Programming Basics
This high-level programming language, created in 1991, is known for its simplicity and readability, often used for web development and data science.
What is Python?
This data structure stores elements in a linear sequence, where you can add or remove items only from the top.
What is a stack?
This simple algorithm looks through a list one item at a time to find a target, like checking every seat for your friend at a concert.
What is linear search?
This massive 1940s computer, one of the first electronic general-purpose machines, filled a room and used vacuum tubes to calculate artillery trajectories.
What is ENIAC?
This protocol, often paired with its cousin UDP, transfers data across the internet, like sending postcards without guaranteed delivery.
What is TCP (Transfer Control Protocol)?
This control structure allows a program to repeat a block of code until a condition is met, like circling back for another loop-de-loop!
What is a loop?
This structure connects nodes with edges, often used to represent hierarchical relationships.
What is a tree?
This sorting algorithm compares adjacent elements and swaps them if they’re out of order, slowly “bubbling” the largest values to the end.
What is bubble sort?
This company, founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, revolutionized personal computing with its user-friendly machines.
What is Apple?
This unique address, like a digital fingerprint, identifies devices on a network, often written as four numbers separated by dots (e.g., 192.168.0.1).
What is an IP address?
In object-oriented programming, this term describes a blueprint for creating objects, defining their properties and behaviors.
What is a class?
This data structure uses key-value pairs to store data, allowing lightning-fast lookups.
What is a hash table (or dictionary)?
This divide-and-conquer algorithm splits an array into halves, sorts them, and merges them back together, like organizing a deck of cards.
What is merge sort?
This 1991 creation by Linus Torvalds became the foundation for countless open-source operating systems, powering servers and smartphones worldwide.
What is Linux?
This application-layer protocol powers the web, letting browsers request and receive web pages from servers, like a librarian fetching your book.
What is HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)?
This keyword in many programming languages reserves memory for a variable and specifies its data type, like saying, “Hey, save me a spot!”
What is declare (or declaration)?
This type of linked list allows traversal in both directions, with each node pointing to its next and previous neighbors, making it a two-way street.
What is a doubly linked list?
This algorithm finds the shortest path between two nodes in a weighted graph, often used in GPS navigation, and is named after a Dutch computer scientist.
What is Dijkstra’s algorithm?
This pioneering woman, often called the first computer programmer, wrote algorithms for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine in the 1840s.
Who is Ada Lovelace?
This security protocol encrypts data between a user’s browser and a website, ensuring your online shopping stays private, often seen with a padlock icon.
What is HTTPS (or SSL/TLS)?
This programming paradigm, championed by languages like Haskell, emphasizes functions that avoid side effects and mutable state, making code as predictable as a math equation.
What is functional programming?
This self-balancing binary search tree ensures O(log n) operations by adjusting its structure after insertions or deletions, keeping things as balanced as a tightrope walker.
What is an AVL tree (or red-black tree)?
This dynamic programming algorithm solves the knapsack problem by optimizing the value of items you can carry without exceeding a weight limit, perfect for packing a digital backpack.
What is the 0/1 knapsack algorithm?
This 1969 network, funded by the US Department of Defense, was an early precursor to the internet, connecting four university computers.
What is ARPANET?
This decentralized naming system, used in blockchain networks, maps human-readable names to addresses, challenging traditional DNS with censorship resistance.
What is ENS (Ethereum Name Service)?