Hardware: past paper questions

Where the questions come from

• Question 2May/June 2026, paper 11Structured11 marks

  A smartphone has a quad-core 2.4 GHz processor. The processor performs the fetch-decode-execute (FDE) cycle. The first register used in the FDE cycle stores the location in random access memory (RAM) of the next instruction.

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• Question 1Oct/Nov 2025, paper 11Structured11 marks

  A student has an electronic calculator. The calculator has a screen that displays the result of calculations. The calculator has 8-bit registers.

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• Question 2Oct/Nov 2024, paper 11Structured10 marks

  A student has a smartphone. Identify two input devices that can be built into the smartphone.

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• Question 4May/June 2026, paper 11Structured11 marks

  An optical mouse is connected to a computer using a universal serial bus (USB) cable. State the purpose of the optical mouse.

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• Question 3Oct/Nov 2025, paper 11Structured11 marks

  A student has a portable device. He uses an on-screen keyboard to write messages to his friend.

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• Question 5Oct/Nov 2024, paper 11Structured11 marks

  A central processing unit (CPU) performs the fetch–decode–execute (FDE) cycle. Give the name of two registers that are used in the fetch stage of the cycle.

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• Question 3Oct/Nov 2023, paper 11Structured4 marks

  The table contains four descriptions about a computer system. Complete the table by writing the correct term for each description.

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• Question 6Oct/Nov 2025, paper 11Structured9 marks

  A computer with a Von Neumann architecture has a central processing unit (CPU). Complete the statements about the operation of the CPU.

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• Question 6Oct/Nov 2024, paper 11Structured10 marks

  A computer programmer uses assembly language to create a computer program for an embedded system in a washing machine. State what is meant by an embedded system.

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• Question 8Oct/Nov 2023, paper 11Structured8 marks

  Storage can be described as being magnetic, solid-state or optical.

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• Question 2May/June 2026, paper 12Structured8 marks

  A computer has a central processing unit (CPU). State the role of the CPU.

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• Question 1Oct/Nov 2025, paper 12Structured13 marks

  A toy store gives each of the toys it sells a unique code. The codes are 3-digit hexadecimal codes, for example A4B. A computer is used to store a database of the codes.

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• Question 4Oct/Nov 2024, paper 12Structured13 marks

  A student has a smartwatch. The smartwatch has built-in input and output devices. Identify two input devices that can be built into the smartwatch.

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• Question 3Oct/Nov 2023, paper 12Structured6 marks

  A user’s computer has a central processing unit (CPU) that has a clock speed of 2GHz. She wants to change it to a CPU that has a clock speed of 3GHz. State what is meant by clock speed.

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• Question 6May/June 2026, paper 12Structured10 marks

  A student has an application (app) on their smartphone that can be used to identify the name of a flower.

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• Question 4Oct/Nov 2025, paper 12Structured11 marks

  A computer with a Von Neumann architecture has a central processing unit (CPU) that performs the fetch–decode–execute (FDE) cycle. Complete and annotate the diagram to show how instructions are decoded and executed.

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• Question 6Oct/Nov 2024, paper 12Structured6 marks

  The table contains names and descriptions of components in a central processing unit (CPU). Complete the table by giving the missing component names and descriptions.

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• Question 4Oct/Nov 2023, paper 12Structured5 marks

  A washing machine is an example of an embedded system. Give two characteristics of an embedded system.

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• Question 7Oct/Nov 2025, paper 12Structured16 marks

  A house has a smart speaker that can take voice commands as input. A person in the house can tell the smart speaker to play music or audio books. The smart speaker cannot be described as a robot.

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• Question 1Oct/Nov 2024, paper 13Structured15 marks

  Data can be measured using different units of storage. Tick (✓) one box to show which of the following is the largest unit of data storage.

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• Question 7Oct/Nov 2023, paper 12Structured8 marks

  A train station has a ticket inspector who checks each customer’s ticket before they are allowed to get on the train. The train station wants a system that will allow the tickets to be automatically checked.

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• Question 3May/June 2026, paper 13Structured14 marks

  A student is playing her piano. She uses her tablet computer to record the sound produced by the piano. The tablet computer has built-in input and output devices.

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• Question 3Oct/Nov 2024, paper 13Structured6 marks

  An instruction is fetched from random access memory (RAM) into the memory data register (MDR) to be decoded. Identify two other registers that are used in the fetch stage of the cycle.

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• Question 11Oct/Nov 2023, paper 12Structured5 marks

  A manufacturing company uses an automated system in its manufacturing process. The automated system uses a flow sensor. Identify what a flow sensor measures.

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• Question 4May/June 2026, paper 13Structured3 marks

  A computer has a central processing unit (CPU). Identify three components that are built into a CPU from the given list.

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• Question 2Oct/Nov 2025, paper 13Structured14 marks

  A computer with a Von Neumann architecture has a central processing unit (CPU) that carries out the fetch-decode-execute (FDE) cycle. Give the name of the first register that is used in the fetch part of the cycle.

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• Question 1May/June 2024, paper 11Structured4 marks

  A student has a portable tablet computer. Identify two input devices that could be built into the portable tablet computer.

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• Question 13Oct/Nov 2023, paper 12Structured7 marks

  Storage and memory are important components of a computer system. Primary storage is one type of storage in a computer system. Tick (✓) one box to show which is an example of primary storage.

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• Question 8May/June 2026, paper 13Structured10 marks

  A building has a security keypad that requires the input of a 3-digit denary number. The denary number input is then converted to an 8-bit binary number. The denary numbers 071 and 200 are input.

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• Question 2May/June 2025, paper 11Structured9 marks

  A clothes store has a ticket system to allow customers to speak to a personal shopper. The ticket displays a ticket number in hexadecimal, for example 11B. The ticket system has an output device that creates a paper ticket.

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