Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Basics”.

1. What is operating system?

a) collection of programs that manages hardware resources
b) system service provider to the application programs
c) link to interface the hardware and application programs
d) all of the mentioned

2. To access the services of operating system, the interface is provided by the ___________
a) System calls
b) API
c) Library
d) Assembly instructions

3. Which one of the following is not true?

a) kernel is the program that constitutes the central core of the operating system
b) kernel is the first part of operating system to load into memory during booting
c) kernel is made of various modules which can not be loaded in running operating system
d) kernel remains in the memory during the entire computer session

4. Which one of the following error will be handle by the operating system?
a) power failure
b) lack of paper in printer
c) connection failure in the network
d) all of the mentioned

5. What is the main function of the command interpreter?

a) to get and execute the next user-specified command
b) to provide the interface between the API and application program
c) to handle the files in operating system
d) none of the mentioned

6. By operating system, the resource management can be done via __________

a) time division multiplexing
b) space division multiplexing
c) time and space division multiplexing
d) none of the mentioned

7. If a process fails, most operating system write the error information to a ______
a) log file
b) another running process
c) new file
d) none of the mentioned

8. Which facility dynamically adds probes to a running system, both in user processes and in the
kernel?
a) DTrace
b) DLocate
c) DMap
d) DAdd

9. Which one of the following is not a real time operating system?

a) VxWorks
b) Windows CE
c) RTLinux
d) Palm OS
10. The OS X has ____________
a) monolithic kernel
b) hybrid kernel
c) microkernel
d) monolithic kernel with modules

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Processes”.
1. The systems which allow only one process execution at a time, are called __________
a) uniprogramming systems
b) uniprocessing systems
c) unitasking systems
d) none of the mentioned

2. In operating system, each process has its own __________

a) address space and global variables
b) open files
c) pending alarms, signals and signal handlers
d) all of the mentioned

3. In Unix, Which system call creates the new process?

a) fork
b) create
c) new
d) none of the mentioned

4. A process can be terminated due to __________

a) normal exit
b) fatal error
c) killed by another process
d) all of the mentioned

5. What is the ready state of a process?

a) when process is scheduled to run after some execution
b) when process is unable to run until some task has been completed
c) when process is using the CPU
d) none of the mentioned

6. What is interprocess communication?

a) communication within the process
b) communication between two process
c) communication between two threads of same process
d) none of the mentioned

7. A set of processes is deadlock if __________

a) each process is blocked and will remain so forever
b) each process is terminated
c) all processes are trying to kill each other
d) none of the mentioned

8. A process stack does not contain __________

a) Function parameters
b) Local variables
c) Return addresses
d) PID of child process

9. Which system call returns the process identifier of a terminated child?

a) wait
b) exit
c) fork
d) get
10. The address of the next instruction to be executed by the current process is provided by the
__________
a) CPU registers
b) Program counter
c) Process stack
d) Pipe

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Process
Control Block”.
1. A Process Control Block(PCB) does not contain which of the following?
a) Code
b) Stack
c) Bootstrap program
d) Data

2. The number of processes completed per unit time is known as __________

a) Output
b) Throughput
c) Efficiency
d) Capacity
3. The state of a process is defined by __________
a) the final activity of the process
b) the activity just executed by the process
c) the activity to next be executed by the process
d) the current activity of the process

4. Which of the following is not the state of a process?

a) New
b) Old
c) Waiting
d) Running

5. What is a Process Control Block?

a) Process type variable
b) Data Structure
c) A secondary storage section
d) A Block in memory

6. The entry of all the PCBs of the current processes is in __________

a) Process Register
b) Program Counter
c) Process Table
d) Process Unit

7. What is the degree of multiprogramming?

a) the number of processes executed per unit time
b) the number of processes in the ready queue
c) the number of processes in the I/O queue
d) the number of processes in memory

8. A single thread of control allows the process to perform __________

a) only one task at a time
b) multiple tasks at a time
c) only two tasks at a time
d) all of the mentioned

9. What is the objective of multiprogramming?

a) Have some process running at all times
b) Have multiple programs waiting in a queue ready to run
c) To minimize CPU utilization
d) None of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Process
Scheduling Queues”.
1. Which of the following do not belong to queues for processes?
a) Job Queue
b) PCB queue
c) Device Queue
d) Ready Queue

2. When the process issues an I/O request __________

a) It is placed in an I/O queue
b) It is placed in a waiting queue
c) It is placed in the ready queue
d) It is placed in the Job queue
3. What will happen when a process terminates?
a) It is removed from all queues
b) It is removed from all, but the job queue
c) Its process control block is de-allocated
d) Its process control block is never de-allocated

4. What is a long-term scheduler?

a) It selects which process has to be brought into the ready queue
b) It selects which process has to be executed next and allocates CPU
c) It selects which process to remove from memory by swapping
d) None of the mentioned

5. If all processes I/O bound, the ready queue will almost always be ______ and the Short term
Scheduler will have a ______ to do.
a) full, little
b) full, lot
c) empty, little
d) empty, lot

6. What is a medium-term scheduler?

a) It selects which process has to be brought into the ready queue
b) It selects which process has to be executed next and allocates CPU
c) It selects which process to remove from memory by swapping
d) None of the mentioned

7. What is a short-term scheduler?

a) It selects which process has to be brought into the ready queue
b) It selects which process has to be executed next and allocates CPU
c) It selects which process to remove from memory by swapping
d) None of the mentioned

8. The primary distinction between the short term scheduler and the long term scheduler is
__________
a) The length of their queues
b) The type of processes they schedule
c) The frequency of their execution
d) None of the mentioned

9. The only state transition that is initiated by the user process itself is __________
a) block
b) wakeup
c) dispatch
d) none of the mentioned

10. In a time-sharing operating system, when the time slot given to a process is completed, the
process goes from the running state to the __________
a) Blocked state
b) Ready state
c) Suspended state
d) Terminated state

11. In a multiprogramming environment __________

a) the processor executes more than one process at a time
b) the programs are developed by more than one person
c) more than one process resides in the memory
d) a single user can execute many programs at the same time

12. Suppose that a process is in “Blocked” state waiting for some I/O service. When the service
is completed, it goes to the __________
a) Running state
b) Ready state
c) Suspended state
d) Terminated state

13. The context of a process in the PCB of a process does not contain __________
a) the value of the CPU registers
b) the process state
c) memory-management information
d) context switch time

14. Which of the following need not necessarily be saved on a context switch between
processes?
a) General purpose registers
b) Translation lookaside buffer
c) Program counter
d) All of the mentioned

15. Which of the following does not interrupt a running process?

a) A device
b) Timer
c) Scheduler process
d) Power failure
 Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Inter
Process Communication”.
1. What is Inter process communication?
a) allows processes to communicate and synchronize their actions when using the same address
space
b) allows processes to communicate and synchronize their actions without using the same
address space
c) allows the processes to only synchronize their actions without communication
d) none of the mentioned

2. Message passing system allows processes to __________

a) communicate with one another without resorting to shared data
b) communicate with one another by resorting to shared data
c) share data
d) name the recipient or sender of the message

3. Which of the following two operations are provided by the IPC facility?
a) write & delete message
b) delete & receive message
c) send & delete message
d) receive & send message

4. Messages sent by a process __________

a) have to be of a fixed size
b) have to be a variable size
c) can be fixed or variable sized
d) None of the mentioned
5. The link between two processes P and Q to send and receive messages is called __________
a) communication link
b) message-passing link
c) synchronization link
d) all of the mentioned

6. Which of the following are TRUE for direct communication?

a) A communication link can be associated with N number of process(N = max. number of
processes supported by system)
b) A communication link can be associated with exactly two processes
c) Exactly N/2 links exist between each pair of processes(N = max. number of processes
supported by system)
d) Exactly two link exists between each pair of processes

7. In indirect communication between processes P and Q __________

a) there is another process R to handle and pass on the messages between P and Q
b) there is another machine between the two processes to help communication
c) there is a mailbox to help communication between P and Q
d) none of the mentioned
8. In the non blocking send __________
a) the sending process keeps sending until the message is received
b) the sending process sends the message and resumes operation
c) the sending process keeps sending until it receives a message
d) none of the mentioned

9. In the Zero capacity queue __________

a) the queue can store at least one message
b) the sender blocks until the receiver receives the message
c) the sender keeps sending and the messages don’t wait in the queue
d) none of the mentioned

10. The Zero Capacity queue __________

a) is referred to as a message system with buffering
b) is referred to as a message system with no buffering
c) is referred to as a link
d) none of the mentioned

11. Bounded capacity and Unbounded capacity queues are referred to as __________
a) Programmed buffering
b) Automatic buffering
c) User defined buffering
d) No buffering

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “CPU
Scheduling”.
1. Which module gives control of the CPU to the process selected by the short-term scheduler?
a) dispatcher
b) interrupt
c) scheduler
d) none of the mentioned

2. The processes that are residing in main memory and are ready and waiting to execute are kept
on a list called _____________
a) job queue
b) ready queue
c) execution queue
d) process queue

3. The interval from the time of submission of a process to the time of completion is termed as
____________
a) waiting time
b) turnaround time
c) response time
d) throughput

4. Which scheduling algorithm allocates the CPU first to the process that requests the CPU first?
a) first-come, first-served scheduling
b) shortest job scheduling
c) priority scheduling
d) none of the mentioned

5. In priority scheduling algorithm ____________

a) CPU is allocated to the process with highest priority
b) CPU is allocated to the process with lowest priority
c) Equal priority processes can not be scheduled
d) None of the mentioned

6. In priority scheduling algorithm, when a process arrives at the ready queue, its priority is
compared with the priority of ____________
a) all process
b) currently running process
c) parent process
d) init process
7. Which algorithm is defined in Time quantum?
a) shortest job scheduling algorithm
b) round robin scheduling algorithm
c) priority scheduling algorithm
d) multilevel queue scheduling algorithm

8. Process are classified into different groups in ____________

a) shortest job scheduling algorithm
b) round robin scheduling algorithm
c) priority scheduling algorithm
d) multilevel queue scheduling algorithm

9. In multilevel feedback scheduling algorithm ____________

a) a process can move to a different classified ready queue
b) classification of ready queue is permanent
c) processes are not classified into groups
d) none of the mentioned

10. Which one of the following can not be scheduled by the kernel?
a) kernel level thread
b) user level thread
c) process
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “CPU
Scheduling Benefits”.
1. CPU scheduling is the basis of ___________
a) multiprocessor systems
b) multiprogramming operating systems
c) larger memory sized systems
d) none of the mentioned

2. With multiprogramming ______ is used productively.

a) time
b) space
c) money
d) all of the mentioned

3. What are the two steps of a process execution?

a) I/O & OS Burst
b) CPU & I/O Burst
c) Memory & I/O Burst
d) OS & Memory Burst

4. An I/O bound program will typically have ____________

a) a few very short CPU bursts
b) many very short I/O bursts
c) many very short CPU bursts
d) a few very short I/O bursts

5. A process is selected from the ______ queue by the ________ scheduler, to be executed.
a) blocked, short term
b) wait, long term
c) ready, short term
d) ready, long term

6. In the following cases non – preemptive scheduling occurs?

a) When a process switches from the running state to the ready state
b) When a process goes from the running state to the waiting state
c) When a process switches from the waiting state to the ready state
d) All of the mentioned

7. The switching of the CPU from one process or thread to another is called ____________
a) process switch
b) task switch
c) context switch
d) all of the mentioned

8. What is Dispatch latency?

a) the speed of dispatching a process from running to the ready state
b) the time of dispatching a process from running to ready state and keeping the CPU idle
c) the time to stop one process and start running another one
d) none of the mentioned

9. Scheduling is done so as to ____________

a) increase CPU utilization
b) decrease CPU utilization
c) keep the CPU more idle
d) none of the mentioned
10. Scheduling is done so as to ____________
a) increase the throughput
b) decrease the throughput
c) increase the duration of a specific amount of work
d) none of the mentioned

11. What is Turnaround time?

a) the total waiting time for a process to finish execution
b) the total time spent in the ready queue
c) the total time spent in the running queue
d) the total time from the completion till the submission of a process

12. Scheduling is done so as to ____________

a) increase the turnaround time
b) decrease the turnaround time
c) keep the turnaround time same
d) there is no relation between scheduling and turnaround time

13. What is Waiting time?

a) the total time in the blocked and waiting queues
b) the total time spent in the ready queue
c) the total time spent in the running queue
d) the total time from the completion till the submission of a process

14. Scheduling is done so as to ____________

a) increase the waiting time
b) keep the waiting time the same
c) decrease the waiting time
d) none of the mentioned
15. What is Response time?
a) the total time taken from the submission time till the completion time
b) the total time taken from the submission time till the first response is produced
c) the total time taken from submission time till the response is output
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “CPU
Scheduling Algorithms-1”.
1. Round robin scheduling falls under the category of ____________
a) Non-preemptive scheduling
b) Preemptive scheduling
c) All of the mentioned
d) None of the mentioned

2. With round robin scheduling algorithm in a time shared system ____________

a) using very large time slices converts it into First come First served scheduling algorithm
b) using very small time slices converts it into First come First served scheduling algorithm
c) using extremely small time slices increases performance
d) using very small time slices converts it into Shortest Job First algorithm

3. The portion of the process scheduler in an operating system that dispatches processes is
concerned with ____________
a) assigning ready processes to CPU
b) assigning ready processes to waiting queue
c) assigning running processes to blocked queue
d) all of the mentioned
4. Complex scheduling algorithms ____________
a) are very appropriate for very large computers
b) use minimal resources
c) use many resources
d) all of the mentioned

5. What is FIFO algorithm?

a) first executes the job that came in last in the queue
b) first executes the job that came in first in the queue
c) first executes the job that needs minimal processor
d) first executes the job that has maximum processor needs

6. The strategy of making processes that are logically runnable to be temporarily suspended is
called ____________
a) Non preemptive scheduling
b) Preemptive scheduling
c) Shortest job first
d) First come First served

7. What is Scheduling?
a) allowing a job to use the processor
b) making proper use of processor
c) all of the mentioned
d) none of the mentioned

8. There are 10 different processes running on a workstation. Idle processes are waiting for an
input event in the input queue. Busy processes are scheduled with the Round-Robin time sharing
method. Which out of the following quantum times is the best value for small response times, if
the processes have a short runtime, e.g. less than 10ms?
a) tQ = 15ms
b) tQ = 40ms
c) tQ = 45ms
d) tQ = 50ms

9. Orders are processed in the sequence they arrive if _______ rule sequences the jobs.
a) earliest due date
b) slack time remaining
c) first come, first served
d) critical ratio

10. Which of the following algorithms tends to minimize the process flow time?
a) First come First served
b) Shortest Job First
c) Earliest Deadline First
d) Longest Job First

11. Under multiprogramming, turnaround time for short jobs is usually ________ and that for
long jobs is slightly ___________
a) Lengthened; Shortened
b) Shortened; Lengthened
c) Shortened; Shortened
d) Shortened; Unchanged

12. Which of the following statements are true? (GATE 2010)

I. Shortest remaining time first scheduling may cause starvation
II. Preemptive scheduling may cause starvation
III. Round robin is better than FCFS in terms of response time
a) I only
b) I and III only
c) II and III only
d) I, II and III
Operating System Questions and Answers for Freshers focuses on “CPU Scheduling
Algorithms-2” and will also be useful for interview preparations for freshers.

1. Which is the most optimal scheduling algorithm?

a) FCFS – First come First served
b) SJF – Shortest Job First
c) RR – Round Robin
d) None of the mentioned

2. The real difficulty with SJF in short term scheduling is ____________

a) it is too good an algorithm
b) knowing the length of the next CPU request
c) it is too complex to understand
d) none of the mentioned

3. The FCFS algorithm is particularly troublesome for ____________

a) time sharing systems
b) multiprogramming systems
c) multiprocessor systems
d) operating systems

4. Consider the following set of processes, the length of the CPU burst time given in
milliseconds.
Process Burst time
 P1 6
P2 8
P3 7
P4 3
Assuming the above process being scheduled with the SJF scheduling algorithm.
a) The waiting time for process P1 is 3ms
b) The waiting time for process P1 is 0ms
c) The waiting time for process P1 is 16ms
d) The waiting time for process P1 is 9ms

5. Preemptive Shortest Job First scheduling is sometimes called ____________

a) Fast SJF scheduling
b) EDF scheduling – Earliest Deadline First
c) HRRN scheduling – Highest Response Ratio Next
d) SRTN scheduling – Shortest Remaining Time Next

6. An SJF algorithm is simply a priority algorithm where the priority is ____________

a) the predicted next CPU burst
b) the inverse of the predicted next CPU burst
c) the current CPU burst
d) anything the user wants

7. Choose one of the disadvantages of the priority scheduling algorithm?

a) it schedules in a very complex manner
b) its scheduling takes up a lot of time
c) it can lead to some low priority process waiting indefinitely for the CPU
d) none of the mentioned
8. What is ‘Aging’?
a) keeping track of cache contents
b) keeping track of what pages are currently residing in memory
c) keeping track of how many times a given page is referenced
d) increasing the priority of jobs to ensure termination in a finite time

9. A solution to the problem of indefinite blockage of low – priority processes is ____________

a) Starvation
b) Wait queue
c) Ready queue
d) Aging

10. Which of the following statements are true? (GATE 2010)

i) Shortest remaining time first scheduling may cause starvation
ii) Preemptive scheduling may cause starvation
iii) Round robin is better than FCFS in terms of response time
a) i only
b) i and iii only
c) ii and iii only
d) i, ii and iii

11. Which of the following scheduling algorithms gives minimum average waiting time?
a) FCFS
b) SJF
c) Round – robin
d) Priority
 Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Deadlock”.
1. What is a reusable resource?
a) that can be used by one process at a time and is not depleted by that use
b) that can be used by more than one process at a time
c) that can be shared between various threads
d) none of the mentioned

2. Which of the following condition is required for a deadlock to be possible?

a) mutual exclusion
b) a process may hold allocated resources while awaiting assignment of other resources
c) no resource can be forcibly removed from a process holding it
d) all of the mentioned

3. A system is in the safe state if ____________

a) the system can allocate resources to each process in some order and still avoid a deadlock
b) there exist a safe sequence
c) all of the mentioned
d) none of the mentioned

4. The circular wait condition can be prevented by ____________

a) defining a linear ordering of resource types
b) using thread
c) using pipes
d) all of the mentioned

5. Which one of the following is the deadlock avoidance algorithm?

a) banker’s algorithm
b) round-robin algorithm
c) elevator algorithm
d) karn’s algorithm

6. What is the drawback of banker’s algorithm?

a) in advance processes rarely know how much resource they will need
b) the number of processes changes as time progresses
c) resource once available can disappear
d) all of the mentioned

7. For an effective operating system, when to check for deadlock?

a) every time a resource request is made
b) at fixed time intervals
c) every time a resource request is made at fixed time intervals
d) none of the mentioned

8. A problem encountered in multitasking when a process is perpetually denied necessary

resources is called ____________
a) deadlock
b) starvation
c) inversion
d) aging

9. Which one of the following is a visual ( mathematical ) way to determine the deadlock
occurrence?
a) resource allocation graph
b) starvation graph
c) inversion graph
d) none of the mentioned

10. To avoid deadlock ____________

a) there must be a fixed number of resources to allocate
b) resource allocation must be done only once
c) all deadlocked processes must be aborted
d) inversion technique can be used

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Deadlock
Prevention”.
1. The number of resources requested by a process ____________
a) must always be less than the total number of resources available in the system
b) must always be equal to the total number of resources available in the system
c) must not exceed the total number of resources available in the system
d) must exceed the total number of resources available in the system

2. The request and release of resources are ___________

a) command line statements
b) interrupts
c) system calls
d) special programs

3. What are Multithreaded programs?

a) lesser prone to deadlocks
b) more prone to deadlocks
c) not at all prone to deadlocks
d) none of the mentioned
4. For a deadlock to arise, which of the following conditions must hold simultaneously?
a) Mutual exclusion
b) No preemption
c) Hold and wait
d) All of the mentioned

5. For Mutual exclusion to prevail in the system ____________

a) at least one resource must be held in a non sharable mode
b) the processor must be a uniprocessor rather than a multiprocessor
c) there must be at least one resource in a sharable mode
d) all of the mentioned

6. For a Hold and wait condition to prevail ____________

a) A process must be not be holding a resource, but waiting for one to be freed, and then request
to acquire it
b) A process must be holding at least one resource and waiting to acquire additional resources
that are being held by other processes
c) A process must hold at least one resource and not be waiting to acquire additional resources
d) None of the mentioned

7. Deadlock prevention is a set of methods ____________

a) to ensure that at least one of the necessary conditions cannot hold
b) to ensure that all of the necessary conditions do not hold
c) to decide if the requested resources for a process have to be given or not
d) to recover from a deadlock

8. For non sharable resources like a printer, mutual exclusion ____________

a) must exist
b) must not exist
c) may exist
d) none of the mentioned

9. For sharable resources, mutual exclusion ____________

a) is required
b) is not required
c) may be or may not be required
d) none of the mentioned

10. To ensure that the hold and wait condition never occurs in the system, it must be ensured that
____________
a) whenever a resource is requested by a process, it is not holding any other resources
b) each process must request and be allocated all its resources before it begins its execution
c) a process can request resources only when it has none
d) all of the mentioned

11. The disadvantage of a process being allocated all its resources before beginning its execution
is ____________
a) Low CPU utilization
b) Low resource utilization
c) Very high resource utilization
d) None of the mentioned

12. To ensure no preemption, if a process is holding some resources and requests another
resource that cannot be immediately allocated to it ____________
a) then the process waits for the resources be allocated to it
b) the process keeps sending requests until the resource is allocated to it
c) the process resumes execution without the resource being allocated to it
d) then all resources currently being held are preempted

13. One way to ensure that the circular wait condition never holds is to ____________
a) impose a total ordering of all resource types and to determine whether one precedes another in
the ordering
b) to never let a process acquire resources that are held by other processes
c) to let a process wait for only one resource at a time
d) all of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Deadlock
Avoidance”.
1. Each request requires that the system consider the _____________ to decide whether the
current request can be satisfied or must wait to avoid a future possible deadlock.
a) resources currently available
b) processes that have previously been in the system
c) resources currently allocated to each process
d) future requests and releases of each process
2. Given a priori information about the ________ number of resources of each type that maybe
requested for each process, it is possible to construct an algorithm that ensures that the system
will never enter a deadlock state.
a) minimum
b) average
c) maximum
d) approximate

3. A deadlock avoidance algorithm dynamically examines the __________ to ensure that a

circular wait condition can never exist.
a) resource allocation state
b) system storage state
c) operating system
d) resources

4. A state is safe, if ____________

a) the system does not crash due to deadlock occurrence
b) the system can allocate resources to each process in some order and still avoid a deadlock
c) the state keeps the system protected and safe
d) all of the mentioned

5. A system is in a safe state only if there exists a ____________

a) safe allocation
b) safe resource
c) safe sequence
d) all of the mentioned

6. All unsafe states are ____________

a) deadlocks
b) not deadlocks
c) fatal
d) none of the mentioned

7. A system has 12 magnetic tape drives and 3 processes : P0, P1, and P2. Process P0 requires 10
tape drives, P1 requires 4 and P2 requires 9 tape drives.
Process
P0
P1
P2
Maximum needs (process-wise: P0 through P2 top to bottom)
10
4
9
Currently allocated (process-wise)
5
2
2
Which of the following sequence is a safe sequence?
a) P0, P1, P2
b) P1, P2, P0
c) P2, P0, P1
d) P1, P0, P2

8. If no cycle exists in the resource allocation graph ____________

a) then the system will not be in a safe state
b) then the system will be in a safe state
c) all of the mentioned
d) none of the mentioned

9. The resource allocation graph is not applicable to a resource allocation system ____________
a) with multiple instances of each resource type
b) with a single instance of each resource type
c) single & multiple instances of each resource type
d) none of the mentioned

10. The Banker’s algorithm is _____________ than the resource allocation graph algorithm.
a) less efficient
b) more efficient
c) equal
d) none of the mentioned

11. The data structures available in the Banker’s algorithm are ____________
a) Available
b) Need
c) Allocation
d) All of the mentioned

12. The content of the matrix Need is ____________

a) Allocation – Available
b) Max – Available
c) Max – Allocation
d) Allocation – Max

13. A system with 5 processes P0 through P4 and three resource types A, B, C have A with 10
instances, B with 5 instances, and C with 7 instances. At time t0, the following snapshot has been
taken:
Process
P0
P1
P2
P3
P4
Allocation (process-wise : P0 through P4 top TO bottom)
A B C
0 1 0
2 0 0
3 0 2
2 1 1
0 0 2
MAX (process-wise: P0 through P4 top TO bottom)
A B C
7 5 3
3 2 2
9 0 2
2 2 2
4 3 3
Available
A B C
3 3 2
The sequence <P1, P3, P4, P2, P0> leads the system to ____________
a) an unsafe state
b) a safe state
c) a protected state
d) a deadlock

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Deadlock
Detection”.
1. The wait-for graph is a deadlock detection algorithm that is applicable when ____________
a) all resources have a single instance
b) all resources have multiple instances
c) all resources have a single 7 multiple instances
d) all of the mentioned
2. An edge from process Pi to Pj in a wait for graph indicates that ____________
a) Pi is waiting for Pj to release a resource that Pi needs
b) Pj is waiting for Pi to release a resource that Pj needs
c) Pi is waiting for Pj to leave the system
d) Pj is waiting for Pi to leave the system

3. If the wait for graph contains a cycle ____________

a) then a deadlock does not exist
b) then a deadlock exists
c) then the system is in a safe state
d) either deadlock exists or system is in a safe state

4. If deadlocks occur frequently, the detection algorithm must be invoked ________

a) rarely
b) frequently
c) rarely & frequently
d) none of the mentioned

5. What is the disadvantage of invoking the detection algorithm for every request?
a) overhead of the detection algorithm due to consumption of memory
b) excessive time consumed in the request to be allocated memory
c) considerable overhead in computation time
d) all of the mentioned

6. A deadlock eventually cripples system throughput and will cause the CPU utilization to
______
a) increase
b) drop
c) stay still
d) none of the mentioned

7. Every time a request for allocation cannot be granted immediately, the detection algorithm is
invoked. This will help identify ____________
a) the set of processes that have been deadlocked
b) the set of processes in the deadlock queue
c) the specific process that caused the deadlock
d) all of the mentioned

8. A computer system has 6 tape drives, with ‘n’ processes competing for them. Each process
may need 3 tape drives. The maximum value of ‘n’ for which the system is guaranteed to be
deadlock free is?
a) 2
b) 3
c) 4
d) 1

9. A system has 3 processes sharing 4 resources. If each process needs a maximum of 2 units
then, deadlock ____________
a) can never occur
b) may occur
c) has to occur
d) none of the mentioned

10. ‘m’ processes share ‘n’ resources of the same type. The maximum need of each process
doesn’t exceed ‘n’ and the sum of all their maximum needs is always less than m+n. In this
setup, deadlock ____________
a) can never occur
b) may occur
c) has to occur
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System Questions and Answers for Experienced people focuses on “Deadlock
Recovery” and will also be useful for interview preparations for experienced people.
1. A deadlock can be broken by ____________
a) abort one or more processes to break the circular wait
b) abort all the process in the system
c) preempt all resources from all processes
d) none of the mentioned

2. The two ways of aborting processes and eliminating deadlocks are ____________
a) Abort all deadlocked processes
b) Abort all processes
c) Abort one process at a time until the deadlock cycle is eliminated
d) All of the mentioned

3. Those processes should be aborted on occurrence of a deadlock, the termination of which?

a) is more time consuming
b) incurs minimum cost
c) safety is not hampered
d) all of the mentioned

4. The process to be aborted is chosen on the basis of the following factors?

a) priority of the process
b) process is interactive or batch
c) how long the process has computed
d) all of the mentioned

5. Cost factors for process termination include ____________

a) Number of resources the deadlock process is not holding
b) CPU utilization at the time of deadlock
c) Amount of time a deadlocked process has thus far consumed during its execution
d) All of the mentioned

6. If we preempt a resource from a process, the process cannot continue with its normal
execution and it must be ____________
a) aborted
b) rolled back
c) terminated
d) queued

7. To _______ to a safe state, the system needs to keep more information about the states of
processes.
a) abort the process
b) roll back the process
c) queue the process
d) none of the mentioned

8. If the resources are always preempted from the same process __________ can occur.
a) deadlock
b) system crash
c) aging
d) starvation
9. What is the solution to starvation?
a) the number of rollbacks must be included in the cost factor
b) the number of resources must be included in resource preemption
c) resource preemption be done instead
d) all of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Swapping
Processes – 1”.
1. What is Address Binding?
a) going to an address in memory
b) locating an address with the help of another address
c) binding two addresses together to form a new address in a different memory space
d) a mapping from one address space to another

2. Binding of instructions and data to memory addresses can be done at ____________

a) Compile time
b) Load time
c) Execution time
d) All of the mentioned

3. If the process can be moved during its execution from one memory segment to another, then
binding must be ____________
a) delayed until run time
b) preponed to compile time
c) preponed to load time
d) none of the mentioned

4. What is Dynamic loading?

a) loading multiple routines dynamically
b) loading a routine only when it is called
c) loading multiple routines randomly
d) none of the mentioned

5. What is the advantage of dynamic loading?

a) A used routine is used multiple times
b) An unused routine is never loaded
c) CPU utilization increases
d) All of the mentioned

6. The idea of overlays is to ____________

a) data that are needed at any given time
b) enable a process to be larger than the amount of memory allocated to it
c) keep in memory only those instructions
d) all of the mentioned

7. The ___________ must design and program the overlay structure.

a) programmer
b) system architect
c) system designer
d) none of the mentioned

8. The ___________ swaps processes in and out of the memory.

a) Memory manager
b) CPU
c) CPU manager
d) User

9. If a higher priority process arrives and wants service, the memory manager can swap out the
lower priority process to execute the higher priority process. When the higher priority process
finishes, the lower priority process is swapped back in and continues execution. This variant of
swapping is sometimes called?
a) priority swapping
b) pull out, push in
c) roll out, roll in
d) none of the mentioned

10. If binding is done at assembly or load time, then the process _____ be moved to different
locations after being swapped out and in again.
a) can
b) must
c) can never
d) may

11. In a system that does not support swapping ____________

a) the compiler normally binds symbolic addresses (variables) to relocatable addresses
b) the compiler normally binds symbolic addresses to physical addresses
c) the loader binds relocatable addresses to physical addresses
d) binding of symbolic addresses to physical addresses normally takes place during execution

12. Which of the following is TRUE?

a) Overlays are used to increase the size of physical memory
b) Overlays are used to increase the logical address space
c) When overlays are used, the size of a process is not limited to the size of the physical memory
d) Overlays are used whenever the physical address space is smaller than the logical address
space

Operating System Interview Questions and Answers focuses on “Swapping Processes”

1. The address generated by the CPU is referred to as ____________
a) Physical address
b) Logical address
c) Neither physical nor logical
d) None of the mentioned

2. The address loaded into the memory address register of the memory is referred to as
____________
a) Physical address
b) Logical address
c) Neither physical nor logical
d) None of the mentioned

3. The run time mapping from virtual to physical addresses is done by a hardware device called
the ____________
a) Virtual to physical mapper
b) Memory management unit
c) Memory mapping unit
d) None of the mentioned

4. The base register is also known as the ____________

a) basic register
b) regular register
c) relocation register
d) delocation register

5. The size of a process is limited to the size of ____________

a) physical memory
b) external storage
c) secondary storage
d) none of the mentioned

6. If execution time binding is being used, then a process ______ be swapped to a different
memory space.
a) has to be
b) can never
c) must
d) may

7. Swapping requires a _________

a) motherboard
b) keyboard
c) monitor
d) backing store

8. The backing store is generally a ____________

a) fast disk
b) disk large enough to accommodate copies of all memory images for all users
c) disk to provide direct access to the memory images
d) all of the mentioned
9. The ________ consists of all processes whose memory images are in the backing store or in
memory and are ready to run.
a) wait queue
b) ready queue
c) cpu
d) secondary storage

10. The _________ time in a swap out of a running process and swap in of a new process into
the memory is very high.
a) context – switch
b) waiting
c) execution
d) all of the mentioned

11. The major part of swap time is _______ time.

a) waiting
b) transfer
c) execution
d) none of the mentioned

12. Swapping _______ be done when a process has pending I/O, or has to execute I/O operations
only into operating system buffers.
a) must
b) can
c) must never
d) maybe

13. Swap space is allocated ____________

a) as a chunk of disk
b) separate from a file system
c) into a file system
d) all of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Memory
Management”.
1. CPU fetches the instruction from memory according to the value of ____________
a) program counter
b) status register
c) instruction register
d) program status word

2. A memory buffer used to accommodate a speed differential is called ____________

a) stack pointer
b) cache
c) accumulator
d) disk buffer

3. Which one of the following is the address generated by CPU?

a) physical address
b) absolute address
c) logical address
d) none of the mentioned

4. Run time mapping from virtual to physical address is done by ____________

a) Memory management unit
b) CPU
c) PCI
d) None of the mentioned

5. Memory management technique in which system stores and retrieves data from secondary
storage for use in main memory is called?
a) fragmentation
b) paging
c) mapping
d) none of the mentioned

6. The address of a page table in memory is pointed by ____________

a) stack pointer
b) page table base register
c) page register
d) program counter

7. Program always deals with ____________

a) logical address
b) absolute address
c) physical address
d) relative address

8. The page table contains ____________

a) base address of each page in physical memory
b) page offset
c) page size
d) none of the mentioned
9. What is compaction?
a) a technique for overcoming internal fragmentation
b) a paging technique
c) a technique for overcoming external fragmentation
d) a technique for overcoming fatal error

10. Operating System maintains the page table for ____________

a) each process
b) each thread
c) each instruction
d) each address

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Memory
Management – Memory Allocation – 1”.
1. The main memory accommodates ____________
a) operating system
b) cpu
c) user processes
d) all of the mentioned

2. What is the operating system?

a) in the low memory
b) in the high memory
c) either low or high memory (depending on the location of interrupt vector)
d) none of the mentioned

3. In contiguous memory allocation ____________

a) each process is contained in a single contiguous section of memory
b) all processes are contained in a single contiguous section of memory
c) the memory space is contiguous
d) none of the mentioned

4. The relocation register helps in ____________

a) providing more address space to processes
b) a different address space to processes
c) to protect the address spaces of processes
d) none of the mentioned

5. With relocation and limit registers, each logical address must be _______ the limit register.
a) less than
b) equal to
c) greater than
d) none of the mentioned

6. The operating system and the other processes are protected from being modified by an already
running process because ____________
a) they are in different memory spaces
b) they are in different logical addresses
c) they have a protection algorithm
d) every address generated by the CPU is being checked against the relocation and limit registers

7. Transient operating system code is code that ____________

a) is not easily accessible
b) comes and goes as needed
c) stays in the memory always
d) never enters the memory space
8. Using transient code, _______ the size of the operating system during program execution.
a) increases
b) decreases
c) changes
d) maintains

9. When memory is divided into several fixed sized partitions, each partition may contain
________
a) exactly one process
b) at least one process
c) multiple processes at once
d) none of the mentioned

10. In fixed size partition, the degree of multiprogramming is bounded by ___________

a) the number of partitions
b) the CPU utilization
c) the memory size
d) all of the mentioned

11. The first fit, best fit and worst fit are strategies to select a ______
a) process from a queue to put in memory
b) processor to run the next process
c) free hole from a set of available holes
d) all of the mentioned

Operating System test focuses on “Memory Allocation – 2”.

1. In internal fragmentation, memory is internal to a partition and ____________
a) is being used
b) is not being used
c) is always used
d) none of the mentioned

2. A solution to the problem of external fragmentation is ____________

a) compaction
b) larger memory space
c) smaller memory space
d) none of the mentioned

3. Another solution to the problem of external fragmentation problem is to ____________

a) permit the logical address space of a process to be noncontiguous
b) permit smaller processes to be allocated memory at last
c) permit larger processes to be allocated memory at last
d) all of the mentioned

4. If relocation is static and is done at assembly or load time, compaction _________

a) cannot be done
b) must be done
c) must not be done
d) can be done

5. The disadvantage of moving all process to one end of memory and all holes to the other
direction, producing one large hole of available memory is ____________
a) the cost incurred
b) the memory used
c) the CPU used
d) all of the mentioned

6. __________ is generally faster than _________ and _________

a) first fit, best fit, worst fit
b) best fit, first fit, worst fit
c) worst fit, best fit, first fit
d) none of the mentioned

7. External fragmentation exists when?

a) enough total memory exists to satisfy a request but it is not contiguous
b) the total memory is insufficient to satisfy a request
c) a request cannot be satisfied even when the total memory is free
d) none of the mentioned

8. External fragmentation will not occur when?

a) first fit is used
b) best fit is used
c) worst fit is used
d) no matter which algorithm is used, it will always occur

9. Sometimes the overhead of keeping track of a hole might be ____________

a) larger than the memory
b) larger than the hole itself
c) very small
d) all of the mentioned
10. When the memory allocated to a process is slightly larger than the process, then
____________
a) internal fragmentation occurs
b) external fragmentation occurs
c) both internal and external fragmentation occurs
d) neither internal nor external fragmentation occurs

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Paging – 1”.
1. Physical memory is broken into fixed-sized blocks called ________
a) frames
b) pages
c) backing store
d) none of the mentioned

2. Logical memory is broken into blocks of the same size called _________
a) frames
b) pages
c) backing store
d) none of the mentioned

3. Every address generated by the CPU is divided into two parts. They are ____________
a) frame bit & page number
b) page number & page offset
c) page offset & frame bit
d) frame offset & page offset
4. The __________ is used as an index into the page table.
a) frame bit
b) page number
c) page offset
d) frame offset

5. The _____ table contains the base address of each page in physical memory.
a) process
b) memory
c) page
d) frame

6. The size of a page is typically ____________

a) varied
b) power of 2
c) power of 4
d) none of the mentioned

7. If the size of logical address space is 2 to the power of m, and a page size is 2 to the power of
n addressing units, then the high order _____ bits of a logical address designate the page number,
and the ____ low order bits designate the page offset.
a) m, n
b) n, m
c) m – n, m
d) m – n, n

8. With paging there is no ________ fragmentation.

a) internal
b) external
c) either type of
d) none of the mentioned
9. The operating system maintains a ______ table that keeps track of how many frames have
been allocated, how many are there, and how many are available.
a) page
b) mapping
c) frame
d) memory

10. Paging increases the ______ time.

a) waiting
b) execution
c) context – switch
d) all of the mentioned

11. Smaller page tables are implemented as a set of _______

a) queues
b) stacks
c) counters
d) registers

12. The page table registers should be built with _______

a) very low speed logic
b) very high speed logic
c) a large memory space
d) none of the mentioned

13. For larger page tables, they are kept in main memory and a __________ points to the page
table.
a) page table base register
b) page table base pointer
c) page table register pointer
d) page table base

14. For every process there is a __________

a) page table
b) copy of page table
c) pointer to page table
d) all of the mentioned

15. Time taken in memory access through PTBR is ____________

a) extended by a factor of 3
b) extended by a factor of 2
c) slowed by a factor of 3
d) slowed by a factor of 2

Operating System Quiz focuses on “Paging – 2”.

1. Each entry in a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) consists of ____________
a) key
b) value
c) bit value
d) constant

2. If a page number is not found in the TLB, then it is known as a ____________

a) TLB miss
b) Buffer miss
c) TLB hit
d) All of the mentioned
3. An ______ uniquely identifies processes and is used to provide address space protection for
that process.
a) address space locator
b) address space identifier
c) address process identifier
d) none of the mentioned

4. The percentage of times a page number is found in the TLB is known as ____________
a) miss ratio
b) hit ratio
c) miss percent
d) none of the mentioned

5. Memory protection in a paged environment is accomplished by ____________

a) protection algorithm with each page
b) restricted access rights to users
c) restriction on page visibility
d) protection bit with each page

6. When the valid – invalid bit is set to valid, it means that the associated page ____________
a) is in the TLB
b) has data in it
c) is in the process’s logical address space
d) is the system’s physical address space

7. Illegal addresses are trapped using the _____ bit.

a) error
b) protection
c) valid – invalid
d) access

8. When there is a large logical address space, the best way of paging would be ____________
a) not to page
b) a two level paging algorithm
c) the page table itself
d) all of the mentioned

9. In a paged memory, the page hit ratio is 0.35. The required to access a page in secondary
memory is equal to 100 ns. The time required to access a page in primary memory is 10 ns. The
average time required to access a page is?
a) 3.0 ns
b) 68.0 ns
c) 68.5 ns
d) 78.5 ns

10. To obtain better memory utilization, dynamic loading is used. With dynamic loading, a
routine is not loaded until it is called. For implementing dynamic loading ____________
a) special support from hardware is required
b) special support from operating system is essential
c) special support from both hardware and operating system is essential
d) user programs can implement dynamic loading without any special support from hardware or
operating system

11. In paged memory systems, if the page size is increased, then the internal fragmentation
generally ____________
a) becomes less
b) becomes more
c) remains constant
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System MCQs focuses on “Memory Management – Segmentation”

1. In segmentation, each address is specified by ____________
a) a segment number & offset
b) an offset & value
c) a value & segment number
d) a key & value

2. In paging the user provides only ________ which is partitioned by the hardware into
________ and ______
a) one address, page number, offset
b) one offset, page number, address
c) page number, offset, address
d) none of the mentioned

3. Each entry in a segment table has a ____________

a) segment base
b) segment peak
c) segment value
d) none of the mentioned

4. The segment base contains the ____________

a) starting logical address of the process
b) starting physical address of the segment in memory
c) segment length
d) none of the mentioned

5. The segment limit contains the ____________

a) starting logical address of the process
b) starting physical address of the segment in memory
c) segment length
d) none of the mentioned

6. The offset ‘d’ of the logical address must be ____________

a) greater than segment limit
b) between 0 and segment limit
c) between 0 and the segment number
d) greater than the segment number

7. If the offset is legal ____________

a) it is used as a physical memory address itself
b) it is subtracted from the segment base to produce the physical memory address
c) it is added to the segment base to produce the physical memory address
d) none of the mentioned

8. When the entries in the segment tables of two different processes point to the same physical
location ____________
a) the segments are invalid
b) the processes get blocked
c) segments are shared
d) all of the mentioned
9. The protection bit is 0/1 based on ____________
a) write only
b) read only
c) read – write
d) none of the mentioned

10. If there are 32 segments, each of size 1Kb, then the logical address should have
____________
a) 13 bits
b) 14 bits
c) 15 bits
d) 16 bits

11. Consider a computer with 8 Mbytes of main memory and a 128K cache. The cache block
size is 4 K. It uses a direct mapping scheme for cache management. How many different main
memory blocks can map onto a given physical cache block?
a) 2048
b) 256
c) 64
d) 8

12. A multilevel page table is preferred in comparison to a single level page table for translating
virtual address to physical address because ____________
a) it reduces the memory access time to read or write a memory location
b) it helps to reduce the size of page table needed to implement the virtual address space of a
process
c) it is required by the translation lookaside buffer
d) it helps to reduce the number of page faults in page replacement algorithms
 Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Disk
Scheduling – 1”.
1. In _______ information is recorded magnetically on platters.
a) magnetic disks
b) electrical disks
c) assemblies
d) cylinders

2. The heads of the magnetic disk are attached to a _____ that moves all the heads as a unit.
a) spindle
b) disk arm
c) track
d) none of the mentioned

3. The set of tracks that are at one arm position make up a ___________
a) magnetic disks
b) electrical disks
c) assemblies
d) cylinders

4. The time taken to move the disk arm to the desired cylinder is called the ____________
a) positioning time
b) random access time
c) seek time
d) rotational latency

5. The time taken for the desired sector to rotate to the disk head is called ____________
a) positioning time
b) random access time
c) seek time
d) rotational latency

6. When the head damages the magnetic surface, it is known as _________

a) disk crash
b) head crash
c) magnetic damage
d) all of the mentioned

7. A floppy disk is designed to rotate ___________ as compared to a hard disk drive.

a) faster
b) slower
c) at the same speed
d) none of the mentioned

8. What is the host controller?

a) controller built at the end of each disk
b) controller at the computer end of the bus
c) all of the mentioned
d) none of the mentioned

9. ______ controller sends the command placed into it, via messages to the _____ controller.
a) host, host
b) disk, disk
c) host, disk
d) disk, host
10. What is the disk bandwidth?
a) the total number of bytes transferred
b) total time between the first request for service and the completion on the last transfer
c) the total number of bytes transferred divided by the total time between the first request for
service and the completion on the last transfer
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System online quiz focuses on “Disk Scheduling – 2”.

1. Whenever a process needs I/O to or from a disk it issues a ______________
a) system call to the CPU
b) system call to the operating system
c) a special procedure
d) all of the mentioned

2. If a process needs I/O to or from a disk, and if the drive or controller is busy then
____________
a) the request will be placed in the queue of pending requests for that drive
b) the request will not be processed and will be ignored completely
c) the request will be not be placed
d) none of the mentioned

3. Consider a disk queue with requests for I/O to blocks on cylinders.

98 183 37 122 14 124 65 67
Considering FCFS (first cum first served) scheduling, the total number of head movements is, if
the disk head is initially at 53 is?
a) 600
b) 620
c) 630
d) 640

4. Consider a disk queue with requests for I/O to blocks on cylinders.

98 183 37 122 14 124 65 67
Considering SSTF (shortest seek time first) scheduling, the total number of head movements is,
if the disk head is initially at 53 is?
a) 224
b) 236
c) 245
d) 240

5. Random access in magnetic tapes is _________ compared to magnetic disks.

a) fast
b) very fast
c) slow
d) very slow

6. Magnetic tape drives can write data at a speed ________ disk drives.
a) much lesser than
b) comparable to
c) much faster than
d) none of the mentioned

7. On media that use constant linear velocity (CLV), the _____________ is uniform.
a) density of bits on the disk
b) density of bits per sector
c) the density of bits per track
d) none of the mentioned

Explanation: The farther a track is from the center of the disk.

8. SSTF algorithm, like SJF __________ of some requests.
a) may cause starvation
b) will cause starvation
c) does not cause starvation
d) causes aging

9. In the ______ algorithm, the disk arm starts at one end of the disk and moves toward the other
end, servicing requests till the other end of the disk. At the other end, the direction is reversed
and servicing continues.
a) LOOK
b) SCAN
c) C-SCAN
d) C-LOOK
10. In the _______ algorithm, the disk head moves from one end to the other, servicing requests
along the way. When the head reaches the other end, it immediately returns to the beginning of
the disk without servicing any requests on the return trip.
a) LOOK
b) SCAN
c) C-SCAN
d) C-LOOK

11. In the ______ algorithm, the disk arm goes as far as the final request in each direction, then
reverses direction immediately without going to the end of the disk.
a) LOOK
b) SCAN
c) C-SCAN
d) C-LOOK

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Disk
Management”.
1. The process of dividing a disk into sectors that the disk controller can read and write, before a
disk can store data is known as ____________
a) partitioning
b) swap space creation
c) low-level formatting
d) none of the mentioned

2. The data structure for a sector typically contains ____________

a) header
b) data area
c) trailer
d) all of the mentioned

3. The header and trailer of a sector contain information used by the disk controller such as
_________ and _________
a) main section & disk identifier
b) error correcting codes (ECC) & sector number
c) sector number & main section
d) disk identifier & sector number

4. The two steps the operating system takes to use a disk to hold its files are _______ and
________
a) partitioning & logical formatting
b) swap space creation & caching
c) caching & logical formatting
d) logical formatting & swap space creation

5. The _______ program initializes all aspects of the system, from CPU registers to device
controllers and the contents of main memory, and then starts the operating system.
a) main
b) bootloader
c) bootstrap
d) rom

6. For most computers, the bootstrap is stored in ________

a) RAM
b) ROM
c) Cache
d) Tertiary storage

7. A disk that has a boot partition is called a _________

a) start disk
b) end disk
c) boot disk
d) all of the mentioned
8. Defective sectors on disks are often known as __________
a) good blocks
b) destroyed blocks
c) bad blocks
d) none of the mentioned
9. In SCSI disks used in high end PCs, the controller maintains a list of _________ on the disk.
The disk is initialized during ________ formatting which sets aside spare sectors not visible to
the operating system.
a) destroyed blocks, high level formatting
b) bad blocks, partitioning
c) bad blocks, low level formatting
d) destroyed blocks, partitioning

10. The scheme used in the above question is known as _______ or ________
a) sector sparing & forwarding
b) forwarding & sector utilization
c) backwarding & forwarding
d) sector utilization & backwarding

11. An unrecoverable error is known as _________

a) hard error
b) tough error
c) soft error
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Swap Space
Management”.
1. Virtual memory uses disk space as an extension of _________
a) secondary storage
b) main memory
c) tertiary storage
d) none of the mentioned
2. Using swap space significantly _________ system performance.
a) increases
b) decreases
c) maintains
d) does not affect

3. Linux __________ the use of multiple swap spaces.

a) allows
b) does not allow
c) may allow
d) none of the mentioned

4. A single swap space ______ reside in two places.

a) can
b) cannot
c) must not
d) none of the mentioned

5. If the swap space is simply a large file, within the file system, ____________ used to create it,
name it and allocate its space.
a) special routines must be
b) normal file system routines can be
c) normal file system routines cannot be
d) swap space storage manager is
6. For swap space created in a separate disk partition where no file system or directory structure
is placed, _____________ used to allocate and deallocate the blocks.
a) special routines must be
b) normal file system routines can be
c) normal file system routines cannot be
d) swap space storage manager is

7. When a fixed amount of swap space is created during disk partitioning, more swap space can
be added only by?
I) repartitioning of the disk
II) adding another swap space elsewhere
a) only I
b) only II
c) both I and II
d) neither I nor II

8. In UNIX, two per process ________ are used by the kernel to track swap space use.
a) process tables
b) swap maps
c) memory maps
d) partition maps

9. It is __________ to reread a page from the file system than to write it to swap space and then
to reread it from there.
a) useless
b) less efficient
c) more efficient
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “RAID
Structure – 1”.
1. RAID level 3 supports a lower number of I/Os per second, because _______________
a) Every disk has to participate in every I/O request
b) Only one disk participates per I/O request
c) I/O cycle consumes a lot of CPU time
d) All of the mentioned

2. RAID level _____ is also known as block interleaved parity organisation and uses block level
striping and keeps a parity block on a separate disk.
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4

3. A performance problem with _________ is the expense of computing and writing parity.
a) non-parity based RAID levels
b) parity based RAID levels
c) all RAID levels
d) none of the mentioned

4. In RAID level 4, one block read, accesses __________

a) only one disk
b) all disks simultaneously
c) all disks sequentially
d) none of the mentioned

Explanation: Other requests are allowed to be processed by other disks.

5. The overall I/O rate in RAID level 4 is ____________
a) low
b) very low
c) high
d) none of the mentioned

6. A write of a block has to access ____________

a) the disk on which the block is stored
b) parity disk
c) a parity block
d) all of the mentioned

7. RAID level 5 is also known as ____________

a) bit-interleaved parity organization
b) block-interleaved parity organization
c) block-interleaved distributed parity
d) memory-style ECC organization

8. RAID level ____ spreads parity and data among all N+1 disks rather than storing data in N
disks and parity in 1.
a) 3
b) 4
c) 5
d) 6

9. The potential overuse of a single parity disk is avoided in RAID level _______
a) 3
b) 4
c) 5
d) all of the mentioned
10. RAID level 0+1 is used because, RAID level 0 provides ______ whereas RAID level 1
provides ________
a) performance, redundancy
b) performance, reliability
c) redundancy, performance
d) none of the mentioned

11. If a disk fails in RAID level ___________ rebuilding lost data is easiest.
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4

12. Where performance and reliability are both important, RAID level ____ is used.
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 0+1

Advanced Operating System Questions and Answers focuses on “RAID Structure – 2”.
1. A large number of disks in a system improves the rate at which data can be read or written if
____________
a) the disks are operated on sequentially
b) the disks are operated on selectively
c) the disks are operated in parallel
d) all of the mentioned
2. RAID stands for ____________
a) Redundant Allocation of Inexpensive Disks
b) Redundant Array of Important Disks
c) Redundant Allocation of Independent Disks
d) Redundant Array of Independent Disks

3. If the mean time to failure of a single disk is 100,000 hours, then the mean time to failure of
some disk in an array of 100 disks will be ____________
a) 100 hours
b) 10 days
c) 10 hours
d) 1000 hours

4. The solution to the problem of reliability is the introduction of __________

a) aging
b) scheduling
c) redundancy
d) disks

5. The technique of duplicating every disk is known as ____________

a) mirroring
b) shadowing
c) redundancy
d) all of the mentioned

6. The mean time to failure of a mirrored disk depends on ____________

I) the mean time to failure of individual disks
II) the mean time to repair
a) Only I
b) Only II
c) Both I and II
d) Neither I nor II

7. RAID level ________ refers to disk arrays with striping at the level of blocks, but without any
redundancy.
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3

8. RAID level _______ refers to disk mirroring.

a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3

9. RAID level ______ is also known as bit interleaved parity organisation.

a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3

10. A single parity bit can be used for ____________

a) detection
b) multiple error corrections
c) few error corrections
d) all of the mentioned

11. RAID level ______ is also known as memory style error correcting code(ECC) organization.
a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4

12. RAID level 3 does not have _________ as in RAID level 1.

a) efficiency
b) enough storage space for data
c) storage overhead
d) time consumption overhead

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Tertiary
Storage”.
1. Tertiary storage is built with ____________
a) a lot of money
b) unremovable media
c) removable media
d) secondary storage

2. Floppy disks are examples of ____________

a) primary storage
b) secondary storage
c) tertiary storage
d) none of the mentioned
3. What is a magneto-optic disk?
a) primary storage
b) secondary storage
c) removable disk
d) none of the mentioned
4. The magneto-optic head flies ___________ the disk surface than a magnetic disk head does.
a) much farther from
b) much closer to
c) at the same distance as
d) none of the mentioned

5. Optical disks ______ magnetism.

a) use
b) do not use
c) may use
6. The d) none of the mentioned

phase change disk is coated with a material that can freeze into either _______ or ________
state.
a) crystalline, solid
b) ice, amorphous
c) crystalline, liquid
d) crystalline, amorphous

7. WORM stands for ____________

a) write only, read mandatory
b) write once, read many times
c) write only once, read multiple
d) none of the mentioned

8. A tape holds _______ data than optical or magnetic disk cartridge.

a) lesser
b) more
c) much lesser
d) none of the mentioned
9. Random access to tape is _______ a disk seek.
a) much slower than
b) much faster than
c) comparable to
d) none of the mentioned

10. A typical tape drive is ________ a typical disk drive.

a) more expensive than
b) cheaper than
c) of the same cost as
d) none of the mentioned

11. The surface area of tape is ________ the surface area of a disk.
a) much lesser than
b) much larger than
c) equal to
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Protection –
Access Matrix”.
1. In domain structure what is Access-right equal to?
a) Access-right = object-name, rights-set
b) Access-right = read-name, write-set
c) Access-right = read-name, execute-set
d) Access-right = object-name, execute-set

2. What is meaning of right-set?

a) It is a subset consist of read and write
b) It is a subset of all valid operations that can be performed on the object
c) It is a subset consist of read, write and execute
d) None of the mentioned

3. What is Domain?
a) Domain = Set of all objects
b) It is a collection of protection policies
c) Domain= set of access-rights
d) None of the mentioned

4. What does the access matrix represent?

a) Rows-Domains, Columns-Objects
b) Rows-Objects, Columns-Domains
c) Rows-Access List, Columns-Domains
d) Rows-Domains, Columns-Access list

5. What are the three additional operations to change the contents of the access-matrix?
a) copy
b) Owner
c) control
d) all of the mentioned

6. Who can add new rights and remove some rights?

a) copy
b) transfer
c) limited copy
d) owner

7. What are the three copyrights?

a) copy
b) transfer
c) limited copy
d) all of the mentioned

8. Which two rights allow a process to change the entries in a column?

a) copy and transfer
b) copy and owner
c) owner and transfer
d) deny and copy

9. Which is an unsolvable problem in access-matrix?

a) Owner override
b) Brute force
c) Access denied
d) Confinement

10. Which of the following objects require protection?

a) CPU
b) Printers
c) Motherboard
d) All of the mentioned

11. What is ‘separation’ in security of Operating systems?

a) To have separate login for different users
b) To have separate Hard disk drive/partition for different users
c) It means keeping one user’s objects separate from other users
d) None of the mentioned

12. Which of the following statements are correct?

i) Physical separation – in which process use different physical objects like separate printers
ii) Physical separation – in which process having different security requirement at different times
iii) Logical separation – In which users operate under illusion that no other processes exist
iv) Logical separation – In which processes conceal their data and computations
a) i
b) i and iii
c) ii and iii
d) iii and iv

13. Which of the following statements are correct?

i) Physical separation – in which process use different physical objects like separate printers
ii) Temporal separation – in which process having different security requirement at different
times
iii) Physical separation – In which users operate under illusion that no other processes exist
iv) Temporal separation – In which processes conceal their data and computations
a) i
b) i and ii
c) ii and iii
d) iii and iv

14. Which of the following statements are correct?

i) logical separation – in which process use different physical objects like separate printers
ii) cryptographic separation – in which process having different security requirement at different
times
iii) Logical separation – In which users operate under illusion that no other processes exist
iv) cryptographic separation – In which processes conceal their data and computations
a) i
b) i and ii
c) ii and iii
d) iii and iv

15. What are the various roles of protection?

a) It is used to detect errors which can prevent contamination of system
b) It is used used to accelerate a process
c) It is used to optimize system downtime
d) None of the mentioned

16. Which of the following objects require protection?

a) Memory
b) Monitor
c) Power supply unit
d) All of the mentioned
 Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Protection
concepts”.
1. Which principle states that programs, users and even the systems be given just enough
privileges to perform their task?
a) principle of operating system
b) principle of least privilege
c) principle of process scheduling
d) none of the mentioned

2. _______ is an approach to restricting system access to authorized users.

a) Role-based access control
b) Process-based access control
c) Job-based access control
d) None of the mentioned

3. For system protection, a process should access _____________

a) all the resources
b) only those resources for which it has authorization
c) few resources but authorization is not required
d) all of the mentioned

4. The protection domain of a process contains _____________

a) object name
b) rights-set
c) both object name and rights-set
d) none of the mentioned
5. If the set of resources available to the process is fixed throughout the process’s lifetime then
its domain is _____________
a) static
b) dynamic
c) neither static nor dynamic
d) none of the mentioned

6. Access matrix model for user authentication contains _____________

a) a list of objects
b) a list of domains
c) a function which returns an object’s type
d) all of the mentioned

7. Global table implementation of the matrix table contains _____________

a) domain
b) object
c) right-set
d) all of the mentioned

8. For a domain _______ is a list of objects together with the operation allowed on these objects.
a) capability list
b) access list
c) both capability and access list
d) none of the mentioned

9. Which one of the following is capability based protection system?

a) hydra
b) cambridge CAP system
c) both hydra and cambridge CAP system
d) none of the mentioned

10. In UNIX, domain switch is accomplished via _____________

a) file system
b) user
c) superuser
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Security”.
1. When an attempt is to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users,
the attack is called _____________
a) denial-of-service attack
b) slow read attack
c) spoofed attack
d) starvation attack

2. The code segment that misuses its environment is called a _____________

a) internal thief
b) trojan horse
c) code stacker
d) none of the mentioned

3. The internal code of any software that will set of a malicious function when specified
conditions are met, is called _____________
a) logic bomb
b) trap door
c) code stacker
d) none of the mentioned

4. The pattern that can be used to identify a virus is known as _____________

a) stealth
b) virus signature
c) armoured
d) multipartite

5. Which one of the following is a process that uses the spawn mechanism to revage the system
performance?
a) worm
b) trojan
c) threat
d) virus

6. What is a trap door in a program?

a) a security hole, inserted at programming time in the system for later use
b) a type of antivirus
c) security hole in a network
d) none of the mentioned

7. Which one of the following is not an attack, but a search for vulnerabilities to attack?
a) denial of service
b) port scanning
c) memory access violation
d) dumpster diving

8. File virus attaches itself to the _____________

a) source file
b) object file
c) executable file
d) all of the mentioned

9. Multipartite viruses attack on _____________

a) files
b) boot sector
c) memory
d) all of the mentioned

10. In asymmetric encryption _____________

a) same key is used for encryption and decryption
b) different keys are used encryption and decryption
c) no key is required for encryption and decryption
d) none of the mentioned

Operating System Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs) focuses on “Protection –
Memory Protection”.
1. What is true regarding ‘Fence’?
a) Its a method to confine users to one side of a boundary
b) It can protect Operating system from one user
c) It cannot protect users from each other
d) All of the mentioned

2. What is not true regarding ‘Fence’?

a) It is implemented via hardware register
b) It doesn’t protect users from each other
c) It good to protect OS from abusive users
d) Its implementation is unrestricted and can take any amount of space in Operating system.

3. What is correct regarding ‘relocation’ w.r.t protecting memory?

a) It is a process of taking a program as if it began at address 0
b) It is a process of taking a program as if it began at address 0A
c) Fence cannot be used within relocation process
d) All of the mentioned

4. How can fence and relocation be used together?

a) To each program address, the contents of fence register are added
b) To contents of fence register is subtracted from actual address of program
c) To each program address, the contents of fence register are not added
d) None of the mentioned

5. What is the basic need in protecting memory in multi-user environment?

a) We need two registers one ‘start’ and other ‘end’
b) We need a variable register
c) A fence register has to be used known as base register.
d) None of the mentioned

6. What is the role of base/bound registers?

a) They give starting address to a program
b) Program’s addresses are neatly confined to space between the base and the bound registers
c) They provide encrypted environment
d) This technique doesn’t protects a program’s address from modification by another user
7. What is all-or-nothing situation for sharing in memory?
a) Program makes all its data available to be accessed
b) It prohibits access to some
c) It creates rules who can access program memory
d) It separates program memory and data memory

8. How is disadvantage of all-or-nothing approach overcome?

a) Base/Bound
b) Relocation technique
c) Fence method
d) Tagged architecture

9. What is true regarding tagged architecture?

a) Every word of machine memory has one or more extra bits
b) Extra bits are used to do padding
c) Extra bits are not used to identify rights to that word
d) It is very compatible to code upgrades

10. What is best solution to have effect of unbounded number if base/bound registers?
a) Tagged architecture
b) Segmentation
c) Fence method
d) None of the mentioned

11. What is a major feature of segmentation?

a) Program is divided in data memory and program memory
b) Program is executed in segments
c) Program is divided into pieces having different access rights
d) It has effect of an unbounded architecture

12. What is the correct way the segmentation program address is stored?
a) name, offset
b) start, stop
c) access, rights
d) offset, rights

13. What is the main objective of protection?

a) Ensure all objects are protected individually
b) Objects have different priority and thus different levels of protection
c) Ensure that each object is accessed correctly and only by allowed processes
d) None of the mentioned

14. What is the principle of least privilege?

a) Less privileges provide difficulty in executing admin tasks
b) Users can get temporary high privilege access
c) Users should be given just enough privileges to perform their tasks
d) None of the mentioned

15. What is the need of protection?

a) Prevent mischievous violation
b) Prevent and intentional
c) Ensure that each program component uses resources allotted to it only
d) All of the mentioned
 Operating System Questions and Answers focuses on “Protection – Revocation of Access
Rights”.
1. What are the incorrect methods of revocation of access rights?
a) Immediate/Delayed
b) Selective/General
c) Partial/total
d) Crucial

2. Why is it difficult to revoke capabilities?

a) They are too many
b) They are not defined precicely
c) They are distributed throughout the system
d) None of the mentioned

3. What is the reacquisition scheme to revoke capability?

a) When a process capability is revoked then it won’t be able to reacquire it
b) Pointers are maintained for each object which can be used to revoke
c) Indirect pointing is done to revoke object’s capabilities
d) Master key can be used compare and revoke.

4. What is false regarding Back-Pointers scheme to revoke capability?

a) List of pointers is maintained with each object
b) When revocation is required these pointers are followed
c) This scheme is not adopted in MULTICS system
d) These point to all capabilities associated with that object

5. What is true about Indirection to revoke capability?

a) Capabilities point indirectly to the objects
b) Each capability will not have a unique entry in global
c) Table entries cannot be reused for other capabilities
d) This system was adopted in MULTICS system

6. How can Keys be defined or replaced?

a) create [keyname] [bits]
b) set-key
c) Key
d) MAKE [Key Name]

7. What are the characteristics of the Hydra system?

a) It consists of known access rights and interpreted by the system
b) A user can of protection system can declare other rights
c) Hydra system is not flexible
d) Hydra doesn’t provide rights amplification

8. What are the characteristics of rights amplification in Hydra?

a) This scheme allows a procedure to be certified as trustworthy
b) Amplification of rights cannot be stated explicitly in declaration
c) It includes kernel rights such as read
d) All of the mentioned

9. What is the problem of mutually suspicious subsystem?

a) Service program can steal users data
b) Service program can malfunction and retain some rights of data provided by user
c) Calling program can get access to restricted portion from service program
d) Calling program gets unrestricted access

10. What are the characteristics of Cambridge CAP system as compared to Hydra system?
a) It is simpler and less powerful than hydra system
b) It is more powerful than hydra system
c) It is powerful than hydra system
d) It is not as secure as Hydra system

11. What are the two capabilities defined in CAP system?

a) data & software capability
b) address & data capability
c) hardware & software capability
d) software capability