WGU C717 BUSINESS ETHICS
COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE 2026 FULL
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS GRADED A+
◍ Descriptive relativism.
Answer: relates to observing cultures
◍ A software engineering company offers its employees free technical training
every year. Many of its software engineers are taking the training to further
their knowledge in the design, development, and testing of software. Which
concept of the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional
Practice are the engineers following?.
Answer: Lifelong learning
◍ categorical imperative.
Answer: we act the same way every time
◍ Ru (Confucius).
Answer: great or humane person
◍ A software development company develops a public website for the federal
government. The website is dedicated to remediating threats of a pandemic
based on detailed specifications provided by the customer. During final
tests, the company discovers specification flaws that could potentially
aggravate the effects of the pandemic. What should the company do to
mitigate its risk associated with strict liability?.
Answer: Disclose the test results to the government
◍ An organization enters customer information in different formats, styles, and
varieties into a database. Two customers placed an order on January 12,
2022, but one customer's purchase date is entered as 01/12/22, whereas the
other's is entered as 12/01/22. Which aspect of data could be negatively
, impacted by the format issue?.
Answer: Accuracy
◍ 3 Principles for Achieving Fairness in the End.
Answer: 1. original position: Contract between rational people to use
principle of justice as fairness to distribute resources2. veil of ignorance:
Original position reached without regard to demographics. Free of bias and
self-interest3. unamity of acceptance: All agree to contract before it goes
into effect
◍ core values.
Answer: 1. focus: establishes principle guiding behaviors2. timeframe:
timeless3. purpose: influences company culture and ethical standards
◍ A homeowners' association (HOA) installs license plate readers after an
increase in reported crime in the neighborhood. Two domestic workers
petition the HOA, requesting that their data be deleted to protect their
privacy. The HOA considers this but denies their request, citing the greater
need for security protection for residents. Which ethical theory does this
represent?.
Answer: Consequentialism
◍ moral philosophy.
Answer: specific principles that people use to decide what is right or wrong
◍ Two programmers disagree about which philosophical theory is best suited
for their autonomous vehicles. One programmer suggests their vehicle
should always choose the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
Which philosophical theory encapsulates this stance?.
Answer: Utilitarianism
◍ Metaethical relativists.
Answer: nderstand that people naturally see situations from theirown
perspectives and argue that there is no objective way of resolving ethical
disputes between value systems and individuals.
◍ A data analytics company introduces a new artificial intelligence (AI)
, platform to help amusement park operators understand visitor preferences
for rides, shows, and other entertainment. The analytics company tries to
reduce bias in the system by ensuring that any ingested data is transformed
to remove correlations between the target and a protected attribute. Which
stage of the bias mitigation process is the company in?.
Answer: Preprocessing
◍ What are two reasons technical workers should become members of IT
professional organizations?.
Answer: Peer networksSkill building
◍ A hospital wants to improve patient outcomes while reducing the amount of
time it takes to send and receive a patient's treatment records to and from a
neighboring hospital. The hospital engages a technology organization to
create an electronic bridge to better facilitate faster data transfer while
minimizing the threat of external parties compromising the data. Which type
of technology solution does the hospital implement?.
Answer: Health information exchange
◍ Rule deontologists.
Answer: believe that conformity to general moral principlesdetermines
ethicalness
◍ Character.
Answer: Of those responsible for makingbusiness decisions
◍ A company provides machine learning software that helps judges make
decisions in parole hearings by assigning each person up for parole a score
estimating the probability that they will commit another crime if paroled.
The model was trained on the profiles of incarcerated people and
information on whether they were sent back to prison after release. Race
was not a variable that was included in the training data. However, it was
uncovered that the model gave higher probabilities to members of certain
races. It was found that a proxy variable was inadvertently included. Which
data point in the incarcerated peoples' profiles was likely the variable
understood by the machine learning models as a proxy for race?.
COMPREHENSIVE STUDY GUIDE 2026 FULL
QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS GRADED A+
◍ Descriptive relativism.
Answer: relates to observing cultures
◍ A software engineering company offers its employees free technical training
every year. Many of its software engineers are taking the training to further
their knowledge in the design, development, and testing of software. Which
concept of the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional
Practice are the engineers following?.
Answer: Lifelong learning
◍ categorical imperative.
Answer: we act the same way every time
◍ Ru (Confucius).
Answer: great or humane person
◍ A software development company develops a public website for the federal
government. The website is dedicated to remediating threats of a pandemic
based on detailed specifications provided by the customer. During final
tests, the company discovers specification flaws that could potentially
aggravate the effects of the pandemic. What should the company do to
mitigate its risk associated with strict liability?.
Answer: Disclose the test results to the government
◍ An organization enters customer information in different formats, styles, and
varieties into a database. Two customers placed an order on January 12,
2022, but one customer's purchase date is entered as 01/12/22, whereas the
other's is entered as 12/01/22. Which aspect of data could be negatively
, impacted by the format issue?.
Answer: Accuracy
◍ 3 Principles for Achieving Fairness in the End.
Answer: 1. original position: Contract between rational people to use
principle of justice as fairness to distribute resources2. veil of ignorance:
Original position reached without regard to demographics. Free of bias and
self-interest3. unamity of acceptance: All agree to contract before it goes
into effect
◍ core values.
Answer: 1. focus: establishes principle guiding behaviors2. timeframe:
timeless3. purpose: influences company culture and ethical standards
◍ A homeowners' association (HOA) installs license plate readers after an
increase in reported crime in the neighborhood. Two domestic workers
petition the HOA, requesting that their data be deleted to protect their
privacy. The HOA considers this but denies their request, citing the greater
need for security protection for residents. Which ethical theory does this
represent?.
Answer: Consequentialism
◍ moral philosophy.
Answer: specific principles that people use to decide what is right or wrong
◍ Two programmers disagree about which philosophical theory is best suited
for their autonomous vehicles. One programmer suggests their vehicle
should always choose the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
Which philosophical theory encapsulates this stance?.
Answer: Utilitarianism
◍ Metaethical relativists.
Answer: nderstand that people naturally see situations from theirown
perspectives and argue that there is no objective way of resolving ethical
disputes between value systems and individuals.
◍ A data analytics company introduces a new artificial intelligence (AI)
, platform to help amusement park operators understand visitor preferences
for rides, shows, and other entertainment. The analytics company tries to
reduce bias in the system by ensuring that any ingested data is transformed
to remove correlations between the target and a protected attribute. Which
stage of the bias mitigation process is the company in?.
Answer: Preprocessing
◍ What are two reasons technical workers should become members of IT
professional organizations?.
Answer: Peer networksSkill building
◍ A hospital wants to improve patient outcomes while reducing the amount of
time it takes to send and receive a patient's treatment records to and from a
neighboring hospital. The hospital engages a technology organization to
create an electronic bridge to better facilitate faster data transfer while
minimizing the threat of external parties compromising the data. Which type
of technology solution does the hospital implement?.
Answer: Health information exchange
◍ Rule deontologists.
Answer: believe that conformity to general moral principlesdetermines
ethicalness
◍ Character.
Answer: Of those responsible for makingbusiness decisions
◍ A company provides machine learning software that helps judges make
decisions in parole hearings by assigning each person up for parole a score
estimating the probability that they will commit another crime if paroled.
The model was trained on the profiles of incarcerated people and
information on whether they were sent back to prison after release. Race
was not a variable that was included in the training data. However, it was
uncovered that the model gave higher probabilities to members of certain
races. It was found that a proxy variable was inadvertently included. Which
data point in the incarcerated peoples' profiles was likely the variable
understood by the machine learning models as a proxy for race?.
