AP CSP Vocab Test Flashcards
What is Moore’s Law?
Generally speaking, every 2.5 years the processing speed of a computer doubles & the processor size is cut in half.
What is a DDoS attack?
Distributed Denial of Service attack. This is when someone intentionally floods a server with requests, overloading the server and preventing legitimate requests from getting through.
What is the Internet Engineering Task Force?
The organization responsible for creating and maintaining standards and protocols for Internet communication.
What are logic gates?
The digital electronics/engineering equivalent of the compound Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT.
What are unsolvable problems?
Some problems are impossible to solve using a computer – there’s no algorithm for which the problem can be solved with a clear yes or no answer.
What is unreasonable time in algorithms?
Any algorithm that runs in exponential time as the number of elements n increases.
What is reasonable time in algorithms?
Any algorithm that runs in polynomial time/log time as the number of elements n increases.
What is a computing innovation?
An innovation that includes a program as an integral part of its function.
What is phishing?
A technique that attempts to trick a user into providing personal information.
What is malware?
Software intended to damage a computing system or to take partial control over its operation.
What is a rogue access point?
A wireless access point that gives unauthorized access to secure networks.
What is encryption?
A process of encoding messages to keep them secret, so only authorized parties can read it.
What is decryption?
A process that reverses encryption, taking a secret message and reproducing the original plain text.
What is a cipher?
The generic term for a technique (or algorithm) that performs encryption.
What is Caesar’s Cipher?
A technique for encryption that shifts the alphabet by some number of characters.
What is cracking encryption?
When you attempt to decode a secret message without knowing all the specifics of the cipher, you are trying to crack the encryption.
What is multi-factor authentication?
A method of computer access in which a user has to successfully provide evidence in at least two of the following categories: knowledge, possession, and inherence.
What is computer virus scanning software?
Software that protects a computing system against infection.
What is information?
The collection of facts and patterns extracted from data.
What is causation?
The reason why something happens.
What is metadata?
Data about data.
What is data filtering?
Choosing a smaller subset of a data set to use for analysis, for example by eliminating or keeping only certain rows in a table.
What is citizen science?
Scientific research conducted in whole or part by distributed individuals, many of whom may not be scientists, who contribute relevant data to research using their own computing devices.
What is artificial intelligence?
Simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn like humans.
What is a function in programming?
A block of code that performs some specific task that may or may not return a value.
What is a parameter?
A placeholder within a function for values that are passed into a function as variables.
What is a logic error?
A mistake in a program’s source code that results in incorrect or unexpected behavior.
What is a syntax error?
An error in the source code of a program that often prevents the program from compiling or running.
What is program documentation?
A written description of the function of a code segment, event, procedure, or program and how it was developed.
What are comments in programming?
A form of program documentation written into the program to be read by people and do not affect how a program runs.
What is a variable?
A value that is stored that can be accessed or changed by the program.
What is an event in programming?
An action or occurrence recognized by a program that is often originated from the external environment.
What is an event handler?
Program code that is initiated by an event.
What is a string?
A data type used to represent text that is often enclosed by quotation marks.
What is an integer?
A data type used to represent numeric values holding whole numbers.
What is a float?
A data type used to represent numeric values holding fractional numbers.
What is type casting?
Changing a variable from one type to another.
What is selection in programming?
One of the basic logic structures in programming, refers to a conditional.
What is a conditional statement?
A statement that performs a specific action depending on whether the Boolean condition evaluates to true or false.
What is a Boolean?
A data type for variables and conditions that evaluates to either true or false.
What is an expression in programming?
A portion of a programming statement that can consist of a value, a variable, an operator, or a procedure call that returns a value.
What is a procedure?
A named group of programming instructions that may have parameters and return values.
What is cracking encryption?
When you attempt to decode a secret message without knowing all the specifics of the cipher, you are trying to crack the encryption.
What is multi-factor authentication?
A method of computer access in which a user has to successfully provide evidence in at least two of the following categories: knowledge, possession, and inherence.
What is computer virus scanning software?
Software that protects a computing system against infection.
What is information?
The collection of facts and patterns extracted from data.
What is causation?
The reason why something happens.
What is metadata?
Data about data.
What is data filtering?
Choosing a smaller subset of a data set to use for analysis, for example by eliminating or keeping only certain rows in a table.
What is citizen science?
Scientific research conducted in whole or part by distributed individuals, many of whom may not be scientists, who contribute relevant data to research using their own computing devices.
What is artificial intelligence?
Simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and learn like humans.
What is a function in programming?
A block of code that performs some specific task that may or may not return a value.
What is a parameter?
A placeholder within a function for values that are passed into a function as variables.
What is a logic error?
A mistake in a program’s source code that results in incorrect or unexpected behavior.
What is a syntax error?
An error in the source code of a program that often prevents the program from compiling or running.
What is program documentation?
A written description of the function of a code segment, event, procedure, or program and how it was developed.
What are comments in programming?
A form of program documentation written into the program to be read by people and do not affect how a program runs.
What is a variable?
A value that is stored that can be accessed or changed by the program.
What is an event in programming?
An action or occurrence recognized by a program that is often originated from the external environment.