Question 1

True or false: Hopper helped develop COBOL, a programming language designed for business use that is still in use today.

Accepted Answer

True. She led the development of COBOL in the late 1950s. It remains critical in banking and government systems worldwide.

Question 2

True or false: Grace Hopper invented the first compiler, which translated English-like code into machine language.

Accepted Answer

True. She created the A-0 compiler in 1952, allowing programmers to write instructions in words instead of binary—a radical breakthrough.

Question 3

True or false: Grace Hopper was a self-taught programmer who never earned a formal degree in computer science.

Accepted Answer

False. Hopper earned a PhD in mathematics from Yale in 1934—years before computer science existed as a field. She was far from self-taught.

Question 4

True or false: Grace Hopper was a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy and served until she was 79 years old.

Accepted Answer

True. She retired as a rear admiral in 1986 at age 79—the oldest serving officer in the Navy at that time.

Question 5

True or false: The term 'computer bug' existed before Grace Hopper found a moth in a relay.

Accepted Answer

True. Engineers used 'bug' for mechanical glitches since the 1800s. Hopper's famous moth find just popularized the term for software errors.

Question 6

True or false: Grace Hopper was initially rejected from the Navy because she was too thin to meet weight requirements.

Accepted Answer

False. She was rejected in 1943 due to age and job criticality, not weight. She later joined the Navy WAVES on a waiver.

Question 7

True or false: Hopper coined the term 'nanosecond' by cutting a piece of wire to the length light travels in one billionth of a second.

Accepted Answer

False. She famously handed out 11.8-inch wires to illustrate a nanosecond, but she didn't coin the term—it was already in scientific use.

Question 8

True or false: Grace Hopper was denied a patent for her compiler because the U.S. Navy considered it a military secret.

Accepted Answer

False. No patent denial occurred. Hopper never patented the compiler; it was developed at Remington Rand, which owned the rights.

Grace Hopper Trivia Questions