AP COMPUTER SCIENCE PRINCIPLES UNIT 1-4 EXAM QUESTIONS WELL ANSWERED LATEST
UPDATE 2026
Innovation - Answers A new or improved idea, device, product, etc, or the development thereof.
Binary - Answers A way of representing information using only two options.
Bit - Answers A contraction of "Binary Digit"; the single unit of information in a computer,
typically represented as a 0 or 1.
Bandwidth - Answers Transmission capacity measure by bit rate.
Bit Rate - Answers (sometimes written bitrate) the number of bits that are conveyed or
processed per unit of time. e.g. 8 bits/sec.
Latency - Answers Time it takes for a bit to travel from its sender to its receiver.
Protocol - Answers A set of rules governing the exchange or transmission of data between
devices.
Abstraction - Answers A simplified representation of something more complex. Abstractions
allow you to hide details to help you manage complexity, focus on relevant concepts, and
reason about problems at a higher level.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) - Answers The universally
recognized raw text format that any computer can understand.
IETF - Answers Internet Engineering Task Force - develops and promotes voluntary Internet
standards and protocols, in particular the standards that comprise the Internet protocol suite
(TCP/IP).
Internet - Answers A group of computers and servers that are connected to each other.
Net Neutrality - Answers the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally by
Internet Service Providers.
IP address - Answers A number assigned to any item that is connected to the Internet.
Packets - Answers Small chunks of information that have been carefully formed from larger
chunks of information.
Network Redundancy - Answers having multiple backups to ensure reliability during cases of
high usage or failure.
Router - Answers A type of computer that forwards data across a network
, TCP - Answers Transmission Control Protocol - provides reliable, ordered, and error-checked
delivery of a stream of packets on the internet. TCP is tightly linked with IP and usually seen as
TCP/IP in writing.
DNS - Answers Short for Domain Name System, this system translates domain names (like
example.com) to IP addresses (like 93.184.216.34
HTTP - Answers HyperText Transfer Protocol - the protocol used for transmitting web pages over
the Internet
URL - Answers An easy-to-remember address for calling a web page (like www.code.org).
Heuristic - Answers A problem solving approach (algorithm) to find a satisfactory solution where
finding an optimal or exact solution is impractical or impossible.
Lossless Compression - Answers A data compression algorithm that allows the original data to
be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data.
Image - Answers A type of data used for graphics or pictures.
Metadata - Answers Is data that describes other data. For example, a digital image may include
metadata that describe the size of the image, number of colors, or resolution.
Pixel - Answers Short for "picture element" it is the fundamental unit of a digital image, typically
a tiny square or dot which contains a single point of color of a larger image.
Hexadecimal - Answers A base-16 number system that uses sixteen distinct symbols 0-9 and A-F
to represent numbers from 0 to 15.
RGB - Answers The RGB color model uses varying intensities of (R)ed, (G)reen, and (B)lue light
are added together in to reproduce a broad array of colors.
Lossy Compression - Answers (or irreversible compression) a data compression method that
uses inexact approximations, discarding some data to represent the content. Most commonly
seen in image formats like .jpg.
Algorithm - Answers A list of steps to finish a task.
High level programming language - Answers A programming language with many commands
and features designed to make common tasks easier to program. Any high level functionality is
encapsulated as combinations of low level commands.
Low level programming language - Answers A programming language that captures only the
most primitive operations available to a machine. Anything that a computer can do can be
represented with combinations of low level commands.
UPDATE 2026
Innovation - Answers A new or improved idea, device, product, etc, or the development thereof.
Binary - Answers A way of representing information using only two options.
Bit - Answers A contraction of "Binary Digit"; the single unit of information in a computer,
typically represented as a 0 or 1.
Bandwidth - Answers Transmission capacity measure by bit rate.
Bit Rate - Answers (sometimes written bitrate) the number of bits that are conveyed or
processed per unit of time. e.g. 8 bits/sec.
Latency - Answers Time it takes for a bit to travel from its sender to its receiver.
Protocol - Answers A set of rules governing the exchange or transmission of data between
devices.
Abstraction - Answers A simplified representation of something more complex. Abstractions
allow you to hide details to help you manage complexity, focus on relevant concepts, and
reason about problems at a higher level.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) - Answers The universally
recognized raw text format that any computer can understand.
IETF - Answers Internet Engineering Task Force - develops and promotes voluntary Internet
standards and protocols, in particular the standards that comprise the Internet protocol suite
(TCP/IP).
Internet - Answers A group of computers and servers that are connected to each other.
Net Neutrality - Answers the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally by
Internet Service Providers.
IP address - Answers A number assigned to any item that is connected to the Internet.
Packets - Answers Small chunks of information that have been carefully formed from larger
chunks of information.
Network Redundancy - Answers having multiple backups to ensure reliability during cases of
high usage or failure.
Router - Answers A type of computer that forwards data across a network
, TCP - Answers Transmission Control Protocol - provides reliable, ordered, and error-checked
delivery of a stream of packets on the internet. TCP is tightly linked with IP and usually seen as
TCP/IP in writing.
DNS - Answers Short for Domain Name System, this system translates domain names (like
example.com) to IP addresses (like 93.184.216.34
HTTP - Answers HyperText Transfer Protocol - the protocol used for transmitting web pages over
the Internet
URL - Answers An easy-to-remember address for calling a web page (like www.code.org).
Heuristic - Answers A problem solving approach (algorithm) to find a satisfactory solution where
finding an optimal or exact solution is impractical or impossible.
Lossless Compression - Answers A data compression algorithm that allows the original data to
be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data.
Image - Answers A type of data used for graphics or pictures.
Metadata - Answers Is data that describes other data. For example, a digital image may include
metadata that describe the size of the image, number of colors, or resolution.
Pixel - Answers Short for "picture element" it is the fundamental unit of a digital image, typically
a tiny square or dot which contains a single point of color of a larger image.
Hexadecimal - Answers A base-16 number system that uses sixteen distinct symbols 0-9 and A-F
to represent numbers from 0 to 15.
RGB - Answers The RGB color model uses varying intensities of (R)ed, (G)reen, and (B)lue light
are added together in to reproduce a broad array of colors.
Lossy Compression - Answers (or irreversible compression) a data compression method that
uses inexact approximations, discarding some data to represent the content. Most commonly
seen in image formats like .jpg.
Algorithm - Answers A list of steps to finish a task.
High level programming language - Answers A programming language with many commands
and features designed to make common tasks easier to program. Any high level functionality is
encapsulated as combinations of low level commands.
Low level programming language - Answers A programming language that captures only the
most primitive operations available to a machine. Anything that a computer can do can be
represented with combinations of low level commands.
