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Computers Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
Computers Quizzes, Trivia

Computers Trivia

Computers Trivia Quizzes

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Pretty self-explanatory! If you spend all your time surfing the Web or pondering your disk drive, you'll have fun here.
170 Computers quizzes and 2,380 Computers trivia questions.
1.
  The Problem With Problems    
Match Quiz
 10 Qns
Solving My Problems With Computers
Computers can be very confusing, but who knew that I could run into so many problems and so much confusion? Can you help out by clarifying the many issues that I have experienced?
Easier, 10 Qns, timydamonkey, Mar 11 24
Easier
timydamonkey
Mar 11 24
199 plays
2.
  Origin of Computer Terms   popular trivia quiz  
Match Quiz
 10 Qns
Match each given word origin to the correct computer-related term.
Very Easy, 10 Qns, AlexT781, Aug 31 20
Recommended for grades: 7,8,9
Very Easy
AlexT781
Aug 31 20
1425 plays
3.
  Computers--Talking the Talk   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
You hear your friends and relatives using these computer terms all the time but do you know what they're talking about? Take this quiz and find out!
Very Easy, 10 Qns, Snipercatcher, Dec 26 23
Recommended for grades: 7,8
Very Easy
Snipercatcher
Dec 26 23
1419 plays
4.
  They Have Internet on Computers Now?    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
This quiz is on the most basic information about computers for those people who know how to use them, but know little else (much like myself.)
Easier, 10 Qns, Joepetz, Mar 22 16
Easier
Joepetz gold member
2019 plays
5.
  Alphabet Soup    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
You see these abbreviations online or on TV and you hear them in everyday conversation but do you know what they mean? Take this quiz and find out!
Easier, 10 Qns, Snipercatcher, Jan 18 19
Easier
Snipercatcher
Jan 18 19
885 plays
6.
  On Cloud Nine    
Match Quiz
 10 Qns
Cloud computing has revolutionized the way we think about digital services. This quiz asks you to match a cloud-related term or concept to its correct description. Good luck!
Average, 10 Qns, Lpez, Jun 13 22
Average
Lpez gold member
Jun 13 22
242 plays
7.
  Artificial Intelligence    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The holy grail of computing is creating a computer that can think like a human. The computing world has made great strides but that goal is still elusive. How much do you know about the subject?
Average, 10 Qns, tazman6619, Jan 18 16
Average
tazman6619 gold member
1428 plays
8.
  People and Places    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Microsoft, Apple, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs--these are names everyone knows. How many other famous internet people and places can you name? Take this quiz and find out!
Average, 10 Qns, Snipercatcher, Jan 03 23
Average
Snipercatcher
Jan 03 23
576 plays
trivia question Quick Question
What type of memory is used to temporarily store information that the computer is currently working with?

From Quiz "Are You A Computer Geek?"





Computers Trivia Questions

1. The Microsoft Corporation moved its world headquarters to which location in 1986?

From Quiz
People and Places

Answer: Redmond, Washington

Microsoft headquarters are located in Redmond, Washington, about 35 miles from Seattle. Cupertino, California, is home to Apple, Inc. Area 51 is a US Air Force facility in Lincoln County, Nevada. It is known by UFO enthusiasts as a center for government conspiracy theories.

2. Someone tells you he is getting a lot of spam. What is he is referring to?

From Quiz Computers--Talking the Talk

Answer: unsolicited or "junk" email

Spam refers to unsolicited and usually unwanted email. Unfortunately as with "snail mail" it can be the result of having someone give or sell your email address to a third party. While some "spammers" are hard to get rid of usually you they will stop emailing you if you tell them to, politely or not so politely.

3. Which man is credited with coining the term 'artificial intelligence' in 1955 and is considered one of the early pioneers in the field? (Perhaps he was a relative of Tail Gunner Joe.)

From Quiz Artificial Intelligence

Answer: John McCarthy

Tail Gunner Joe is a reference to Senator Joseph McCarthy of McCarthyism fame and hopefully a helpful clue. John McCarthy was no relation to the man. John spent his life in the field of AI and championed mathematical logic as the basis for AI. He is credited with developing the Lisp programming language while at MIT and heavily influenced the ALGOL programming language. He was a professor in the field at Stanford University from 1962 until his retirement in 2000.

4. Where did the World's first Apple retail store open?

From Quiz People and Places

Answer: Tyson's Corner Mall, McLean, Virginia

The world's first Apple store opened at the Tyson's Corner Mall in McLean, Virginia, near Washington, DC in 2001. The stores at Mall of America and the King of Prussia Mall, two of America's largest shopping malls, opened later. The Sherman Oaks Galleria, featured in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Frank/Moon Unit Zappa's song "Valley Girl" does not have an Apple store, at least not in 2017.

5. Which Hanover, New Hampshire Ivy league university held the first artificial intelligence conference in 1956?

From Quiz Artificial Intelligence

Answer: Dartmouth

The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence is considered to be the foundational beginnings of the subject. The term artificial intelligence was first introduced at this conference. The conference was organized by John McCarthy, who was a professor at Dartmouth at the time. Early AI champions and researchers Marvin Minsky, Nathaniel Rochester, and Claude Shannon joined him in the proposal offered at the conference. Other notable attendees were Ray Solomonoff, Oliver Selfridge, Trenchard More, Arthur Samuel, Herbert A. Simon, and Allen Newell.

6. The Linux operating system was developed by which University of Helsinki software engineer?

From Quiz People and Places

Answer: Linus Torvalds

Finnish-born engineer Linus Torvalds developed the Linux operating system, which debuted in 1991. Carolus Linnaeus was the Swedish biologist responsible for most Latin-based biological terms. Linus Pauling was an American scientist awarded TWO Nobel Prizes, one for peace and one for Chemistry. Linus Van Pelt, the little brother of Lucy Van Pelt, is a comic strip character created by the late Charles Schulz. Linus Torvalds' parents were part of Finland's Swedish-speaking minority and named him after Linus Pauling. Torvalds moved to the United States and became a naturalized citizen in 2010.

7. A friend tells you her computer was hacked. What has happened to it?

From Quiz Computers--Talking the Talk

Answer: accessed by an unauthorized person

Hacking costs billions of dollars per year, but you can protect yourself and your computer by having everything protected with passwords that are not easily guessed by people with malicious intent.

8. Which US government department was a major early funder of artificial intelligence research for its own ulterior motives?

From Quiz Artificial Intelligence

Answer: Department of Defense

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is the agency within the Department of Defense (DoD) responsible for the development of new technologies that can be exploited by the military. In the 1960s with the Vietnam War raging, DARPA funneled large amounts of money into AI research. With the end of the Vietnam War in the 1970s and the lack of practical applications for AI, the funding eventually dried up for about a decade.

9. Which electronics retail store, which became GameStop, was named after an Englishman born in 1791 and regarded by some as the "father of computing?"

From Quiz People and Places

Answer: Babbage's

Dallas-based Babbage's, named after British mathematician Charles Babbage, opened in 1984 and became GameStop in 1994. Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable. The Texas-based Tandy Corporation later became Radio Shack. Einstein Bros is a bagel and coffee chain founded in Colorado. Albert Einstein was never a British citizen. Babbage's started out as a software retailer but concentrated more on gaming as the years went by. GameStop, its successor, sells mainly PC games and accessories. By 2017 it boasted more than seven thousand stores worldwide.

10. What was the trembling name of the first general-purpose mobile robot that employed AI and was developed by the Artificial Intelligence Center of Stanford Research Institute in the late 1960s?

From Quiz Artificial Intelligence

Answer: Shakey the Robot

Shakey the Robot was developed between 1966 and 1972. At the time robots merely followed the step by step instructions given by the programmer or operator. What made Shakey different was it could analyze the command and break it down by itself rather than having to be given step by step instructions. The project was funded by DARPA. The robots main programming (operating system) was done in Lisp and STRIPS (Stanford Research Institute Problem Solver) was the software it ran to carry out its tasks.

11. Which computer CEO started his multi-billion dollar business in his University of Texas dorm room?

From Quiz People and Places

Answer: Michael Dell

Michael Dell built his first computer, launching Dell Technologies, from dorm room 2713 at the University of Texas' Dobie Center. None of Gates, Jobs and Wozniak attended that University.

12. Someone tells you she follows a gentleman's tweets. What is she referring to?

From Quiz Computers--Talking the Talk

Answer: messages posted on the social media website originally called Twitter

"Tweets" refer to the posts, or electronic messages seen on Twitter, renamed as X in 2023. The people who post them are sometimes referred to as "Tweeps."

13. One of the early artificial intelligence programming languages was one that sounds like it might have a speech impediment. Which language is this?

From Quiz Artificial Intelligence

Answer: Lisp programming language

The Lisp programming language was designed by John McCarthy in 1958 and is the second oldest high-level programming language still in use today, Fortran is one year older. There are now dialects within the Lisp language with Common Lisp and Scheme being two of the most widely-known general purpose ones. This language has always been closely linked to and utilized by AI research.

14. IBM's Watson supercomputer was named after that corporation's first CEO. What was his/her name?

From Quiz People and Places

Answer: Thomas Watson

The supercomputer was named after IBM's first CEO, Thomas J. Watson, who retired and died in 1956 at age 82. John Watson was the name of Sherlock Holmes'sidekick, normally known as "Dr. Watson." Diane Watson was a US representative from California who served until 2011. Bubba Watson is an American pro golfer from Bagdad, Florida.

15. Deep Blue was the first computer to beat a reigning world chess champion. Which Russian did Deep Blue beat in May 1997?

From Quiz Artificial Intelligence

Answer: Garry Kasparov

IBM set out to develop a computer that could beat a world chess champion and so Deep Blue was born. Deep Blue first played Kasparov in 1996, losing 4-2 to him in a six game match. The programs developers went back to work to fine tune the program and continued to use chess Grandmaster Joel Benjamin as their knowledge source. During the rematch in 1997, the programmers were allowed to make adjustments to Deep Blue between matches. Again it was a six game match and going into the sixth and final game it was tied 2 1/2-2 1/2. Deep Blue defeated Kasparov in spectacular fashion in just 19 moves. The match became a media sensation.

16. At which university was the first computer mouse developed?

From Quiz People and Places

Answer: Stanford

The first mouse was developed by Douglas Engelbart at Stanford University in California during the early 1960s but not patented until 1970.

17. Everyone is talking about something they saw on Youtube. What are they referring to?

From Quiz Computers--Talking the Talk

Answer: a website that allows you to view other people's videos and share your own

In addition to posting your own videos on Youtube you can watch and usually comment on other people's. Usually the service is free but you may have to pay to watch entire movies or TV episodes.

18. In 1983 Apple introduced an ill-fated and, in some people's opinions, ugly computer named LISA. What did the acronym stand for?

From Quiz People and Places

Answer: Local Integrated System Architecture

Lisa is also the name of one of Steve Jobs' four children who was four years old when the less than best-selling computer was introduced. Jobs' relationship with her and her mother, Chrisann Brennan, as well as his own health issues, provided the US press with fodder for years. Lisa Brennan-Jobs went on to graduate from Harvard University and became a professional writer.

19. In computing terms, what is a port?

From Quiz Computers--Talking the Talk

Answer: a point on your computer from which you connect to other devices such as speakers, printers etc.

External ports can connect to devices such as microphones, headphones and scanners. Internal ports can connect to hard drives, CD/DVD drives etc.

20. Computer games employ a form of artificial intelligence that mimics human decision-making capabilities. What is the name for these 'skillful' systems?

From Quiz Artificial Intelligence

Answer: Expert systems

Expert systems are knowledge based systems that seek to emulate human decision-making processes based on a database and reasoning derived from that knowledge rather than procedures put in place by a develop as happens with conventional programming. In the 1970s and 1980s computer games made vast use of this technology since the game programmer can set parameters upon which the software will base its decisions. Expert systems have moved far beyond just gaming since then and are employed in many fields such as law, medicine, and accounting, to name a few. The process by which the knowledge needed for a specific application is gathered and employed is called knowledge engineering.

21. Which South African-born inventor is co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc., which specializes in electric cars, solar panels and lithium-ion batteries?

From Quiz People and Places

Answer: Elon Musk

Elon Musk was quoted by Bloomberg.com and Business Insider as saying "I came to the conclusion that we should aspire to increase the scope and scale of human consciousness in order to better understand what questions to ask. Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment." Musician Dave Matthews, actress Charlize Theron and Olympic athlete Zola Budd are all of South African origin.

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Last Updated Mar 18 2024 2:05 PM
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