Href":"/gcse/computer-science/edexcel/questions","basePath":"/gcse/computer-science/edexcel/software/questions","formulaUrl":null,"initialIndex":17,"initialQuestionWindow":[{"id":"691169e0-6a17-4ae5-be21-3bb16f3ab1b0","revisionId":"7a5393f0-cca1-409a-bcef-7121dbbe3ae4","questionNumber":null,"questionType":"LA","specification":"A research workstation is training three deep learning models simultaneously: a natural language transformer, a convolutional neural network for image processing, and a reinforcement learning simulation.\n\nThe combined RAM requirement for these three concurrent training processes is 48 GB, but the workstation is only equipped with 24 GB of physical RAM.\n\nDespite this physical limitation, all three models continue to train successfully without throwing \"Out of Memory\" system errors.","difficulty":5,"difficultyBand":"medium","totalMarks":4,"sourceTitle":null,"calculatorUse":null,"parts":[{"id":"3c437377-aab9-43cf-9690-c586a3d37211","label":null,"content":"Explain how the operating system utilizes virtual memory to manage this memory deficit and keep all three processes running.","markscheme":"- Identifies that the OS allocates a section of secondary storage (such as an SSD or HDD) to act as an extension of physical RAM / temporary storage. B1\n- Explains that the OS moves (pages or swaps) inactive data or instructions from the training processes out of the physical RAM and into this virtual memory space on secondary storage. B1\n- Explains that this process frees up space in the 24 GB of physical RAM so that the CPU can execute the active instructions currently needed for training. B1\n- Explains that when the swapped-out data is required again, the OS swaps it back into physical RAM, while transferring other currently inactive data out to the secondary storage. B1","marks":4,"order":0,"markingRubric":null,"explanation":null,"options":[]}],"options":[],"explanation":null,"firstAttemptFullMarks":null},{"id":"6cefbacb-7ae8-437f-a14c-10489cead040","revisionId":"e5bf1454-eef9-41b1-ac9d-3b80b5c352b2","questionNumber":null,"questionType":"LA","specification":"","difficulty":8,"difficultyBand":"medium","totalMarks":2,"sourceTitle":null,"calculatorUse":null,"parts":[{"id":"c87f328f-6871-45a8-96ec-8ddffa1a2a22","label":null,"content":"Explain **one** way that **fuzz testing (fuzzing)** helps developers identify security vulnerabilities to maintain robust software.","markscheme":"- Identifies that fuzz testing involves automatically feeding large volumes of random, malformed, or unexpected input data into the program M1\n- Explains that this helps locate vulnerabilities by revealing unhandled exceptions, memory leaks, or system crashes under extreme conditions so developers can patch them before deployment A1","marks":2,"order":0,"markingRubric":null,"explanation":null,"options":[]}],"options":[],"explanation":null,"firstAttemptFullMarks":null},{"id":"6e4436ab-a07c-457a-adb1-e621e02ea41b","revisionId":"e8db96bd-1d0e-43ec-85b1-bec36d4adae8","questionNumber":null,"questionType":"MC","specification":"An auxiliary module in a legacy banking application uses the standard C library function $\\text{gets()}$ to read a user-provided transaction reference into a fixed-size buffer allocated on the call stack.\n\nWhich vulnerability is present in this module, and which mitigation represents the most robust software development practice to resolve it?","difficulty":10,"difficultyBand":"medium","totalMarks":1,"sourceTitle":null,"calculatorUse":null,"parts":[],"options":[{"id":"cee62c93-0862-4b4f-888c-a5d6aa9b9e8e","content":"Buffer overflow; replace $\\text{gets()}$ with a bounds-checked alternative such as $\\text{fgets()}$ and implement strict input validation.","correct":true,"markscheme":"This is correct because $\\text{gets()}$ does not perform bounds checking. Replacing it with $\\text{fgets()}$ restricts the input size to the buffer's capacity, preventing memory corruption.","order":0},{"id":"675585d0-9dc1-4aba-8000-cd0daf

Software

Question 7

Software Questions

Software

Question 7

Software Questions