IGCSE ICT: Networks and the Effects of Using Them — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — Cambridge International holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or Cambridge directly.

Related: Networks and the Effects of Using Them revision notes

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Section A

1. Name the three functions of a router. [3]

2. State one difference between a hub and a switch. [2]

3. Name the authentication category that a fingerprint scan belongs to. [1]

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Section B

4. A small business connects computers wirelessly within a single office building.

(a) Name the type of network this describes. [1] (b) The business later connects this office to two other branch offices in different cities. Name the type of network now formed by connecting all three sites. [1] (c) Explain the difference between the two network types you named. [2]

5. A university allows specific external research partners limited access to selected shared files, while keeping its full internal systems accessible only to staff and students.

(a) Name the type of network solution being described for the external partners. [1] (b) Explain why this is not simply described as the university’s intranet. [2] (c) Explain why this is not simply described as making the files available on the internet. [2]

6. A company wants to reduce the risk of intercepted passwords across its network.

(a) State one measure the company could take to reduce this risk. [1] (b) Explain why regularly changing passwords helps limit the damage even if a password is intercepted. [2]

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Section C

7. A hospital needs staff across three different sites to review a patient’s scan images together in real time while discussing the case aloud. Recommend a suitable electronic conferencing type for this scenario, and justify your recommendation by explaining why a simpler conferencing type would not be sufficient. [6]

8. Explain why authentication systems are often designed to combine more than one of “something you know,” “something you have,” and “something you are,” using a specific example to illustrate your answer. [5]

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Worked answers

1. Connecting networks/devices to the internet; storing computer addresses; routing data packets toward their destination. [3]

2. A hub broadcasts incoming data to every connected device regardless of which one it is intended for; a switch learns which device is connected to which port and sends data only to the intended recipient. [2]

3. Biometric. [1]

4. (a) WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). [1] (b) WAN (Wide Area Network). [1] (c) A WLAN covers a small area, typically a single building or site, using a wireless connection; a WAN covers a much larger geographic area, connecting multiple sites (in this case, three offices in different cities) together. [2]

5. (a) An extranet. [1] (b) An intranet is accessible only to the organisation’s own internal members (staff and students), whereas this scenario specifically grants access to external research partners, which an intranet does not permit. [2] (c) Making the files available on the internet would give general public access to anyone, whereas this scenario restricts access to specific, approved external partners only — an extranet provides this controlled, limited external access rather than full public availability. [2]

6. (a) Using up-to-date anti-spyware software (or requiring strong passwords). [1] (b) Even if a password is intercepted, regularly changing it means the intercepted password will only remain valid, and therefore useful to an attacker, for a limited time before it is replaced, reducing the window in which unauthorised access is possible. [2]

7. Web-conferencing is the most suitable choice, because the staff need to view and discuss the same scan images together in real time, not just hear or see each other. Audio-conferencing would not be sufficient, since it provides no way to view the scan images at all — only spoken communication. Video-conferencing alone would let staff see and hear each other, but without the ability to share and jointly view the scan images themselves, staff would need to rely on describing what they see verbally, which is far less precise and reliable for reviewing detailed medical imagery than viewing the same shared image directly. Web-conferencing’s ability to share documents, screens or images alongside audio (and often video) is exactly what this scenario requires, making it the recommendation that actually matches the described need rather than a more limited alternative. [6] (Marks for correctly identifying web-conferencing, and for explaining specifically why audio- and video-conferencing alone would each fall short.)

8. Combining more than one authentication factor makes it significantly harder for an unauthorised person to gain access, because compromising a single factor is no longer sufficient on its own. For example, a bank card payment combines “something you have” (the physical card) with “something you know” (the PIN); someone who steals the card alone cannot use it without also knowing the PIN, and someone who somehow learns the PIN alone cannot use it without also possessing the physical card. This layered approach — requiring an attacker to defeat multiple, independent types of authentication rather than just one — is why multi-factor systems combining know/have/are elements are considered stronger than relying on any single method alone, such as a password by itself. [5]

Official syllabus

Cambridge International, Cambridge IGCSE Information and Communication Technology (0417) syllabus for 2026, 2027 and 2028, Subject content, sections 4.1 “Networks” and 4.2 “Network issues and communication” — the same specification cited by the Networks study guide, the Network Issues and Communication study guide, and their combined revision notes. Verified 2026-09-02.