MATSEC AM Computing case studies
MATSEC AM Computing · Put your knowledge to work in context.
MATSEC Advanced Level Computing is a subject examination offered under the MATSEC Examinations Board, which is part of L-Università ta' Malta. The board publishes its regulations, guidelines and policies, syllabi, current session information, applications, past papers, and marking schemes and exemplars through its section of the University of Malta website. The MATSEC AM Computing case studies are 5 cases and about 2,838 words.
1Self-checkout terminals that stall on Saturday mornings
A supermarket chain in Malta runs 24 self-checkout terminals, each with 4 GB RAM, a dual-core 2.4 GHz CPU and a 500 GB 5400 rpm hard disk. Each terminal runs a Java-based till application plus a local SQLite journal that queues transactions for the central server.
516 words, about 3 min2Two anomalies in an evening-class grade script
A local council runs evening classes and uses a small Python script to turn raw marks into final grades. In the January run, two problems appeared.
533 words, about 3 min3A stock dashboard that takes twelve seconds
A pharmacy chain's stock dashboard queries a PostgreSQL sales table with 4.2 million rows, growing by about 900 rows per minute at peak. The product page lists 200 items, and the application issues one query per item to sum the quantity sold since the last stock count.
516 words, about 3 min4Hotel Wi-Fi dies at eighteen hundred
A 42-room boutique hotel in Sliema offers free Wi-Fi. Guests connect to a single SSID on 192.168.10.0/24; DHCP leases last 12 hours; the same router also serves the front-desk PC and two card-payment terminals on the same subnet.
518 words, about 3 min5Fingerprint attendance in a Gozo secondary school
A secondary school in Gozo with 780 students proposes fingerprint scanners at the gate to replace manual attendance. The vendor hosts templates on a cloud server in the United States, retains them for the student's whole school career plus five years, and offers an opt-out letter that parents must sign and return.
755 words, about 4 min