1. The first electronic general-purpose computer was:
A) UNIVAC
B) ENIAC
C) EDSAC
D) IBM 360
✅ Answer: B) ENIAC
💡 Explanation: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), built in 1945, is considered the first general-purpose electronic digital computer.
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2. Which generation of computers used transistors?
A) First Generation
B) Second Generation
C) Third Generation
D) Fourth Generation
✅ Answer: B) Second Generation
💡 Explanation: Second Generation computers (1956–1963) used transistors, replacing vacuum tubes and improving size and reliability.
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3. The binary number system uses which base?
A) Base 8
B) Base 10
C) Base 2
D) Base 16
✅ Answer: C) Base 2
💡 Explanation: Binary number system uses base 2 with only digits 0 and 1 — the fundamental language of computers.
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4. 1 Terabyte is equal to:
A) 1024 GB
B) 1000 GB
C) 1024 MB
D) 512 GB
✅ Answer: A) 1024 GB
💡 Explanation: In binary measurement: 1 Terabyte (TB) = 1024 Gigabytes (GB) = 2^40 bytes.
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5. ASCII stands for:
A) American Standard Code for Information Interchange
B) Advanced System Code for Integer Interchange
C) American Software Code for Information Interchange
D) Automated Standard Code for Input Interface
✅ Answer: A) American Standard Code for Information Interchange
💡 Explanation: ASCII is a character encoding standard using 7 bits to represent 128 characters including letters, digits, and symbols.
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6. Moore’s Law states that the number of transistors on a chip doubles approximately every:
A) 6 months
B) 1 year
C) 2 years
D) 5 years
✅ Answer: C) 2 years
💡 Explanation: Gordon Moore predicted in 1965 that transistor density on chips doubles approximately every two years.
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7. What is the hexadecimal equivalent of decimal 255?
A) FA
B) FF
C) EF
D) FE
✅ Answer: B) FF
💡 Explanation: Decimal 255 = 15×16 + 15 = FF in hexadecimal (F=15 in hex).
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8. The ‘father of the computer’ is:
A) Alan Turing
B) John von Neumann
C) Charles Babbage
D) Bill Gates
✅ Answer: C) Charles Babbage
💡 Explanation: Charles Babbage is called the ‘Father of the Computer’ for his design of the Analytical Engine (1837).
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9. Which type of software is distributed freely and can be modified by users?
A) Shareware
B) Freeware
C) Open Source Software
D) Commercial Software
✅ Answer: C) Open Source Software
💡 Explanation: Open source software provides free access to source code, allowing users to study, modify, and distribute it.
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10. The number of bits in a nibble is:
A) 4
B) 8
C) 16
D) 32
✅ Answer: A) 4
💡 Explanation: A nibble consists of 4 bits (half a byte). Two nibbles make 1 byte (8 bits).
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11. Which scientist is considered the ‘father of artificial intelligence’?
A) Alan Turing
B) John McCarthy
C) Marvin Minsky
D) Claude Shannon
✅ Answer: B) John McCarthy
💡 Explanation: John McCarthy coined the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ in 1956 and organized the Dartmouth Conference on AI.
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12. What does GUI stand for?
A) Graphical User Interface
B) General User Input
C) Graphical Utility Interface
D) General Unified Interface
✅ Answer: A) Graphical User Interface
💡 Explanation: GUI (Graphical User Interface) allows users to interact with computers through visual icons and windows instead of text commands.
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13. FORTRAN was primarily designed for:
A) Business data processing
B) Scientific and mathematical computations
C) System programming
D) Artificial intelligence
✅ Answer: B) Scientific and mathematical computations
💡 Explanation: FORTRAN (Formula Translation, 1957) was the first high-level programming language designed for scientific computation.
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14. The octal number system has a base of:
A) 2
B) 8
C) 10
D) 16
✅ Answer: B) 8
💡 Explanation: The octal number system uses base 8 with digits 0–7. It is sometimes used in computing as a shorthand for binary.
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15. What is the full form of COBOL?
A) Common Business Oriented Language
B) Computer Based Object Language
C) Common Binary Operational Language
D) Core Business Object Library
✅ Answer: A) Common Business Oriented Language
💡 Explanation: COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language, 1959) was designed for business, finance, and administrative applications.
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16. The number of characters represented by ASCII (standard 7-bit) is:
A) 64
B) 128
C) 256
D) 512
✅ Answer: B) 128
💡 Explanation: Standard ASCII uses 7 bits and represents 2^7 = 128 characters (0–127).
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17. Which is the world’s first commercially successful minicomputer?
A) IBM 360
B) DEC PDP-8
C) Apple I
D) UNIVAC I
✅ Answer: B) DEC PDP-8
💡 Explanation: The DEC PDP-8 (1965) is considered the first successful commercial minicomputer, selling over 50,000 units.
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18. The term ‘bug’ in computing was first associated with:
A) A virus found in ENIAC
B) A moth found in the Harvard Mark II computer
C) A coding error in COBOL
D) A hardware failure in IBM 360
✅ Answer: B) A moth found in the Harvard Mark II computer
💡 Explanation: In 1947, Grace Hopper’s team found an actual moth causing problems in Harvard Mark II — coining ‘computer bug.’
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19. Which of these is NOT a programming paradigm?
A) Object-Oriented
B) Functional
C) Procedural
D) Sequential Access
✅ Answer: D) Sequential Access
💡 Explanation: OOP, Functional, and Procedural are programming paradigms. Sequential Access is a data access method, not a paradigm.
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20. The Turing Test is a measure of:
A) Computer processing speed
B) A machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from a human
C) Network bandwidth
D) Programming language efficiency
✅ Answer: B) A machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior indistinguishable from a human
💡 Explanation: Alan Turing proposed the Turing Test (1950) as a measure of machine intelligence through natural language conversation.
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