200+ Operating System MCQ Questions and Answers

Test your knowledge of Computer Fundamental - [ Operating System ] section with these interactive multiple-choice questions.

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41. What is the purpose of the 'inode' in Linux/Unix?

  • a) Stores metadata about a file (permissions, size, etc.)
  • b) Manages CPU scheduling
  • c) Handles network connections
  • d) Encrypts disk partitions
Answer: A - Each file/directory has an inode containing its attributes (except the name).

42. Which of these is a page replacement algorithm?

  • a) LRU (Least Recently Used)
  • b) FCFS (First Come First Serve)
  • c) SJF (Shortest Job First)
  • d) Priority Scheduling
Answer: A - LRU replaces the page not used for the longest time to minimize page faults.

43. What is the main function of the 'bootloader'?

  • a) Loads the OS kernel into memory at startup
  • b) Manages user logins
  • c) Compresses system files
  • d) Scans for viruses
Answer: A - Examples include GRUB (Linux) and NTLDR (Windows).

44. Which Windows feature isolates applications for security?

  • a) Sandbox
  • b) Firewall
  • c) BitLocker
  • d) Task Manager
Answer: A - Sandbox restricts app access to system resources.

45. What is 'spooling' in OS?

  • a) Temporarily storing data for devices like printers
  • b) A type of memory fragmentation
  • c) CPU overheating protection
  • d) Network packet routing
Answer: A - Spooling (Simultaneous Peripheral Operations Online) queues print jobs.

46. Which command terminates a process in Linux?

  • a) kill
  • b) stop
  • c) exit
  • d) rm
Answer: A - kill [PID] sends termination signals (e.g., kill -9 for force kill).

47. What is 'paging' in memory management?

  • a) Dividing memory into fixed-size blocks called pages
  • b) Compressing RAM contents
  • c) Sorting files alphabetically
  • d) Encrypting swap space
Answer: A - Paging avoids external fragmentation by using equal-sized memory units.

48. Which of these is a multi-user OS?

  • a) Unix
  • b) MS-DOS
  • c) Windows 3.1
  • d) Android (single-user by default)
Answer: A - Unix/Linux allow multiple concurrent users via terminals.

49. What is 'belady's anomaly'?

  • a) Increasing page faults when allocating more frames
  • b) Deadlock during memory allocation
  • c) CPU cache corruption
  • d) Disk write errors
Answer: A - Occurs in FIFO page replacement under specific conditions.

50. Which Linux command displays manual pages?

  • a) man
  • b) help
  • c) info
  • d) doc
Answer: A - man ls shows the manual for the ls command.

51. What is 'RAID' in storage systems?

  • a) Redundant Array of Independent Disks
  • b) Random Access Indexed Data
  • c) Read-Only Memory Allocation
  • d) Real-time Application Interface
Answer: A - RAID combines disks for performance/redundancy (e.g., RAID 0, RAID 1).

52. Which Windows tool checks disk errors?

  • a) chkdsk
  • b) defrag
  • c) format
  • d) diskpart
Answer: A - chkdsk /f fixes filesystem errors.

53. What is 'preemptive scheduling'?

  • a) OS can interrupt/take back CPU from a process
  • b) Processes voluntarily release CPU
  • c) CPU time is auctioned to processes
  • d) Only kernel processes get CPU time
Answer: A - Used in Round Robin and priority scheduling.

54. Which file system is used by macOS?

  • a) APFS (Apple File System)
  • b) NTFS
  • c) ext4
  • d) FAT32
Answer: A - APFS replaced HFS+ in 2017 for better performance/encryption.

55. What is 'starvation' in process scheduling?

  • a) Low-priority processes never get CPU time
  • b) Excessive CPU overheating
  • c) Memory leaks causing crashes
  • d) Deadlocked processes
Answer: A - Common in priority-based scheduling without aging mechanisms.

56. Which command shows disk usage in Linux?

  • a) df
  • b) du
  • c) free
  • d) top
Answer: A - df -h displays free/used space in human-readable format.

57. What is 'copy-on-write' (COW)?

  • a) Memory pages shared until modified
  • b) Automatic file backups
  • c) Disk mirroring technique
  • d) Network packet duplication
Answer: A - Used in fork() to optimize memory usage.

58. Which Windows version introduced the Start menu?

  • a) Windows 95
  • b) Windows 3.1
  • c) Windows XP
  • d) Windows 10
Answer: A - Revolutionary GUI feature in Windows 95.

59. What is 'context switching'?

  • a) Saving/restoring CPU state when switching processes
  • b) Changing desktop themes
  • c) Switching between user/kernel modes
  • d) Altering file permissions
Answer: A - Overhead occurs due to register/memory updates.

60. Which Linux command changes file ownership?

  • a) chown
  • b) chmod
  • c) usermod
  • d) passwd
Answer: A - chown user:group file.txt modifies owner/group.
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