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ICAR-IASRI MSc and PhD Computer Science Fundamentals: Architecture, Data Structures, Networks & Operating Systems: practice questions

ICAR-IASRI MSc and PhD (Agricultural Statistics, Computer Application, Bioinformatics) · India · ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute with the IARI Graduate School

Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papers
10worked here, free
22written to this exam in this subject
11syllabus units

What this subject covers

The computer-science core of the Computer Application sub-subject in the ICAR Statistical Sciences group: number systems and architecture, data structures and algorithms, operating systems, networks, compilers, software engineering and web programming. Statisticians need the data-structure and algorithm units; Computer Application candidates need all of it.

In the exams: AICE-JRF subject 70 Computer Application Units 1-9 (heavy: the whole paper); AIEEA-PG Group 07 computer unit (heavy for sub-subject 7.2); GATE DA data structures and algorithms (present)

Where the 22 questions fall

How our questions for ICAR-IASRI MSc and PhD spread across the units of Computer Science Fundamentals: Architecture, Data Structures, Networks & Operating Systems. Difficulty: 10 easy, 11 medium, 1 hard.

Networking: topologies, OSI and TCP/IP models, security and cryptography basics3
Office tools and spreadsheets for data work3
Computer organisation: CPU, memory hierarchy and input/output2
Data structures: arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, heaps and graphs2
Sorting and searching algorithms and their complexity2
Object-oriented programming: encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism (C++/Java)2
Operating systems: processes, scheduling, memory management, deadlocks and file systems2
Compilers: regular expressions, finite automata and parsing2
Internet programming: HTML, client- and server-side scripting with databases2
Number systems, Boolean algebra and logic circuits1
Software engineering: process models, testing, metrics and PERT/CPM for projects1

10 practice questions, worked

Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.

1 · Number systems, Boolean algebra and logic circuits · easy

What is binary 1101 in decimal?

  1. 11
  2. 13
  3. 15
  4. 26
Answer and working

B. 13

Place values 8, 4, 2, 1: 8 + 4 + 0 + 1 = 13.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

2 · Data structures: arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, heaps and graphs · easy

A stack follows which access rule?

  1. Last in, first out
  2. First in, first out
  3. Random access by key
  4. Highest priority first
Answer and working

A. Last in, first out

Queues are FIFO; priority queues serve the highest priority.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

3 · Data structures: arrays, stacks, queues, linked lists, trees, heaps and graphs · medium

An adjacency matrix for a graph with n vertices uses memory of order:

  1. n
  2. n²
  3. log n
  4. n + edges
Answer and working

B. n²

Adjacency lists use space proportional to n plus the number of edges.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

4 · Sorting and searching algorithms and their complexity · easy

Binary search requires that the data are:

  1. Stored in a linked list
  2. Unique
  3. Numeric
  4. Sorted
Answer and working

D. Sorted

Each comparison discards half of a sorted range.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

5 · Object-oriented programming: encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism (C++/Java) · easy

An object is:

  1. A template for creating classes
  2. An instance of a class
  3. A compiled program
  4. A database table
Answer and working

B. An instance of a class

The class is the template; objects are its instances.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

6 · Object-oriented programming: encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism (C++/Java) · medium

Java allows a class to:

  1. Extend one class and implement many interfaces
  2. Extend many classes at once, as C++ allows
  3. Implement no interfaces at all ever
  4. Inherit only from interfaces
Answer and working

A. Extend one class and implement many interfaces

C++ allows multiple inheritance of classes.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

7 · Operating systems: processes, scheduling, memory management, deadlocks and file systems · easy

A thread differs from a process in that threads of the same process:

  1. Each have separate memory spaces
  2. Cannot run concurrently
  3. Share its memory space
  4. Are scheduled by the user
Answer and working

C. Share its memory space

Processes have separate address spaces; threads within one share it.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

8 · Networking: topologies, OSI and TCP/IP models, security and cryptography basics · medium

A cryptographic hash such as SHA-256 is used mainly to:

  1. Encrypt data so it can be decrypted later
  2. Compress files for storage
  3. Assign IP addresses
  4. Check that data have not been altered
Answer and working

D. Check that data have not been altered

Hashes are one-way digests; any change alters the digest.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

9 · Compilers: regular expressions, finite automata and parsing · easy

The compiler phase that breaks source code into tokens is:

  1. Lexical analysis
  2. Syntax analysis
  3. Code generation
  4. Optimisation
Answer and working

A. Lexical analysis

Parsing then checks the token sequence against the grammar.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

10 · Office tools and spreadsheets for data work · medium

Sorting a single column in a spreadsheet instead of whole rows will:

  1. Scramble the records
  2. Speed up the file
  3. Remove duplicates
  4. Recalculate formulas only
Answer and working

A. Scramble the records

Values in that column no longer line up with their rows.

Further reading: Cormen et al., Introduction to Algorithms (2022); Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne, Operating System Concepts (2018); Tanenbaum and Wetherall, Computer Networks (2011); Aho et al., Compilers (2006); Sommerville, Software Engineering (2015)

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Computer Science Fundamentals: Architecture, Data Structures, Networks & Operating SystemsThe full study manual, free ICAR-IASRI MSc and PhDFormat, sections and how it has changed

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