1. What constitutes software in its complete form?
a) Only executable programs
b) Programs along with documentation and data configuration
c) Just the source code
d) Hardware instructions
Explanation: Complete software includes executable code, user/technical documentation, and configuration files needed for proper operation and maintenance.
2. What does software engineering primarily involve?
a) Random coding practices
b) Applying engineering methods to software creation
c) Focusing solely on testing
d) Hardware design integration
Explanation: Software engineering applies systematic, disciplined, quantifiable engineering approaches to all phases of software development and maintenance.
3. Who is widely recognized as a pioneer in the foundations of software engineering?
a) Margaret Hamilton
b) Watts S. Humphrey
c) Alan Turing
d) Boris Beizer
Explanation: Alan Turing’s work on computation theory and the concept of a universal machine forms the theoretical foundation of modern software engineering.
4. Which characteristics define high-quality software code?
a) Complexity and obscurity
b) Simplicity, ease of access, and modular structure
c) Lengthy and monolithic design
d) Frequent updates without planning
Explanation: High-quality code is readable, maintainable, testable, and reusable — achieved through simplicity and good modular design.
5. Which activity is not typically part of standard software development processes?
a) Validation checks
b) Requirement specification
c) Coding implementation
d) External dependency management
Explanation: Dependency management is a supporting/devops activity; core development processes focus on requirements → design → code → test → deploy.
6. What is the core focus of Agile Scrum in project management?
a) Emphasizing steady, unchanging progress
b) Prioritizing small, incremental advancements
c) Focusing on large-scale releases
d) Avoiding any form of progress tracking
Explanation: Scrum delivers potentially shippable increments every sprint (usually 2–4 weeks), enabling fast feedback and adaptation.
7. What is the expansion of CASE in software tools?
a) Computer-Assisted System Experiments
b) Control-Aided Science Engineering
c) Computer-Aided Software Engineering
d) Cost-Aided Software Evaluation
Explanation: CASE refers to software tools that automate or assist in software analysis, design, coding, testing, and maintenance.
8. What process involves creating design documents from existing code analysis?
a) Forward engineering
b) Reverse engineering
c) Re-engineering
d) Scientific engineering
Explanation: Reverse engineering extracts design information, architecture, or requirements by analyzing existing source code or binaries.
9. What does project scheduling entail in software development?
a) Allocating resources to tasks over the timeline
b) Ignoring timelines for flexibility
c) Focusing only on macroscopic overviews
d) Avoiding detailed breakdowns
Explanation: Scheduling assigns people, tools, and budget to tasks while determining sequence, duration, and critical path to meet deadlines.
10. What do functional requirements specify in software?
a) System performance metrics
b) Specific tasks the software must perform
c) User interface aesthetics
d) Hardware compatibility
Explanation: Functional requirements define the exact behaviors, features, inputs, outputs, and operations the system must provide.
11. Why do errors and defects appear in software products?
a) Solely due to developer mistakes
b) Only from company policies
c) From both organizational and individual factors
d) Exclusively from external tools
Explanation: Defects arise from human error, unclear requirements, tight schedules, poor processes, communication gaps, and organizational pressures.
12. What are key attributes of reliable software?
a) High cost and complexity
b) Functionality combined with maintainability
c) Short-term usability only
d) Rigid structure
Explanation: Reliable software must work correctly today and remain easy to understand, fix, and extend tomorrow.
13. Who contributed to the development of the Cleanroom software methodology?
a) Harlan Mills
b) Barry Boehm
c) Alan Turing
d) All mentioned contributors
Explanation: Harlan Mills developed the Cleanroom process, which emphasizes mathematical verification and statistical quality control to produce near-zero-defect software.
14. What is the full form of SDLC?
a) System Design Life Cycle
b) Software Development Life Cycle
c) Structured Data Life Cycle
d) System Deployment Life Cycle
Explanation: SDLC is the structured sequence of phases (planning → analysis → design → implementation → testing → maintenance) used to build software.
15. Who introduced the spiral model for software development?
a) Winston Royce
b) Barry Boehm
c) Roger Pressman
d) IBM team
Explanation: Barry Boehm proposed the Spiral Model in 1986, combining iterative prototyping with explicit risk-driven decision points.
16. Which is not a core principle in the Software Engineering Code of Ethics?
a) Public interest
b) Professional conduct
c) Environmental impact
d) Product quality
Explanation: The ACM/IEEE Software Engineering Code of Ethics focuses on public, client, employer, product, judgment, management, profession, and colleagues — not directly on environmental impact.
17. What categories fall under CASE tools?
a) Only lower-level tools
b) Central repositories and integrated tools
c) Standalone editors
d) All types mentioned
Explanation: Modern CASE tools include upper CASE (analysis/design), lower CASE (coding/testing), integrated CASE, and central repositories for shared artifacts.
18. What aligns with the Agile Manifesto’s values?
a) Strict documentation over working code
b) Customer collaboration and adaptive software
c) Fixed contracts only
d) Process over people
Explanation: The Agile Manifesto values individuals & interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change over rigid processes and contracts.
19. What is a software patch primarily used for?
a) Routine updates
b) Critical security fixes
c) Urgent emergency corrections
d) Aesthetic changes
Explanation: A patch is a quick, targeted fix usually released to address critical bugs or security vulnerabilities discovered after deployment.
20. In which team structure is there no fixed leader?
a) Controlled centralized
b) Democratic decentralized
c) Controlled decentralized
d) Hierarchical
Explanation: Democratic decentralized teams have fluid, task-based leadership with high collaboration and no permanent single leader.
21. What are the three main phases in software work, focusing on ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘change’?
a) Definition, development, support
b) Development, support, definition
c) Support, definition, development
d) Change, what, how
Explanation: Definition phase → what to build (requirements); Development → how to build it (design & code); Support → manage changes & maintenance.
22. Which is not a core software process activity?
a) Design and coding
b) Validation testing
c) Long-term evolution
d) Requirement verification
Explanation: Long-term evolution (maintenance) happens after initial development; core activities are requirements, design, implementation, verification & validation.
23. What principles guide Agile development?
a) Fixed requirements only
b) Welcoming changes and face-to-face talks
c) Ignoring customer satisfaction
d) Annual deliveries
Explanation: Agile welcomes changing requirements, even late in development, and values face-to-face conversation as the most efficient communication method.
24. Does Component-Based Software Engineering speed up delivery?
a) No, it slows it down
b) Yes, through reuse
c) Only for small projects
d) Not applicable
Explanation: CBSE promotes reuse of tested, pre-built components, significantly reducing development time and cost.
25. Who developed the Function Point metric?
a) Barry Boehm
b) Grady Booch
c) Allan Albrecht
d) Ivar Jacobson
Explanation: Allan Albrecht at IBM introduced Function Point Analysis in 1979 to measure software size based on user functionality.
26. Which model is best for teams lacking experience on similar projects?
a) Spiral
b) Iterative Enhancement
c) Waterfall
d) RAD
Explanation: Waterfall provides clear, well-documented phases and milestones, making it easier for inexperienced teams to follow.
27. Agile development relies on what approaches?
a) Linear progression
b) Incremental and iterative builds
c) Waterfall sequencing
d) Fixed planning
Explanation: Agile delivers working software in small increments and refines it through repeated short development cycles (iterations).
28. What team structure has a main leader with sub-leaders?
a) Democratic decentralized
b) Controlled centralized
c) Flat organization
d) Ad-hoc
Explanation: Controlled centralized structure features one primary coordinator with delegated sub-leaders managing parts of the project.
29. What does the 4GT model primarily consist of?
a) Custom scripts
b) Advanced CASE tools
c) Basic compilers
d) Manual coding
Explanation: Fourth Generation Techniques (4GT) rely heavily on high-level CASE tools, visual environments, and code generators for rapid development.
30. Software engineers should avoid which practice?
a) Relying on team input
b) Upholding independent judgment
c) Accepting work beyond competence
d) Misusing skills for harm
Explanation: The Software Engineering Code of Ethics explicitly states engineers shall not accept work for which they are not qualified.
31. Which model struggles most with incorporating changes?
a) Prototyping
b) RAD
c) Waterfall
d) Build & Fix
Explanation: Waterfall is sequential; changes after a phase is complete are expensive and disruptive.
32. In which model is coding delayed significantly?
a) Spiral
b) RAD
c) Waterfall
d) 4GT
Explanation: Waterfall delays implementation (coding) until requirements, analysis, and design phases are fully completed.
33. What are the key activities in Adaptive Software Development?
a) Analysis, design, coding
b) Speculation, collaboration, learning
c) Gathering, planning, iteration
d) All phases combined
Explanation: ASD cycles consist of speculation (planning with uncertainty), collaboration (teamwork), and learning (adapting from experience).
34. Which factor is least relevant for team structure planning?
a) Delivery deadlines
b) Problem complexity
c) Team frustration levels
d) Required interactions
Explanation: While morale matters, primary factors for choosing team structure are problem size, complexity, deadlines, and communication needs.
35. What does COCOMO stand for?
a) Cost Constructive Model
b) Constructive Cost Model
c) Comprehensive Cost Model
d) Creative Cost Model
Explanation: COCOMO (Constructive Cost Model) is an algorithmic software cost estimation model developed by Barry Boehm.
36. Which is not a quality attribute of software processes?
a) Timely delivery
b) Productivity rates
c) Process visibility
d) System portability
Explanation: Portability is a software product quality attribute; process quality focuses on predictability, efficiency, visibility, etc.
37. What method does Cleanroom use for operational analysis?
a) Error degeneration
b) Box structure specs
c) Transparency referencing
d) Code reviews
Explanation: Cleanroom uses rigorous box structures (black-box, state-box, clear-box) for formal specification and verification.
38. What is system software primarily?
a) User applications
b) AI algorithms
c) Programs managing hardware
d) IoT devices
Explanation: System software (OS, drivers, utilities) manages hardware resources so application software can run.
39. UML diagrams cannot represent which view?
a) Behavioral
b) Structural
c) Layered
d) Interaction
Explanation: UML provides class, component, deployment diagrams for structure, and sequence, activity, state for behavior — but no explicit layered architecture diagram.
Explanation: Infrastructure software (databases, middleware, networks) is usually generic and reusable across many applications.
42. Requirement analysis excludes which diagram?
a) Use case
b) Class
c) Activity
d) Sequence
Explanation: Activity diagrams are primarily used during design; requirement analysis focuses more on use-case, class, and conceptual sequence diagrams.
43. RUP and PSP abbreviate to?
a) Rapid Unified Process, Personal Software Plan
b) Rational Unified Process, Personal Software Process
c) Reusable Unified Protocol, Project Software Process
d) Rational User Process, Personal System Process
Explanation: RUP = Rational Unified Process (iterative framework); PSP = Personal Software Process (individual process improvement by Watts Humphrey).
44. What refers to internal software quality?
a) Scalability
b) Reusability
c) Performance
d) Security
Explanation: Reusability, modularity, understandability, and testability are key internal quality attributes visible mainly to developers.
45. Simplifying problems by ignoring details is called?
a) Encapsulation
b) Abstraction
c) Inheritance
d) Polymorphism
Explanation: Abstraction focuses on essential characteristics while hiding unnecessary implementation details.
46. SRS is also known as?
a) White-box spec
b) Black-box spec
c) Gray-box spec
d) Code spec
Explanation: Software Requirements Specification (SRS) describes external behavior (what the system does) without revealing internal implementation.
47. How many UML notations exist?
a) 5
b) 9
c) 12
d) 15
Explanation: UML 2.x defines 14 diagram types, but the original / most commonly taught set emphasizes 9 core diagrams (class, use case, sequence, etc.).
48. RAD model has how many phases?
a) 3
b) 4
c) 5
d) 6
Explanation: Classic RAD has four phases: Requirements Planning, User Design, Construction, Cutover.
49. Worst type of module coupling?
a) Data
b) Control
c) Content
d) Common
Explanation: Content coupling (one module directly modifies or depends on another module’s internal implementation) creates the tightest, most brittle dependency.
50. RAD stands for?
a) Rapid Application Design
b) Rapid Application Development
c) Reliable Application Delivery
d) Robust Application Deployment
Explanation: Rapid Application Development emphasizes quick prototyping, iterative user feedback, and reusable components to accelerate delivery.
