Full Forms
Hardware and storage
| Short form | Full form |
|---|---|
| ALU / CU / CPU | Arithmetic Logic Unit / Control Unit / Central Processing Unit |
| GPU | Graphics Processing Unit |
| RAM / ROM | Random Access Memory / Read Only Memory |
| PROM / EPROM / EEPROM | Programmable ROM / Erasable Programmable ROM / Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM |
| BIOS / UEFI / POST | Basic Input Output System / Unified Extensible Firmware Interface / Power-On Self Test |
| CMOS | Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor |
| HDD / SSD | Hard Disk Drive / Solid State Drive |
| CD-ROM / DVD | Compact Disc Read Only Memory / Digital Versatile Disc |
| USB / HDMI / VGA | Universal Serial Bus / High-Definition Multimedia Interface / Video Graphics Array |
| CRT / LCD / LED / OLED | Cathode Ray Tube / Liquid Crystal Display / Light Emitting Diode / Organic LED |
| MICR / OCR / OMR | Magnetic Ink Character Recognition / Optical Character Recognition / Optical Mark Recognition |
| DPI / PPI / CPS / LPM / PPM | Dots Per Inch / Pixels Per Inch / Characters Per Second / Lines Per Minute / Pages Per Minute |
| FLOPS / MIPS | Floating-point Operations Per Second / Million Instructions Per Second |
| IC / VLSI / ULSI | Integrated Circuit / Very Large Scale Integration / Ultra Large Scale Integration |
| SMPS / UPS | Switched Mode Power Supply / Uninterruptible Power Supply |
Software, web and networking
| Short form | Full form |
|---|---|
| OS / GUI / CLI | Operating System / Graphical User Interface / Command Line Interface |
| IDE / API | Integrated Development Environment / Application Programming Interface |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator |
| HTTP / HTTPS | HyperText Transfer Protocol / HTTP Secure |
| HTML / XML / CSS | HyperText Markup Language / eXtensible Markup Language / Cascading Style Sheets |
| WWW | World Wide Web |
| FTP / SMTP / POP3 / IMAP | File Transfer Protocol / Simple Mail Transfer Protocol / Post Office Protocol 3 / Internet Message Access Protocol |
| TCP / UDP / IP | Transmission Control Protocol / User Datagram Protocol / Internet Protocol |
| DNS / DHCP / NAT / ARP | Domain Name System / Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol / Network Address Translation / Address Resolution Protocol |
| LAN / MAN / WAN / PAN | Local / Metropolitan / Wide / Personal Area Network |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
| NIC / MAC | Network Interface Card / Media Access Control |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider |
| OSI / ISO / IEEE | Open Systems Interconnection / International Organization for Standardization / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| SSL / TLS | Secure Sockets Layer / Transport Layer Security |
| CAPTCHA | Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart |
| GSM / CDMA / LTE | Global System for Mobile Communications / Code Division Multiple Access / Long Term Evolution |
| SIM / IMEI / SMS | Subscriber Identity Module / International Mobile Equipment Identity / Short Message Service |
| VoIP | Voice over Internet Protocol |
| SSID / WPA | Service Set Identifier / Wi-Fi Protected Access |
Data, programming and general
| Short form | Full form |
|---|---|
| ASCII / EBCDIC / BCD | American Standard Code for Information Interchange / Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code / Binary Coded Decimal |
| DBMS / RDBMS / SQL | Database Management System / Relational DBMS / Structured Query Language |
| ACID | Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability |
| OOP / SDLC | Object-Oriented Programming / Software Development Life Cycle |
| AI / ML / NLP / IoT | Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Natural Language Processing / Internet of Things |
| IaaS / PaaS / SaaS | Infrastructure / Platform / Software as a Service |
| GIGO / WYSIWYG | Garbage In Garbage Out / What You See Is What You Get |
| PDF / JPEG / GIF / PNG | Portable Document Format / Joint Photographic Experts Group / Graphics Interchange Format / Portable Network Graphics |
| MPEG / BMP / TIFF | Moving Picture Experts Group / Bitmap / Tagged Image File Format |
| ENIAC / EDVAC / UNIVAC | Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer / Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer / Universal Automatic Computer |
| COBOL / FORTRAN / BASIC | Common Business-Oriented Language / Formula Translation / Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code |
| DOS | Disk Operating System |
| C-DAC / NIC | Centre for Development of Advanced Computing / National Informatics Centre |
| CERT-In / MeitY | Indian Computer Emergency Response Team / Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology |
| UIDAI / NPCI | Unique Identification Authority of India / National Payments Corporation of India |
| UPI / NEFT / RTGS / IMPS | Unified Payments Interface / National Electronic Funds Transfer / Real Time Gross Settlement / Immediate Payment Service |
| PIN / OTP / ATM | Personal Identification Number / One-Time Password / Automated Teller Machine |
| DBT / CSC / GeM | Direct Benefit Transfer / Common Service Centre / Government e-Marketplace |
Keep practising
Notes are only half the work. Test yourself with questions and discuss doubts with other aspirants.
Prepared for exam revision from standard computer textbooks, Microsoft documentation and official sources. Features differ between Excel and Word versions (2016, 2019, 2021, 365) so check which version your exam follows. Found a mistake? Tell us.