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.
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 an Argument?
Values of the parameters that are passed when a procedure is called.
What are Boundary Cases?
Inputs used to test a program that demonstrate the different expected outcomes that are at or just beyond the extremes (minimum and maximum) of input data.
What is an index?
Identifies a value’s unique position on a list.
What is an element?
One data point that is stored in a list. It is a single part of a larger group.
What is a list?
Data structure that stores one or more similar types of values in a single value. A collection of individual values that are related.
What does Traversing (a list) mean?
Performing the same operation on each item of the list, sequentially.
What does insert mean in the context of a list?
Add an element to a list at a certain index.
What does replace mean?
Update the contents of an element.
What is iteration?
Repetition of a process.
What is a for each loop?
Control structure designed to iterate over each element of a list and repeat the same action.
What is a linear search?
An algorithm that iterates through each item in a list until it finds the target value.
Sequential search is a synonym for linear search.
What is a Decidable problem?
A decision problem for which an algorithm can be written to produce a correct output for all inputs.
What is a Library in programming?
A software library contains existing procedures that may be used in creating new programs.
What is an API?
Application Program Interfaces (API) provide details or specifications on how the procedures behave and can be used.
What is an Expression?
A combination of operators and values that evaluates to a single value.
What is a Variable?
An abstraction inside the program that can hold a value. Each variable has associated data storage that represents one value at a time.
What is an Assignment operator?
Allows a program to change the value represented by a variable.
What does Increment mean?
Add one to a number.
What is Algorithmic Efficiency?
A measure of execution time and memory usage while still yielding a correct answer.
What is an Array?
A type of list or data structure that stores a collection of data.
What is a Heuristic?
A technique that guides an algorithm to find good choices, but not perfect choices.
What is an Undecidable problem?
A problem that may have some instances that have an algorithmic solution, but there is no algorithmic solution that could solve all instances of the problem.
What is Pseudocode?
A high level textual algorithm written in informative text that mimics a programming language.
What is Natural Language?
Language that is spoken and understood by humans but cannot be processed by the computer.
What is Machine Language?
A collection of binary digits or bits that the computer reads and interprets. It is the only language a computer is capable of understanding, directly.
What is a Procedure?
Reusable collection of instructions also referred to as methods, functions, or routines.
What is Nested Iteration?
A loop inside of another loop.
What is a Logic Error?
A mistake in the algorithm, not the language syntax, that causes it to behave incorrectly.
What is Modular Math?
The operation of integer division produces two results: the quotient and the remainder. The modulo operator (mod) is used for this.
Example: In military time, 14:00 evaluates to 2:00 PM on the clock.
What are Random Numbers?
Programming languages and libraries provide procedures to generate pseudo-random numbers. RANDOM(1,10) will produce any integer between 1 and 10 (inclusive).
Possible answers include 1 and 10.
What is Order of Operations?
Operator precedence in an expression, following the same rules as mathematics: Parentheses, exponents, multiplication and division, addition and subtraction (from left to right).
What is a Clone in programming?
A feature that allows a sprite to create a copy of itself while the project is running. Each clone has the same costumes, sounds, and scripts as the original.
What is a Flowchart?
A simple diagram with symbols showing the ‘flow’ of a process, used as a design tool.
What is Abstraction?
A programmer hides all but the relevant data about an object to reduce complexity and increase efficiency.
What is Debugging?
The routine process of locating and removing computer program bugs, errors, or abnormalities.
What are Parameters?
A formal argument, a special kind of variable used in a subroutine to refer to one of the pieces of data provided as input.
What is Unicode?
An international encoding standard for different languages and scripts, assigning a unique numeric value to each letter, digit, or symbol.
What are Boolean Operators?
Operators that can be used to combine logical expressions: AND, OR, and NOT (used to indicate the opposite of a logical expression).
What is a Relational Operator?
Operators like <, >, =, >=, <=, and != used to compare the relation between two operands.
Example: In ‘4 < 5’, the relational operator is < and the value of the expression is true.
What is a Conditional Statement?
A statement or expression evaluated to determine an outcome, such as repeat until, if, while, or forever if.
What is Selection in algorithms?
An algorithm can select between two alternative paths based on some condition.
What is Procedural Abstraction?
A reusable collection of statements that decreases the lines of code in a program, increases readability, and decreases the chance of errors.
What are Simulations & Models?
Simplified representations of more complex objects or phenomena developed to explain, study, or test hypotheses about the subject.
What is a Code Segment?
A collection of program statements that are part of a program.
What is TCP/IP?
Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, a suite of communication protocols used to interconnect network devices on the internet.
What is an Internet Protocol Address?
A numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.
What is HTTP?
Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web for communication.
What is a Computing Device?
A machine that can run a program, including computers, tablets, servers, routers, and smart sensors.
What is a Computing System?
A group of computing devices and programs working together for a common purpose.
What is a Computing Network?
A group of interconnected computing devices capable of sending or receiving data.
What is a Path in networking?
The series of connections between computing devices on a network starting with a sender and ending with a receiver.
What is Bandwidth?
The maximum amount of data that can be sent in a fixed amount of time, usually measured in bits per second.
What is a Packet?
A small chunk of any kind of data: text, numbers, lists, etc.
What does Redundant mean in networking?
There are multiple pathways among the physical connections of the Internet to create redundancy, ensuring message transmission even if one pathway is unavailable.
What does Hierarchical mean in Internet addressing?
There are two hierarchical Internet addressing systems: domain names and IP addresses, which work similarly to postal addressing.
What is a system that locates people?
A system that locates people first by state, then city, then street, then house number, then apartment, and finally person.
What is a protocol?
An agreed-upon set of rules that specify the behavior of some system.
What is an IP Address?
The unique number assigned to each device on the Internet.
What is Internet Protocol (IP)?
A protocol for sending data across the Internet that assigns unique numbers (IP addresses) to each connected device.
What is fault-tolerance?
The property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of failure of one or more components.
What is a router?
A device that forwards data packets along networks, connected to at least two networks.
What is a logic error?
A mistake in the algorithm or program that causes it to behave incorrectly or unexpectedly.
What is tracing?
Simulating the execution of program code in order to manually verify that it works correctly.
What is debugging?
The process of identifying and removing errors from computer hardware or software.
What is an overflow error?
An error that occurs when calculated data cannot fit within the storage capacity of a device.
What is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)?
A standard that defines how to establish and maintain a network conversation through which application programs can exchange data.
What is User Datagram Protocol (UDP)?
A protocol used to send short messages called datagrams; it is unreliable and connectionless.
What is scalability?
The capability of a system to change in size and scale to meet new demands.
What is a bit?
The smallest unit of data in a computer, with a single binary value of either 0 or 1.
What is a byte?
A unit of data that is eight binary digits long, often used to represent a character.
What is binary?
A numbering scheme in which there are only two possible values for each digit: 0 and 1.
What is an algorithm?
A complete, well-defined sequence of steps for completing a task or solving a problem.
What is a program?
A sequence of instructions written in a language that can be understood by a computer.
What is a pixel?
A minute area of illumination on a display screen, one of many that compose an image.
What is heuristic problem solving?
An approach to problem solving that finds satisfactory solutions where traditional methods may not.
What is lossy compression?
A data encoding and compression technique that deliberately discards some data.
What is a Creative Commons license?
A license that enables the free distribution of an author’s work, allowing others to share, use, and build upon it.
What is open source?
Programs that are made freely available and may be redistributed and modified.
What is open access?
Online research output free of restrictions on access and use.
