Operating Systems course with 35 multiple-choice questions:
Operating Systems Final Exam
Instructions:
- Select the best answer for each question.
- Each question is worth 1 point.
- There is only one correct answer for each question.
What is the primary purpose of an operating system?
- A) To provide a user interface
- B) To manage computer hardware and software resources
- C) To compile programs
- D) To allow internet connectivity
Which of the following is not a type of operating system?
- A) Batch operating system
- B) Time-sharing operating system
- C) Real-time operating system
- D) Distributed operating system
What is a process in the context of operating systems?
- A) A program in execution
- B) A static set of instructions
- C) A type of memory
- D) An error in the system
Which of the following is used to prevent race conditions?
- A) Deadlock
- B) Semaphore
- C) Paging
- D) Swapping
What is the purpose of a context switch?
- A) To switch from user mode to kernel mode
- B) To switch the CPU from one process to another
- C) To allocate memory to a process
- D) To create a new process
Which scheduling algorithm assigns the CPU to the process that requests it first?
- A) Shortest Job Next (SJN)
- B) First-Come, First-Served (FCFS)
- C) Round Robin (RR)
- D) Priority Scheduling
What is the primary purpose of a page table in virtual memory management?
- A) To manage I/O devices
- B) To map virtual addresses to physical addresses
- C) To allocate CPU time
- D) To manage file systems
Which of the following is a method used for deadlock prevention?
- A) Resource allocation graph
- B) Deadlock detection
- C) Hold and wait prevention
- D) Starvation
What is a thread in the context of operating systems?
- A) A type of process
- B) The smallest unit of processing that can be scheduled by an operating system
- C) A static program
- D) A type of memory
Which of the following is not a state of a process?
- A) Running
- B) Waiting
- C) Executed
- D) Ready
What is the main purpose of a kernel in an operating system?
- A) To provide user interfaces
- B) To manage system resources and communication between hardware and software
- C) To compile code
- D) To prevent system crashes
What is the benefit of multiprogramming in operating systems?
- A) Simplified code
- B) Reduced power consumption
- C) Increased CPU utilization
- D) Improved user interface
Which of the following is true about preemptive scheduling?
- A) The CPU can be taken away from a process
- B) Processes run until they are completed
- C) It is also called non-preemptive scheduling
- D) It is used in batch systems only
What is the role of a file system in an operating system?
- A) To manage CPU scheduling
- B) To manage how data is stored and retrieved
- C) To manage process synchronization
- D) To handle virtual memory
What is the primary purpose of virtual memory?
- A) To provide memory to the CPU
- B) To extend the apparent amount of RAM available to processes
- C) To increase the speed of the system
- D) To store files
Which of the following is a characteristic of a real-time operating system?
- A) It processes data in batches
- B) It processes data as it comes in with strict timing constraints
- C) It is used for personal computing
- D) It does not support multitasking
Which of the following is an example of inter-process communication (IPC)?
- A) Message passing
- B) Context switching
- C) Memory allocation
- D) Virtual memory
What is a system call in the context of operating systems?
- A) A request made by a program to the operating system for a service
- B) A type of process
- C) A form of CPU scheduling
- D) A method of memory management
What is the purpose of a disk scheduler in an operating system?
- A) To allocate CPU time to processes
- B) To manage memory allocation
- C) To determine the order in which disk I/O requests are processed
- D) To prevent deadlock
Which of the following is an example of a non-preemptive scheduling algorithm?
- A) Round Robin (RR)
- B) First-Come, First-Served (FCFS)
- C) Shortest Remaining Time First (SRTF)
- D) Priority Scheduling
What is the difference between a process and a thread?
- A) A process is a single execution path, while a thread is multiple execution paths
- B) A process has its own memory space, while threads share the same memory space
- C) A thread is independent of a process
- D) A process cannot contain multiple threads
Which of the following is an advantage of a multi-threaded process over a multi-process application?
- A) Lower complexity
- B) Lower overhead due to shared memory space
- C) Easier to debug
- D) Better security
Which of the following is a method to handle deadlocks in operating systems?
- A) Context switching
- B) Priority scheduling
- C) Resource allocation graph
- D) Memory segmentation
What is the purpose of a scheduler in an operating system?
- A) To manage memory allocation
- B) To allocate CPU time to processes
- C) To handle disk I/O
- D) To provide a user interface
Which of the following memory management schemes does not allow processes to share the same physical memory?
- A) Paging
- B) Segmentation
- C) Fixed partitioning
- D) Dynamic partitioning
What is a trap in the context of operating systems?
- A) A type of synchronous interrupt caused by an exceptional condition
- B) A method of memory management
- C) A type of file system
- D) A process scheduling algorithm
What is the main purpose of the ‘fork’ system call in Unix-like operating systems?
- A) To create a new thread
- B) To create a new process
- C) To allocate memory
- D) To handle I/O operations
Which of the following is not a common scheduling criterion?
- A) CPU utilization
- B) Throughput
- C) Turnaround time
- D) Disk space usage
What is the main advantage of using a multi-level queue scheduling algorithm?
- A) Simplicity
- B) Predictability
- C) Ability to handle different types of processes separately
- D) Minimizes context switching
Which of the following best describes thrashing in the context of operating systems?
- A) High CPU utilization
- B) Excessive paging causing low system performance
- C) Optimal memory allocation
- D) Efficient disk I/O
What is the primary function of the bootloader?
- A) To provide a user interface
- B) To load the operating system into memory
- C) To manage system calls
- D) To allocate CPU time
In the context of file systems, what does the term ‘inode’ refer to?
- A) A type of file
- B) A data structure that stores information about a file
- C) A method of memory allocation
- D) A process state
What is the purpose of the swap space in a virtual memory system?
- A) To store user files
- B) To provide additional memory by using disk space
- C) To speed up CPU operations
- D) To handle I/O operations
Which of the following is true about the microkernel architecture?
- A) It runs most services in user space
- B) It runs all services in kernel space
- C) It combines user and kernel space
- D) It is simpler than monolithic kernel architecture