Cyber Programming Midterm Flashcards

robustness, adaptability, reusability

In object-oriented programming (OOP) and software development, ______, ______, and _______ are core design principles that describe the quality of well-designed software.

Robustness

_________ is the ability of the software to handle errors, invalid input, and unexpected situations without crashing or behaving incorrectly.

Adaptability

_______ is the ability of software to change or be extended easily when requirements evolve, without rewriting large parts of the code.

Reusability

_________ is the ability to use the same code in multiple programs or parts of a program without duplication.

classes, objects

In object-oriented programming, you write _____ that represent real-world things and situations, and you create _____ based on these classes.

When you write a class, you….

define the general behavior that a whole category of objects can have.

automatically equipped withe the general behavior;

When you create individual objects from the class, each object is…. you can then give each object whatever unique traits you desire.

instantiation

Making an object from a class is called ______.

instances

You can work with _____ of a class.

information that can be stored, actions that can be taken

In classes, you’ll specify the kind of …. in instances, and you’ll define …. with these instances

Principles of OOP

1. Encapsulation

2. Inheritance

3. Polymorphism

4. Abstraction

Encapsulation

• Bundles data (attributes) and methods (functions) into a single unit — the class.

• Protects internal state by using private variables and methods

Example: You can hie details and expose only what’s necessary

Inheritance

• Allows one class to inherit properties and methods from another

• Promotes code reuse and logical hierarchy

Example: A Dog class can inherit from an Animal class.

Polymorphism

• Let's different classes respond to the same method name in different ways

Abstraction

• Hides complex implementation details and shows only essential features.

• Helps simplify code and focus on what an object does, not how it does it.

Method

A function that is a part of a class

It is a constructor/special method that Python runs automatically whenever we create a new instance of a class.

What is the __init__ method?

object attribute, specific object

An _____ ______ belongs to a ______ _______. It is usually defined in the init using self.

Every method call associated with an instance automatically passes self, which is a reference to the instance itself; it gives the individual instance access to the attributes and methods in the class.

True

Any variable prefixed with self is available to every method in the class, and we’ll also be able to access these variables through any instance created from the class.

True

Use an object attribute when the value:

• Belongs to the object

• Doesn’t change often

• Describes the object’s state or identity

Use a method parameter when the value:

• Is temporary

• Changes each time the method is called

• Describes how the action is performed, not what the object is

Polymorphism

• Different objects can use the same method name but behave differently

• Python supports it because it’s dynamically typed

Inheritance

A fundamental concept in OOP that allows a class (called a child or subclass) to programming inherit properties and behaviors (methods and attributes) from another class (called a parent or superclass).

Inheritance enables…

• Code reuse: Common functionality can be written once in the parent class and reused by child classes.

• Hierarchy modeling: You can represent real-world relationships (ex. Dog is an Animal)

• Extensibility: Child classes can add or override functionality without modifying the parent class

Method Overriding

When a subclass provides its own implementation of an inherited method so that the subclass version is used instead of the parent’s version when the method is called.

Method extension

When a subclass overrides a method but still calls the parent class’s version.

Key Characteristics of Method Extensions

• You can override the method in the subclass

• You can call the method super().method()

• You can add new behavior before or after that call

LIFO

Last-In First-Out

LIFO principle

A stack is a collection of objects that are inserted and removed according to the _____ _______.LI

most recently inserted object

You can insert objects into a stack at any time but may only access or remove the _____ _____ _____ _____.

Stack examples

• Internet web browsers store the addresses of recently visited sites in a stack

• Text editors “undo” button

• Implementation of recursion in programming languages.

push(e)

Adds element e to the top of the stack

pop()

Removes and returns the top element from the stack (or null if the stack is empty)

peek() or top()

Returns the top element of the stack. It doesn’t remove the element.

size()

Returns the number of elements in the stack.

isEmpty()

Returns a Boolean indicating whether the stack is empty.

Encryption & Decryption

• Some encryption algorithms use stacks to reverse data or manage operations in a specific order.

• For example, reversing a message before encryption or during decryption can be done using a stack.

Parsing & Validation

• Stacks are used in validating expressions, such as checking for balanced parentheses in code or data formats

• This is useful in input validation, which is a key part of preventing injection attacks.

Log File Analysis

• Cybersecurity professional often analyze logs to detect anomalies, intrusions, or failures. Since logs are typically appended chronologically.

• Reading in reverse allows you to quickly access the most recent events.

• Useful for incident response, where time is critical and you want to see what happened just before a breach

Crash or Error Diagnostics

• If a system crashes or an application fails

• The last few lines of a log file often contain the error messages or stack traces

• Reverse reading helps isolate the root cause quickly.

Queue Characteristics

• It is a relative — cousin of stack data structure

• FIFO principle — first in, first out

• We usually say that elements enter a queue at the back and are removed from the front.

enqueue(e)

Adds element to the end (rear) of the queue.

dequeue()

Removes and returns the element from the front of the queue

peek(), first()

Returns the first element of the queue. It doesn’t remove the element.

size()

Returns the number of elements in the queue.

isEmpty()

Returns a Boolean indicating whether the queue is empty.

Examples of Queues

• Scheduling processes in multitasking systems

• Managing requests in print or disk queues

• Queues in call centers or ticket booking system to ensure first-come, first-served service.

• Packeting Processing

  • Network packets arrive continuously

  • A queue helps store packets temporarily before inspection

  • This ensures orderly processing an avoids packet loss during high traffic

• Email or Message Filtering

  • Incoming messages are queued for spam or phishing analysis

  • This helps prevent malicious content from reaching users

deque

_____ is a special type of data structure. It’s prefered over a list for queues because both append() and popleft() run in O(1) time. No shifting needed

append()

adds an element to the right end of the deque.

popleft()

removes and returns the element from the left end of the deque