Practice Test 9 - AP Computer Science Principles

20 questions. Answer them in any order, then submit to see your score and every explanation.

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1. Introduction: An airport adds facial recognition for boarding to speed up lines. Examples of Bias: Computing bias refers to unfair patterns in results produced by a computing system. Reports show some facial recognition tools misidentify travelers with darker skin tones at higher rates, often because the data used to build the tool includes fewer images of those travelers. How Bias Emerges: Bias can arise when a data set is not representative, when images are labeled inconsistently, or when testing focuses on only one group. Impacts: Misidentification can cause missed flights, extra screening, and embarrassment, which may fall more heavily on certain demographic groups. Mitigation Strategies: Airports can offer an opt-out option, measure error rates by group, and require staff to confirm identity before penalties. How does computing bias affect travelers with darker skin tones according to the passage?
2. Read the passage. In a streaming service, compression shrinks data so videos load quickly and use less bandwidth. The text explains that lossless compression preserves every bit of information, while lossy compression removes some details to achieve smaller files. For digital media, JPEG commonly compresses photos by discarding subtle image data, and MPEG commonly compresses video by reducing repeated or less-noticeable visual information across frames. This creates a trade-off: smaller files and smoother streaming versus potential blur or blocky artifacts. In contrast, text and program files often use lossless methods such as Huffman coding and LZW, since even a missing character can change meaning. Based on the text, what is the primary benefit of compression in streaming services?
3. A weather program computes the average temperature for a month; input is tempList of daily readings where some entries may be missing (null), output is averageTemp, and at least one reading may be present. Based on the described problem, How does the algorithm ensure correct results for all inputs?
4. Budget Calculator: A club splits a cost before checking limits. budget = 100 snacks = 30 posters = 20 remaining = budget - (snacks + posters) / 2What is the result of the following expression?
5. A state's tax agency moves to an online-only system for filing annual tax returns, eliminating the option to file with paper forms. This shift raises significant equity concerns related to the digital divide because it creates a major hurdle for which group of citizens?
6. If isMember is true and total is 100 during seasonal sale, what is the discount? // Online Shopping Cart discount rules IF isMember IF total >= 100 IF isSeasonalSale discount = 20 ELSE discount = 15 ELSE discount = 5 ELSE IF total >= 150 IF isSeasonalSale discount = 10 ELSE discount = 0 ELSE discount = 0
7. Which of the following is the 8-bit binary representation of the decimal number 150?
8. Which of the following code segments correctly implements the logic "If the password length is at least 8 characters AND contains both letters and numbers, display 'Strong', otherwise display 'Weak'"?
9. Read the passage. A parent night presentation covers Personal Data Security: safe computing includes using passphrases, checking privacy settings, and backing up important files. Privacy concerns include children posting school schedules that reveal when homes are empty. Security concerns include ransomware, a type of malware that locks files until payment, and phishing emails that pretend to be cloud storage notices. Ethical implications include not paying scammers immediately and reporting incidents to service providers. The passage references WannaCry's disruption and costly recovery efforts across organizations (Europol, 2017). How does the passage illustrate the impact of ransomware on data security?
10. Responsible programmers try to consider the unintended ways their computing innovations can be used. Which of the following is the best reason for this practice?
11. A teacher demonstrates iterative binary search on sorted array ["ant", "bee", "cat", "dog", "eel", "fox", "goat", "hawk", "ibis", "jaguar"] to find target "eel"; midpoint is $\lfloor(\text{low}+\text{high})/2\rfloor$. Steps: low=0, high=9, mid=4 ("eel") found immediately. Refer to the array provided above. During the binary search, what is the middle element for the given iteration?
12. An educational software program supports remote learning by combining interactive lessons with careful progress tracking. Students watch short demonstrations, then solve problems that require selecting evidence, organizing steps, or correcting misconceptions. The program records accuracy, attempts, and which hints were used, then updates a personalized path for the next session. Teachers and tutors see summaries that highlight which skills are improving and which remain inconsistent. The design team also runs student interviews, and learners often mention that timely feedback feels more motivating than delayed grading. In response, the program delivers immediate guidance that explains why an answer works, not just whether it is correct. Families asked the team to keep data collection limited, so the program stores only learning-related events and removes older details when they are no longer useful. The program's aim is to make remote learning both supportive and efficient. Based on the passage, how does the program improve user experience according to the passage?
13. How does crowdsourcing enhance human problem-solving capabilities, in line with the principles of collaborative computing?
14. ## Crowdsourcing and Problem-Solving in Computing ### Definition and Core Idea Crowdsourcing is a problem-solving and production strategy in which an organization distributes a task to a large, often online, group of people and then aggregates their contributions. In computing, it functions as a socio-technical system: software platforms coordinate many small inputs into a usable output, such as bug fixes, documentation, or feature proposals. ### Scenario: Open Source Software Development In open source software development, crowdsourcing is embodied by communities that publicly collaborate on shared codebases. For example, the Linux kernel and Mozilla Firefox accept contributions from thousands of developers, testers, and technical writers. Platforms such as GitHub and GitLab provide infrastructure for issue tracking, version control, code review, and automated testing, allowing geographically distributed participants to work asynchronously. ### Benefits for Computing and Society Crowdsourcing can be: - Scalable: more participants can address more issues in parallel. - Diverse: contributors bring varied expertise, devices, languages, and use cases. - Cost-effective: organizations may reduce direct labor costs by leveraging volunteer or part-time effort. These advantages often accelerate iteration: a user reports a defect, another submits a patch, and maintainers merge it after review. ### Impact on Innovation Because many people can propose solutions, open source projects often explore alternative designs rapidly. The passage notes that innovation emerges not only from "breakthrough" features, but also from incremental improvements—performance tuning, security hardening, and accessibility enhancements. ### Drawbacks and Risks Crowdsourcing introduces challenges: - Quality control: not all contributions meet standards; maintainers must review and test. - Coordination overhead: merging changes can create conflicts and delays. - Ethical concerns: unpaid labor, unclear attribution, and unequal influence among contributors may create inequities. ### Real-World Outcomes Successful open source projects typically rely on governance—maintainer roles, contribution guidelines, and code-of-conduct policies—to balance openness with reliability. When governance is weak, projects can suffer from inconsistent quality, contributor burnout, or fragmented "forks" that split effort. What example from the passage illustrates the impact of crowdsourcing on collaboration?
15. A software program for a smart thermostat allows a homeowner to set a desired temperature. The thermostat's sensors provide the current room temperature to the program. What is the role of the data from the sensors?
16. The modern concept of the digital divide includes more than just the binary gap between those who have and do not have Internet. It also encompasses significant disparities in which of the following areas? I. The quality of the Internet connection (e.g., high-speed broadband vs. slow mobile data) II. The skills and literacy needed to effectively use digital technologies III. The number of social media accounts a person actively maintains
17. Which of the following best describes the primary difference between the purposes of authentication and encryption?
18. A computer scientist has published a proof that a particular decision problem is undecidable. What is the most significant implication of this proof?
19. Based on the passage: Parallel genome alignment uses many processors in one system with tight coordination; distributed systems use separate nodes communicating over a network and can keep running during node failures. What is a key difference between parallel and distributed computing?
20. A to-do list of strings starts as ['Email boss','Buy groceries','Study','Workout','Call mom']. You finish 'Workout' and remove it so only remaining tasks show. Based on the scenario above, how many elements are in the list after the given operations?

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