CS Quiz Comprehensive Study Guide - Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcard set generated from Lectures 1–10 of the Computer Science comprehensive study guide.

Bit

The most basic unit of computer data, which can only hold a value of 0 or 1.

Memory

A computer component that stores bits of data.

Cache Memory

Relatively small, volatile storage with the fastest access speed, located directly on the processor chip.

RAM (Random Access Memory)

Volatile storage with faster access than disk storage, usually located off the processor chip.

Disk Storage

Non-volatile storage with slower access speed used for long-term data preservation.

System Clock

The hardware component that measures the speed at which a processor executes instructions.

Operating System (OS)

Software that manages programs and interfaces directly with computer hardware and peripherals.

Machine Instruction

A series of 0s and 1s stored in memory that instructs a processor to execute a specific operation.

Assembly Language

Human-readable processor instructions that use mnemonics to represent machine instructions.

Compiler

A program that translates high-level language source code into low-level machine instructions all at once prior to execution.

Interpreter

A program that executes computer code directly, processing it instruction-by-instruction.

Application

Another general word for a computer program or set of instructions.

Python

A programming language released in 1991 by Guido van Rossum designed to emphasize code readability and developer productivity.

Comments

Optional notes in source code meant for human documentation that are completely ignored by the Python interpreter.

NameError

An error raised by Python when code attempts to access or evaluate an identifier that is not defined as a variable.

input() Function

A built-in function that reads user input as text and always returns a string (str) data type.

Variable Naming Rules

Python identifier guidelines: must start with a letter or underscore (_), cannot start with a digit, can only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores, cannot contain spaces/punctuation, and cannot be a reserved keyword.

Assignment Statement

A statement using the = operator where the left-hand side must be a single variable name and the right-hand side is an expression evaluated to a value.

int

A Python data type representing whole integer counts or values without decimals.

float

A Python data type representing real numbers containing decimal or fractional parts.

Compound Assignment Operators

Short-hand operators (+=, -=, *=, /=) that perform an arithmetic operation on a variable and reassign the resulting value back to that variable.

Floor Division (//)

An arithmetic operator that divides numbers and truncates the fractional portion, rounding down to the nearest integer.

math.ceil()

A math module function that rounds a given floating-point number UP to the nearest integer.

math.floor()

A math module function that rounds a given floating-point number DOWN to the nearest lesser integer.

random.randrange(N)

A random module function that generates a random integer from $0$ up to $N - 1$.

random.randint(a, b)

A random module function that returns a random integer between $a$ and $b$ INCLUSIVE, producing $b - a + 1$ total possible values.

Raw String

A string literal prefixed with r (e.g., r'\') that treats backslashes as literal characters instead of escape sequences.

String

An immutable, ordered sequence of text characters that allows duplicate values, written using single or double quotes.

List

A mutable, ordered sequential collection of modifiable data created using brackets […] or list().

Tuple

An immutable, ordered sequence of data used for read-only collections, created using parentheses (…) or tuple().

Set

A mutable, unordered collection of unique elements created using braces {…} or set(), which automatically eliminates duplicate values.

Frozenset

An immutable, unordered set of unique elements created using frozenset() that can be nested inside other sets.

Dictionary

A mutable associative data structure created using {k: v} or dict() that stores key-value pairs; keys must be unique and immutable.

String Slicing

The indexing syntax s[start:stop:step] used to extract substring segments, where start is inclusive, stop is exclusive, and step determines increment direction.

a.union(b)

A set method returning a new set containing all unique elements present in set a, set b, or both.

a.intersection(b)

A set method returning a new set containing only elements present in both set a and set b.

a.difference(b)

A set method returning a new set containing elements that are in set a but not in set b.

a.symmetric_difference(b)

A set method returning a new set containing elements present in set a or set b, but not in both.

d.pop(key)

A dictionary method that removes the specified key and returns its corresponding value.

d.get(key, default_value)

A dictionary method that safely retrieves a key's value without raising a KeyError if the key is missing.

elif

A contraction of 'else if' used in conditional structures to chain multiple checks where at most one branch executes.

Factoring Out Code

The process of moving identical statements found across multiple conditional branches outside of the branch structure to eliminate code redundancy.

Membership Operators

The operators in and not in used to check whether a specific value exists within a sequence or collection.

Identity Operators

The operators is and is not used to check whether two variables refer to the exact same object in memory.

Definite Iteration

A repetition control structure, such as a for loop, that executes a known, predefined number of times.

Indefinite Iteration

A repetition control structure, such as a while loop, that continues executing until a given condition changes or is satisfied.

Pre-test Loop

A loop type (like a while loop) that evaluates its conditional expression before executing the loop body.

Sentinel Logic

An indefinite loop pattern that keeps running until a specific designated input value (the sentinel) signals the loop to stop.

break Statement

A control flow statement that immediately terminates execution of the innermost loop and jumps control to the statement directly following the loop.

continue Statement

A control flow statement that skips the rest of the current loop iteration and immediately evaluates the condition for the next iteration.

Loop else Clause

An optional block appended to a while or for loop that executes only when the loop completes all iterations normally without hitting a break statement.

range(start, stop, step)

A built-in generator function producing sequence integers starting at start, incrementing by step, up to but excluding stop.

enumerate()

A built-in function used in loops to track both the current index and element value concurrently during sequence iteration.

def Keyword

The Python keyword used to define a new user-defined function.

None

The default return value of a Python function when execution finishes without encountering an explicit return statement.

pass Statement

A placeholder statement used when code is syntactically required to prevent empty code block syntax errors.

Dynamically Typed Language

A programming language (like Python) where variable types are checked at runtime, allowing variables to be created without explicit type declarations.

Statically Typed Language

A programming language (like C++ or Java) where variable data types are explicitly declared and verified at compile-time.