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Computer Science Mock Exam

From topics C.1 Creating the web, C.2 Searching the web, C.3 Distributed
approaches to the web, C.4 The evolving web, C.6 The intelligent web

Markscheme

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Question 1
1. Award up to [4].
Server-side scripting does not require the installation of extra resources on a
computer, for example the latest plug-in to run the script;
The log-in process will generally be slower as a round trip has to be made;
However, for regular visitors of the site, it speeds up the login, as the server
script might be linked to data storage and recognize their access for further
reference;
The server script is independent from the version of the browsers that is used,
the user just sees the HTML interface (this is the typical problem with client-
side scripting);
A security breach on the server could lead to all log-ins being compromised;
However, server-side is more secure as client-side is more easily hacked into;
There can be occasional downgrade in performance if too many users are
running simultaneously their scripts on the server;
However, for the nature of the files, this should not generate bottlenecks in the
network (small files, not intensive streaming);

2. Award up to [4 max].
Your email address and associated password are private;
Both are needed to register with the initial website, but at most only the email
address is stored there;
They are forwarded to the third-party website for identification;
The third-party identifies/confirms whether or not the person is who they say
they are, based on their email/social network services that the third party
provides;
This yes–no answer/confirmation provides the authentication for the open-
source developers;

3. Award [1] for stating how the URL is generated, and [1] for giving an example, up
to [2 max].
It is generated by taking the path of the website extended with the path for the
code;
e.g. www.OpenSourceDev.org/newcode/json/fakecode007;

4. The script accesses the file of new URLs (in a file);

And adds the URLs to an email template;
Then accesses the file of email addresses of subscribers (and sends email);

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5. Award marks as follows, up to [3 max]. (Note: there are [5] marking points)
Award [1] for the value passing from the form to php via `POST`.
Award [1] for the operation of the code to generate the short URL with final`$v`.
Award [1] for access to update database.
Award [1] for a new correct triple in database.
Award [1] for remote access operated by server through the database to retrieve
the URL.

Note: Competent use of terminology is needed to award full marks. Generic

answers that show general good understanding of the process, but lack use of
competent language should not be awarded full marks.

Example
The value of the URL that is inputted (and submitted) via the form is stored in
the variable URL which Interacts with the php code, because the method
`POST`is specified in the form, therefore starting a communication process;

The process generates a different value for the name for the URL that is used to
update a database of URLs together with the IP address;

The IP address is retrieved by the server through a remote call requested from
the insertion in database;

The new value for the URL that is generated, given the one in input, is
`thenhpid.td`and is stored in `$v`;
(detail of intermediate operations:
x = thendorgbinphpidy = thenhpid
z = tdv = thenhpid.td)

The new record inserted in the database url_db will be the following triple
www.the2nd.org/bin.php?id=70, thenhpid.td, 172.16.254.1;

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Question 2
1. Award up to [3 max].

Award [1] for showing understanding of the need of each of the following: GPS,
mapping software, underlying distributed information.

The GPS of the device gives its current location (coordinates);

Coordinates sent out through the Internet (with 3G/4G/5G/Wifi/using the

specific features of the mobile device OS);

Coordinates are linked to map software (e.g. Googlemaps) to retrieve current’s

device position and neighbourhood information (using thematic databases);

And integrated with further annotations (relative to museums) that can be

provided by third-party services;
OR by information incrementally gathered from users;
OR by further databases (GIS services);
OR by interrogating an (incremental) database accessible from the server
where the app has been downloaded from, for its first installation;

2. Award up to [2 max].

Award [1] for identifying a feature and award [1] for reasonable expansion of the
feature up to [2 max].

Example 1:
The design of the front-end (the user interface) with the specific mobile device;
So that the commands are specific (and built-in) within the device, to support
interactive use;
(With the effect that the app can be used across a range of devices and mobile
operating systems;)

Example 2:
To personalize the app with a “history” on the client’s side, after the first use of
the application;
So that only the new information added in the database (underlying sources
used by the app) can be fetched by the client’s script;

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3. Award up to [2 max].
Number of hits;
Popularity of linking pages;
Amount of links to the same page departing from the source page;
Trustworthiness of the linking domain;
Relevance of content between source and target page;
Time to download;
…(there are others).

4. Award up to [5 max].
Old information is more likely to be retrieved by web crawlers;
But this requires time to crawl;
But this interferes with the response time for the current search;
And it may even be penalised by policies in search engines;
Without returning currently relevant information;
Example of old information are old or broken links/orphan pages/old text
masked by comments in the HTML code, and it can be revised from time to
time;
Cleanly written code allows for a more efficient search process;
Which facilitates correct indexing;

Note: Award [2 max] for a generic response.

5. Award up to [4 max].
In P2P all machines can interchangeably be client as well as server (no division
of client-server);
Data and services can be replicated across sites, and be retrieved from them;
Services are virtualized/reside on virtual machines;

Therefore, if one node is unavailable the service can still be provided by

resorting to other nodes;
OR
System updates can be made while not interrupting the provision of the service
OR
The failure of a node does not imply the failure of the entire network

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Question 3
1. Award [1 max].
HTTPS / hypertext transport protocol secure;

2. Award [3 max].
The DNS looks up the domain name “home.cern” in its database;
If it doesn’t have this string, it passes the query to another DNS according to
defined rules;
This process continues until either an IP address is passed back to the starting
DNS or an error message is returned;
The IP address (or error message) is sent back to the client that initiated the call
to the DNS;

3. Award [6 max].
Mark as [3] and [3].

Multiple copies of all or part of the data can be kept at different sites;
This ensures that there is no single point of failure;
and the redundant data helps to ensure against data loss;

Different computers on the grid can use different analysis and data
visualization tools;
This allows scientists to run whatever analysis tools best suit their own
specialism/area of interest;
Rather than being limited to the tools provided by CERN;

Analysis can be performed using distributed processing time/capacity;

This reduces load and/or reliance on a centralized system;
Allowing a greater number of processes to be run concurrently;

Computers on the grid can be in multiple time zones;

This gives scientists more equitable access to data;
And facilitates round-the-clock monitoring and the availability of expert
support;

Resources can be distributed across the world rather than being held in one
country;
This may attract funding from governments for their own locally-based
research;
As they may see the benefits of international cooperation;

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4. Award [6 max].
Benefits of CC licensing:
CERN want their experimental results to be freely accessible (within specified
limits);
Allows for the more rapid dissemination of data/information while preventing
people from repackaging them and selling them as a commercial product;
May further the advance of scientific knowledge / be seen as an altruistic
gesture;
No need to contact CERN about using the work / allows CERN to focus on their
primary function, i.e. scientific research;

Limitations of copyright:
May be impossible to enforce;
Enforcement would require significant costs associated with hiring of lawyers
etc.;
It may not be possible to find all cases where work has been used without
copyright permissions;
Plagiarism may occur outside of Switzerland where different copyright laws
may exist;

Candidates are not required to make comparisons with copyright, however credit
should be given where valid limitations of copyright are explained.
Mark as [3] and [3].

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Question 4
1. Award up to [2 max].
Award [1] for describing the challenge resulting from some limitation and [1]
expansion, possibly with example up to [2 max].
Old computers impose memory and processing constraints;
It is likely that they cannot make sophisticated web pages;
For example, they may need to reduce the number of
interactions/transmissions;
By deciding not to have dynamic web pages;
To the purpose of not generating loss of processing power on their side;

The software might not be up-to-date/the OS is old;

This poses a threat for viruses or deliberate attacks (attack the weakest nodes);
To the point that not even the charities will link to their website, rather just
listing the name of the association;
To limit the risk of propagating malware;

2. Award up to [4 max].
Award [1] for each reason how the use of cloud-based services may help Harvest
to overcome the limitations of the available technologies up to [4 max].
They can host the website on the cloud;
Enabling a sophisticated site to be created / bypassing their own limitations;
The cloud could store all of their data;
As they will have limited storage on their own equipment;

3. Award up to [4 max].
Award [1] for identifying how the use of cloud-based services may cause
problems and [1] for an expansion / development up to [2 max].
Mark as [2] and [2].
The costs are likely to be high;
And Harvest is clearly a company with limited funds;

The cloud company will be bound by rules and regulations in the country in
which it is registered;
These may cause conflicts with regard to the type of information that Harvest
deals with;

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4. Award up to [5 max].
Award [1] for identifying an advantage of using black hat techniques and an
additional [1] for each development of that advantage up to [2 max].
Award [1] for identifying a disadvantage of using black hat techniques and an
additional [1] for each development of that disadvantage up to [2 max].

Award [1] for a valid conclusion.

Advantages:
The use of black hat techniques + an example (e.g. hidden links, or reciprocal
links, keyword stuffing, hidden content, content theft, etc.);
May temporarily improve its ranking;

Disadvantages:
However, this is unethical;
This may not sit well with its image as a charity;

Conclusion:
Search engines will eventually discover that these techniques are being used;
This may lead to the site being banned;

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Question 5
1. Award up to [3 max].
Normalization leads to a reduction in the chance of data redundancy occurring;
Because each item of data only occurs on one location in the database;
Therefore this can reduce the possibility of update anomalies occurring;
More efficient use of memory;

Normalization reduces the likelihood of update anomalies occurring;

Because each item of data only occurs on one location in the database;
Therefore if the data is edited there is no chance that the data may exist in its
original form anywhere else in the database;

Normalization leads to smaller tables with less information in each row;

This leads to a reduction of input/output transfers;
Which means that the likelihood of CPU activities being suspended are
reduced/the CPU is able to work at full capacity;

Note: Do not award marks between clusters.

2. Use a text field for the School_phone_no with a length of 9 characters (Accept
limit check);
Use an input mask such as 000000000 to ensure only numbers can be entered;
Use a validation rule to ensure the first three entries can only be “065”
Accept format check;

3. Award up to [2 max].
Some values are not atomic in the Student_Choice and School_phone_no
fields/attributes;
Repeat rows for students with multiple choices / phone numbers with one
choice per row;
Each record must have a unique key;

For Student_Choice have three columns, Stud_Choice1, Stud_Choice2 and

Stud_Choice3, with null values (or default values set to “none”) as appropriate
or two columns for School_phone_no;

4. Award up to [8 max].

Alternative 1
For a three table solution:

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Student table
Award [1] for primary key: student_ID // Do not accept other suggestions for the
primary key.
Award [1] for attributes relating to student e.g.

First_Name
Family_Name
Date_of_birth

Note: Do not penalize additional attributes such as Student_choice.

School table
Award [1] for primary key. Either school_Name or user defined key such as
SchoolID // Do not accept a composite key.
Award [1] for attributes relating to school such as:

School(School_Name)
School_Post_code,
School_phone_no.

Note: Do not penalize additional attributes such as Student_choice.

Student choice Table/Instrument table

Award [1] for primary key. Either user-defined or a composite key.
Award [1] for attributes relating to choice such as Student_choice/Instrument
choice

Award [1] for each foreign key up to a maximum of [2 max].

Example of three table solution

STUDENT (Student ID, First_Name, Family_Name, Date_of_Birth)
SCHOOL (School_Name, School_PostCode, School_Phone_no)
STUDENT CHOICE (Choice ID, Student_ID*, School_Name*, Choice)

Alternative 2
For a four table solution

Student table
Award [1] for primary key: student_ID // Do not accept other primary keys
Award [1] for attributes relating to student e.g.

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First_Name
Family_Name
Date_of_birth

Note: Do not penalize additional attributes such as Student_choice.

School table
Award [1] for primary key. Either school_Name or user defined key such as
SchoolID // Do not accept a composite key
Award [1] for attributes relating to school such as:

School(School_Name)
School_Post_code
School_phone_no

Note: Do not penalize for additional second School_Phone_no field.

Student choice Table/Instrument table

Award [1] for primary key. Either Lesson_ID or Instrument_ID // Do not accept a
composite key.
Award [1] for attributes relating to choice such as Student_choice/Instrument
choice.

Details Table/Lessons Table

Award [1] for primary key. Any ID or composite.
Award [1] for the correct foreign key in this table.

Note: This is the only table in which marks can be awarded for the use of a
composite [primary] key.

Example of four table solution

STUDENT (Student_ID, First_Name, Family_Name, Date_of_Birth)
SCHOOL (School_Name, School_PostCode, School_Phone_no)
STUDENTCHOICE(Lesson_ID,Instrument)
DETAILS (Lesson_ID*, Student_ID*, School_Name*)

5. 2NF allows non-prime attributes to be functionally dependent on non-prime

attributes which means there are transitive dependencies at 2NF;
While 3NF allows non-prime attributes to be functionally dependent only on
the primary / super key and is already in 2NF;
Therefore it is not possible for update anomalies to occur when a database is in
3NF;

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Question 6
1. Award up to [2 max].
Provide a reference to the source/provider;
Obtain permission from the interviewee;

2. Award up to [2 max].
To better control access to their servers;
Because it could be cause of bottleneck on the server / to reduce/minimize
risks of DDoS;

To better manage the UI;

So that the offer of podcasts is well visible also from small devices;

To have a smaller system that is easier to maintain;

That can be maintained more effectively also remotely by one person;

3. Award up to [1 max].
(accept for general sound format:) MP3, FLAC, WAV, WMA;

4. Award up to [5 max].
Award up to [4 max] for comparing lossless and lossy.
Award [1] for a conclusion with reference to the scenario.

In terms of audio quality for spoken language there is not much difference in
using lossy or lossless compression/ lossless compression does not really bring
benefit to the spoken audio;

A minor benefit could be in using lossy compression in relation to transmission

while downloading (and also in streaming);

And it is relevant, in general, in a situation with low bandwidth;

However, these files are small in size anyway, because their duration is limited
to 10 minutes;

And this suggests that for the specific nature and size of the files (spoken and
10 minutes duration) lossy might be slightly preferable for some users for
downloading without compromising on quality of audio.

5. Award up to [2 max].
Award [1] for identifying a reason why buffering may occur and **
[1]**expansion/example up to [2 max].

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Too many people are using their own Internet access point at home
simultaneously;
Possibly on different devices, including tablets, smartphones on WiFi;

There is low bandwidth because it is peak time;

Possibly too many people are downloading simultaneously;

Old router/modem/computer / outdated software may slow performance;

Computer that is not protected by antivirus may have performance affected by
malware;
Performance;

There are too many applications running simultaneously on the computer;

So, memory is insufficient and one should close some applications;

6. Award up to [4 max].
Award up to [2 max] for the use of dynamic scripting.
Award up to [2 max] for the means of tracking a person’s preferences.

Dynamic web pages / scripting

Podcasts are associated to XML objects;
So, that the list of podcasts can be processed by scripts that can re-arrange the
order of the XML objects;
To present them in a way that takes into account the previous uses from the
user;
By monitoring their preferences, over time;

Tracking a person’s preferences

For example, counting the clicks and themes to extract regularities / support
data analytics;
That can be identified for example by the IP of their device when this is not
anonymised;
And also stored in the history of the browser/by use of cookies;

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Question 7
1. Award [3 max].
The Internet is growing exponentially meaning that more and more nodes (in
this case IB World Schools) can be added;
This has led to greater connectivity between the different nodes;
However, the number of hops required to transmit information from one node
to another is growing linearly;
Therefore, each node can access the increased number of nodes with no
discernible latency which makes increased levels of collaboration between
these nodes possible and desirable;

2. Award [3 max].
Browser Retrieves a Web Page;
The web browser retrieves (or fetches) code, usually written in HTML (HyperText
Markup Language) and other computer languages, from a web server;
Then, it interprets this code and displays it as a web page for you to view;

Browser acts as a bridge between URL and DNS;

The user inputs the URL / website domain name on web browser’s address bar;
The web browser passes this website domain name to a domain name server;

3. Award [3 max].
User type the domain name into the URL search area on the web browser and
press “Enter” on the keyboard.

The domain name is intercepted by a “Domain Name Server” or DNS.

The main function of the DNS is to look up in its database the domain name
you have typed and find the matching IP address.

It then forwards the request onwards, using this address.

If it cannot find the IP address in its own database, it then contacts other
Domain Name Servers until it finds it, or if it can't find it anywhere, it displays a
“web site not found” message to you.

When the request reaches the destination, the pages are sent back.

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4. Award [5 max].
Copyright issues [3 max]
Copyright issues may occur because of the ease of access to materials on the
World Wide Web;
When material is accessed on the World Wide Web it may breach copyright
rules in a number of ways (such as copying / publishing/ public display), often
without the user realizing they have done so;
It may also be a potential issue of the user is not aware of the complicated and
extensive copyright laws;
The continuing technical evolution of the web may mean that new practices
emerge that may inadvertently breach existing copyright laws;

IP [3 max]
Potential IP issues may occur with web sites for a number of reasons such as
being linked to copyright, trademarks, patents;
When material is downloaded it may breach IP rights;
When material is modified without author’s permission;
These IP rights may vary between countries which leads to some acts being an
IP issue on one country, but not in another;

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Question 8
1. Award [2 max].
The surface web is the part of the web that can be reached by a search engine
whereas the deep web cannot;
The deep web may consist of dynamic content such as the result of database
queries or may be protected proprietary content;

2. Award [3 max].
The dark web uses a layered encryption system;
Data is routed through a large number of intermediate servers;
Which means it is almost impossible to decrypt the information layer by layer;
With the result that the user’s details are practically untraceable, and their
anonymity can be maintained;

3. Award [3 max].
A port is used to facilitate the communication between a computer and an
application;
Certain ports such as Port 21 (FTP), 23 (Telnet) and 80 (HTTP) are reserved;
Every time a port is opened on a computer it provides access to that computer;
This means that the security of that computer may be potentially compromised
every time a new port is opened;
Or port conflicts may occur when more than one application tries to use a
specified port;

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4. Award [6 max].
World Wide Web has enabled citizens to communicate easily and for ‘ordinary’
citizens to express their opinions;
Therefore, the ability to publish is not confined to certain ‘privileged’ groups
such as broadcasters and journalists;
The World Wide Web has to a large degree given access to common resources
to all citizens globally who have access to the Internet;
However, it can be argued that the evolution of the World Wide Web has led to
a greater centralization of power, for example the digital oligarchs (Microsoft,
Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook);
This centralization has led to a reduction in democracy as the digital oligarchs
have an increasing stranglehold over the lives of their ‘digital subjects’ through
the aggregation, analysis and monetarization of their data;
There are still issues with a lack of digital democracy, for example, many
citizens may not have access to the World Wide Web, either through income,
geography or necessary skills;

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