Practice IB Computer Science (CS) Topic C.4 the Evolving Web with authentic exam-style questions for both SL and HL students. This question bank focuses on the exact syllabus content for C.4 the Evolving Web and mirrors Paper 1, 2, 3 style where relevant.
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A non-profit organization is launching an international educational portal named 'EduGlobal'. The portal provides interactive learning modules, a searchable database of academic papers, and a private forum for registered educators.
The portal is hosted on a central server and accessed via the URL: https://www.eduglobal-portal.org/resources/index.php.
To ensure high performance, the developers must decide which tasks are handled by the user's browser and which are handled by the server. They also need to ensure the site is easily discoverable by search engines while keeping sensitive data secure.
Identify two components of the URL https://www.eduglobal-portal.org/resources/index.php.
When a user signs up for the forum, a script checks if the password meets the minimum length requirements.
Outline one advantage of performing this check using client-side scripting rather than server-side scripting.
State the HTTP status code that the server would return to a browser if a student attempts to access a deleted lesson page.
The 'EduGlobal' team adds new research papers to the portal every week. Outline one way a web crawler (spider) identifies that new content has been added to the site's index.
The 'EduGlobal' portal must be accessible to students using various browsers (e.g., Chrome, Safari, Firefox) and different operating systems.
Explain the role of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in making this possible.
The portal consists of a public blog and a private database of academic papers that requires a subscription to access.
Distinguish between the Surface Web and the Deep Web in the context of this portal, and explain why the academic papers might not appear in general search engine results.
The evolution of the World Wide Web is supported by a set of protocols and standards that ensure global compatibility and information retrieval. While often used interchangeably, the technical distinction between the underlying infrastructure and the services running on it is fundamental to web science.
Distinguish between the physical infrastructure of the Internet and the software-based service known as the World Wide Web.
Explain the sequence of events that occurs during a standard Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) "GET" request cycle.
Search engines use automated programs to manage the vast amount of data available on the web. Describe the process these programs use to discover, categorize, and rank information.
Explain the importance of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards in the development of modern web applications.
The infrastructure of the World Wide Web is increasingly moving toward decentralized models. Technologies such as BitTorrent and the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) utilize peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols and distributed architectures to manage data storage and retrieval.
Unlike traditional web hosting, which relies on location-addressing (URLs pointing to specific servers), distributed approaches often use content-addressing where data is identified by its cryptographic hash. This shifting landscape impacts how files are found, distributed, and maintained across the globe.
Explain how a BitTorrent client utilizes a "swarm" to facilitate the download of a large file.
State two differences between the traditional Client-Server model and the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) model for web-based applications.
The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a distributed web protocol that uses content-addressing rather than the location-addressing (HTTP) used by the traditional web.
Evaluate the impact of replacing location-addressed protocols with content-addressed protocols on the management and accessibility of web content.
Explain the role of a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) in maintaining a decentralized network.