14. General Computer Science / Computer Basics | CSS Solved Past Papers

FPSC CSS Computer Science past papers (2016–2026) — 20 questions: 6 MCQs, 14 subjective parts. Newest first.

Part A — Subjective Questions

2026 · Paper-I · Q2(a) (6 marks)

Question

Your team needs to share large files quickly but email limits attachments. What computing method should they use and how will it solve the issue?

Solution

The team should use cloud computing / cloud-based file storage and sharing services (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) or a dedicated file-transfer service, instead of email attachments.

How it solves the issue: email servers impose strict attachment size limits (commonly 20-25 MB) because messages must be transmitted and stored efficiently across mail servers. Cloud storage services instead upload the large file once to remote, highly-scalable storage infrastructure and generate a shareable link; recipients simply click the link and download (or view) the file directly from the cloud, bypassing email's size restriction entirely. This also provides additional benefits: multiple people can access the same file without duplicating it, version history/collaboration is supported, large files transfer faster since only a link (not the whole file) travels through email, and storage can be scaled on demand without any local infrastructure investment — a core benefit of cloud computing's on-demand, elastic resource model.

2024 · Paper-I · Q2(a) (6 marks)

Question

Discuss the future of Information Technology (IT) in Pakistan and its huge impact on all our daily lives.

Solution

Pakistan's IT sector is projected to keep growing rapidly as a major source of foreign exchange through freelance software/IT-services exports, driven by a young, large workforce and increasing digital literacy. Key trends shaping its future include: expansion of e-government services (digitizing NADRA, tax filing (FBR), land records), growth of fintech and mobile/digital banking (e.g., branchless banking, JazzCash/Easypaisa) increasing financial inclusion, rising adoption of AI and cloud computing by local startups, establishment of IT parks and Special Technology Zones to attract investment, and expansion of freelancing platforms enabling remote work income. These developments are expected to increasingly touch daily life through easier access to government services, cashless transactions, e-commerce growth, online education, and telemedicine. Key challenges remaining are internet infrastructure/connectivity gaps in rural areas, cybersecurity concerns, and skilled-labor brain drain, which policy efforts (training programs, freelancer support, incentives for tech companies) aim to address.

2024 · Paper-I · Q2(c) (8 marks)

Question

Discuss the pros and cons of LaTeX in comparison to other document processors.

Solution

Pros of LaTeX: it produces superior, professional-quality typesetting, especially for mathematical equations, scientific notation, and complex cross-references; formatting stays consistent throughout very large documents (theses, papers) automatically; being plain-text based, it works excellently with version control systems (Git) and diff/merge tools; it handles bibliographies and citations robustly via BibTeX/BibLaTeX; and it is free and open-source, widely used and required by many academic journals/conferences.

Cons of LaTeX: it has a steep learning curve for beginners, requiring familiarity with markup commands rather than direct visual editing; it lacks true WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") editing, requiring a separate compile step to see the rendered output; it is less convenient for quick, simple documents (letters, short memos) where a word processor like MS Word is faster; and real-time collaborative editing is less mature than in tools like Google Docs, though platforms like Overleaf have narrowed this gap. In comparison, word processors (e.g., MS Word) are easier for casual users and offer instant visual feedback, but struggle with consistent formatting in very long, complex, or heavily mathematical documents compared to LaTeX.

2022 · Paper-I · Q2(b) (6 marks)

Question

Write the differences between Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Information Systems, Computer Engineering, and Bioinformatics.

Solution

Computer Science (CS): studies theoretical and practical foundations of computation - algorithms, data structures, computability, programming languages.
Software Engineering (SE): applies engineering principles and disciplined processes (requirements, design, testing, maintenance) to build large, reliable software systems.
Information Technology (IT): concerned with deploying, configuring, and maintaining computing infrastructure (networks, hardware, systems administration) to support an organization's operations.
Information Systems (IS): focuses on how computing/information technology is used to support business processes and decision-making, bridging management and technology.
Computer Engineering (CE): deals with the design of computer hardware and the hardware-software interface - processors, embedded systems, digital circuits.
Bioinformatics: an interdisciplinary field applying computational techniques (algorithms, databases, statistics) to analyze and interpret biological data such as DNA sequences and protein structures. In short: CS is theory of computation, SE is building software systems properly, IT is running/supporting computing infrastructure, IS is technology for business, CE is hardware-focused, and Bioinformatics applies computing to biology.

2022 · Paper-I · Q3(b) (6 marks)

Question

Write a detailed note on the principles of Information Security/ Privacy.

Solution

Information security rests on the CIA triad:

Confidentiality: ensuring information is accessible only to authorized parties, enforced through encryption, access control, and authentication.
Integrity: guaranteeing that data is accurate and has not been altered without authorization, enforced via checksums, hashing, digital signatures, and version control.
Availability: ensuring authorized users can access information/systems when needed, achieved through redundancy, backups, and protection against denial-of-service attacks.

Other supporting principles include:

Authentication: verifying the identity of a user/system (passwords, biometrics, tokens, multi-factor authentication).
Authorization/Access control: granting only the permissions a user needs (principle of least privilege).
Non-repudiation: ensuring a party cannot deny having performed an action (digital signatures, audit logs).
Accountability: tracking actions back to responsible entities.
Defense in depth: layering multiple independent security controls so failure of one does not compromise the whole system.

Privacy specifically concerns an individual's right to control how their personal data is collected, stored, used, and shared, requiring consent, data minimization, purpose limitation, and compliance with data-protection regulations. Together, security principles protect the system, while privacy principles protect the individual's rights over their data.

2021 · Paper-I · Q2(a) (7 marks)

Question

What are office productivity tools? Explain uses of any two productivity tools in your home or workplace.

Solution

Office productivity tools are software applications designed to help create, edit, and manage information such as documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and communications, increasing efficiency in everyday personal and professional tasks. Common examples: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and their equivalents (Google Docs/Sheets/Slides, LibreOffice). Two examples of use: MS Word is used at the workplace to draft official letters, reports, and meeting minutes, using built-in styles/templates for consistent formatting and mail-merge for bulk correspondence such as sending personalised letters to many recipients. MS Excel is used both at home and at work for numeric tasks — tracking a monthly household budget with formulas that automatically total expenses, or at work for analysing sales data using pivot tables and generating charts to present trends to management — dramatically reducing manual calculation effort compared to doing it by hand.

2021 · Paper-I · Q2(b) (7 marks)

Question

Write a detailed note on computer crimes and ethical challenges.

Solution

Computer crimes are illegal activities carried out using computers or networks, including: hacking/unauthorized access to systems, identity theft, phishing and social-engineering scams, distribution of malware/ransomware, cyberstalking and harassment, online financial fraud, denial-of-service attacks, software/digital piracy, and data breaches exposing personal information. Alongside these, computing raises broader ethical challenges: privacy (how personal data is collected, stored, and used, often without full user consent or awareness), intellectual property (software piracy, plagiarism enabled by easy copying), the digital divide (unequal access to technology and its benefits across society), surveillance versus civil liberties (governments/corporations tracking user behaviour), accountability and bias in automated/AI decision-making systems, and cyberbullying enabled by anonymity online. Legal frameworks (e.g. Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016) attempt to criminalise and deter such crimes, but the pace of technological change constantly creates new ethical gray areas that legislation and social norms struggle to keep pace with.

2021 · Paper-I · Q2(c) (6 marks)

Question

What are the different types of computers? Explain the benefits of miniaturization.

Solution

Computers are commonly classified by size/capability into: Supercomputers (extremely high-performance machines for scientific/military simulation), Mainframes (large-scale, highly reliable machines for enterprise/banking transaction processing), Minicomputers (mid-range machines/servers), Microcomputers/Personal Computers (desktops and laptops for individual use), Embedded computers (purpose-built controllers inside appliances, cars, and industrial equipment), and mobile/handheld devices (smartphones, tablets, wearables). Benefits of miniaturization (packing more computing capability into smaller physical devices, per Moore's Law-driven transistor shrinkage): greater portability (devices can be carried/embedded anywhere), lower power consumption (smaller circuits need less energy, extending battery life), reduced manufacturing cost per unit over time, higher processing speed (shorter electrical paths between components reduce signal delay), the ability to embed computing into far more everyday devices (enabling IoT), and improved reliability (fewer discrete, separately-soldered components means fewer points of failure).

2021 · Paper-I · Q3(a) (6 marks)

Question

Describe any two of the following briefly: ISP, HTML, SSD, Cloud Computing.

Solution

ISP (Internet Service Provider): a company that provides individuals and organisations with access to the Internet — via technologies such as fiber, DSL, cable, or wireless — along with related services like email hosting and DNS resolution; examples include PTCL, Nayatel, and Jazz in Pakistan. Cloud Computing: the on-demand delivery of computing resources — servers, storage, databases, networking, and software — over the Internet on a pay-as-you-go basis, via service models such as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service), offered by providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, letting organisations scale resources up or down without owning physical hardware.

2019 · Paper-I · Q2(a) (10 marks)

Question

Give a detailed note on a revised BSD 3-clause license. Also name 5 softwares using this license.

Solution

The BSD 3-Clause License (also called the 'New BSD License' or 'Modified BSD License') is a permissive free/open-source software license derived from the original 4-clause BSD license. It imposes minimal restrictions on reuse and is compatible with the GPL. Its three conditions are:

Redistributions of source code must retain the original copyright notice, the list of conditions, and the disclaimer.
Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the same copyright notice, conditions, and disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
Neither the name of the copyright holder/organization nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from the software without specific prior written permission (this 'non-endorsement' clause is what distinguishes the 3-clause version from the older 4-clause BSD license, which additionally required an advertising clause that is now dropped). The license carries an 'AS IS' warranty disclaimer and allows free commercial use, modification, and redistribution (including in proprietary/closed-source products), making it one of the most permissive open-source licenses. Five well-known softwares released under the BSD 3-Clause license: FreeBSD operating system components, the Django web framework, NumPy, SciPy, and the LLVM/Clang compiler infrastructure.

2019 · Paper-I · Q2(c) (5 marks)

Question

What are the main parts and phases of a computer virus program?

Solution

Main parts of a virus:

Infection mechanism (search/propagation routine) — code that locates new hosts (files, boot sectors) to infect.
Trigger — the logic that decides when the payload activates (e.g., a specific date, event count, or user action) — also called a logic bomb condition.
Payload — the actual malicious action performed (data corruption, displaying a message, deleting files, etc.). Phases of a virus's life cycle:

Dormant phase — the virus is idle, waiting for the triggering event.
Propagation phase — the virus places identical (or evolving) copies of itself into other programs or disk areas, infecting new hosts.
Triggering phase — the virus is activated to perform the function for which it was intended, once the trigger condition is satisfied.
Execution phase — the payload function is actually carried out (which may be harmless, e.g. a message, or harmful, e.g. deleting data).

2018 · Paper-I · Q2(b) (4 marks)

Question

How digital evidences can be preserved from a crime scene. Write in details by taking examples of digital devices commonly used these days.

Solution

Preserving digital evidence follows the principle of maintaining integrity and an unbroken chain of custody:

Isolate the device: immediately disconnect it from networks (Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/cellular) to prevent remote wiping or tampering (e.g. put a smartphone in a Faraday bag).
Do not power on/off devices that are already in that state, as this can alter volatile data or trigger auto-lock/encryption.
Create a forensic bit-by-bit image (exact copy) of storage media using a write-blocker, so the original is never directly modified; all analysis is performed on the copy.
Compute cryptographic hash values (e.g. MD5/SHA-256) of the original and the image, to later prove the copy is identical and unaltered.
Maintain a documented chain of custody: who collected it, when, how it was stored/transported, and who accessed it afterward.
Store the original securely (anti-static bags for hard disks, evidence bags/lockers) away from magnetic fields, extreme temperature or physical damage.

Examples: for a computer hard disk, image the whole disk with a hardware write-blocker; for a smartphone, use a Faraday bag and mobile forensic tools (e.g. Cellebrite) to extract data without altering it; for a USB flash drive, write-protect and hash-image it; for a router/network device, capture volatile logs/RAM before power-down since some data (routing tables, active connections) is lost on shutdown.

2017 · Paper-I · Q8(b) (5 marks)

Question

Write short notes on any FOUR of the following (5 each): (b) Protecting IP rights in the digital domain

Solution

Intellectual Property (IP) in the digital domain covers software, digital content (music, video, images, text), and digital designs, which are easily copied and distributed at near-zero cost, making protection challenging. Key mechanisms:

Copyright: automatically protects original software code, digital media and written content from unauthorized copying/distribution/modification.
Patents: protect novel technical inventions/algorithms/processes (where jurisdiction allows software patents).
Digital Rights Management (DRM): technical measures (encryption, licensing checks) embedded in digital content/software to restrict unauthorized copying, sharing, or use.
Digital watermarking and steganography: embedding hidden, hard-to-remove markers in digital media to prove ownership and trace unauthorized copies.
Licensing agreements (EULAs, open-source licenses): legally define permitted use of software/content.
Legal frameworks: laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and international treaties (WIPO) provide legal recourse against digital piracy, alongside takedown-notice mechanisms for infringing online content. Together, technical (DRM, watermarking, encryption) and legal (copyright/patent law, licensing) measures combine to protect creators' rights in an environment where copying digital content is technically trivial.

2016 · Paper-I · Q2(b) (6 marks)

Question

Which type of computer (supercomputers, mainframe computers, minicomputers, microcomputers) will suit an individual? Justify your answer.

Solution

A microcomputer (a personal computer, laptop, or workstation built around a single microprocessor) best suits an individual user.

Cost: microcomputers are inexpensive and affordable for personal budgets, unlike supercomputers/mainframes which cost millions and need dedicated facilities.
Size and power: they are small enough to sit on a desk or be carried, need only ordinary household power, and do not require special cooling or a raised-floor data center.
Purpose: an individual's needs (word processing, browsing, personal software development, entertainment) require only single-user, moderate processing power, which a microcomputer fully provides.
Supercomputers are built for massive parallel scientific/military computation, mainframes for bulk transaction processing serving thousands of simultaneous users (banks, airlines), and minicomputers sit between mainframes and microcomputers serving a department of users - all of these are overkill, too expensive, and too complex for one person to own, operate and maintain. Hence the microcomputer is the correct, practical, and economical choice for an individual.

Part B — MCQs

2026 · Paper-I · Q2 (MCQ)

A programmer is developing software and needs to consider ethical challenges. What is a major concern?

A. Data encryption
B. Plagiarism
C. User interface
D. None of these

Answer: B

Explanation: Plagiarism — copying someone else's code/design without credit or license — is a direct ethical concern in software development, unlike encryption (a security technique) or UI design (a usability concern).

2024 · Paper-I · Q1 (MCQ)

Which of the following ports is used to connect external devices such as printers, scanners, and cameras to a computer?

A. USB (Universal Serial Bus)
B. HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)
C. VGA (Video Graphics Array)
D. None of these

Answer: A

Explanation: USB is the standard general-purpose port designed for connecting a wide range of peripherals including printers, scanners, and cameras; HDMI and VGA are display-output interfaces.

2024 · Paper-I · Q2 (MCQ)

Which type of monitor technology offers the widest viewing angles and accurate color reproduction?

A. CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)
B. OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode)
C. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
D. None of these

Answer: B

Explanation: OLED panels emit light per-pixel with no backlight, giving near-180-degree viewing angles and superior color accuracy/contrast compared to LCD, which suffers from color/contrast shift at wide angles.

2024 · Paper-I · Q3 (MCQ)

Which component is responsible for providing power supply to all other components in a computer system?

A. Power Supply Unit (PSU)
B. Central Processing Unit (CPU)
C. Motherboard
D. None of these

Answer: A

Explanation: The PSU converts mains AC power into the regulated DC voltages needed by the motherboard, CPU, drives, and other components.

2024 · Paper-I · Q4 (MCQ)

What is an example of system software from the list below?

A. Windows
B. Google Chrome
C. Adobe Photoshop
D. None of these

Answer: A

Explanation: Windows is an operating system, which is system software managing hardware and providing services to application programs; Chrome and Photoshop are application software.

2024 · Paper-I · Q9 (MCQ)

Which of the following is considered as the world's first antivirus program?

A. Tinkered
B. Reaper
C. Creeper
D. None of these

Answer: B

Explanation: Creeper (1971) is considered the first computer virus; Reaper was the program written specifically to detect and delete Creeper, making it the first antivirus program.