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This is a quiz about programming languages for those who know a bit about software already. Enjoy!

A multiple-choice quiz by PootyPootwell. Estimated time: 4 mins.

Author
PootyPootwell

Time
4 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
369,848

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
7 / 10

Plays
361

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Who was the child of a famous poet and English mathematician whom many historians consider the first programmer? Hint

Thomas Edison

Ada Lovelace

Lewis Carroll

Alexander Abercrombie

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Question 2 of 10

2. What is the name of the first widely-used programming language that was developed by IBM in the mid 1950s? Hint

COBOL

C++

Java

Fortran

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Question 3 of 10

3. Choose the pair that best expresses a relationship similar to the following:

C++ : Python Hint

Compiled : Interpreted

Scrambled : Dyed

Compiled : BASIC

Hybrid : COBOL

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Question 4 of 10

4. What is the name of the programming language, created in 1958, popularly used in artificial intelligence and which uses lists as a main data structure? Hint

Java

Visual C++

Delphi

LISP

5. As the year approached 2000, programmers and businesses realized they might be in trouble because one of the widely-used programming languages used only two-digit fields for the notation for years. Suddenly, those programmers who were versed in this particular language were in more demand than usual to prepare for the new century. What language was this? Hint

COBOL

Cobra

Visual Basic .NET

JavaScript

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Question 6 of 10

6. An American mathematician, who was also a Naval Rear Admiral, is credited with creating FLOW-MATIC, a programming language intended to read more like English than math. Who was this multi-talented person? Hint

Grace Hopper

Marissa Mayer

Kevin Powell

Paul Allen

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Question 7 of 10

7. This computer language was developed at Bell Labs between 1969 and 1973 in large part to run on Unix. It became one of the most universally used languages of all time. Can you name this language with the short name? Hint

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Question 8 of 10

8. This programmer may be a rockstar in certain circles but he's not necessarily widely-known so I'm going to give several hints. Stop when you can name him!

Born in Denmark in 1960.
Wrote programs in his teens.
Wrote TurboPascal with Borland.
Was one of the first documented receivers of a $1M signing bonus.
Thus became architect of C# at Microsoft. Hint

Philippe Kahn

CJ Silverio

Sabeer Bhatia

Anders Hejlsberg

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Question 9 of 10

9. Larry Wall is an American programmer who created Perl. His motto for PERL about the flexibility of languages is shortened to "TIMTOWTDI." What does it stand for? Hint

There Is More Than One Way To Do It

TIMothy TOwnshend Wrote The Dynamite Information

The Indirect Modular Template Object With Transformative Data Inputs

That Is More Than Over With, Try Data Information

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Question 10 of 10

10. An Apple tool developer quietly wrote a new language designed to make it easy to create apps for all of the company's major devices. Apple introduced the language publicly in the summer of 2014 and emphasized how quickly it works. What is the name of this rapid programming tool?
Hint

Shelley

Swift

Micro Processing Language

Visual A

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Who was the child of a famous poet and English mathematician whom many historians consider the first programmer?

Answer: Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace was born in London in 1815 and was never close to her father, Lord Byron. Her mother and grandmother were dedicated to giving her a full education which included mathematics. As an adult, she worked with mathematician Charles Babbage and wrote her own method for how a machine would calculate a sequence of natural numbers.

She was also a bit of a gambler and tried, without much success, to calculate wins at the racetrack.

2. What is the name of the first widely-used programming language that was developed by IBM in the mid 1950s?

Answer: Fortran

In 1953, IBM computer scientist John W. Backus suggested the company develop an alternative to the assembly language its mainframes were using. A team was created, and Fortran was born. Its name is derived from "Formula Translating System."

3. Choose the pair that best expresses a relationship similar to the following: C++ : Python

Answer: Compiled : Interpreted

A distinction can be made between compiled languages and interpreted languages. Compiled language developers write code which is put through a compiler program which reduces the code into machine-ready files. Interpreted code does not need to be translated before execution in the same way.

The compiling process used to take a long time. I have heard stories from the early 1980s of developers playing indoor soccer while waiting for their code to compile.

4. What is the name of the programming language, created in 1958, popularly used in artificial intelligence and which uses lists as a main data structure?

Answer: LISP

LISP gets it name from "List Programming" and was created by Bostonian mathematician and computer scientist John McCarthy while he was working at M.I.T.

Answer: COBOL

COBOL, based on "COmmon Business-Oriented Language," was created as a simpler language to be used by businesses across industries. It was created by a committee of U.S. business and military professionals. A "Computerworld" survey in 2012 found that over 60% of major organizations had COBOL code running their internal software, though most had plans to migrate to more modern programs.

Answer: Grace Hopper

Grace Hopper, nicknamed "Amazing Grace" for her multitude of talents, was born in New York City in 1906. She earned a doctorate in mathematics from Yale and joined the Vassar faculty in 1931. During WWII she joined the Naval Reserves and from then on focused on computer science.

Answer: C

The C Programming Language was created by Bell Labs' engineers Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, and was originally referred to internally as "K&R" based on its creators' names. A compiled language, C has gone on to influence many later languages including C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and others.

8. This programmer may be a rockstar in certain circles but he's not necessarily widely-known so I'm going to give several hints. Stop when you can name him! Born in Denmark in 1960. Wrote programs in his teens. Wrote TurboPascal with Borland. Was one of the first documented receivers of a $1M signing bonus. Thus became architect of C# at Microsoft.

Answer: Anders Hejlsberg

Anders Hejlsberg became interested in computers as a young child and wrote a Pascal compiler at the age of just 20. He licensed his software to Borland, where he was a senior software developer until 1996. He was then recruited by Microsoft where he became a technical fellow.

9. Larry Wall is an American programmer who created Perl. His motto for PERL about the flexibility of languages is shortened to "TIMTOWTDI." What does it stand for?

Answer: There Is More Than One Way To Do It

"There is More Than One Way to Do It" reflects Perl's flexibility. Larry created it in 1987.

Answer: Swift

Chris Lattner earned his PhD in computer science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before joining Apple in 2005. Swift uses syntax that is easier for non-computer scientists to use and understand and Apple itself has described it as "Objective-C without the C."

Source: Author PootyPootwell

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
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