Rev Up for Success with the 2025 OCR GCSE Computer Science Paper 2 Practice Extravaganza!

The lowest level of programming language consisting solely of 1's and 0's is referred to as machine code. Machine code is directly executed by a computer's central processing unit (CPU) and is the most fundamental way of representing instructions in a form that the hardware can understand. Each instruction in machine code corresponds to a specific operation that the CPU can perform, such as arithmetic operations, data movement, or control instructions.

Machine code is distinct from assembly language, which is a higher-level representation that uses mnemonics and symbols rather than pure binary, making it somewhat easier for humans to read and write. High-level programming languages, on the other hand, are designed to be more abstract and user-friendly, often allowing complex operations to be written in a more understandable syntax. Script languages typically provide an even higher level of abstraction and are often interpreted rather than compiled directly into machine code.