Practice IB Computer Science (CS) Topic C.5 Analysing the Web with authentic exam-style questions for both SL and HL students. This question bank focuses on the exact syllabus content for C.5 Analysing the Web and mirrors Paper 1, 2, 3 style where relevant.
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The effectiveness of web search and the speed of content delivery depend on technical standards and optimization strategies. Website administrators use various tools to guide search engines, while modern image formats help maintain a balance between visual quality and network performance.
Outline the specific role of each of the following in optimizing a website for search engines: Robots.txt files, XML Sitemaps, and meta tags (e.g., title and description).
Explain how a search engine can use a web crawler and an index to retrieve relevant pages for a user’s query.
Explain how 'personalized search' can create a 'filter bubble' for a user, and describe the impact this has on the variety of information retrieved.
Evaluate the use of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) versus WebP image formats in enhancing a website's performance and user experience.
With reference to the bowtie model of the web, consider the following graph. It represents a snapshot of popular sites about a specific topic.
After two months, the graph has evolved into the one shown below.
We can interpret the graph as follows:
Each node represents a document and each outgoing arrow represents a hyperlink in the document.
Unless stated otherwise, answer the questions with reference to the evolved graph (after two months).
Identify the set of OUT nodes in the evolved graph (after two months).
Identify two reasons why an edge may disappear in the new graph, for example the edge between node 5 and node 4.
Outline why the edge between node 2 and node 1 is a tendril.
State how many hyperlinks are in the document corresponding to node 6.
Power laws are often used to model phenomena occurring in very large networks and predict their evolution. Power laws may be suitably applied in different cases, in the context of the World Wide Web.
With reference to the relation between the number of documents in the web and the number of hyperlinks in each of them, suggest how power laws may help to explain the shape of the World Wide Web.
Identify the nodes in the strongly connected core in the evolved graph (after two months).
An international organization, OBI, has three offices in Europe, see Figure 7.
Figure 7: The location of OBI’s offices in Europe
Office A and Office B report to Office C, the head office.
Office A and Office B collaborate on many projects. Office C is not involved in the collaboration between Office A and Office B.
OBI has projects that involve large numbers of contributors from all over the world. These projects are managed by OBI staff in Office A.
The contributors often include non-text based information.
Draw a directed graph based on the scenario.
Describe the role of graph theory in determining the connectivity of the World Wide Web.
Outline two issues that may arise from using a non-text based search.
OBI has decided to gather information for one project by utilizing collective intelligence.
Evaluate this decision.
Figure 2 below shows a web graph that is a simplified representation of the World Wide Web.
Figure 2: a simplified representation of the World Wide Web
Web crawlers move through the web, indexing pages to provide information for search engines. When a web crawler arrives at a page it uses several criteria to decide whether to index that page or not.
Identify the nodes that represent web pages in the strongly connected core (SCC).
Identify the nodes that represent web pages connected by a tube.
Outline why web page E would be given a higher ranking than web page C using the PageRank algorithm.
Identify three criteria that may be used by a web crawler to decide whether to index a web page or not.
The following information shows the number of active users (in millions) on different social media sites.
Discuss whether the application of power laws is appropriate to predict the future number of active users on these social media sites.