific MAC addresses
to access the network. A list of allowed MAC addresses is present and any device
with a MAC address not on the list cannot enter.

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0 7 . 1 Explain the difference between the purpose of a compiler and the purpose of an box

assembler.
[1 mark]

A compiler translates high-level language code into machine code

while an assembler translates assembly language code into machine code.

0 7 . 2 Describe how an interpreter is used to execute a program written in a

high-level language.
[2 marks]

An interpreter executes a program line by line and it does not create a separate
executable file.
An interpreter executes a program line by line and it does not create a separate executable file.

interpreter executes teh code line by line and does not create and executable file

0 7 . 3 Describe two differences between low-level and high-level languages.

[2 marks]

Difference 1
low level languages are similar to machiene code but are hard to understand compared to high
level languages

Difference 2

LLL uses mnemonics while HLL uses comamand words

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0 8 Figure 3 shows pseudocode for a search algorithm. The lines of the pseudocode are box

numbered.

Figure 3

1 SearchName  USERINPUT
2 Start  0
3 End  LEN(Names) - 1
4 Found  False
5 WHILE Start ≤ End AND Found = False
6 MidPoint  (Start + End) DIV 2
7 IF SearchName > Names[MidPoint] THEN
8 Start  MidPoint + 1
9 ELSE IF SearchName < Names[MidPoint] THEN
10 End  MidPoint - 1
11 ELSE IF SearchName = Names[MidPoint] THEN
12 OUTPUT "Name found at position:"
13 OUTPUT MidPoint
14 Found  True
15 ENDIF
16 ENDWHILE

Figure 4 shows the contents of the Names array.

Figure 4

[0] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Ali Farhan Fendi Kathy Maryam Snehil Ruby

0 8 . 1 Complete the trace table below to show the algorithm in Figure 3 being carried out on
the array in Figure 4 when the user enters the name Fendi to search for.

You may not need to use all of the rows.

[4 marks]

SearchName Start End Found MidPoint Names[MidPoint]

Fendi 0 6 false 3 kathy

Fendi 0 2 false 1 Farhan

Fendi 2 2 false 2 Fendi

Fendi 2 2 true

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0 8 . 2 State the name of the search algorithm that the pseudocode in Figure 3 implements. box

[1 mark]

binary search

0 8 . 3 It is proposed that the code on line 11 in Figure 3 is changed from:

ELSE IF SearchName = Names[MidPoint] THEN

to:

ELSE

State whether or not editing this line of the algorithm would affect whether the
algorithm works as it should and explain why this is the case.
[1 mark]

Editing the line will not affect the algorithm because ELSE still runs when the
name is found.

Turn over for the next question

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0 9 Figure 5 shows an incomplete flowchart. box

When completed, the flowchart is supposed to represent an algorithm that:

• Gets the user to enter a number
• Repeatedly doubles that number until it is greater than 100
• Outputs the resulting number.

Complete the flowchart shown in Figure 5 by adding all the missing labels so it
represents the algorithm described.
[4 marks]
Figure 5

start

input number

Is number > 100

number = number * 2 Output number

stop
4

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1 0 Figure 6 shows a logic circuit represented as a Boolean expression. box

Figure 6

Q=A+B

1 0 . 1 Draw a logic circuit diagram in the space below for the Boolean expression in
Figure 6. Your logic circuit diagram must use exactly four logic gates.

[4 marks]

Figure 7 shows the truth table for the Boolean expression in Figure 6.

Figure 7

A B Q
0 0 0
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1

1 0 . 2 The Boolean expression in Figure 6 and the truth table in Figure 7 produce the same
output as a logic gate.

State the name of this logic gate.

[1 mark]

OR gate

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1 1 Weak passwords and default passwords are threats to cyber security. box

1 1 . 1 State two reasons why a password could be a weak password.

[2 marks]

Reason 1
too short

Reason 2 uses common words

1 1 . 2 When you get a new wireless router, it sometimes has a default password which you
should change.

Explain why default passwords are a threat to cyber security.

[2 marks]

Default passwords are a threat because they arevery knownand can be easily
guessed by hackers

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1 1 . 3 Social engineering can be used to find out a computer user’s password. box

State two social engineering techniques and for each describe how they could be
used to find out a computer user’s password.
[2 marks]

Technique phishing

How it could be used

sends fake email to victim to reveal their password

Technique Pretexting

How it could be used making up a false scenario to trick victim to reveal information

Turn over for the next question

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1 2 . 1 Convert the binary number 10011100 to hexadecimal. box

[2 marks]

9C

Answer

1 2 . 2 Convert the hexadecimal number 84 to decimal.

[2 marks]

132

Answer

1 2 . 3 Add together the two binary numbers shown in Figure 8.

Your answer must be in binary.

Figure 8

1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0
+ 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0

11101010
Answer

[2 marks]

1 2 . 4 State the name of the component inside a CPU that is used to carry out the addition of
two binary numbers.
[1 mark]

CPU and ALU

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1 2 . 5 State the name of the component inside a CPU that sends out a regular electronic box

pulse.
[1 mark]

clock

1 2 . 6 Explain the role of the control unit.

[2 marks]

manages flow of data and fetches and decodes them as well

1 2 . 7 Computer A has four cores. Computer B has two cores. Each core can execute
one instruction at a time.

Describe two reasons why the CPU in Computer A might not be twice as fast as the
CPU in Computer B.
[2 marks]

Reason 1 others factor like clock seed also affects the performance

Reason 2 some tasks should be done individually

Question 12 continues on the next page

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1 2 . 8 RAM and secondary storage have different capacities and access speeds. box

Describe two other differences between RAM and secondary storage.

[2 marks]

Difference 1
RAM is volatile and secondary storage is nonvolatile

Difference 2 RAM is used to run programs frequently used by the computer

while secondary storage is long term

1 2 . 9 One resource managed by the operating system is memory.

State two other resources that are managed by the operating system.
[2 marks]

Resource 1
processor

Resource 2 input and output device

16

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1 3 Figure 9 shows the HTML used to create a web page. box

Figure 9

<html>
<head>
<title>Suffolk towns</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Biggest towns in Suffolk</p>
<ol>
<li>Ipswich</li>
<li>Lowestoft</li>
</ol>
</body>
</html>

1 3 . 1 Sketch what the web page in Figure 9 will look like when displayed in a web browser.

You may use labels to make your layout clearer, if necessary.

Suffolk towns

Biggest towns in Suffolk

1. Ipswich
2. Lowestoft

[3 marks]

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1 3 . 2 The <ol></ol> tags are replaced with the <ul></ul> tags. box

What is the impact on the web page?

[1 mark]

ordered list will change to unordered list

1 3 . 3 The <p></p> tags are removed from Biggest towns in Suffolk.

What is the impact on the web page?

[1 mark]

no chnage

1 3 . 4 The following style rule is applied to the web page:

ol {color: red}

What could ol be replaced with to achieve the same change in the appearance of the
web page?
[1 mark]

li

Question 13 continues on the next page

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1 3 . 5 Tick () two boxes to indicate which of the tags are available in HTML5 but not box

available in earlier versions of HTML.

[1 mark]

Tag Tick () two

A <br>

B <div>

C <header>

D <video> 7

END OF QUESTIONS

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number Write the question numbers in the left-hand margin.

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number Write the question numbers in the left-hand margin.

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