Operating Systems Question Bank

DAYANANDA SAGAR ACADEMY OF TECHNOLOGY & MANAGEMENT

(Affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi and Approved by AICTE, New Delhi)
Opp. Art of Living, Udayapura, Kanakapura Road, Bangalore- 560082
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Accredited 3 years by NBA, New Delhi (Validity : 26-07-2018 to 30-06-2021)

Subject: Operating Systems

MODULE 1
1. Define the essential properties of the following operating systems: i) Time sharing operating system ii)
Batch operating system iii) Real time operating system iv) Distributed operating system.
(10Marks,May10,Jan14)
2. Distinguish among the following terminologies associated with the operating system and explain each
of them in detail Multitasking systems, Multiprogramming systems, Multi processors system
(12Marks, June11, Jan15, 04 M Jan 19)
3. What is an operating system? Bring out the requirements of
i) Real Time Operating System
ii) Distributed Operating System (10Marks,June12)
4. What are system calls? Explain different categories of system calls (10Marks,June12, Jan13)
(4 Marks, June 2017)
5. Briefly explain clustered and real time system (04Marks,Dec12)
6. Define virtual machines. with a neat sketch explain its working and what are the benefits of virtual
machines (4 Marks, June 2017) (10Marks,Dec12, Jan14) (05M,July 19)
7. What is a distributed OS? What are the advantages of distributed OS? (06Marks,Jan13)
8. Explain the advantage of layered approach with a neat diagram. (06Marks,Jan14)
9. What is a process? Draw and explain the process state diagram and PCB.
(05Marks,Dec08, 05 marks June 2018, 04M Jun 19, 08 M Jan 19, 06M Jan 20)
10. Discuss the operations of process creation and process termination in UNIX. (07Marks,Dec08, 06M
Jun 19)
11. What is operating system? Explain multiprogramming and time sharing systems (06 M, June 2017)
12. Explain dual mode operation in OS with a neat block diagram (06 M, June 2017, 05 M Jan 20)
13. Why it is important for the scheduler to distinguish I/O bound programs from CPU bound programs?
(02 Marks, June 2017)
14. Distinguish between the following pairs of terms:
i) Symmetric and asymmetric multiprocessor systems
ii) CPU burst and I/O burst jobs
iii) User’s view and systems view of OS
iv) Batch systems and time sharing systems
v) User mode and kernel mode operations . (10 Marks, Dec 2017)
15. List the three main advantages of multiprocessor systems. Also bring out the difference between
graceful degradation and fault tolerance in this context. . (05 Marks, June 2017)
16. Define operating system, with a neat diagram, explain dual mode operation od operating system
(06 marks, June 2018)
17. Explain layered structure of operating system with neat diagram (06 marks, June 2018)

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18. Define the following

a. Virtual machine
b. CPU Scheduler
c. Context switching
d. System call (04 marks, June 2018)
19. Explain the role of operating system from different viewpoints. Explain the dual mode of operation of
an operating System. (07M Jun 19)
20. Explain the types of multi-processing system and types of clustering. (05M Jun 19)
21. Analyze modular kernel approach with layered approach with a net sketch. (06M Jan 19)
22. Explain the types of multiprocessing system and types of clustering. (04M Jun 19)
23. Describe the implementation of interposes communication using shared memory and message passing.
(08M Jan 19, 06M Jun 19, 05 M Jan 20)

MODULE-2
1. Discuss various multithreading models with diagram. (06Marks,June09, 05 M Jan 20)
2. Consider the following set of processes.
Process Burst time Arrival Time Priority
P1 10 0 2
P2 5 2 1
P3 2 3 0
P4 20 5 3
Draw Grant charts and calculate average waiting time average turnaround time using following CPU
scheduling algorithms.
i) Preemptive shortest Job First.
ii) Non preemptive priority (= HIGH Priority)
(08 Marks,June09, 06 marks, June 2018)
3. Consider the following set of processes:
Process Arrival time Burst time
P1 0 1
P2 1 9
P3 2 1
P4 3 9
i) Draw Gantt charts showing the execution of these processes using FCFS, preemptive SJF,
non-preemptive SJF and RR (Quantum – 1) scheduling schemes
ii) Compute the turnaround time and waiting time for each process for each of schemes above.
iii) Compute the average turnaround time and average waiting time in each scheme and above.
(11Marks,May10)
4. For the following examples calculate average waiting time and average turnaround time by FCFS,
preemptive SJF, and RR( 1 time unit) CPU scheduling algorithm.
Jobs Arrival time Burst time
P1 0 8
P2 1 4

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Operating Systems Question Bank

P3 2 9
P4 3 5
(08Marks,June12)

5. For the following set of processes. Find the average waiting time and average turnaround time along
with Gant chart illustration for (06Marks,Dec12)
i) Shortest remaining time first ii) preemptive priority scheduling algorithm

Process Burst time Arrival time Priority

P1 6 2.0 5
P2 4 0.0 4
P3 7 1.6 3
P4 2 1.0 1
P5 1 0.4 2

6. Explain the benefits of multi threading programming (08Marks,Dec11,06M Jun 18,04 M Jan 19)
7. Explain hard real time system (04Marks,Dec11)
8. Differentiate between a. Process and thread b. Short term and medium term schedules c. Waiting and
Turnaround time. (08Marks,Jan14, Jan15)
9. State the dining philosopher’s problem and give a solution for the same, suing semaphores. Write the
structure of philosopher. (10Marks,Dec09,Jan14,06 marks, june 2018)
10. Consider the following data about processes

Arrival Burst Priority

Process time time
P1 0 7 3
P2 3 2 2

P3 4 3 1

P4 4 1 1

P5 5 3 i.
i) Draw charts to illustrate execution using SRTF, preemptive priority and RR (TS = 1 msec).
ii) Compute waiting time in each of the cases.
iii) Which of them provide minimal average waiting time and turnaround time?
Find out the time at which there are maximum numbers of processes in the ready queue in the scenario?
(10Marks,Dec 08)
11. Describe the Bounded –buffer problem and give a solution for the same using semaphores. Write the
structure of producer and consumer processes. (08Marks,June09)

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12. Suppose four processes arrive for processing in the order P1, P2 P3, and P4 with burst times and priorities
as given below:

Process P1 P2 P3 P4
Burst time 7 4 3 5
Priority 3 4 2 1

Draw the Gantt charts and calculate the average waiting time for the following algorithms:

i) First Come First Served ii) Shortest Job First iii) Priority scheduling (08Marks,Dec10)

13. What are semaphores? Explain the solution to procedure- consumer problem using semaphores
(08Marks,June11)
14. What are monitor? Explain it (04Marks,June11,06 marks, June 2018)
15. What is critical section problem? How does a semaphores solve the crtical section problem?
Discuss whether semaphores satisfy the three requirement for a solution to a critical section problem
(08Marks,June12)
16. Define mutual exclusion and critical section problem. write the software solution for 2- process
synchronization (07Marks,Dec12)
17. What is semaphores? Explain how it can be used to solve producer consumer problem .
(07Marks,Dec12)

18. Explain the solution for dining –philosopher problem using monitors (06Marks,Dec12, 08 M
Jun 19, 05 M Jan 20)
19. What is race condition? Explain Reader’s Writer’s problem with semaphores (10 Marks, Jan14, 08 M
Jun 19, 08 M Jan 20, 05 M Jan 20)
20. Explain test and set instruction and explain mutual exclusion using test and set instructions
(05Marks,Dec11)

21. Consider the following set of processes, with the length of the CPU burst given in milliseconds.

Burst Priority
Process time
P1 10 3
P2 1 1
P3 2 3
P4 1 4
P5 5 2
i) Draw the Gantt charts for the following scheduling algorithms, FCFS, SJF and RR
(quantum=1)
ii) Find out turn around time and waiting of each process for each of these scheduling algorithm
and also find out average turn around time and average waiting time.
(12 Marks,June17, 08 marks, June 2018)
22. Define Semaphore. Explain its usage and implementation (06 Marks,June17)

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23. Explain multi process scheduling (04 marks, June 2018)

24. Discuss the threading issues that come with multithreaded program. (08m Jun 19)
25. Calculate the average waiting time by drawing Gantt Chart using FCFS, SRTF, RR[q=2ms] algorithms
( 08m Jun 19, 12M Jan 19)

Arrival Burst time

Process time
P1 0 9
P2 1 4
P3 2 9
P4 3 5
26. For the process listed below, draw Gantt charts using pre-emptive and non-preemptive priority
scheduling alg. A large priority number has a higher priority. Calculate avg. weighting time and avg.
turnaround time. (06M Jan 20)

Arrival Burst Priority

Process time time
P1 0 6 4
P2 3 5 2
P3 3 3 6
P4 5 5 3
27. Define semaphores. Explain its usage and implementation. (06 M Jan 20)
28. Illustrate with examples the peterson’s solution for critical section problem and prove that the mutual
exclusion property is preserved. (08M, Jan 19)

MODULE-3
1. Describe the necessary conditions for a deadlock situation to arise, in a system. (04Marks,Dec 09)
2. Consider the following snapshot of a system:
Allocation Maximum Available
A B C D A B C D A B C D
0 0 1 2 0 0 1 2 1 5 2 0
1 0 0 0 1 7 5 0
2 3 5 4 2 3 5 6
0 6 3 2 0 6 5 2
0 0 1 4 0 6 5 6

Answer the following questions using the Banker’s algorithm;

i) What is the content of the matrix need
ii) Is the system in a safe state?
iii) If a request from process P1 arrives for (0, 4, 2, 0 ) (10M,Dec09,Jan14, 10m Jan 19)
3. Consider the following snap shot of resource-allocation at time t1

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Allocation request Available

A B C A B C A B C
P0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
P1 2 0 0 2 0 2
P2 3 0 3 0 0 0
P3 2 1 1 1 0 0
P4 0 0 2 0 0 2
i) Show that the system is not deadlocked by generating one safe sequence.
ii) At instance 12, p2 makes one additional request for instance of type C, Show that the system
is deadlocked if the request is granted.
4. Consider the following snapshot of a system. (09Marks,June09,09 M Jun 19 06M Jan 20)
Allocation Maximum Available
A B C A B C A B C
P0 0 1 0 7 5 3 3 3 2
P1 2 0 0 3 2 2
P2 3 0 2 9 0 2
P3 2 1 1 2 2 2
P4 0 0 2 4 3 3
Answer following questions using Bankers algorithm.
i) Is the system in a safe state?
ii) If a request from P1 arrives for (1,0,2), can the request be granted immediately?

5. Consider the Resource allocation graphs given in fig.Q4(c ) (i)and (ii), Check whether deadlock exists
in the system, if yes, identify the processes involved in deadlock. (05Marks,June09,05 M Jan 20)

Fig. Q4(c) (i) fig. Q4(c) (ii)

6. What are monitors? Explain its usage and implementation (08 Marks, June17)
7. Define the terms: safe state and safe sequence. Give an algorithm to find whether or not a system is
in a safe state. (10Marks,Dec10)
8. What is dead lock? explain the necessary conditions for its occurrence
(08Marks,June12,June11)
9. Consider the system

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Process Allocation Max Available

ABCD ABCD ABCD
P0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 2 1 5 2 0
P1 1 0 0 0 1 7 5 0
P2 1 3 5 4 2 3 5 6
P3 0 6 3 2 0 6 5 2
P4 0 0 1 4 0 6 5 6

Answer the following questions using Bankers algorithm

i) What is the content of matrix need?
ii) Is the system in safe state?
iii) If a request from process p arrives for ( 0, 4, 2, 0) can the request be granted immediately?
(10Marks,June11,Dec10)
10. Define the necessary and sufficient conditions for dead lock to occur (04Marks,Dec12)
11. Consider the following snap shot of the system
Process Allocated resources Maximum requirement Total resources
R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3
P1 2 2 3 3 6 8 7 7 10
P2 2 0 3 4 3 3
P3 1 2 4 3 4 4
i) What is the content need matrix?
ii) Is the system in safe state?
iii) If the following requests are made , can they be satisfied / granted immediately in the current state :
P1 requests for (1, 1, 0)
P3 requests for ( 0, 1, 0) resource additionality. (10Marks,Dec12)
12. Explain safety algorithm used in Bankers algorithm, with a suitable example. (12Marks, Dec11)
13. What are deadlocks? What are its characteristics? (05 Marks, June 17)

14. Consider the following snapshot of a system:

Process Allocation Max Available
ABCD ABCD ABCD
Po 0012 0012 1520
P1 1000 1750
P2 1354 2356
P3 0632 0652
P4 0014 0656
vi) Find out need matrix
vii) If a request from process P1 arrived for (0,4,2,0) can the request be granted
immediately?
viii) Is the system in a safe state
15. Explain the process of recovery from deadlock. (05 Marks, June 2017)
16. Discuss the various approaches used for deadlock recovery. (07 M Jan 19)

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17. What is a deadlock? List the necessary conditions for a deadlock to occur.
(12Marks,Dec10,06 marks, June 2018, 06 M Jan 19, 05M Jan 20)

18. Illustrate with example, the internal and external fragmentation problem encountered in continuous
memory allocation. (07 M Jan 19, 04M Jan 19,05 M Jan 20)
19. Analyze the problem in simple paging techniques and show TLB is used to solve the problem.
(08M Jan 19, 06M Jan 20)
20. Memory partitions of 100KB, 500KB, 200KB, 300KB, 600KB (in order) are available. How would
first – fit, best – fit and worst – fit algorithms place processes of 212KB, 417KB and 426KB (in order).
Which algorithm makes the most efficient use of memory?(06M Dec08, Jan14, 06 M Jan 20)
21. Given the memory partition of 200K, 700k,500k,300k,100k,400k. Apply first fit, best fit to place
315k, 427k, 250k, 550k (04M Jan 19)
22. What is paging and swapping? (04Marks,Dec09,Jan14,06 marks, June 2018)

MODULE-4

1. With a diagram, discuss the steps involved in handling a page fault. (06Marks,Dec09, 08 M Jun 19)
2. Consider the following page reference stream:1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 1, 5, 6, 2, 1, 2, 3, 7,6, 3,2,1, 2, 3, 3. How
May page faults would occur for LRU, FIPO and Optimal replacement algorithms assuming 3 and 5
frames? Which one of the above is most efficient? (10Marks,Dec08)
3. Explain the structure of page table. (09Marks,Jun 19)
4. Illustrate how demand paging affects system performance. (08M Jun 19, 08M Jan 19, 05 M Jan 20)
5. Consider the following reference string : 7,0,1,2,0,3,0,4,2,3,0,3,2,1,2,0,1,7,0,1. Assuming three
frames, all initially empty, how many page faults would occur for i) LRU ii) FIFO iii) Optimal page
replacement algorithms? Which of the algorithms is most efficient in this case?
(12Marks,May10)
6. Consider the following page reference string:1,2,3,5,2,3,5,7,2,1,2,3,8,6,4,3,2,2,3,6
How many page faults would occur in the case of (08Marks,June11)
i) LRU
ii) FIFO
iii) Optimal algorithm.
Assuming 3 frames note that initially all frames are empty
7. Explain the multistep processing of a user program with a neat block diagram. (05 M, June 2017)
8. Explain segmentation with an example. (06 Marks, June 2017)
9. Consider the following segment table:

Segment Base Length

0 219 600
1 2300 14
2 90 100
3 1327 580
4 1952 96

What are the physical addresses for the following logical addresses?

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i) 0,430 ii) 1,10 iii) 2,500 iv) 3,400 v) 4,112

10. Consider the following sequence of memory reference form a 460 word program.
10,11,104,170,73,309,185,245,246,434,458,364 show the reference string assuming page size of 100
words find page fault rate for the above reference string assuming 200 words of primary memory
available and FIFO and LRU replacement algorithms. (10Marks, Dec12)
11. What is dynamic storage allocation? Explain the commonly used strategies for dynamic storage
allocation (09Marks,Dec12)
12. To reference string 1,0,7,1,0,3,1,3,2,0,3,2,4,0,3,2,1,0,7 find how many page faults would occur for
these algorithms, if number of frames is 3. (10Marks,Dec10,06 marks, June 2018)
13. Explain the segmentation memory management. Describe the hardware support that is required for its
implementation (10Marks,Dec10)
14. Explain the following:
i) File types
ii) File operation.
iii) File attributes (12Marks,Dec09, Jan14, (06 marks, June 2018))
15. Explain the methods used for implementing directories. (08Marks,Dec09, Jan14)
16. What is file? Describe the different access methods on files. . (06 Marks, June 2017)
17. Discuss the following in brief: i) File Attributes ii) File types iii) Sequential File Access iv) Tree
structured Directories. (12Marks,Dec08,13)
18. With the help of neat diagram, describe:
i) Tree-structured directory ii) Acylic- graph directory. (06Marks,May10, 13,14)
19. Explain any two file allocation methods with their merits and demerits. (08Marks,Dec10, Jan14)
20. What do mean by a free space list? With suitable examples, explain any two methods of
implementation of a free space list. (08Marks,Dec10, Jan14)
21. What are the major methods used for allocating a disk space? Explain each, with suitable examples.
(12Marks,Dec10)
22. Explain different file access methods. (05Marks,June11, 05 M Jan 20)
23. Explain different disk space allocation methods with an example.
(08Marks,June11,14, (06 marks, June 2018))
24. Define file system explain different directory structure (07Marks,June12, 08 M Jan 19)
25. Explain the concept of file mounting (05 Marks,Dec12)
26. Explain the various operations performed on files. . (07 Marks, June 2017, 06M Jan 20)
27. Point out and explain briefly the problems with RAID . (05 Marks, June 2017)
28. Describe various file allocation methods. (08M Jun 19)
29. Explain various allocation methods in implementing file system. (05M Jan 20)
30. What do you mean by free space list? With suitable example, explain any three methods of free space
list implementation. (08M Jan 19)

MODULE-5
1. A disk drive has 200 cylinders numbered from 0 to 199. The disk head is initially at cylinder 53. The
queue of pending requests in FIFO order is: 98, 183, 37, 122, 14, 124, 65, 67. Starting from the current
head position, what is the total distance traveled (in cylinders ) by Illustrate with figures in each case.
(12Marks,Dec09, Jan 14)

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2. A drive has 5000cylinders numbered 0 to 4999. The drive is currently serving a request at cylinder
143 and the previous request was at cylinder 125. The queue of pending requests in FIFO order is :
86, 1470, 913, 1773, 948, 1509, 1022, 1750, 130. Starting from the current head position, what is the
total distance travelled (in cylinders) by the disk arm to satisfy the requests using algorithms FCFS,
SSTF, SCAN, LOOK. Illustrate with figures in each case. (10M Dec12,June11,May11,June09)
3. Explain the following disk scheduling algorithms in brief with examples.
i) FCFS Scheduling ii) S S T F Scheduling iii) S C A N Scheduling
(12Marks,June11) . (10 Marks, June 17) (06 marks, June 18, 08 M Jan 20, 09 M Jun 19)
4. Suppose the position of cylinder is at 53. Sketch the graphical representation for the queue of pending
requests in the order -98, 183, 37, 122, 14, 124, 65, 67, for FCFS, SSTF and LOOK scheduling
schemes. Give your comment on this scenario for the above schemes.
(12Marks,June09, July 14)
5. What is swap space management? Explain. (05Marks,June12, Jan14)
6. Explain the access matrix model of implementing protection in operating system (05Marks,June12,
Jan14, 07 M Jun 19, 08 M Jan 20, 04 M Jan 19)
7. Explain sector slipping with an example (04Marks,Dec11)
8. Assume the disk queue, with request fun I/O to block on cylinders as 80, 30,15,100,125,90,45, and 10.
If the disk head is initially at cylinder 35, illustrate the disk movements using the SSTF scheduling
algorithm. Also calculate the total head movement (08Marks,Dec11)
9. Explain various questions that arise in revocation of access rights (08Marks,Dec11)
10. What are the components that the kernel module support under Linux? Explain in detail.
(10Marks Dec10, Jan 14)
11. Explain different system components in LINUX operating system.
(10Marks,Dec12, July 14, (06 marks, June 2018 08 M Jan 20, Jan 19, Jun 19)
12. Discuss inter process communication in LINUX operation system.
(10Marks,Dec12, (06 marks, June 2018)
13. Distinguish between fork ( ) and clone ( ) system calls. Also customize clone() system call to fork
functionality with suitable modification/settings (08Marks,Dec11)
14. What do you mean by cloning? How it is achieved by Linux OS? (06 Marks, Jan14)
15. Explain the LINUX device drive the block structure (12Marks,Dec11)
16. Explain process scheduling in a linux system . (06 Marks, June 2017, 05 M Jan 20)
17. Explain file systems implementation in linux . (08 Marks, June 2017)
18. Explain the way process is managed in LINUX platform (08M Jul 19)
19. Describe briefly on Linux Kernel Modules (08M Jan 19)
20. Explain the different IPC mechanisms available in Linux. (05M Jan 20)

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