Famous People (Quiz/Exam) Facts

Question 1

Who won the first Turing Award

Answer 1

Alan Perlis

Question 2

Who wrote the merge sort algorithm?

Answer 2

John von Neumann

Question 3

Test to determine a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behavior similar to an actual human

Answer 3

Alan Turing

Question 4

Credited as father of computer science?

Answer 4

Alan Turing

Question 5

Proposed early stored-program (general purpose) digital computer whose architecture is named after him?

Answer 5

John von Neumann

Question 6

Did Grace Hopper win a turing award?

Answer 6

No

Question 7

Known as the father of analysis of algorithms?

Answer 7

Donald Knuth

Question 8

Apologized for inventing the null reference?

Answer 8

C.A.R. Hoare

Question 9

Has an algorithm named after him/her?

Answer 9

Edsger Dijkstra

Question 10

Inventor of quicksort

Answer 10

C.A.R. Hoare

Question 11

Proved that what is now known as the halting problem is undecidable.

Answer 11

Alan Turing

Question 12

Coined the term “artificial intelligence.”

Answer 12

John McCarthy

Question 13

Main notation for expressing context-free grammars in programming

Answer 13

John Backus

Question 14

Helped popularize the term “debugging.”

Answer 14

Grace Hopper

Question 15

null reference self-described as a billion-dollar mistake.

Answer 15

C.A.R. Hoare

Question 16

Shortest-Path algorithm.

Answer 16

Edsger Dijkstra

Question 17

Invented Merge sort algorithm.

Answer 17

John von Neumann

Question 18

Co-authored Concrete Mathematics (a blend of CONtinuous and disCRETE math) with Ron Graham.

Answer 18

Donald Knuth

Question 19

“Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster.”

Answer 19

Nikalaus Wirth

Question 20

A case against the goto statement author.

Answer 20

Edsger W.Dijkstra

Question 21

Conceptualized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL

Answer 21

Grace Hopper

Question 22

A theoretical device representing a computing machine to understand limits of computation.

Answer 22

Truing Machine

Question 23

“Will a program complete?”

Answer 23

Halting Problem

Question 24

“Can machines think?”

Answer 24

Turing Test

Question 25

What does the shunting-yard algorithm do?

Answer 25

Converts infix notation to RPN

Question 26

Who invented the shunting-yard algorithm?

Answer 26

Edsger Dijisktra

Question 27

What did Grace Hopper use a piece of wire just under one foot to demonstrate?

Answer 27

Distance radio waves travels in one nanosecond

Question 28

Father of Fortran

Answer 28

John Backus

Question 29

Father of Lisp

Answer 29

John McCarthy

Question 30

Father of Pascal

Answer 30

Niklaus Wirth

Question 31

Father of Garbage Collection

Answer 31

John McCarthy

Question 32

Credited as being the theoretical father of computer virology for his design of a self-reproducing program

Answer 32

John von Neumann