BCS Written ICT study guide
BCS Written ICT · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The ICT paper in the BCS Written Examination is a descriptive, essay-style test taken by candidates who have already cleared the preliminary screening stage of Bangladesh's civil service recruitment process. It is intended for generalist cadre aspirants rather than computer science graduates, so the paper rewards clear structured writing and practical understanding over memorised technical trivia. The BCS Written ICT study guide has 10 sections and about 2,534 words.
01Computer Fundamentals and Hardware
A candidate must be fluent in number systems and data representation (binary, octal, hexadecimal, two's complement, BCD, ASCII vs Unicode), the stored-program (von Neumann) model, and the fetch-decode-execute cycle. Know the CPU's parts - ALU, control unit, registers (PC, IR, MAR, MBR, accumulator), cache levels - and how clock speed, word length, and bus width affect performance.
268 words, about 1 min02Operating Systems and System Software
Understand the OS as resource manager and abstraction layer: process management (states, PCB, context switching, scheduling - FCFS, SJF, round robin, priority), synchronization (critical section, semaphores, deadlock's four Coffman conditions), memory management (paging, segmentation, virtual memory, thrashing, page replacement - FIFO, LRU, optimal), file systems (FAT, NTFS, inodes, directories), and I/O and device management (buffering, spooling, drivers). System software includes compilers, interpreters, assemblers, linkers, loaders, and utilities.
273 words, about 1 min03Computer Networks and Data Communication
Master the layered models: OSI's seven layers and the TCP/IP four-layer stack, with the function and example protocol of each. Know transmission media (twisted pair, coaxial, fiber, wireless), topologies (star, bus, ring, mesh), switching (circuit, packet, message), and multiplexing (FDM, TDM, WDM).
239 words, about 1 min04Database Management Systems
Understand the relational model: relations, tuples, attributes, keys (primary, candidate, foreign, composite), and integrity constraints (entity and referential). Learn relational algebra basics (select, project, join, union) and SQL - DDL (CREATE, ALTER, DROP), DML (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE), and DCL (GRANT, REVOKE).
256 words, about 1 min05Programming, Algorithms and Data Structures
Know programming fundamentals: variables, data types, operators, control structures (sequence, selection, iteration), functions, parameter passing (value vs reference), recursion, and scope. Understand data structures - arrays, linked lists (singly, doubly), stacks (LIFO), queues (FIFO), trees (binary search tree, traversal orders), graphs, and hash tables - with their time complexities.
253 words, about 1 min06Software Engineering and System Analysis and Design
Understand the software development life cycle (SDLC): requirements, analysis, design, implementation, testing, deployment, maintenance. Compare process models - waterfall, incremental, spiral (risk-driven), prototyping, and agile/Scrum (sprints, backlog, daily standups).
255 words, about 1 min07Information Security and Cyber Law
Learn the CIA triad (confidentiality, integrity, availability) plus authentication, authorization, and non-repudiation. Understand threats and attacks: malware (virus, worm, trojan, ransomware), phishing, social engineering, man-in-the-middle, DoS/DDoS, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting.
249 words, about 1 min08Web Technologies and Internet Applications
Understand how the web works: client-server model, HTTP/HTTPS request-response, URLs, DNS resolution, and web servers. Learn HTML structure (elements, attributes, semantic tags), CSS (selectors, box model, responsive design), and JavaScript basics (DOM manipulation, events, client vs server-side scripting).
253 words, about 1 min09ICT in Governance, Education and Development
Understand e-government models: G2C, G2B, G2G, and G2E, and the stages of e-government maturity (presence, interaction, transaction, transformation). Learn e-governance applications such as digital identity, land records, e-procurement, online taxation, and citizen service portals.
231 words, about 1 min10Emerging Technologies and ICT Policy/Project Management
Know emerging technologies at a conceptual level: artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS; public, private, hybrid), big data (volume, velocity, variety, veracity), Internet of Things, blockchain, 5G, edge computing, and augmented/virtual reality. Understand their applications and risks.
257 words, about 1 min