Questions & Answers
Browse all 20 questions from the
Computer Science Firsts and Inventions study set below.
Each question shows the correct answer — select a study format above to practice interactively.
1
Who is widely considered the 'father of the computer' for his design of the Analytical Engine?
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A
Alan Turing
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B
Charles Babbage
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C
Ada Lovelace
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D
John von Neumann
2
What was the name of the first electronic digital computer, completed in 1945?
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A
ENIAC
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B
Colossus
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C
UNIVAC I
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D
Z1
3
Which programming language, developed in the 1950s, is often considered the first high-level programming language?
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A
COBOL
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B
BASIC
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C
FORTRAN
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D
LISP
4
Who is credited with inventing the World Wide Web in 1989?
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A
Bill Gates
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B
Steve Jobs
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C
Tim Berners-Lee
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D
Mark Zuckerberg
5
What invention by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce in 1958 revolutionized electronics by integrating multiple transistors on a single chip?
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A
The Transistor
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B
The Microprocessor
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C
The Integrated Circuit
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D
The Hard Drive
6
The first widely used graphical user interface (GUI) was developed at which research laboratory?
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A
Bell Labs
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B
MIT
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C
Xerox PARC
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D
IBM Research
7
What was the name of the first commercially successful personal computer, released in 1977?
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A
IBM PC
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B
Apple II
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C
Commodore PET
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D
Altair 8800
8
Who is often referred to as the first computer programmer for her work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine?
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A
Grace Hopper
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B
Ada Lovelace
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C
Dorothy Vaughan
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D
Katherine Johnson
9
What groundbreaking concept, theorized by Alan Turing, describes a hypothetical machine capable of performing any computation?
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A
The Logic Gate
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B
The Neural Network
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C
The Turing Machine
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D
The Algorithm
10
The invention of the transistor in 1947 at Bell Labs was a major breakthrough for what field?
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A
Telecommunications
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B
Solid-state electronics
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C
Cryptography
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D
Artificial Intelligence
11
What was the primary purpose of the Colossus computer, developed in Britain during WWII?
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A
Ballistics calculations
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B
Code-breaking
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C
Weather forecasting
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D
Inventory management
12
The concept of 'time-sharing' for computers, allowing multiple users to use a single computer simultaneously, originated in the:
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A
1940s
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B
1950s
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C
1960s
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D
1970s
13
Which early programming language, created by John Backus and IBM, was designed for scientific and engineering calculations?
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A
Pascal
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B
C
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C
FORTRAN
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D
Assembly
14
The invention of the mouse as a computer input device is largely attributed to:
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A
Douglas Engelbart
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B
Vint Cerf
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C
Bob Kahn
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D
Linus Torvalds
15
What was the first message transmitted over ARPANET, the precursor to the internet?
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A
"Hello, World!"
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B
"Login"
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C
"Testing..."
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D
"Computer Science is Fun!"
16
The first commercially successful graphical web browser was called:
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A
Internet Explorer
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B
Mosaic
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C
Netscape Navigator
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D
Opera
17
What fundamental data structure, invented by John Tukey, is crucial for signal processing and fast Fourier transforms?
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A
Hash Table
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B
Linked List
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C
Queue
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D
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm
18
The concept of a 'general-purpose' programmable machine was first articulated by:
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A
Alan Turing
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B
John von Neumann
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C
Charles Babbage
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D
Konrad Zuse
19
The development of the first semiconductor transistor was a joint effort by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and whom?
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A
William Shockley
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B
Robert Noyce
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C
Jack Kilby
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D
Gordon Moore
20
What early programming language, developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs, became highly influential for system programming?
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A
Java
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B
Python
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C
C
-
D
Ada
