Board Questions
🎬 This chapter has a 7:57 video: Data Communication →These are the Data Communication questions CBSE has actually set in its board, compartment and sample papers, with a few from KV pre-boards that ask the same thing another way. Try each one before you open the answer.
1How this topic is asked
| What is asked | Marks | Set in |
|---|---|---|
| Name the switching technique from a description | 1 | Sample papers 2023-24 and 2024-25; compartment 2023 |
| Write differences between circuit and packet switching | 1–2 | Sample paper 2022-23; board 2024; compartment 2026 |
| Which IP address is valid? | 1 | Compartment 2025 |
| Define IP address | 1 | Compartment 2024 |
| Define bandwidth / its unit | 1 | Sample paper 2023-24; board 2024 |
| Protocol: fill in the blank, or why it is needed | 1 | Boards 2023 and 2024 |
2Components and protocol
▶Show the answer
Protocol
Revise: The Five Components
▶Show the answer
Protocols set the rules that sender and receiver both follow — how data is arranged, addressed, sent and checked — so that devices from different makers and with different software can communicate successfully and reliably.
Revise: The Five Components
3Bandwidth
▶Show the answer
Bandwidth is the range of frequencies available for sending data through a channel (highest frequency − lowest), measured in hertz. The higher the bandwidth, the higher the data transfer rate. (CBSE’s own marking scheme for this paper wrote “the maximum rate of data transfer over a given transmission medium”.)
Revise: Bandwidth
▶Show the answer
(C) Hz — in NCERT, bandwidth is a range of frequencies, measured in hertz. KB is a file size and Km a distance. Some guides answer (B) Bit, treating network bandwidth as a data rate; CBSE’s official 2024 marking scheme could not be checked.
Revise: Bandwidth
4IP address
▶Show the answer
An IP address (Internet Protocol address) is a unique address given to each device on a network that uses the Internet Protocol, which identifies the network the device is on and the device itself, so that data can reach it. Example: 192.168.0.178.
Revise: What is an IP Address?
(A) 122.94.96.212 (B) 212.254.258.210 (C) 210.10.12.156.209 (D) 122.294.56.68CBSE compartment exam 2025
▶Show the answer
(A) 122.94.96.212 — four numbers, each from 0 to 255. (B) has 258 and (D) has 294, both over 255; (C) has five numbers.
Revise: IPv4 and IPv6
Reason (R): MAC address is assigned by the manufacturer and is burned into the network interface card, making it a hardware-based address.KV pre-board 2025-26
▶Show the answer
Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
Revise: What is an IP Address?
5Switching techniques
(a) Packet (b) Graph (c) Circuit (d) PlotCBSE compartment exam 2023 · the same sentence, without options, in the CBSE sample paper 2023-24
▶Show the answer
(c) Circuit
Revise: Circuit Switching
▶Show the answer
Packet switching
Revise: Packet Switching
▶Show the answer
Circuit switching
Revise: Circuit Switching
▶Show the answer
Packet switching
Revise: Packet Switching
▶Show the answer
Packet switching is a switching technique in which a message is broken into small packets that are sent independently, possibly by different routes, and are put back together in order at the receiver. No dedicated path is set up.
Revise: Packet Switching
▶Show the answer
- Circuit switching sets up a dedicated path before communication starts; packet switching sets up no dedicated path.
- In circuit switching all data follows the same path, in order; in packet switching the data is broken into packets that may take different routes and are reassembled at the receiver.
Revise: Circuit vs Packet Switching