Computer trivia

8 computer trivia questions, from easy to hard. Tap a question to see the answer. They're real questions from Rubicon, where you type the answer yourself and an AI judge reads what you meant.

This set covers Computer Graphics & Game Tech, Cybersecurity & Hacking, Databases, Cloud & Big Data, How Processors Work and Operating Systems & Software.

Questions and answers

  1. Easy Why does adding extra characters make a password dramatically harder to crack?

    Each added character multiplies total possible combinations, exponentially increasing how many guesses an attacker must attempt.

  2. Easy In the computing acronym SQL, what does the letter Q stand for?

    The Q in SQL stands for query, referring to Structured Query Language used to request database records.

  3. Easy Why do digital photos appear as a grid of tiny colored dots?

    Digital images are made of tiny colored squares, called pixels, arranged to form a complete picture.

  4. Medium Why do processors keep the arithmetic logic unit separate from the control unit?

    It separates the mathematical calculation hardware from the orchestration circuitry that retrieves instructions and manages data flow.

  5. Medium How does an operating system let multiple apps run smoothly together on a single processor core?

    It rapidly switches between tasks, giving each application a tiny slice of processing time to create the illusion of concurrency.

  6. Medium What critical problem does the NTFS file system journal prevent after a sudden power loss?

    It prevents file system corruption and inconsistencies by tracking changes to metadata before they are written.

  7. Hard Why must a database record transactions in a write-ahead log before altering data files on disk?

    It provides a permanent record to undo incomplete changes and reapply completed transactions after a crash.

  8. Hard How does relaxing instant synchronization across replicas allow distributed databases to easily handle massive increases in write operations?

    Nodes can acknowledge incoming writes immediately without waiting for global consensus, avoiding network bottlenecks as more servers are added.

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