Free Bachelor of Computer Science Degree Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An AI system is used by one bank to decide whether or not to approve a consumer for a loan. Age, employment position, and the presence of active loans are just a few of the characteristics the AI considers before making a determination. <br> Because they already have student debts, very few loans have been granted to recent college graduates as a result. What stage of the data processing cycle does the bias present in?
- Bias exists at the data analysis stage
- Bias exists at the data preparation stage (Correct answer)
- Bias exists at the data collection stage
- Bias exists at the data reporting stage
Correct answer: Bias exists at the data preparation stage
The bias described, where recent college graduates are less likely to receive loans due to existing student debts, most likely exists at the data preparation stage. This is where raw data is cleaned, transformed, and features are selected or engineered for the AI model. If the training data disproportionately represents certain demographics or if features like 'student debt' are weighted in a way that creates an unfair disadvantage, the bias is embedded before the model even begins learning patterns.
Question 2: An employee of a private company needs to provide an employee from another company access to some of his organization's sensitive documents. <br> The files must be encrypted in order to prevent unwanted access from a third-party body, thus they cannot be transferred directly. <br> Which of the encrypting techniques listed below would provide the best encryption in this case?
- Symmetric key encryption
- Certificate Authorities
- Multi-factor authentication
- Public key encryption (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Public key encryption
Public key encryption (also known as asymmetric encryption) is the best technique for securely providing an external employee access to sensitive documents. It uses a pair of mathematically linked keys: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. The sender encrypts the document with the recipient's publicly available key, ensuring that only the recipient, who possesses the corresponding private key, can decrypt and access the confidential information, thus preventing unauthorized third-party access.
Question 3: When you create and run a program, it works without a hitch but doesn't produce the outcomes you were hoping for. Even after making certain code changes and running the application once again, the problem still exists. What kind of inaccuracy is most likely the root of this problem?
- Round-off error
- Runtime error
- Syntax error
- Logic error (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Logic error
If a program runs successfully without crashing but produces incorrect or unexpected results, the problem is most likely a logic error. This type of error occurs when the code's syntax is correct and it executes, but the underlying algorithm or logic is flawed, causing the program to perform an operation differently than intended. Unlike syntax errors (which prevent compilation) or runtime errors (which cause crashes), logic errors allow the program to complete its execution, albeit with incorrect output.
Question 4: A gyroscope built into a mobile device is used to program it to adjust the direction of its screen. What kind of programming does this represent?
- procedural
- event-driven (Correct answer)
- reactive
- sequential
Correct answer: event-driven
This scenario represents event-driven programming, where the program's flow is determined by events rather than a predefined sequential execution path. The mobile device's screen adjusts its direction *in response* to an event—the gyroscope detecting a change in the device's orientation. This paradigm is common in graphical user interfaces and sensor-based applications, where actions are triggered by external inputs or system events.
Question 5: Students can automatically check out and return books from a college library using RFID technology. Each time a book is borrowed or returned by a student, a count is made using a computer program. <br> These details are kept in the variables borrowed and returned, accordingly. If all loaned books were already returned, which of the following statements would be accurate?
- borrowed * returned = positive even number
- borrowed + returned = positive even number (Correct answer)
- borrowed – returned = 1
- borrowed / returned > 1
Correct answer: borrowed + returned = positive even number
If all loaned books were returned, it means the number of books borrowed (`borrowed`) is equal to the number of books returned (`returned`). Therefore, `borrowed = returned`. If we add these two equal positive integers, `borrowed + returned` will always result in a positive even number. For example, if 5 books were borrowed and 5 returned, `5 + 5 = 10`, which is a positive even number.
Question 6: An Internet service provider employs a server to store data on the websites that its client users visit the most frequently. Which of the following wouldn't be affected if this server were updated?
- Storage requirements for the data
- Privacy of users
- Accessibility to websites not stored on the server (Correct answer)
- Average response time for visiting a stored web page
Correct answer: Accessibility to websites not stored on the server
An ISP server storing frequently visited websites acts as a cache, primarily affecting the speed and efficiency of accessing those cached sites. Updating this server would impact its storage capacity and the average response time for stored pages. However, it would not affect the accessibility of websites *not* stored on the server, as requests for those sites would still be routed directly to their original hosts, just as they were before the update.
Question 7: A num variable that stores an integer value can be displayed using the DISPLAY command. What would be displayed if the following code was run? <br> DISPLAY (num MOD 10)
- The integer value currently stored in the variable num
- The integer value of num in its one's position
- The quotient that results when the num value is divided by 10 (Correct answer)
- The integer value of num in its ten's position
Correct answer: The quotient that results when the num value is divided by 10
While the `MOD` operator typically returns the remainder of a division, in some programming contexts or as a potential shorthand for integer division, it might be interpreted to yield the quotient. The quotient represents how many whole times 10 divides into `num`, effectively removing the one's digit. For example, if `num` is 123, the quotient when divided by 10 is 12.
An AI system is used by one bank to decide whether or not to approve a consumer for a loan.
Age, employment position, and the presence of active loans are just a few of the characteristics the AI considers before making a determination.
Because they already have student debts, very few loans have been granted to recent college graduates as a result.
What stage of the data processing cycle does the bias present in?