Systems Design Exam

1 What defines complex engineered systems?
a) They consist of simple parts
b) They have linear life cycles
c) They are highly interconnected and autonomous
d) They follow traditional design approaches

2 Which section of the course provides an overview of complexity theory and basic concepts?
a) Section 1: Major Themes in the 21st Century
b) Section 2: Introduction to Design Methods
c) Section 3: Principles of Complex Systems Design
d) Section 4: Systems Architecture and Paradigm Shifts

3 What is one of the key takeaways from the course?
a) The importance of linear systems in design
b) The power of abstraction in solving complexity
c) The necessity of centralized control in complex systems
d) The exclusion of social and cultural domains in design

4 Which principle emphasizes understanding systems as networks?
a) Linear systems design
b) Autonomous systems design
c) Networked systems design
d) Adaptive systems design

5 What is one of the primary drivers of a more complex design environment in the 21st century?
a) The decline of sustainability as a paradigm
b) The reduced impact of information technology
c) The shrinking services economy
d) The expansion of economic globalization

6 What equation demonstrates the need for sustainability in systems design?
a) Exponential growth + linear system = sustainability
b) Linear growth + finite resources = sustainability
c) Exponential growth + infinite resources = sustainability
d) Linear growth + infinite resources = sustainability

7 What effect does information technology have on systems design?
a) It centralizes control and coordination
b) It limits innovation and co-creation
c) It enables networked organization and democratization
d) It decreases connectivity and interdependence

8 What is the dominant logic behind designing services?
a) Designing more tangible goods
b) Designing systems for stable environments
c) Designing processes around end-user needs
d) Designing services for producers rather than consumers

9 What is a key theme in the design of complex systems?
a) Technological advancement over social considerations
b) Static and predictable systems for stable environments
c) Socio-technical systems and the role of people
d) Linear life cycles and centralized control

10 Which design paradigm focuses on open systems and emergent functionality?
a) Reductionism
b) Linear systems design
c) Complex systems design
d) Traditional engineering approaches

11 Complex systems are characterized by:
a) Well-defined boundaries and full control over elements
b) Randomness and chaos
c) Openness and lack of control
d) Orderliness and predictability

12 The primary focus in designing complex systems is on:
a) Making things bigger, faster, and better
b) Designing the protocols and interactions for diverse components to work together
c) Controlling the network and its users
d) Designing the system in all its details

13 The concept of a service system refers to:
a) Designing isolated products
b) Integrating products into systems of services
c) Designing complex sociotechnical systems
d) Delivering tangible goods to end users

14 Abstraction in design involves:
a) Adding more detail to a representation
b) Focusing on the essential features of a system
c) Increasing complexity and reducing simplicity
d) Eliminating all levels of detail from a representation

15 Complex systems have two fundamentally different levels, which are:
a) Macro and micro
b) Top-down and bottom-up
c) Simple and complex
d) Design and engineering

16 Synergistic design approach focuses on:
a) Interfering with the interactions between components
b) Creating zero-sum games within the system
c) Designing relations that lead to positive-sum games
d) Reducing complexity and diversity in the system

17 In networked systems design, the emphasis is on:
a) Properties of individual components
b) Making things bigger, faster, and stronger
c) Access, connectivity, and network structure
d) Controlling and isolating components within the system

18 The true geometry of complex systems is defined by:
a) Static properties of individual components
b) Randomness and chaos
c) Degree of connectivity and network structure
d) Well-defined boundaries and control over elements

19 Network theory provides models for analyzing:
a) Linear systems
b) Simple systems
c) Isolated components
d) Networks and their properties

20 Designing for a densely populated urban environment requires consideration of:
a) Randomness and chaos
b) Dispersed networks
c) Access, connectivity, and network structure
d) Well-defined boundaries and control over elements

21 What is the term used to describe the rapid spread of failures in highly interconnected systems?
a) Decentralization
b) Centralization
c) Specialization
d) Propagation

22 In large, highly interconnected systems, it is not always possible to know all the:
a) Dependencies
b) Inter-linkages
c) Failures
d) Specializations

23 The internet is considered a "best effort network" because:
a) It is fault-tolerant
b) It is perfectly secure
c) It prioritizes data packets
d) It drops packets and retries if something goes wrong

24 Centralized networks are characterized by:
a) High degree of control and efficiency
b) Interchangeable and replaceable nodes
c) Decentralized decision-making
d) Reduced vulnerability to strategic attacks

25 Decentralized networks are more robust to failure because they have:
a) More specialized components
b) Higher level of dependencies
c) Fewer interconnections
d) Less self-sufficiency

26 Adaptive technologies refer to networks that can:
a) Resist change and maintain stability
b) Respond to environmental events
c) Reject dependencies and inter-linkages
d) Centralize control and resources

27 What is the capacity of a system to alter its state in response to the environment called?
a) Adaptation
b) Fault tolerance
c) Centralization
d) Interchangeability

28 Self-organization in design refers to:
a) Professional designers producing finished products
b) Redesigning products by end users
c) Predefined systems of mass production
d) Linear models of design engineering

29 Co-creation in the development of a product or service involves:
a) Passive consumption by end users
b) Professional designers pushing finished products
c) Two-way interplay between designers and end users
d) Linear life-cycle from conception to retirement

30 System life-cycle in systems engineering includes:
a) Construction, operation, and maintenance
b) Retire and phase-out only
c) Linear progression from cradle to grave
d) Adaptation, production, and distribution

31 What is the main purpose of a service-oriented architecture (SOA)?
a) Creating autonomous services
b) Developing monolithic systems
c) Building composite functions
d) Designing internal components

32 How can Google's map service, PayPal's payment gateway service, and Facebook's user log-in service be integrated?
a) By developing a subsystem for each service
b) By creating common processes to guide user interactions
c) By bundling all services into a monolithic system
d) By abstracting away the services' internal logic

33 What is service autonomy in SOA?
a) The control of services' internal logic by external components
b) The unbundling of monolithic systems
c) The aggregation of services through a network
d) The conversion of components into services

34 What is service discoverability in SOA?
a) The ability of services to effectively communicate with each other
b) The availability of services to be reconfigured for different applications
c) The use of standardized service contracts
d) The supplementation of services with communicative metadata

35 What is a standardized service contract in SOA?
a) An agreement between service providers and users
b) A communication agreement for service description documents
c) A set of defined protocols and procedures for service integration
d) A common language used to describe service functionality and interaction

36 What does it mean for services to be loosely coupled in SOA?
a) Services can dynamically join or leave the system as needed
b) Services are tightly integrated with the system's components
c) Services are independent of any particular process or configuration
d) Services can be endlessly reused and recomposed into new configurations

37 What is service reusability or composability in SOA?
a) The ability to extend services for new applications
b) The provision of resources for effective load balancing
c) The ability to integrate heterogeneous components
d) The ability to reuse and combine services into new configurations

38 What is the value of SOA in complex systems and large enterprises?
a) Abstraction and scalability across different levels of architecture
b) Standardization of service contracts and interfaces
c) Dynamic provisioning and de-provisioning of resources
d) Integration of diverse services for composite functions

39 What are platform technologies in systems architecture?
a) Systems built upon a platform architecture with different levels of abstraction
b) Technologies that enable the bundling and re-bundling of components
c) Systems that provide basic services for different configurations
d) Technologies that require new process introductions for each product

40 What is the role of the platform layer in systems architecture?
a) It manages the computer's resources and services for applications
b) It translates the system's internal logic into a language the end-user understands
c) It provides the foundation for the hardware and firmware of the system
d) It enables the endless bundling and re-bundling of different components

41 What is one benefit of platform technologies?
a) Abstraction of complexity
b) Increased redundancy
c) Limited customization
d) Homogeneous design

42 What is a key feature of modular design?
a) Autonomous modular components
b) Centralized control mechanism
c) Homogeneous integration
d) Lack of versatility

43 What does an interface do in modular design?
a) Abstracts away internal mechanics
b) Encapsulates the whole system
c) Defines distinct separate functions
d) Reduces system dependencies

44 What is an advantage of modular design?
a) Distributed collaboration and problem-solving
b) Limited reusability of modules
c) Homogeneous system design
d) Increased complexity of components

45 What is event-driven architecture (EDA) primarily focused on?
a) Production and detection of events
b) Centralized coordination mechanism
c) Linear and synchronous environments
d) Homogeneous system integration

46 What are event consumers in an event-driven architecture?
a) Entities that need to know the event has occurred
b) Sources of events
c) Intermediaries managing events
d) Downstream activities initiated by an event

47 What is an advantage of using an event-driven architecture?
a) Greater responsiveness in unpredictable environments
b) Centralized control and coordination of events
c) Real-time analytics based on historical data
d) Reduced versatility and adaptability

48 What is design thinking?
a) A design process for solving complex problems
b) A linear and mechanical problem-solving approach
c) A method for building homogeneous systems
d) A process focused solely on end-user experience

49 What is the purpose of prototyping in the design thinking process?
a) To experiment and discover how to build the solution
b) To gather feedback and make iterations
c) To deploy the solution in its operating environment
d) To create a minimal viable product

50 How can design thinking be applied in various domains?
a) By recognizing that everything in the world is designed
b) By focusing exclusively on product design
c) By limiting its application to specific industries
d) By following a rigid and linear design process