AP CS Principles - Big idea: Data and Information

Computers are described as processing data iteratively. What is the order in which a computer will process the following program? Line 1: a ← 38 Line 2: b ← 54 Line 3: a ← b + a Line 4: DISPLAY(a + b)

• A. A computer will process all lines of code at once.

• B. Computers process the metadata before pure data.

• C. A computer will process data one step at a time in the given 1, 2, 3, 4 order.

• D. A computer will display the value 92 while processing lines 1, 2, 3, and 4 at the same time.

An Alaskan biologist is tracking a pod (group) of whales. For the whales the following geolocation data is collected at frequent intervals. Time, Data, Geological location of the sea mammals. Which of the following questions about a whale could NOT be answered using only the data collected from the tracking collars?

• Approximately how many miles did the animal travel in one week?

• Does the animal travel in groups with other tracked whales?

• What is the average speed of the whale?

• What is the exact location of the whale at any given time?

Suppose that a company is creating an algorithm that matches people to advertisements that they might have an interest in. The company is basing its algorithm on a data source accumulated from data bought from social media. Which of the following sources would be useful for the algorithm?

• Information about a person's video-watching preferences (whether they watch viral videos, reviews, animations, etc.)

• A social network's information on what sites a person likes and follows

• Information on a person's previous purchases

• All of the above

Short message service (SMS) can be sent from one phone to another phone. Once the message is converted into binary form it is sent by radio waves to the control tower. Once the SMS travels through the control tower it arrives at the short message service center to be stored or sent immediately. In addition to sending the SMS, the cell phone carrier sends metadata.

• The time the message was sent and received

• The content of the SMS

• The geographic location of both the sender and the receiver

• The phone number of both the sender and the receiver

Spotify is a music streaming service that uses metadata collected to suggest future playlists. The metadata contains the album name, the genre, the tags describing the music, the mood of the music, and the time and date the music was played. Which of the following CANNOT be determined using only the information contained in the metadata?

• The most popular current album

• The time when the streaming service is used

• Whether the streaming service is used more during inclement weather

• The least common mood of the audience

Using only the database, which of the following CANNOT be determined?

• How some of the buying public feel about their purchases

• The popularity of a color depending on the season

• When a color sold the most product

• When the most product was sold for a color

Google Trends is a website by Google that analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The large number of searches make Google Trends one of the world's largest real-time data sets. The data can be filtered so no one is personally identified, categorized, and grouped together.

• Whether the public is concerned about incoming weather

• What date is the cheapest date to book a hotel room

• The cost of a gas-powered chainsaw

• The length of the Iditarod

In 2000, the Chicago Public Schools set up a computing algorithm to detect teachers who had changed their students' answers on standardized tests. The algorithm would look at students' answers, with letters representing correct answers, a 0 representing a blank answer, and other numbers representing an incorrect answer. Which of the following is a way that the algorithm could have used this data?

• To look for consecutive answer patterns shared by students in the same class

• To look at the number of correct answers on harder questions

• To look for consecutive correct answers shared by students in the same class

• To look at the percentage of students who passed the test

Which of the following could NOT be answered by analyzing only information in the student data set?

• A. The number of students accepted to a college

• B. The number of students interested in a college major

• C. The average GPA for a college

• D. The college with the most interest from a high school

Which of the following best describes how data abstraction improves data processing in programs?

• It simplifies complex data structures by exposing only necessary components.

• It hides the source of the data, preventing unauthorized access.

• It prevents data from being shared across networks.

• It increases the amount of storage needed for large datasets.