DevOps Shack
Top 300 Linux Commands Asked in Interviews
1. ls – Lists files and directories in the current directory.
2. ls -al – Lists all files, including hidden ones, with detailed information.
3. pwd – Prints the current working directory.
4. cd /path/to/directory – Changes the directory to the specified
path.
5. cd .. – Moves up one directory level.
6. mkdir new_directory – Creates a new directory.
7. rmdir empty_directory – Removes an empty directory.
8. rm -rf directory_name – Deletes a directory and its contents
recursively.
9. touch file.txt – Creates a new empty file.
10.cat file.txt – Displays the contents of a file.
11.tac file.txt – Displays the contents of a file in reverse order.
12.nano file.txt – Opens a file in the nano text editor.
13.vim file.txt – Opens a file in the Vim editor.
14.vi file.txt – Opens a file in the vi editor.
15.echo "Hello, World!" – Prints text to the terminal.
16.echo "Hello" > file.txt – Writes text to a file (overwrites
existing content).
17.echo "Hello" >> file.txt – Appends text to a file.
18.cp source.txt destination.txt – Copies a file.
19.cp -r source_directory destination_directory – Copies a
directory recursively.
20.mv old_name.txt new_name.txt – Renames a file.
21.mv file.txt /path/to/destination/ – Moves a file to another
directory.
22.rm file.txt – Deletes a file.
23.find / -name "file.txt" – Searches for a file by name starting
from the root directory.
24.find . -type f -name "*.log" – Finds all log files in the current
directory.
25.locate file.txt – Finds the location of a file using a pre-built index.
26.updatedb – Updates the locate command's index.
27.grep "search_term" file.txt – Searches for a term inside a file.
28.grep -i "search_term" file.txt – Case-insensitive search.
29.grep -r "search_term" /path/to/search/ – Searches
recursively in a directory.
30.awk '{print $1}' file.txt – Prints the first column of a file.
31.awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/passwd – Prints the first field of the
/etc/passwd file, separated by colons.
32.sed 's/old/new/g' file.txt – Replaces all occurrences of "old"
with "new" in a file.
33.sed -i 's/old/new/g' file.txt – Replaces text in a file in place.
34.sort file.txt – Sorts lines in a file.
35.sort -r file.txt – Sorts lines in reverse order.
36.uniq file.txt – Removes duplicate lines from a sorted file.
37.wc -l file.txt – Counts the number of lines in a file.
38.wc -w file.txt – Counts the number of words in a file.
39.wc -c file.txt – Counts the number of bytes in a file.
40.head -n 10 file.txt – Displays the first 10 lines of a file.
41.tail -n 10 file.txt – Displays the last 10 lines of a file.
42.tail -f file.txt – Continuously monitors a file for changes.
43.df -h – Shows disk space usage in a human-readable format.
44.du -sh directory_name – Shows the size of a directory.
45.free -m – Displays memory usage in megabytes.
46.uptime – Shows system uptime and load average.
47.who – Displays currently logged-in users.
48.whoami – Displays the current logged-in username.
49.id – Displays the user ID (UID) and group ID (GID).
50.groups username – Displays groups a user belongs to.
51.ps aux – Displays running processes.
52.top – Displays real-time process information.
53.htop – An interactive process viewer (if installed).
54.kill -9 PID – Forcefully terminates a process.
55.pkill process_name – Kills processes by name.
56.killall process_name – Kills all processes with a specific name.
57.jobs – Lists background jobs.
58.bg – Resumes a background job.
59.fg – Brings a background job to the foreground.
60.nohup command & – Runs a command in the background, ignoring
hangups.
61.crontab -e – Edits the crontab file to schedule tasks.
62.crontab -l – Lists scheduled cron jobs.
63.crontab -r – Removes all scheduled cron jobs.
64.history – Displays command history.
65.!100 – Runs command number 100 from history.
66.chmod 755 file.sh – Changes file permissions.
67.chown user:group file.txt – Changes file ownership.
68.chgrp group_name file.txt – Changes file group ownership.
69.ls -l | grep "^d" – Lists only directories.
70.df -i – Shows inode usage.
71.du -a – Shows size of all files and directories.
72.tar -cvf archive.tar directory/ – Creates a tar archive.
73.tar -xvf archive.tar – Extracts a tar archive.
74.tar -czvf archive.tar.gz directory/ – Creates a
compressed tar archive.
75.tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz – Extracts a compressed tar archive.
76.zip -r archive.zip directory/ – Compresses a directory into a
zip file.
77.unzip archive.zip – Extracts a zip file.
78.scp file.txt user@remote:/path/ – Securely copies a file to a
remote server.
79.scp -r directory user@remote:/path/ – Securely copies a
directory to a remote server.
80.rsync -av source/ destination/ – Synchronizes directories.
81.wget URL – Downloads a file from a URL.
82.curl -O URL – Downloads a file from a URL.
83.curl -I URL – Retrieves HTTP headers from a URL.
84.ping google.com – Checks network connectivity.
85.traceroute google.com – Traces network route to a server.
86.netstat -tulnp – Shows network connections and listening ports.
87.ss -tulnp – Displays active connections (alternative to netstat).
88.ip a – Shows IP addresses.
89.ifconfig – Displays network interfaces (deprecated).
90.hostname – Displays the system hostname.
91.uptime – Shows system uptime.
92.uname -a – Displays system information.
93.lscpu – Shows CPU details.
94.lsblk – Lists information about storage devices.
95.blkid – Shows UUIDs of partitions.
96.mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt – Mounts a device.
97.umount /mnt – Unmounts a device.
98.df -Th – Displays file system types and disk usage.
99.fdisk -l – Lists partition tables.
100. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1 – Formats a partition with ext4.
101. fsck /dev/sdb1 – Checks a filesystem for errors.
102. echo $? – Displays the exit status of the last command.
103. time command – Measures command execution time.
104. date – Displays the current date and time.
105. cal – Displays a calendar.
106. env – Displays environment variables.
107. export VAR=value – Sets an environment variable.
108. unset VAR – Unsets an environment variable.
109. alias ll='ls -al' – Creates a command alias.
110. unalias ll – Removes an alias.
111. basename /path/to/file.txt – Extracts the filename from a
given path.
112. dirname /path/to/file.txt – Extracts the directory path from
a given file path.
113. diff file1.txt file2.txt – Compares two files line by line.
114. cmp file1.txt file2.txt – Compares two files byte by byte.
115. stat file.txt – Displays detailed information about a file.
116. file file.txt – Determines the file type.
117. cut -d':' -f1 /etc/passwd – Extracts the first field from a
colon-separated file.
118. paste file1.txt file2.txt – Merges two files line by line.
119. tee file.txt – Writes output to both a file and the standard
output.
120. yes "text" – Continuously outputs "text" until interrupted.
121. watch -n 5 df -h – Runs a command every 5 seconds.
122. lsattr – Lists file attributes.
123. chattr +i file.txt – Makes a file immutable (cannot be
modified or deleted).
124. chattr -i file.txt – Removes immutability from a file.
125. nohup command & – Runs a command in the background and
ignores hangups.
126. jobs – Lists active background jobs.
127. fg %1 – Brings job number 1 to the foreground.
128. bg %1 – Resumes a background job.
129. disown -h %1 – Removes a job from the shell’s job table.
130. xargs – Passes standard input as command arguments.
131. ls | xargs rm – Deletes all files in a directory.
132. echo "file1 file2" | xargs rm – Deletes specified files.
133. uptime -p – Shows how long the system has been running.
134. uptime -s – Shows the system start time.
135. who -b – Displays the last system boot time.
136. last reboot – Shows the system reboot history.
137. dmesg | tail – Displays the latest kernel messages.
138. dmesg | grep error – Searches the kernel logs for errors.
139. journalctl -xe – Views system logs.
140. journalctl -f – Monitors logs in real time.
141. systemctl status service_name – Checks the status of a
systemd service.
142. systemctl start service_name – Starts a systemd service.
143. systemctl stop service_name – Stops a systemd service.
144. systemctl restart service_name – Restarts a systemd
service.
145. systemctl enable service_name – Enables a service to start
on boot.
146. systemctl disable service_name – Disables a service from
starting on boot.
147. systemctl list-units --type=service – Lists all active
system services.
148. systemctl daemon-reload – Reloads systemd configuration
files.
149. service service_name status – Checks the status of a SysV
service.
150. service service_name start – Starts a SysV service.
151. service service_name stop – Stops a SysV service.
152. chkconfig --list – Lists services managed by SysV init.
153. chkconfig service_name on – Enables a service on boot using
SysV.
154. chkconfig service_name off – Disables a service from boot
using SysV.
155. modprobe module_name – Loads a kernel module.
156. lsmod – Lists currently loaded kernel modules.
157. rmmod module_name – Removes a kernel module.
158. insmod module.ko – Inserts a module into the kernel.
159. uname -r – Displays the currently running kernel version.
160. cat /proc/version – Shows kernel version details.
161. hostnamectl – Displays and modifies the hostname.
162. nmcli device status – Shows network interfaces and their
statuses.
163. nmcli connection show – Lists saved network connections.
164. nmcli connection up eth0 – Brings up a network interface.
165. nmcli connection down eth0 – Brings down a network
interface.
166. dhclient -r – Releases the DHCP lease.
167. dhclient eth0 – Obtains a new DHCP lease.
168. ip link set eth0 up – Brings up an interface.
169. ip link set eth0 down – Brings down an interface.
170. tcpdump -i eth0 – Captures network packets on an interface.
171. tcpdump -nn port 80 – Captures HTTP traffic.
172. tcpdump -c 10 -i eth0 – Captures 10 packets and exits.
173. iptables -L – Lists firewall rules.
174. iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT –
Allows SSH access.
175. iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j DROP – Blocks
HTTP access.
176. iptables -D INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j DROP –
Removes a firewall rule.
177. firewall-cmd --list-all – Lists active firewall rules
(Firewalld).
178. firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=443/tcp – Opens
port 443 permanently.
179. firewall-cmd --reload – Reloads the firewall rules.
180. ufw status – Checks UFW firewall status.
181. ufw allow 22/tcp – Allows SSH access.
182. ufw deny 80/tcp – Blocks HTTP access.
183. ufw delete allow 22/tcp – Removes an allowed rule.
184. df -T – Displays filesystem type.
185. ls -lh – Lists files with human-readable sizes.
186. du -ch – Shows total disk usage in human-readable format.
187. htop – Interactive process monitoring.
188. top -o %MEM – Sorts processes by memory usage.
189. lsof -i :80 – Lists processes using port 80.
190. strace -c ls – Traces system calls used by a command.
191. strace -e open ls – Shows file open system calls used by ls.
192. tcpdump -XX – Captures packets with hex and ASCII output.
193. watch -d -n 5 free -m – Monitors memory usage every 5
seconds.
194. iotop – Monitors disk I/O usage by processes.
195. lsusb – Lists USB devices.
196. lspci – Lists PCI devices.
197. uptime -p – Shows how long the system has been running in a
human-friendly format.
198. dmidecode -t memory – Displays RAM information.
199. mpstat 1 – Displays CPU usage statistics.
200. iostat -c 2 5 – Shows CPU statistics every 2 seconds for 5
iterations.
201. vmstat 1 5 – Displays system performance statistics every second
for 5 iterations.
202. sar -u 5 3 – Reports CPU usage every 5 seconds for 3 iterations.
203. sar -r 5 3 – Reports memory usage every 5 seconds for 3
iterations.
204. uptime -s – Displays system startup time.
205. iotop -o – Shows processes doing the most disk I/O.
206. dstat – Displays system resource usage dynamically.
207. mpstat -P ALL 5 – Displays CPU usage for all cores every 5
seconds.
208. nice -n 10 command – Runs a command with lower priority.
209. renice -n 10 -p PID – Changes priority of an existing process.
210. ulimit -a – Shows system resource limits.
211. ulimit -n 10240 – Changes the maximum number of open file
descriptors.
212. getfacl file.txt – Displays ACL (Access Control List) permissions
of a file.
213. setfacl -m u:username:rwx file.txt – Grants a user
additional file permissions.
214. setfacl -x u:username file.txt – Removes ACL
permissions for a user.
215. getsebool -a – Lists all SELinux booleans and their statuses.
216. setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on – Allows
Apache to make network connections in SELinux.
217. semanage fcontext -l – Lists default SELinux file contexts.
218. restorecon -Rv /var/www/html – Restores SELinux context for
files.
219. getenforce – Displays the current SELinux mode
(Enforcing/Permissive/Disabled).
220. setenforce 0 – Switches SELinux to permissive mode.
221. auditctl -l – Lists all active audit rules.
222. ausearch -m avc – Searches SELinux denial messages.
223. ausearch -m USER_LOGIN – Searches authentication logs using
audit logs.
224. modinfo module_name – Displays information about a kernel
module.
225. modprobe -r module_name – Unloads a kernel module.
226. ls -Z – Displays SELinux contexts of files.
227. ps -eZ – Displays SELinux contexts of processes.
228. firewall-cmd --list-services – Lists allowed services in
Firewalld.
229. firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=https –
Allows HTTPS traffic permanently.
230. firewall-cmd --permanent --remove-service=https –
Removes HTTPS access.
231. firewall-cmd --reload – Reloads Firewalld rules.
232. ufw enable – Enables UFW firewall.
233. ufw disable – Disables UFW firewall.
234. ufw status numbered – Displays UFW rules with numbering.
235. ufw delete 2 – Deletes UFW rule number 2.
236. iptables -P INPUT DROP – Sets default INPUT policy to DROP.
237. iptables -P FORWARD DROP – Drops forwarded packets by
default.
238. iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT – Allows all outgoing traffic by
default.
239. iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT –
Allows SSH access.
240. iptables-save > rules.v4 – Saves iptables rules to a file.
241. iptables-restore < rules.v4 – Restores iptables rules from a
file.
242. lsof -p PID – Lists open files by a process.
243. lsof -i :443 – Displays processes using port 443.
244. lsof /path/to/file – Shows processes accessing a specific file.
245. strace -o trace.log -p PID – Traces system calls of a running
process.
246. strace -c ls – Summarizes system calls used by a command.
247. tcpdump -i eth0 – Captures network packets on interface eth0.
248. tcpdump -nn -s0 -X -i eth0 port 80 – Captures and
displays raw HTTP traffic.
249. nc -zv google.com 443 – Checks if port 443 is open on
google.com.
250. nc -lvp 1234 – Starts a netcat listener on port 1234.
251. rsync -avz /src/ user@remote:/dest/ – Syncs files
securely over SSH.
252. rsync -a --delete /src/ /dest/ – Synchronizes directories
and removes extra files.
253. scp -P 2222 file.txt user@remote:/path/ – Transfers a
file using a non-default SSH port.
254. ssh user@remote -p 2222 – Connects to a server using a
different SSH port.
255. ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C
"
[email protected]" – Generates an SSH key.
256. ssh-copy-id user@remote – Copies the SSH key to a remote
host.
257. ssh-agent bash – Starts an SSH agent session.
258. eval "$(ssh-agent -s)" – Initializes the SSH agent.
259. chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa – Sets secure permissions on an SSH
private key.
260. chage -l username – Displays password expiration details for a
user.
261. chage -M 90 username – Sets the password to expire every 90
days.
262. passwd username – Changes a user's password.
263. useradd -m -s /bin/bash newuser – Creates a new user with
a home directory.
264. usermod -aG sudo username – Adds a user to the sudo group.
265. deluser username – Removes a user.
266. groupadd newgroup – Creates a new group.
267. usermod -G groupname username – Adds a user to a group.
268. groupdel groupname – Deletes a group.
269. crontab -e – Opens the user's crontab for editing.
270. crontab -l – Lists scheduled cron jobs.
271. crontab -r – Removes all cron jobs for a user.
272. echo "0 2 * * * /path/to/script.sh" | crontab - –
Schedules a cron job to run a script at 2 AM daily.
273. at now + 10 minutes – Schedules a command to run in 10
minutes.
274. at -l – Lists pending scheduled jobs.
275. systemctl list-timers – Lists active systemd timers.
276. timedatectl – Displays system time settings.
277. timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York – Changes
system timezone.
278. hwclock --systohc – Synchronizes hardware clock with system
clock.
279. date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S" – Displays date and time in a
specific format.
280. find /var/log -type f -mtime +30 -delete – Deletes log
files older than 30 days.
281. journalctl --vacuum-time=30d – Removes journal logs older
than 30 days.
282. du -ah /var/log | sort -rh | head -10 – Lists the 10
largest log files.
283. logrotate -d /etc/logrotate.conf – Tests log rotation
configuration.
284. fsck -y /dev/sda1 – Checks and repairs a filesystem.
285. tune2fs -m 5 /dev/sda1 – Reserves 5% of space for root user.
286. blkid – Lists partitions and their UUIDs.
287. mount -o remount,rw / – Remounts the root filesystem as
read/write.
288. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1 – Formats a partition with ext4.
289. tune2fs -c 100 /dev/sda1 – Forces a filesystem check every
100 mounts.
290. swapoff -a && swapon -a – Restarts the swap space.
291. free -h – Displays RAM and swap usage in human-readable format.
292. grep -i error /var/log/syslog – Searches syslog for errors.
293. dmidecode -t memory – Displays memory module details.
294. systemctl poweroff – Shuts down the system.
295. systemctl reboot – Reboots the system.
296. shutdown -h now – Immediately shuts down the system.
297. shutdown -r +10 – Reboots the system in 10 minutes.
298. wall "System maintenance in 5 minutes" – Broadcasts a
message to all users.
299. uptime – Displays system uptime and load average.
300. exit – Logs out of the shell session.
