These computer science trivia questions cover the school subject in five rounds: numbers and logic, pioneers and early machines, algorithms and data, networks and the web, and where computing words come from. No company or product is an answer.
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Five rounds, no brand names
Numbers and logic asks about bits, bytes, bases and gates. Pioneers and early machines runs from the Antikythera mechanism to the language C. Algorithms and data puts stacks, queues, trees and sorting in plain words. Networks and the web covers packets, ports and protocols. Where computing words come from explains boot, patch, daemon and glitch.
Rounds and levels
After the first ten questions, More options holds Topic, for one round, and Level, for easy, medium or hard. The levels are our estimate. Tap a choice to check it; the reason and the page it was read on appear with the answer.
Tips
The easy questions suit a class starter: how many values a byte holds, how a stack works, what 404 means.
Questions and answers
What are some easy computer science trivia questions?
What does HTTP stand for? In which order do items come off a stack? What does the status code 404 mean? The answers are Hypertext Transfer Protocol, last in first out, and not found.
Who is the Turing in the Turing Award and the Turing test?
Alan Turing. He invented the abstract Turing machine in 1936 and set out his test of machine intelligence, the imitation game, in a paper of 1950. The T in CAPTCHA is his name too.
Why are there no questions about phones, consoles or software makers?
This pack is the school subject: logic, algorithms, networks and dated history. No company, product, device, game or platform is an answer or the subject of a question.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 2, 2026 in the Wikipedia article linked under it. Questions whose fact another quiz on this site already asks were dropped, among them what CPU stands for and how many characters ASCII has.
A Boolean value can be one of how many things?Answer: Two: true or false. Source: Wikipedia: Boolean data type
An XOR gate gives a true output when the number of true inputs is what?Answer: Odd. Source: Wikipedia: XOR gate
Claude Shannon's master's thesis showed that which algebra could be applied to electrical switching circuits?Answer: Boolean algebra. Source: Wikipedia: Claude Shannon
Counting in binary on the fingers of both hands, how high can you go?Answer: 1,023. Source: Wikipedia: Finger binary
Every logic function can be built from NAND gates alone. What is that property called?Answer: Functional completeness. Source: Wikipedia: NAND gate
Hexadecimal is a number system with which base?Answer: 16. Source: Wikipedia: Hexadecimal
How many different values can one byte of eight bits hold?Answer: 256. Source: Wikipedia: Byte
How much data does one flip-flop store?Answer: A single bit. Source: Wikipedia: Flip-flop (electronics)
In computing and telecommunications, what is an octet?Answer: A unit of eight bits. Source: Wikipedia: Octet (computing)
In the SI system the prefix mega multiplies by how much?Answer: 1,000,000. Source: Wikipedia: Megabyte
Octal is a number system with which base?Answer: 8. Source: Wikipedia: Octal
Two's complement is the most common way for a computer to represent which numbers?Answer: Signed integers: positive, negative and zero. Source: Wikipedia: Two's complement
What is a parity bit for?Answer: Detecting errors. Source: Wikipedia: Parity bit
What is another name for a NOT gate?Answer: An inverter. Source: Wikipedia: Inverter (logic gate)
What is the table that sets out the value of a logical expression for every combination of its inputs?Answer: A truth table. Source: Wikipedia: Truth table
When does an AND gate give an output of 1?Answer: Only when all of its inputs are 1. Source: Wikipedia: AND gate
Which character standard is designed to support text in all of the world's writing systems?Answer: Unicode. Source: Wikipedia: Unicode
Pioneers and early machines 22
According to Moore's law, about how often does the number of transistors in an integrated circuit double?Answer: Every two years. Source: Wikipedia: Moore's law
Ada Lovelace's notes describe a method for the analytical engine to calculate which numbers?Answer: Bernoulli numbers. Source: Wikipedia: Ada Lovelace
Alan Turing proved that no general method can tell, for every program and input, whether the program will ever stop. What is this problem called?Answer: The halting problem. Source: Wikipedia: Halting problem
The Antikythera mechanism of ancient Greece could be used to predict what?Answer: Astronomical positions and eclipses. Source: Wikipedia: Antikythera mechanism
At which English university did Maurice Wilkes and his team build the EDSAC computer?Answer: Cambridge. Source: Wikipedia: EDSAC
The Bombe was an electro-mechanical device used by British codebreakers against the messages of which machine?Answer: Enigma. Source: Wikipedia: Bombe
Colossus was designed by Tommy Flowers. What was his trade?Answer: Telephone engineer. Source: Wikipedia: Colossus computer
Colossus, a set of British computers of 1943 to 1945, was built to help break which cipher?Answer: The Lorenz cipher. Source: Wikipedia: Colossus computer
In 1642 a French mathematician invented a mechanical calculator. Who was he?Answer: Blaise Pascal. Source: Wikipedia: Pascaline
In the design of the analytical engine, what was the part called the mill?Answer: The arithmetic unit. Source: Wikipedia: Analytical engine
In which year did Alan Turing invent the abstract machine now named after him?Answer: 1936. Source: Wikipedia: Turing machine
John Atanasoff built an early electronic computer with his student Clifford Berry at a college in which state?Answer: Iowa. Source: Wikipedia: Atanasoff–Berry computer
Lisp is the second-oldest high-level programming language still in common use. Which is older?Answer: Fortran. Source: Wikipedia: Lisp (programming language)
Plankalkül was the first of what to be designed for a computer?Answer: High-level programming language. Source: Wikipedia: Plankalkül
Richard Hamming invented his error-correcting codes in 1950 to fix mistakes made by which machines?Answer: Punched card readers. Source: Wikipedia: Hamming code
The von Neumann architecture is based on a report that John von Neumann wrote in which year?Answer: 1945. Source: Wikipedia: Von Neumann architecture
What did Alan Turing call his test of machine intelligence in his paper of 1950?Answer: The imitation game. Source: Wikipedia: Turing test
Which award is often called the Nobel Prize of Computing?Answer: The Turing Award. Source: Wikipedia: Turing Award
Which German mathematician invented the calculator known as the stepped reckoner?Answer: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Source: Wikipedia: Stepped reckoner
Which problem did Edsger Dijkstra formulate and solve in 1956?Answer: The shortest path problem. Source: Wikipedia: Edsger W. Dijkstra
Which programming language did Dennis Ritchie create in 1972?Answer: C. Source: Wikipedia: C (programming language)
Who introduced the lambda calculus in the 1930s?Answer: Alonzo Church. Source: Wikipedia: Lambda calculus
Algorithms and data 26
A recursive function has recursive cases and at least one case of which other kind?Answer: A base case. Source: Wikipedia: Recursion (computer science)
According to the Roman historian Suetonius, Julius Caesar wrote secret messages by shifting each letter how many places?Answer: Three. Source: Wikipedia: Caesar cipher
Binary search only works on a list that is what?Answer: Sorted. Source: Wikipedia: Binary search
How does a linear search look for an item in a list?Answer: It checks each element in turn. Source: Wikipedia: Linear search
How does an interpreter differ from a compiler?Answer: It runs source code without compiling it to machine code first. Source: Wikipedia: Interpreter (computing)
In a binary tree, how many children can a node have at most?Answer: Two. Source: Wikipedia: Binary tree
In a linked list, what does each element point to?Answer: The next element. Source: Wikipedia: Linked list
In a tree data structure, which node has no parent?Answer: The root. Source: Wikipedia: Tree (abstract data type)
In which order do items come off a stack?Answer: Last in, first out. Source: Wikipedia: Stack (abstract data type)
In which order do items leave a queue?Answer: First in, first out. Source: Wikipedia: Queue (abstract data type)
In zero-based numbering, which index does the first item of a sequence get?Answer: 0. Source: Wikipedia: Zero-based numbering
John McCarthy invented garbage collection around 1959 to make memory easier to manage in which language?Answer: Lisp. Source: Wikipedia: Garbage collection (computer science)
On a flowchart, which shape usually marks a decision?Answer: A diamond. Source: Wikipedia: Flowchart
P versus NP is one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems. What is the prize for the first correct solution of one of them?Answer: One million US dollars. Source: Wikipedia: P versus NP problem
Public-key cryptography uses keys that come in what?Answer: Related pairs. Source: Wikipedia: Public-key cryptography
What does a compiler do?Answer: It translates code from one programming language into another. Source: Wikipedia: Compiler
What does a hash table use to work out where a value is kept?Answer: A hash function. Source: Wikipedia: Hash table
What does big O notation describe about an algorithm?Answer: How its running time or memory grows with the size of the input. Source: Wikipedia: Big O notation
What is a cache for?Answer: Keeping data so that later requests for it are answered faster. Source: Wikipedia: Cache (computing)
What is a sequence of instructions that, as written, will carry on without end called?Answer: An infinite loop. Source: Wikipedia: Infinite loop
What is pseudocode?Answer: A description of the steps of an algorithm, written partly in plain words. Source: Wikipedia: Pseudocode
What makes software open source?Answer: Its source code is publicly available. Source: Wikipedia: Open-source software
Which kind of low-level language matches a processor's machine code instructions very closely?Answer: Assembly language. Source: Wikipedia: Assembly language
Which problem asks for the shortest route that visits every city exactly once and returns to the start?Answer: The traveling salesman problem. Source: Wikipedia: Travelling salesman problem
Which simple sorting method steps through a list again and again, swapping neighbors that are in the wrong order?Answer: Bubble sort. Source: Wikipedia: Bubble sort
Who invented merge sort in 1945?Answer: John von Neumann. Source: Wikipedia: Merge sort
Networks and the web 22
How do two computers set up a TCP connection?Answer: With a three-way handshake. Source: Wikipedia: Transmission Control Protocol
How many bits long is an IPv4 address?Answer: 32. Source: Wikipedia: IPv4
How many bits long is an IPv6 address?Answer: 128. Source: Wikipedia: IPv6
In a peer-to-peer network, each participant acts as what?Answer: A provider and a requester of resources at once. Source: Wikipedia: Peer-to-peer
In computing, what is bandwidth?Answer: The greatest rate at which data can move across a path. Source: Wikipedia: Bandwidth (computing)
In the client-server model, what does the client do?Answer: It requests content or a service from a server. Source: Wikipedia: Client–server model
In the Domain Name System, what is a domain at the highest level, just below the root, called?Answer: A top-level domain. Source: Wikipedia: Top-level domain
In which year was the World Wide Web Consortium founded?Answer: 1994. Source: Wikipedia: World Wide Web Consortium
The network tool ping takes its name from which technology?Answer: Sonar. Source: Wikipedia: Ping (networking utility)
What carries the information in fiber-optic communication?Answer: Pulses of light. Source: Wikipedia: Fiber-optic communication
What does a firewall do?Answer: It watches and controls network traffic by a set of security rules. Source: Wikipedia: Firewall (computing)
What does a router do?Answer: It forwards data packets between computer networks. Source: Wikipedia: Router (computing)
What does HTTP stand for?Answer: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Source: Wikipedia: HTTP
What does the S in HTTPS stand for?Answer: Secure. Source: Wikipedia: HTTPS
What does the status code 404 mean?Answer: Not found. Source: Wikipedia: HTTP 404
What is hypertext?Answer: Text with references to other text that the reader can reach at once. Source: Wikipedia: Hypertext
What is the standard IPv4 address a computer uses to talk to itself?Answer: 127.0.0.1. Source: Wikipedia: Localhost
What kind of network links computers within a limited area such as a home, a campus or a building?Answer: A local area network. Source: Wikipedia: Local area network
Which body is responsible for the technical standards of the Internet protocol suite?Answer: The Internet Engineering Task Force. Source: Wikipedia: Internet Engineering Task Force
Which British computer scientist worked on packet switching independently from 1965, at the National Physical Laboratory?Answer: Donald Davies. Source: Wikipedia: Packet switching
Which port does HTTP use by default?Answer: 80. Source: Wikipedia: Port (computer networking)
The word modem is short for what?Answer: Modulator-demodulator. Source: Wikipedia: Modem
Where computing words come from 18
A daemon is a program that works in the background. Which imaginary being of physics inspired the name?Answer: Maxwell's demon. Source: Wikipedia: Daemon (computing)
The baud, a unit of signaling speed, is named after whom?Answer: Émile Baudot. Source: Wikipedia: Baud
Booting a computer takes its name from which old phrase?Answer: To pull oneself up by one's bootstraps. Source: Wikipedia: Booting
In the name RAM, what does "random-access" mean?Answer: The memory can be read and changed in any order. Source: Wikipedia: Random-access memory
The kind of harmful program called a Trojan horse is named after a story from which mythology?Answer: Greek. Source: Wikipedia: Trojan horse (computing)
The mathematician John Tukey is credited with the first use, in 1958, of which word for computer programs?Answer: Software. Source: Wikipedia: Software
Programmers say GIGO. What does it stand for?Answer: Garbage in, garbage out. Source: Wikipedia: Garbage in, garbage out
Some reference books trace the word glitch to German and Yiddish words meaning what?Answer: To slip or slide. Source: Wikipedia: Glitch
The T in CAPTCHA stands for the name of which computer scientist?Answer: Turing. Source: Wikipedia: CAPTCHA
The term core dump comes from which old kind of memory?Answer: Magnetic-core memory. Source: Wikipedia: Core dump
The terms big-endian and little-endian were borrowed from which satirical novel?Answer: Gulliver's Travels. Source: Wikipedia: Endianness
What did the word computer mean when it first appeared in writing in 1613?Answer: A person who does calculations. Source: Wikipedia: Computer (occupation)
What does ASCII stand for?Answer: American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Source: Wikipedia: ASCII
Who coined the term byte, in June 1956?Answer: Werner Buchholz. Source: Wikipedia: Byte
Who described cybernetics as "control and communication in the animal and the machine"?Answer: Norbert Wiener. Source: Wikipedia: Cybernetics
Why is a fix to a program called a patch?Answer: Fixes were once spliced into paper tape or decks of punched cards. Source: Wikipedia: Patch (computing)
Why is the computer mouse thought to have been given that name?Answer: Its cord looked like a tail. Source: Wikipedia: Computer mouse
The word pixel is short for what?Answer: Picture element. Source: Wikipedia: Pixel
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, facts from the page named and linked beside it. Each answer was checked on 2026-10-02 against that page, fetched that day: the article of the English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license) on the idea, the machine or the person asked about. The subject is the school subject: number systems and logic, dated history, algorithms and data structures, networks and the origins of computing words. No company, product, device, game or platform is an answer or the subject of a question, and no living person is an answer. Dropped after checking: questions whose fact another quiz on this site already asks, such as the moth in the logbook, the meaning of bit, where the words algorithm, robot and wiki come from, Ada Lovelace as the first programmer, what CPU stands for, how many characters ASCII has, the first telegraph cable under the Atlantic, the punched cards of the loom, and what the letters HTML, URL and DNS stand for. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits a student of the subject, hard will stump most of them. Each round is stored easiest first, and each question carries the date its page was read. Licence: own work