IPA IP 2022 Question 20
A question IPA Japan published in 令和4年度 ITパスポート試験 公開問題 問20, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
To represent certain data, the use of either one (1) JAN code or one (1) QR code is being considered. When the one with the larger maximum amount of data that can be represented is adopted, which of the following is an appropriate result of the consideration?
Explanation
The QR code — a two-dimensional code holds far more data than a one-dimensional barcode.
- •JAN code: a one-dimensional barcode that encodes only digits, 13 in the standard type and 8 in the short type, mostly a product's country, maker and item code
- •QR code: a two-dimensional code that stores data both vertically and horizontally; at its largest it holds up to 7,089 numeric digits, 4,296 alphanumeric characters or 2,953 bytes of binary data, and it can hold kanji too
Even the QR code's smallest maximum, 2,953 bytes, is far above the JAN code's 13 digits, so the QR code is the one with the larger capacity.
Answer (b)
Why not others:
- •(a) — the JAN code's 13 digits are the smaller capacity by far
- •(c) — a QR code's maximum does vary with the character type and error-correction level, but every variant exceeds the JAN code, so the choice can be made
- •(d) — the two capacities differ by hundreds of times
Key rule: One-dimensional barcodes such as JAN hold a short string of digits; two-dimensional codes such as QR hold thousands of characters and can be read from any direction.
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This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.