AP CSP Vocabulary

DNS (Domain Name System)

is a fundamental internet service that translates human-readable domain names, such as 'example.com,' into their corresponding IP addresses, like '192.168.0.1.' This process facilitates user-friendly browsing by allowing people to easily remember and enter website names rather than numeric IP addresses.

Citizen Science

scientific research conducted in whole or part by distributed individuals, many of whom may not be scientists, who contribute relevant data to research using their own computing devices. 'This project would benefit from using a citizen science model for gathering photographs of birds from amateur photographers around the world.'

Internet Engineering Task Force

is an open standards organization, which develops and promotes voluntary Internet standards, in particular the standards that comprise the Internet protocol suite. It has no formal membership roster or membership requirements.

Digital Divide

the gulf between those who have ready access to computers and the internet, and those who do not. (Low income, rural areas, disabled people all have less access)

Creative Commons License

can be used by creators of digital music to specify how the samples can be used by others. A no-rights-reserved license allows others to freely make use of the samples.

Floating Point Imprecision

stems from the problem of trying to store values less than 1 like 1/10 or (. 10) in a computer with a binary number system with a finite amount of numbers.

Open Protocol

is one that is not owned by any particular company and not limited to a particular company's products. The protocols in the Internet stack are open so that any computing device can follow the protocol to join the global network.

Reasonable Run Time

If n represents the size of the data that you are dealing with, anything less than n^n or n! is considered reasonable run time. So, for example linear search (checking every single item in a list to find something) is considered n run time because the maximum or worst case number of steps required would be n or checking every single element in the list. n^2 is considered reasonable. As is n^6, etc… For our purposes, I think you can consider anything less than n^n as reasonable run time…

Public Key/Private Key

Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is a cryptographic system that uses pairs of keys: public keys (which may be known to others), and private keys (which may never be known by any except the owner). The generation of such key pairs depends on cryptographic algorithms which are based on mathematical problems termed one-way functions. Effective security requires keeping the private key private; the public key can be openly distributed without compromising security.

Symmetric Encryption

uses a single key for both encryption and decryption of data. Since the key can be used to unlock the data, it should be kept secret.

Linear Search

is checking every single item in a list or data structure to find something. The items do not have to be sorted.

Binary Search

is when you have a SORTED list and you check the middle to see if the value is there, then make another guess depending on whether the value you are looking for is higher or lower than that value. is considered to have a log(n) run time which is better than the n run time of linear search, BUT you do have to SORT the elements in the list first to run a binary search…

Symmetric Key Cryptography

also known as Symmetric Encryption is when a secret key is leveraged for both encryption and decryption functions. This method is the opposite of Asymmetric Encryption (Public Key/Private Key) where one key is used to encrypt and another is used to decrypt. (The Caesar cipher is an example of symmetric encryption)

Machine Learning

is the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience and by the use of data.

Caesar cipher

An example of symmetric encryption.

Machine learning

The study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience and by the use of data, seen as a part of artificial intelligence.

Crowdsourcing

The practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the internet.

Abstraction

Hiding or suppressing detail; the MORE detail which is suppressed the HIGHER LEVEL of abstraction.

Cloud Computing

The practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.

Turing Complete

Refers to the ability of a computer or system to run any algorithm or solve any computational problem, provided it is given the necessary instructions, time, and memory.

Phishing

An email attack where the attackers are trying to access private/sensitive information, attempting to trick a user into providing personal information.

DDOS (Dedicated Denial of Service) Attack

Means that hackers have attempted to make a website or computer unavailable by flooding or crashing the website with too much traffic.

Rogue access point

A wireless access point that gives unauthorized access to secure networks.

Internet Packets (TCP)

Data transmitted on the Internet is broken into packets and then reassembled upon arrival.

Heuristic approach

A problem-solving technique that uses practical methods, shortcuts, or educated guesses to find approximate solutions to complex problems more efficiently.

Analog signals

Are sampled digitally at discrete intervals over time, represented at the lowest level as a sequence of bits.

The Internet

The global system of interconnected computer networks that uses open protocols to connect devices worldwide.

World Wide Web

An information system (of pages, programs, and files) that is accessible over the Internet.

Strong password

Something that is easy for a user to remember but would be difficult for someone else to guess based on knowledge of that user.

Weak passwords

Can often be guessed based on publicly available information about a user.

Weak Passwords

Other weak passwords (such as 'password' or '1234') can often be guessed because they are commonly used.

Bandwidth

The bandwidth of a computer network is the maximum amount of data that can be sent in a fixed amount of time, typically measured in megabytes per second, or Mbps.

Latency

or ping, is the time between you sending a request for data and that data getting back to you, usually measured in milliseconds.

Parallel Computing

a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously.

Keylogging

use of a program to record every keystroke made by a computer to gain fraudulent access to passwords and other confidential information.

Algorithm

step-by-step, structured set of instructions or procedures designed to solve a specific problem or accomplish a task.

Bit

shorthand for binary digit and is either 0 or 1, the smallest piece of memory in a computer; 4 bits can store 16 values (0-15).

Byte

8 bits, with a maximum value of 255.

Data Compression

can reduce the size (number of bits) transmitted or stored data.

Lossless Data Compression

can usually reduce the number of bits stored or transmitted while guaranteeing the complete reconstruction of the original data.

Lossy Data Compression

algorithms can significantly reduce the number of bits stored or transmitted but only allow reconstruction of an approximation of the original data.

Metadata

data about data, such as the date of creation or the file size of an image.

Cleaning Data

process that makes the data uniform without changing their meaning.

Computing system

A group of computing devices and programs working together for a common purpose.

Computer network

A group of interconnected computing devices capable of sending and receiving data.

Path

A sequence of directly connected computing devices from a sender to a receiver.

Routing

The process of finding a path from sender to receiver.

Bandwidth

The maximum amount of data that can be sent in a given amount of time, usually measured in bits per second or bps.

Protocol

An agreed set of rules that specify the behavior of a system.

Scalability

The capacity of a system to change in size and scale to meet demands.

Packets

Small amounts of data sent over the Internet that contain data and metadata including the sources and destinations as well as data needed for reassembly.

World Wide Web (WWW)

A system of linked pages, programs, and files that uses the Internet.

HTTP

A protocol used by the World Wide Web.

Sequential Computing

A computational model in which operations are performed in order one at a time.

Parallel Computing

A computational model where the program is broken into multiple smaller sequential computing operations some of which are performed simultaneously.

Distributed computing

A computational model in which multiple devices are used to run a program.

Computing innovation

Includes a program as an integral part of its function and can be a physical, non-physical computing software, or a non-physical computing concept.

Program

A collection of program statements that performs a specific task when run by a computer.

Code segment

A collection of program statements that is part of a program.

Program documentation

Written description of the function of a code segment, event, procedure, or program and how it was developed.

Comments

A form of program documentation written into the program to be read by people and do not affect how a program runs.

Logic error

A mistake in the algorithm or program that causes it to behave incorrectly or unexpectedly.

Syntax error

A mistake in the program where the rules of the programming language are not followed.

Runtime error

A mistake in the program that occurs during the execution of a program.

Overflow error

An error that occurs when a computer attempts to handle a number that is outside of the defined range of values.

Redundancy

The inclusion of extra components that can be used to mitigate failure of a system if other components fail.

Fault tolerant system

A system that can support failures and still continue to function.

Digital divide

Differing access to computing devices and the Internet, based on socioeconomic, geographic, or demographic characteristics.

Citizen science

Scientific research conducted in whole or part by distributed individuals who contribute relevant data to research using their own computing devices.

Crowdsourcing

The practice of obtaining input or information from a large number of people via the Internet.

Phishing

A technique that attempts to trick a user into providing personal information that can then be used to access sensitive online resources.

Keylogging

The use of a program to record every keystroke made by a computer user in order to gain fraudulent access to passwords and other confidential information.

Linear search

An algorithm that checks each element of a list, in order, until the desired value is found or all elements have been checked.

Binary search

An algorithm that starts at the middle of a sorted data set and eliminates half of the data until the desired value is found or all elements have been eliminated.