Number systems: past paper questions

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• Question 1May/June 2026, paper 11Structured3 marks

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

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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 3Oct/Nov 2024, paper 11Structured11 marks

  A user enters text into a computer system, using a keyboard. An American standard code for information interchange (ASCII) character set is used to convert the text to binary. Identify one other character set that could be used to convert the text to binary.

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• Question 2Oct/Nov 2023, paper 11Structured14 marks

  A car park has a payment machine that allows a customer to pay for their parking. The cost of parking is displayed as a denary number on a screen on the payment machine. The cost of parking is stored in two 8-bit binary registers.

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• Question 3May/June 2026, paper 11Structured9 marks

  Hexadecimal and binary are two examples of a number system. Give one other example of a number system.

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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 3Oct/Nov 2024, paper 12Structured13 marks

  A user enters data that is hexadecimal into a computer system. The data is converted to binary to be processed by the computer. Give one similarity between hexadecimal and binary.

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• Question 2Oct/Nov 2023, paper 12Structured10 marks

  A register stores the binary number: 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 Give the denary number for the binary number stored in the register.

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• Question 2Oct/Nov 2025, paper 12Structured7 marks

  Two binary numbers are stored in a computer. Add the two binary numbers using binary addition. Give your answer in binary.

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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 2Oct/Nov 2023, paper 13Structured13 marks

  Humans use a denary number system and computers use a binary number system. Explain what is meant by a binary number system.

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• Question 2May/June 2024, paper 11Structured4 marks

  Hypertext markup language (HTML) colour codes can be represented as hexadecimal. Tick (✓) one box to show which statement about the hexadecimal number system is incorrect.

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• Question 1May/June 2023, paper 11Structured11 marks

  Binary is a number system used by computers. Tick (✓) one box to show which statement about the binary number system is correct.

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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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• Question 3May/June 2024, paper 11Structured5 marks

  The binary number 10100011 is stored in random access memory (RAM). A logical left shift of three places is performed on the binary number. Give the 8-bit binary number that will be stored after the shift has taken place.

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• Question 2May/June 2023, paper 12Structured10 marks

  Binary numbers can be converted to hexadecimal. Convert the two binary numbers to hexadecimal. 10010011 ..................................................................................................................................

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• Question 1May/June 2025, paper 12Structured13 marks

  A computer stores data temporarily in random access memory (RAM). RAM is one example of primary storage. Give one other example of primary storage.

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• Question 3May/June 2024, paper 12Structured11 marks

  Binary is a base 2 number system. Give the name of the number system that is base 16.

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• Question 1May/June 2023, paper 13Structured11 marks

  Computers store data as binary. The binary number 10101110 is stored. Convert the binary number to denary.

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• Question 1May/June 2025, paper 13Structured12 marks

  A student records himself singing a song for his music project. The recorded sound is converted to binary to be processed by a computer. Give one input device the student can use to record the song.

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• Question 3May/June 2024, paper 13Structured13 marks

  A programmer is creating a computer game. One character is not moving correctly. The programmer needs to debug the program.

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