✅ Quiz 17 — Websites, Apps & Everything Else
Answer first, then open the fold. Wrong answers are arrows pointing at the section worth rereading.
1. The module organizes all software by one question. What is it, and why is it so useful?
Show answer
"Where does the code run?" — in the browser, on the phone, on the desktop, inside a device, or across all of them. It's useful because the habitat determines almost everything: what the software can do, how it's built, what it costs, and how it reaches users.2. Website vs. web app: what’s the difference, and which is Wikipedia vs. Google Docs?
Show answer
A website presents information you mostly read (the brochure); a web app is an interactive tool running in the browser (the workshop). Wikipedia = website/brochure; Google Docs = web app/workshop. Same building — the browser — different purposes.3. Why did the lesson call the browser “a universal app-player”?
Show answer
Because any browser on any device can run any web page — so software built for the browser instantly reaches everyone, with no installs, no app store review, and no per-platform rebuild. That reach is the web's superpower.4. Your startup wants a “perfect-feeling” app on both iPhone and Android. What’s the tailor-shop version of your options and costs?
Show answer
Native = tailor-made suits: Swift for iPhone, Kotlin for Android — perfect fit, but two suits means two codebases and roughly double the cost, forever. Cross-platform (React Native/Flutter) = one pattern producing two suits: much cheaper, very good fit, small compromises. The budget conversation is choosing between those two tailors.5. Name two things app stores take from developers and one thing they give.
Show answer
They take: a 15–30% commission on in-app sales, and control — every app must pass their review, with delays and possible rejection. They give: distribution to billions of phones plus a safety screening that makes users willing to install. Landlords: rent and rules, but a location you can't match on your own.6. How can you tell a desktop app might be “a website in a costume,” and why do companies build them that way?
Show answer
Clues: a near-identical browser version exists; right-clicking reveals browser menu items like "Inspect"; the process list shows several memory-hungry helper processes. That's Electron — a web app shipped inside a stripped-down browser. Why: build once, run on Windows/Mac/Linux — one team instead of four. The cost lands on you, in memory.7. Roughly how much code runs a modern car, and what does that say about where most software lives?
Show answer
On the order of 100+ million lines. It says the biggest habitat is the invisible one: embedded software in cars, appliances, medical devices, and infrastructure. By count of running programs, most of the world's software is code you'll never see on a screen.8. Your microwave never gets software updates. Fine or scary? And what about a car?
Show answer
The microwave: fine — one job, no network connection, nothing for an attacker to reach; it'll run its code flawlessly for twenty years. A car (or pacemaker): a different conversation — high stakes and, increasingly, network connections — which is why those industries build and test to far stricter standards, and why modern cars *do* get updates.9. Give one honest upside and two honest downsides of a “smart” (IoT) lightbulb.
Show answer
Upside: real convenience — control from bed, schedules, automation. Downsides (any two): it's a tiny networked computer that can be hacked; it may die or go dumb when the maker's cloud service shuts down; it may report your usage habits to someone's database. "Smart" means connected — and connected cuts both ways.10. Why are games “the everything-discipline,” and what problem do Unity and Unreal solve?
Show answer
A game must run physics, 3D graphics, character AI, audio, networking, and input all at once, redrawing the world about 60 times per second. Unity and Unreal are game engines — pre-built movie studios providing the cameras, lighting, and sound stages — so creators build the game (script and vision) instead of rebuilding the machinery for every title.11. A charity asks you: “We have a tiny budget and need everyone — on any device — to reach our tool this month.” Which habitat, and why? What would change your answer?
Show answer
Web app. Maximum reach (the browser is the universal app-player), one codebase, no app store review, ships fast — the exact fit for small budget + broad audience + short timeline. You'd reconsider if they needed phone superpowers: offline use in the field, camera-heavy workflows, or push notifications — that pushes toward native or cross-platform, at real extra cost.12. 🗣️ Explain it to a friend. A friend asks: “How can WhatsApp be on my phone, my boyfriend’s iPhone, my laptop browser, and a desktop app — and my chats are the same everywhere? Did they build it four times?” Give a two-minute answer using the restaurant analogy from Module 10.