Set III of our CSE332 Industry Ethics and Legal Issues MCQs moves from theory to the workplace. It covers professional ethics for engineers, and in particular the ACM/IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics and its eight principles.
You will also find questions on whistleblowing, conflicts of interest, confidentiality and competence, plus one classic case study that is often used to show what happens when software safety is ignored.
How to use this set: pick an option for each question. You will see straight away whether it is right, with a short note on why. There are 15 questions.
What this set covers
- The ACM/IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics
- The eight principles and which one comes first
- Whistleblowing
- Conflicts of interest and confidentiality
- Code of ethics vs code of conduct
- The Therac-25 case
Industry Ethics and Legal Issues MCQs with answers and explanations
Q1. How many principles does the ACM/IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice have?
a) Eight
b) Ten
c) Five
d) Twelve
Q2. Which principle of the Software Engineering Code of Ethics takes priority over the others?
a) Public
b) Product
c) Self
d) Client and Employer
Q3. A team is told to release a medical app on time even though testers found a bug that can show wrong drug doses. Releasing it would most directly violate which principle?
a) Management
b) Self
c) Colleagues
d) Public
Q4. The Product principle asks software engineers to:
a) Sell as many copies as possible
b) Use only free software
c) Avoid documentation
d) Ensure their products and changes meet the highest professional standards possible
Q5. Maintaining integrity and independence in professional judgment, for example not signing off on a document you have not reviewed, comes under which principle?
a) Client and Employer
b) Product
c) Judgment
d) Profession
Q6. A software engineer spends weekends learning about security and new frameworks to stay current. Which principle is this behaviour linked to?
a) Public
b) Colleagues
c) Management
d) Self
Q7. A team lead gives honest credit to a junior developer for her idea in a review meeting. This reflects the principle concerning:
a) Client and Employer
b) Colleagues
c) Public
d) Product
Q8. Whistleblowing means:
a) Refusing to attend meetings
b) Reporting wrongdoing within an organisation, either internally or to outside authorities, usually in the public interest
c) Complaining about salary on social media
d) Leaking company data to competitors for money
Q9. Arjun has to choose a cloud vendor for his company, and one of the bidders is owned by his brother. The most ethical action is to:
a) Disclose the relationship and step away from the decision
b) Ask his brother to lower the price secretly
c) Quietly pick his brother's firm
d) Reject all bidders
Q10. A developer is asked to build a payment system but has never worked with payments or security. According to professional ethics, she should:
a) Accept and hide her lack of experience
b) Be honest about the limits of her experience and seek training, help or review
c) Refuse to talk to the client
d) Copy code from a random website
Q11. A contractor keeps a client's database details private even after the project ends. This is an example of:
a) Confidentiality
b) Conflict of interest
c) Whistleblowing
d) Plagiarism
Q12. How does a code of conduct usually differ from a code of ethics?
a) A code of ethics is enforced by the police
b) A code of conduct lists specific do's and don'ts, while a code of ethics states broader values and principles
c) A code of conduct only applies to customers
d) They are always the same document
Q13. ACM, one of the two bodies behind the Software Engineering Code of Ethics, stands for:
a) Advanced Computing Mission
b) American Council of Management
c) Association of Computer Managers
d) Association for Computing Machinery
Q14. The Therac-25 accidents of the 1980s are studied in engineering ethics because:
a) Software faults in a radiation therapy machine gave patients massive overdoses
b) A website leaked passwords
c) A satellite was lost due to unit conversion
d) A spreadsheet error caused a stock crash
Q15. Which situation best shows professional responsibility of a software engineer?
a) Ignoring a known security flaw because the client did not ask about it
b) Selling the flaw to an outside hacker
c) Reporting a known security flaw to the client and suggesting a fix
d) Deleting the logs that show the flaw
Quick revision notes
- ACM/IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code of Ethics has 8 principles: Public, Client and Employer, Product, Judgment, Management, Profession, Colleagues, Self.
- Public interest comes first. If an employer's order would harm the public, the engineer should not follow it.
- Whistleblowing: reporting wrongdoing, ideally through internal channels first.
- Conflict of interest: disclose it and step away from the decision.
- Therac-25 is the standard case for unsafe software: missing hardware interlocks, race conditions and poor testing.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 8 principles of the Software Engineering Code of Ethics?
Public, Client and Employer, Product, Judgment, Management, Profession, Colleagues and Self. An easy way to remember the order is that it moves from society as a whole, to the people you work for, to your work, and finally to yourself.
Is whistleblowing always ethical?
Not automatically. It is generally seen as justified when the harm is serious, the person has good evidence, and internal channels have been tried or are clearly not safe to use. Leaking data for personal gain is not whistleblowing.
Is the code legally binding?
No. It is a professional code, not a law. Breaking it can affect your reputation or membership of a professional body, but legal duties come from laws such as contract law, the IT Act and consumer protection law.
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Frequently asked questions
What does CSE332 Industry Ethics and Legal Issues cover?
It covers professional and business ethics, codes of conduct, intellectual property rights (patents, copyright, trademarks), cyber law in India including the IT Act 2000, and ethical issues such as privacy, data security and plagiarism in the IT industry.
How should I use these MCQ sets?
Attempt every question before checking the answer, note the ones you get wrong, and revise those topics from your course notes. Then move to the next set in the series.
Are these questions from the actual exam?
No. They are practice questions written to match the course syllabus. Use them alongside your class material and previous papers.
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