PPSC Computer Science Past Paper 2025 Solved MCQs with Answers

Bluetooth is the short range radio standard used for wireless keyboards, mice and headsets, because it draws very little power.

Execution time is the time the processor actually spends carrying out a task. Access time is the time taken to fetch data from memory.

In half duplex both ends can send and receive, but only one at a time, as with a walkie talkie. Full duplex allows both at once.

A web browser is application software. Utilities such as antivirus, defragmenters and compressors maintain the system rather than do the user's work.

POP3 downloads mail to one device and by default removes it from the server. IMAP keeps mail on the server so several devices stay in step.

WIN.INI held Windows environment and application settings in the 3.x and 9x era, before the registry took over that role.

A hard real time system must never miss a deadline, so its tolerance is less than that of a soft real time system, where a late result is merely degraded.

Joining text from several cells into one is concatenation, done with the CONCAT function or the ampersand operator. Merging cells only combines the cells themselves.

Antivirus software is utility software, since it maintains and protects the system rather than performing a user task.

A data analyst collects, cleans and interprets data to draw conclusions that support decisions.

A hard disk drive is secondary storage: large, non-volatile and outside the direct reach of the processor. RAM, ROM and cache are primary memory.

Cache memory is volatile, built from SRAM, so its contents are lost the moment power is removed.

WWW stands for World Wide Web, the system of linked hypertext documents that runs over the internet.

Ctrl + K opens the Insert Hyperlink dialog in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

F7 runs the spelling and grammar check in the Microsoft Office applications.

F5 starts the slide show from the first slide. Shift + F5 starts from the current slide.

Ctrl + F2 opens Print Preview in MS Word. Ctrl + P opens the Print dialog.

PowerPoint presentations are saved with the .pptx extension in the Office Open XML format.

VLOOKUP searches vertically down the leftmost column of a table and returns a value from a column to its right. HLOOKUP is the horizontal equivalent.

Landscape and portrait are the two page orientations, landscape being wider than it is tall.

Print Layout view shows the page exactly as it will print, with margins, headers and footers in place.

Animations are applied to objects on a slide, such as text boxes, pictures or charts. Transitions apply to whole slides.

Rows in Excel are numbered, while columns are lettered, which is why a cell reference such as B7 has a letter then a number.

IOT stands for the Internet of Things, the network of everyday devices that collect and exchange data over the internet.

The slide master holds the formatting, fonts, colours and layouts inherited by every slide, so one change updates the whole presentation.

A theme is the coordinated set of colours, fonts and effects applied to a document. A template is a whole starter file.

The default chart type in Excel is the clustered column chart, produced by Alt + F1 or F11.

The title bar at the top of a window displays the name of the application and of the open file.

SSD stands for solid state drive, which stores data in flash memory and so has no moving parts.

A modem modulates a digital signal into analog form for transmission and demodulates it at the other end, which is where its name comes from.

Ctrl + Shift + < decreases the font size. Ctrl + Shift + > increases it.

Conditional formatting applies a format, such as a fill colour or a data bar, only to cells that satisfy a rule you set.

Plug and play lets the operating system detect a newly connected device and configure it automatically, without the user installing a driver by hand.

Track Changes records insertions, deletions and formatting changes for review, and is a feature of MS Word.

Transitions control how one slide gives way to the next, so they apply to slides. Animations apply to objects on a slide.

One byte is 8 bits, so 16 bits make 2 bytes.

Ctrl + D opens the Font dialog box in MS Word.

The .exe extension marks an executable file, a program the operating system can run directly.

A hyperlink is the clickable link that takes the reader to another page or website.

The dot matrix printer gives the poorest graphics quality, since it forms images from a coarse grid of pin strikes.

AVERAGE(B1:B10) returns the arithmetic mean of the values in cells B1 through B10, ignoring empty cells.

DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc, so named because it carries video, audio and data alike.

ICT stands for Information and Communication Technology.

BCC stands for blind carbon copy. Recipients in this field receive the message, but the other recipients cannot see their addresses.

Insert, Picture, Clip Art opens the Clip Art task pane, from which you search the gallery and insert an image.

Ctrl + M inserts a new slide in PowerPoint.

Microsoft Word is application software, written to perform a task for the user. The operating system, drivers and BIOS are system software.

Print is on the File menu, which in the ribbon versions of Office is the Backstage view.

A touch screen is both an input and an output device, since it displays the interface and accepts the user's touch on it.

AutoSave saves the document automatically as you work, in Office when the file is stored in OneDrive or SharePoint.

Superscript is a font effect, not a font style. Bold, italic and regular are the font styles.

The plus sign increases the zoom level and so expands the view. The minus sign reduces it.

Blockchain keeps a decentralised record, a ledger copied across many nodes rather than held by one central authority, which is what makes tampering impractical.

SUM adds the values in a range, whether the range runs across a row or down a column.

Margins are set at the top, bottom, left and right of the page. There is no centre margin.

Notepad is a plain text editor, which is why it is used for configuration files and code snippets that must carry no formatting.

Ctrl + O opens an existing presentation in PowerPoint, as it does in the other Office applications.

Raw facts are data. Once processed into a meaningful, usable form they become information.

Bit is short for binary digit, a single 0 or 1, the smallest unit of data a computer holds.

Ctrl + S saves the file under its current name and location. Use Save As to give it a new name.

A flowchart is the diagram that sets out the steps and decisions in a program's flow.

SUMIF adds only those cells in a range that meet the condition you specify.

A webcam is an input device, since it captures images and sends them into the computer.

MS Access is database management software, used to store data in related tables and query it.

Backspace deletes the character to the left of the cursor. The Delete key removes the character to its right.

Shift + F3 cycles the selected text through lower case, sentence case and upper case in MS Word.

F1 opens help in Windows and in the Office applications.

A fault in a program that stops it running correctly is called a bug. A virus is malicious code, which is a different thing.

Screen quality is measured chiefly by resolution, the number of pixels the display can show.

A red wavy underline marks a suspected spelling mistake in MS Word. A blue or green wavy line marks a grammar issue.

Setting a register or counter to all zeros is called a reset.

Computer labs use microcomputers, that is personal computers, one for each user.

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus, the standard connection for peripherals and external storage.

Incognito or private browsing stops the browser saving history, cookies and search entries on that device. It does not hide the traffic from the network or the websites visited.

AND, NAND and OR are logic gates, the building blocks of digital circuits.

Conditional Formatting is on the Home tab of the Excel ribbon, in the Styles group.

Footnotes and endnotes are inserted from the References tab in MS Word.

The maximum zoom in MS Excel is 400 per cent, and the minimum is 10 per cent.

Removing unwanted parts from the edges of an image is called cropping. Resizing changes the whole image instead.

The .org top level domain indicates an organisation, and was intended for non-commercial bodies.

A valid email address takes the form user@domain.com, the local part, the @ sign, then the domain.

Ctrl + = applies subscript, placing text slightly below the baseline. Ctrl + Shift + = applies superscript.

An endnote is placed at the end of the document or section. A footnote sits at the foot of the page.

A device is located across a network by its IP address, which is why routers forward packets on that basis.

The processor and memory are mounted on the motherboard, the main circuit board that connects every component.

Coaxial cable is a wired medium. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and infrared all carry data without wires.

Ctrl + H opens Find and Replace. Ctrl + F opens Find on its own.

The formula bar shows the actual contents of the active cell, that is the formula rather than the displayed result.

Alt + Tab switches to the next open window in Windows.