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AP Computer Science Principles Unit 5: Impact of Computing

12 questions

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Unit 5: Impact of Computing

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Question 1

Which of the following is an example of a Creative Commons license providing more freedom than standard copyright?

A.A Creative Commons license prevents anyone from using a work without paying the creator a fee.B.A Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license allows anyone to share and adapt the work as long as they credit the original creator.C.A Creative Commons license requires all users of a work to pay royalties to the creator.D.A Creative Commons license is identical to putting a work in the public domain — all rights are waived.

Question 2

A citizen science project asks volunteers worldwide to classify galaxy shapes in telescope photographs by viewing images on a website. Thousands of volunteers each classify a few images, producing a large labeled dataset researchers could not create alone.

This is an example of:

A.Phishing — deceiving volunteers into revealing personal information.B.Crowdsourcing — distributing a task across many people to accomplish something impractical for one person or team.C.Parallel computing — running the same algorithm on multiple processors simultaneously.D.Open source software — publishing code so anyone can view and contribute to it.

Question 3

A student downloads a song from a website that offers "free music." The song was uploaded without the artist's permission and is available for free download. Which of the following BEST describes the legal and ethical issue?

A.The download is legal because the student is not selling the song or making money from it.B.The download violates the artist's intellectual property rights because the artist did not authorize the distribution.C.The download is ethical because music should be freely accessible to everyone.D.The website, not the student, is responsible for any infringement, so the download has no ethical implications for the student.

Question 4

A company's website is attacked by a botnet — thousands of compromised computers simultaneously send requests to the website, overwhelming its server and making it unavailable to legitimate users.

This attack is called a:

A.SQL injection attackB.Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attackC.Man-in-the-middle attackD.Phishing attack

Question 5

A user receives an email that appears to be from their bank, asking them to click a link and confirm their account password due to "suspicious activity." The link leads to a fake website that looks identical to the real bank's website.

This attack is BEST described as:

A.A denial-of-service (DoS) attack — overwhelming the bank's server with traffic.B.Malware — software that automatically infects the user's device when the email is opened.C.Phishing — tricking a user into revealing credentials by impersonating a trusted entity.D.A brute-force attack — systematically trying all possible passwords until the correct one is found.

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Question 6

A company trains a facial recognition system using a dataset of photographs. The dataset contains mostly photographs of people with lighter skin tones. As a result, the system is significantly less accurate for people with darker skin tones.

This is an example of:

A.A hardware malfunction that prevents the camera from capturing darker skin tones accurately.B.Computing bias caused by a non-representative training dataset.C.Lossy compression that degrades image quality for some users.D.An intentional design decision to reduce the system's scope.

Question 7

A nonprofit creates an online platform connecting volunteers with local food banks, matching volunteer skills and schedules with food bank needs. The platform was built using donated server time and open-source software.

Which of the following BEST explains how this computing innovation addresses both a social problem AND a concern about equitable access to computing resources?

A.It addresses neither: the platform still requires users to have Internet access, which not everyone has.B.It addresses the social problem (food insecurity) by matching volunteers with food banks, and the equitable-access concern by using donated resources and open-source software, keeping costs low for the nonprofit.C.It addresses the social problem only; equitable access to computing requires giving every person a free device and internet connection.D.It addresses the equitable-access concern only; food banks already have enough volunteers without a computing platform.

Question 8

A government proposes using AI-powered surveillance cameras throughout a city to automatically identify and track individuals by face in real time to reduce crime.

A civil liberties advocate argues this innovation has significant harmful effects. Which of the following BEST articulates the advocate's concern?

A.The cameras use too much electricity, making them environmentally harmful.B.Mass real-time facial recognition enables pervasive government surveillance that chills free expression and assembly, disproportionately targets marginalized communities through known algorithmic biases, and creates a massive data collection that could be misused.C.The cameras might reduce tourism because visitors feel uncomfortable being photographed.D.The AI may misidentify celebrities, which could create legal liability for the government.

Question 9

Which of the following BEST describes the digital divide?

A.The difference in processing speed between old computers and new computers.B.The gap between people who have access to computers and the Internet and those who do not, often tied to income, geography, or education.C.The distinction between hardware (physical devices) and software (programs).D.The security risk created when data is transmitted over public networks.

Question 10

A social media platform's recommendation algorithm suggests content based on a user's past engagement. Over time, the user primarily sees content that reinforces their existing beliefs.

Which of the following BEST describes a potential harmful effect of this computing innovation?

A.The algorithm is a beneficial innovation because it shows users content they find interesting, increasing engagement.B.The algorithm creates a "filter bubble" that limits exposure to diverse viewpoints, which can reinforce misinformation and reduce critical thinking.C.The algorithm is harmful only because it requires too much computing power, wasting energy.D.The algorithm is harmful because it requires users to pay subscription fees to see recommended content.

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Question 11

A researcher studying online misinformation downloads 10 million public tweets using Twitter's API and analyzes which types of false claims spread fastest. The tweets are publicly posted but the users did not know their data would be used for research.

Which of the following BEST represents the ethical tension in this scenario?

A.There is no ethical tension — public data can always be used for any purpose without ethical concerns.B.The ethical tension is between the public benefit of misinformation research and the users' reasonable expectation that their posts, while public, would not be systematically collected and analyzed without consent.C.The only ethical issue is that the researcher is using too much storage space by downloading 10 million tweets.D.The ethical tension is entirely resolved by Twitter's terms of service, which permit API access to public tweets.

Question 12

A new app allows patients in rural areas to consult with doctors via video call, eliminating the need to travel long distances to a clinic. Which of the following BEST describes this computing innovation?

A.A harmful effect of computing, because it reduces face-to-face interactions between doctors and patients.B.A beneficial effect of computing, because it increases access to healthcare for people in underserved areas.C.Neither beneficial nor harmful, because it only replaces existing in-person visits.D.A harmful effect of computing, because doctors can now see more patients and may provide lower-quality care.

AP Computer Science Principles Unit 5: Impact of Computing — Free with Answer Explanations | Test Practice Hub