GACE Computer Science - independent content foundations flashcards
GACE Computer Science - independent content foundations · Build recall with a focused review session.
30 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Encryption
- The process of converting readable data into an encoded form that unauthorized people cannot easily understand. A key is used to encrypt and typically to decrypt the data.
- Authentication
- The process of verifying a user's or system's claimed identity, often through passwords, tokens, biometrics, or multi-factor methods. It answers whether the identity is genuine.
- Phishing
- A social-engineering attack that tricks people into revealing sensitive information or clicking malicious links by impersonating a trustworthy organization or person.
- Malware
- Software designed to harm, disrupt, or gain unauthorized access to a computer system. Examples include viruses, worms, ransomware, spyware, and trojan horses.
- Digital divide
- The gap between people who have effective access to digital technologies and those who do not, often due to cost, location, skills, or infrastructure.
- Intellectual property
- Legal rights that protect creations of the mind, such as inventions, artistic works, software, and trademarks. These rights control use, copying, and distribution.
- Binary
- A base-2 number system that uses only two digits, 0 and 1. It is the fundamental representation of data in digital computers.
- Hexadecimal
- A base-16 number system using digits 0-9 and letters A-F. It provides a compact way to represent binary values, often used in programming and memory addresses.
- Bit
- The smallest unit of data in computing, representing a single binary digit (0 or 1). It is the basic building block for all digital information.
- Byte
- A unit of data consisting of 8 bits. It is commonly used to represent a single character (e.g., in ASCII) or small integer values.
- ASCII
- A character encoding standard that assigns numeric codes (0-127) to letters, digits, and symbols. It enables computers to represent and exchange text data.
- Unicode
- A universal character encoding standard that supports a wide range of characters from many writing systems, enabling consistent text representation across different platforms and languages.
- Array
- A data structure that stores a fixed-size sequence of elements of the same type in contiguous memory locations. Elements are accessed by index.
- Linked List
- A dynamic data structure consisting of nodes, each containing data and a reference (link) to the next node. It allows efficient insertion and deletion but slower access than arrays.
- Stack
- A linear data structure that follows the Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) principle. Elements are added and removed from the same end, called the top.
- Queue
- A linear data structure that follows the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) principle. Elements are added at the rear and removed from the front.
- CPU
- The central processing unit is the main processor in a computer. It fetches instructions, decodes them, and carries out arithmetic, logic, and control operations while coordinating other components.
- RAM
- Temporary, volatile computer memory that holds programs and data currently in use. Its contents disappear when power is lost, but it allows fast reading and writing.
- Cache memory
- A small, fast memory area close to the processor that stores frequently used instructions and data. It reduces average access time by keeping likely-needed information nearby.
- Operating system
- System software that manages hardware resources, provides services to applications, and controls basic operations such as process scheduling, memory allocation, file storage, and device input and output.
- Von Neumann architecture
- A computer design in which instructions and data share the same memory and travel over common pathways. The processor fetches instructions sequentially from memory during execution.
- Logic gate
- A basic electronic circuit that performs a Boolean operation on one or more binary inputs and produces a binary output. Common examples include AND, OR, and NOT gates.
- Instruction cycle
- The repeating sequence a processor follows to execute an instruction, typically fetching it from memory, decoding its operation, executing it, and storing any result.
- Relational database
- A database that stores data in tables made of rows and columns and uses relationships between tables. It is queried with languages such as SQL and follows the relational model.
- Primary key
- A column or set of columns whose values uniquely identify each row in a database table. It cannot contain duplicate or null values.
- Foreign key
- A column or set of columns in one table that refers to the primary key of another table. It enforces referential integrity between related records.
- SQL
- Structured Query Language, a standard language for defining, querying, updating, and managing data in relational databases. It includes statements for creating tables and retrieving rows.
- Normalization
- The process of organizing relational database tables to reduce duplicated data and avoid update anomalies. It typically involves dividing data into related tables and defining keys.
- Database index
- A data structure that speeds up searches on a database table by providing quick lookup paths to rows. It uses extra storage and must be updated when data changes.
- Metadata
- Data that describes other data, such as a file's author, creation date, format, or size. In databases, it describes table structures, constraints, and other schema information.