OCR GCSE Computer Science Paper 1 (Sample) 2023
Computer systems exams love to trip up students who confuse CPU architecture with memory hierarchy—and this paper reveals which you've actually understood. Inside you'll find 15 questions covering processors and their designs, memory and storage technologies, and network security fundamentals: a mix of multiple-choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank that matches the real OCR Paper 1 style. This is aimed squarely at Year 11 students sitting GCSE Computer Science in the 2023 syllabus. By the time you finish, you'll know exactly where examiners hide their marks and how to spot the one-word answer they're hunting for—no more guessing between cache and RAM.
Questions in this quiz
Answers hidden — play to find out.
- Question 1
Which of the following is the correct order of the fetch-decode-execute cycle?
- Question 2
What is the primary purpose of the Control Unit in a CPU?
- Question 3
Cache memory is faster than RAM because it is located closer to the CPU.
- Question 4
Which type of memory retains its contents when the power is switched off?
- Question 5
A computer has 16 GB of RAM. How many bytes is this?
- Question 6
What is the main advantage of an SSD (Solid State Drive) over a traditional hard disk drive (HDD)?
- Question 7
In a computer network, what does 'bandwidth' refer to?
- Question 8
Which encryption method uses a pair of public and private keys?
- Question 9
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack overwhelms a server by flooding it with traffic from multiple sources.
- Question 10
Which of the following best describes the purpose of a firewall?
- Question 11
Malware is any software designed to harm or exploit a computer system without the user's knowledge or consent.
- Question 12
What is the function of the Address Bus in a computer system?
- Question 13
Which of the following is an example of secondary storage?
- Question 14
Why is ROM used to store the BIOS rather than RAM?
- Question 15
A network administrator needs to protect a company's internal network from external threats. Which combination of security measures would be most effective?