A student writes a program to compute weighted course grades. During testing, several sample students receive averages higher than the hand-calculated values. According to the iterative problem-solving cycle, what should the student do next?

Trace the algorithm with the failing inputs, revise the faulty step, and retest

Rewrite the entire program in a different language before testing again

Remove the failing sample students from the test data and keep going

Add more features so the errors become less noticeable to the users

A teacher receives an urgent email that appears to come from the district IT department, warning that her account will be locked in one hour unless she signs in through a link to distr1ct-support.net . What is the BEST response?

Do not click the link; report it to IT through a known contact method.

Click the link but check that the sign-in page shows a padlock icon.

Reply to the email and ask the sender to confirm it is really from IT.

Forward the email to colleagues so they can reset passwords as well.

A student team spends two weeks coding a club-scheduling app, then learns that the club needed recurring weekly events, which the app cannot handle. Which step of the problem-solving cycle did the team MOST likely shortchange?

Defining the problem, including required inputs, outputs, and limits

Choosing meaningful variable names and adding comments to the code

Optimizing the code so that the app runs quickly on older devices

Selecting a color scheme and layout for the app's main screen

Python i = 10 while i != 0: print (i) i = i - 3 A student writes the countdown loop above. What happens when it runs?

It never stops, because i skips over 0 and stays nonzero.

It prints 10, 7, 4, 1 and then stops when i becomes negative.

It prints 10, 7, 4, 1, -2 and then stops after i passes 0.

It prints nothing, because i is not 0 when the loop begins.

A district is choosing a sign-in method for its staff portal and wants true multi-factor authentication. Which option qualifies?

A password plus a one-time code from an app on the user's phone

A password plus the answer to a personal security question

A password plus a separate four-digit PIN set by the user

A username plus a password that must be changed every month

OAE Computer Science (054)

Free OAE Computer Science (054) Practice Questions

10 sample questions for the OAE Computer Science (054), with the correct answer and an explanation for each. No account needed. Try each one before you open the answer.

Sections covered on the exam: Algorithmic Thinking and Data Analysis, Programming Concepts, Computing Systems, Networks, and the Internet, Impacts of Computing and Learning Environments.

Question 1 · Algorithmic Thinking and Data Analysis
A student writes a program to compute weighted course grades. During testing, several sample students receive averages higher than the hand-calculated values. According to the iterative problem-solving cycle, what should the student do next?
- A.Rewrite the entire program in a different language before testing again
- B.Remove the failing sample students from the test data and keep going
- C.Trace the algorithm with the failing inputs, revise the faulty step, and retest
- D.Add more features so the errors become less noticeable to the users
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Trace the algorithm with the failing inputs, revise the faulty step, and retest
The cycle loops from testing back to analysis and revision: tracing the failing inputs, revising the faulty step, and retesting isolates the defect. Removing the failing cases hides the error instead of fixing it.
Question 2 · Algorithmic Thinking and Data Analysis
An uncompressed bitmap image is 1,024 pixels wide and 768 pixels tall and uses 24-bit color. Ignoring headers, how much storage does the pixel data require?
- A.18,874,368 bytes
- B.786,432 bytes
- C.3,145,728 bytes
- D.2,359,296 bytes
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. 2,359,296 bytes
Size = 1,024 × 768 × 24 bits = 18,874,368 bits, which is 2,359,296 bytes (3 bytes per pixel). 18,874,368 is the bit count mislabeled as bytes, and 786,432 assumes 1 byte per pixel.
Question 3 · Programming Concepts
Pythonscore = 78 late = True if score >= 70: if late: score = score - 10 if score >= 70: grade = "Pass" else: grade = "Review" else: grade = "Fail" print(grade, score)
What is printed when the nested conditional above runs?
- A.Pass 68
- B.Pass 78
- C.Fail 68
- D.Review 68
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Review 68
The outer test passes with 78, the late penalty lowers score to 68, and the second inner test then fails, so grade becomes "Review" and Review 68 is printed. Fail 68 wrongly assumes the outer condition is rechecked after the penalty.
Question 4 · Programming Concepts
In a class project, the gradebook module returns scores as strings and the report module expects numbers. Each module passed all of its own tests, but the program crashes when the modules are run together. Which kind of testing is designed to catch this defect?
- A.Integration testing
- B.Unit testing
- C.Usability testing
- D.Load testing
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Integration testing
Integration testing checks that separately working modules exchange data correctly, which is exactly where the string-versus-number mismatch appears. Unit testing examines each module in isolation, which is why both modules passed.
Question 5 · Computing Systems, Networks, and the Internet
A teacher receives an urgent email that appears to come from the district IT department, warning that her account will be locked in one hour unless she signs in through a link to distr1ct-support.net. What is the BEST response?
- A.Click the link but check that the sign-in page shows a padlock icon.
- B.Reply to the email and ask the sender to confirm it is really from IT.
- C.Do not click the link; report it to IT through a known contact method.
- D.Forward the email to colleagues so they can reset passwords as well.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Do not click the link; report it to IT through a known contact method.
Urgency plus a look-alike domain are classic phishing signs, so the safe action is not to click and to report it through a known, separate channel. Phishing sites often have valid HTTPS padlocks, and replying goes straight to the attacker.
Question 6 · Algorithmic Thinking and Data Analysis
A student team spends two weeks coding a club-scheduling app, then learns that the club needed recurring weekly events, which the app cannot handle. Which step of the problem-solving cycle did the team MOST likely shortchange?
- A.Choosing meaningful variable names and adding comments to the code
- B.Optimizing the code so that the app runs quickly on older devices
- C.Defining the problem, including required inputs, outputs, and limits
- D.Selecting a color scheme and layout for the app's main screen
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Defining the problem, including required inputs, outputs, and limits
Missing a core requirement means the team did not fully define the problem, including required inputs, outputs, and limits, before designing a solution. Naming, optimization, and layout do not determine which features the app must support.
Question 7 · Algorithmic Thinking and Data Analysis
A web form stores names in UTF-8, which encodes each ASCII character in a single byte. How many bytes are needed to store the four-character string "café" (with an accented e)?
- A.4 bytes
- B.5 bytes
- C.8 bytes
- D.6 bytes
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. 5 bytes
The letters c, a, and f take 1 byte each, and é (U+00E9) lies outside ASCII, so UTF-8 uses 2 bytes for it, a total of 5 bytes. 4 bytes assumes one byte per character, which holds only for pure ASCII text.
Question 8 · Programming Concepts
Pythoni = 10 while i != 0: print(i) i = i - 3
A student writes the countdown loop above. What happens when it runs?
- A.It never stops, because i skips over 0 and stays nonzero.
- B.It prints 10, 7, 4, 1 and then stops when i becomes negative.
- C.It prints 10, 7, 4, 1, -2 and then stops after i passes 0.
- D.It prints nothing, because i is not 0 when the loop begins.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. It never stops, because i skips over 0 and stays nonzero.
The values of i are 10, 7, 4, 1, -2, -5, and so on, so the condition i != 0 is never False and the loop runs forever; using i > 0 would fix it. The options that stop assume the loop checks for passing zero rather than equaling it.
Question 9 · Programming Concepts
Pythondef grade(score): if score >= 90: return "A" elif score > 80: return "B" else: return "C"
The specification says scores of 90 or more earn an A, scores from 80 through 89 earn a B, and lower scores earn a C. Which single test call will reveal the bug in the function above?
- A.grade(80)
- B.grade(85)
- C.grade(90)
- D.grade(79)
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. grade(80)
The condition score > 80 excludes 80, so grade(80) returns C when the specification requires B. The calls grade(85) , grade(90) , and grade(79) all return the correct grade, which is why testing exactly at each boundary matters.
Question 10 · Computing Systems, Networks, and the Internet
A district is choosing a sign-in method for its staff portal and wants true multi-factor authentication. Which option qualifies?
- A.A password plus the answer to a personal security question
- B.A password plus a separate four-digit PIN set by the user
- C.A password plus a one-time code from an app on the user's phone
- D.A username plus a password that must be changed every month
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. A password plus a one-time code from an app on the user's phone
Multi-factor authentication combines different factor types; a password (something you know) plus a phone-generated code (something you have) qualifies. A security question, a PIN, and a password are all things you know, so pairing them is still a single factor.

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