You might be asked to determine what the locus actually is.
For example, you might be given
x^2+4x+y^2-14y=28
What is this, a circle, parabola, ellipse, hyperbola?
You complete the square to get:
(x+2)^2 - 4 + (y-7)^2 - 49 = 28
(x+2)^2 + (y-7)^2=81
So the locus is actually a circle of centre (-2,7) with radius 9.
And it's also possible that you could be asked to prove the quadratic formula (among other things), but I doubt it.