Operating System Interview Questions. Multiple-Choice Questions for Interviews on Operating System. For Part-2 see Operating System MCQ
Operating System Interview Questions
Which of the following are loaded into the main memory when the computer is booted ??
A. internal command instructions
B. external command instructions
C. utility programs
D. word processing instructions
E. None of the above
Which is the first program run on a computer when the computer boots up ??
a) System software
b) Operating system
c) System operations
d) None
The FIFO algorithm is what ??
A. executes first the job that last entered the queue
B. executes first the job that first entered the queue
C. execute first the job that has been in the queue the longest
D. executes first the job with the least processor needs
Which of the following requires a device driver ??
a) Register
b) Cache
c) Main memory
d) Disk
What is the name given to the organized collection of software that controls the overall operation of a computer ??
A. Working system
B. Peripheral system
C. Operating system
D. Controlling system
A program in execution is called ??
a) A Paging
b) A Process
c) A virtual memory
d) A Demand Page
The principle of locality of reference justifies the use of ??
A. re-enterable
B. non-reusable
C. virtual memory
D. cache memory
Which of the following memory unit the processor can access more rapidly ??
a) Main Memory
b) Virtual Memory
c) Cache memory
d) Read-Only Memory
The register or main memory location which contains the effective address of the operand is known as ??
A. pointer
B. indexed register
C. special location
D. scratchpad
Which of the following is an example of a real-time operating system ??
a) Lynx
b) MS-DOS
c) Windows XP
d) Process Control
OS Questions
Assembly code database is associated with ??
A. assembly language version of the program which is created by the code generation phase and is input to the assembly phase
B. a permanent table of decision rules in the form of patterns for matching with the uniform symbol table to discover syntactic structure.
C. consists of a full or partial list of the tokens as they appear in the program. Created by Lexical analysis and used for syntax analysis and interpretation.
D. a permanent table that lists all keywords and special symbols of the language in symbolic form.
Which of the following shutdown method is often called Warm Boot ??
a) Shut Down
b) Restart
c) Sleep
d) Hibernate
Thrashing can be avoided if ??
A. the pages, belonging to the working set of the programs, are in the main memory
B. the speed of the CPU is increased
C. the speed of the I/O processor is increased
D. all of the above
E. None of the above
If the displayed system time and date are wrong, you can reset it using what ??
a) Write
b) Calendar
c) Write file
d) Control panel
In analyzing the compilation of PL/I program, the term “Lexical analysis” is associated with ??
A. recognition of basic syntactic constructs through reductions.
B. recognition of basic elements and creation of uniform symbols
C. creation of more optional matrix.
D. use of the macro processor to produce more optimal assembly code
E. None of the above
World Wide Web is being a standard by ??
a) Worldwide corporation
b) W3C
c) World Wide Consortium
d) World Wide Web Standard
Resolution of externally defined symbols is performed by ??
A. Linker
B. Loader
C. Compiler
D. Assembler
Which scheduler selects which processes should be brought into the ready queue ??
a) Real-term
b) Long-term
c) Mid-term
d) Short-term
System generation is what ??
A. is always quite simple
B. is always very difficult
C. varies in difficulty between systems
D. requires extensive tools to be understandable
E. None of the above
A piece of code that only one thread can execute at a time is called ??
a) Mutual Exclusion
b) Critical Section
c) Synchronization
d) All of them
Operating System Interview Questions
The Memory Address Register ??
A. is a hardware memory device that denotes the location of the current instruction being executed.
B. is a group of electrical circuits (hardware), that performs the intent of instructions fetched from memory
C. contains the address of the memory location that is to be read from or stored into
D. contains a copy of the designated memory location specified by the MAR after a “read” or the new contents of the memory prior to a “write”.
Which is not application software ??
a) Windows NT
b) Page Maker
c) WinWord XP
d) Photoshop
In virtual memory systems, Dynamic address translation ??
A. is the hardware necessary to implement paging
B. stores pages at a specific location on disk
C. is useless when swapping is used
D. is part of the operating system paging algorithm
E. None of the above
Running multiple programs at the same time is called ??
a) Multitasking
b) Foreground tasking
c) Single-tasking
d) Symmetric
Fragmentation of the file system ??
A. occurs only if the file system is used improperly
B. can always be prevented
C. can be temporarily removed by compaction
D. is a characteristic of all file systems
E. None of the above
What is Dr. Watson ??
a) IT Expert
b) Diagnosis tool
c) Surgeon
d) None
A non-relocatable program is one which ??
A. cannot be made to execute in any area of storage other than the one designated for it at the time of its coding or translation
B. consists of a program and relevant information for its relocation.
C. can itself performs the relocation of its address-sensitive portions.
D. all of the above
E. None of the above
Which of the following are(is) Language Processor(s) ??
A. assembles
B. compilers
C. interpreters
D. All of the above
What contains commands associated with the My Computer window ??
a) Standard menu
b) Start menu
c) System menu
d) None of the above
In which addressing mode the effective address of the operand is the contents of a register specified in the instruction and after accessing the operand, the contents of this register are incremented to point to the next item in the list ??
A. index addressing
B. indirect addressing
C. auto increment
D. auto decrement
Operating System Interview Questions
What contains commands associated with the My Computer window ??
a) Standard menu
b) Start menu
c) System menu
d) None of the above
The memory allocation scheme subject to “external” fragmentation is ??
A. segmentation
B. swapping
C. pure demand paging
D. multiple contiguous fixed partitions
E. None of the above
To install the new font in Windows XP ??
a) Start -> setting -> control panel -> font
b) Start -> setting -> control panel -> font -> install new font
c) Start -> control panel -> font -> install new font
d) Start -> setting -> font
While working with MS-DOS, which command will you use to transfer a specific file from one disk to another ??
A. DISKCOPY
B. COPY
C. RENAME
D. FORMAT
Which of the following operating system do you choose to implement a client-server network ??
a) MS-DOS
b) Windows
c) Windows 98
d) Windows 2000
What is the name of the operating system for the laptop computer called MacLite ??
A. Windows
B. DOS
C. MS-DOS
D. OZ
Which one is not an operating system ??
a) P11
b) OS/2
c) Windows
d) Unix
In which addressing mode the contents of a register specified in the instruction are first decremented, and then these contents are used as the effective address of the operands ??
A. index addressing
B. indirect addressing
C. auto increment
D. auto decrement
E. None of the above
The operating system creates what from the physical computer ??
a) Virtual space
b) Virtual computer
c) Virtual device
d) None
What is the name given to the values that are automatically provided by the software to reduce keystrokes and improve a computer user’s productivity ??
A. Defined values
B. Fixed values
C. Default values
D. Special values
Which mode loads a minimal set of drivers when starting Windows ??
a) Safe Mode
b) Normal Mode
c) VGA Mode.
d) Network Support Mode
Operating System Interview Questions
Stealing is what ??
A. is a sign of an efficient system
B. is taking page frames from other working sets
C. should be the tuning goal
D. is taking larger disk spaces for pages paged out
E. None of the above
A page fault occurs when ??
a) the Deadlock happens
b) the Segmentation starts
c) the page is found in the memory
d) the page is not found in the memory
In MS-DOS 5.0, which is the number that acts as a code to uniquely identify the software product ??
A. MS
B. DOS
C. MS DOS
D. 5.0
The bug means what ??
A. A logical error in a program
B. A difficult syntax error in a program
C. Documenting programs using an efficient documentation tool
D. All of the above
E. None of the above
The operating system is the most common type of which Software ??
a) Communication
b) Application
c) System
d) Word processing software
Memory management is ??
A. not used in the modern operating system
B. replaced with virtual memory on current systems
C. not used on multiprogramming systems
D. critical for even the simplest operating systems
Suppose that a process is in a ‘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
Sector interleaving in disks is done by ??
a) the operating system
b) the disk manufacturer
c) the disk controller cord
d) none of the above
Which of the following are real-time systems ??
a) An online railway reservation system
b) A process control system
c) Aircraft control system
d) Both (B) and (C)
The initial value of the semaphore that allows only one of the many processes to enter their critical sections, is ??
A. 8
B. 1
C. 16
D. 0
Operating System Interview Questions
Do windowing and graphics system implement the ??
a) Operating System
b) I/O Devices
c) Programmed I/O
d) I/O Modules
The Register to Register (RR) instructions are ??
A. have both their operands in the main store
B. which perform an operation on a register operand and an operand which is located in the main store, generally leaving the result in the register, except in the case of store operation when it is also written into the specified storage location
C. which perform indicated operations on two fast registers of the machine and leave the result in one of the registers
D. all of the above
A page fault is what ??
A. is an error is a specific page
B. occurs when a program accesses a page of memory
C. is an access to a page not currently in memory
D. is a reference to a page belonging to another program
An algorithm is best described as ??
A. A computer language
B. A step by step procedure for solving a problem
C. A branch of mathematics
D. All of the above
The process of transferring data intended for a peripheral device into a disk (or intermediate store) so that it can be transferred to the peripheral at a more convenient time or in bulk, is known as ??
A. multiprogramming
B. spooling
C. caching
D. virtual programming
Paging is implemented in what ??
a) Operating System
b) Hardware
c) Software
d) All of them
Block caches or buffer caches are used to ??
A. to improve disk performance
B. to handle interrupts
C. to increase the capacity of the main memory
D. to speed up main memory read operation
What software creates mirror images of the entire hard disk, including the operating system, application files, and data ??
a) Operating system
b) Backup software
c) Utility programs
d) Driver imaging
Which of the following statements is false ??
A. a small page size causes large page tables
B. internal fragmentation is increased with small pages
C. a large page size causes instructions and data that will not be referenced brought into primary storage
D. I/O transfers are more efficient with large pages
A mistake in an algorithm that causes incorrect results is called a ??
a) logical error
b) syntax error
c) procedural error
d) compiler error
Operating System Interview Questions
The action of parsing the source program into the proper syntactic classes is known as ??
A. syntax analysis
B. lexical analysis
C. interpretation analysis
D. general syntax analysis
When data changes in multiple lists and all lists have not updated this causes ??
a) data redundancy
b) information overload
c) duplicate data
d) data inconsistency
Which of the following is not true about the description of a decision table ??
A. A decision table is easy to modify
B. A decision table is directly understood by the computer
C. A decision table is easy to understand
D. All of the above
What is the process of copying software programs from secondary storage media to the hard disk called ??
a) configuration
b) download
c) storage
d) ) installation
Trojan-Horse programs are ??
A. are legitimate programs that allow unauthorized access
B. do not usually work
C. are hidden programs that do not show up on the system
D. usually are immediately discovered
E. None of the above
Which process checks to ensure the components of the computer are operating and connected properly ??
a) Booting
b) Saving
c) Editing
d) Processing
When did IBM release the first version of disk operating system DOS version 1.0 ??
A. 1981
B. 1982
C. 1983
D. 1984
An error in a computer program is called??
a) Crash
b) Power failure
c) bug
d) Virus
Which of the following is false about disk when compared to main memory ??
A. non-volatile
B. longer storage capacity
C. lower price per bit
D. faster
The software that allows users to surf the Internet is called a/an ??
a) Search engine
b) Internet service provider (ISP)
c) Multimedia application
d) Browser
Operating System Interview Questions
Producer consumer problems can be solved using what ??
A. semaphores
B. event counters
C. monitors
D. all of the above
The issue that deals with the collection and use of data about individuals is what ??
a) access
b) publicity
c) ) privacy
d) property
Most of the microcomputer’s operating systems like Apple DOS, MS-DOS and PC DOS, etc. are called disk operating systems because ??
A. they are memory resident
B. they are initially stored on disk
C. they are available on magnetic tapes
D. they are partly in primary memory and partly on disk
Unauthorized copying of software to be used for personal gain instead of for personal backups is called ??
a) program thievery
b) data snatching
c) software piracy
d) program looting
The CPU, after receiving an interrupt from an I/O device does what ??
A. halts for a predetermined time
B. hands over control of address bus and data bus to the interrupting device
C. branches off to the interrupt service routine immediately
D. branches off to the interrupt service routine after completion of the current instruction
What is an embedded system ??
a) A program that comes wrapped in a box
b) A program that is permanently part of a computer
c) A computer that is part of a larger computer
d) A computer and software system that controls a machine or appliance
Seeks analysis is what ??
A. is used for analyzing paging problems
B. is used for analyzing device busy problems
C. is used for analyzing control-unit busy problems
D. is only shown on real-time displays
What controls a client computer’s resources ??
a) application program
b) instruction set
c) operating system
d) server application
Which is a permanent database in the general model of compiler ??
A. Literal Table
B. Identifier Table
C. Terminal Table
D. Source code
Every computer has a(n) _____ many also have _____ ??
a)operating system a client system
b) operating system instruction sets
c)application programs an operating system
d) operating system, application programs
Operating System Interview Questions
What is the name of the technique in which the operating system of a computer executes several programs concurrently by switching back and forth between them ??
A. Partitioning
B. Multitasking
C. Windowing
D. Paging
Who invented Linux ??
a) J.presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly
b) Dennis M. Ritchie
c) Seymour Papert
d) Torvalds
e) None of these
An operating system does what ??
A. links a program with the subroutines it references
B. provides a layered, user-friendly interface
C. enables the programmer to draw a flowchart
D. all of the above
Which of the following is the reason for computer failure ??
a) Disk failure
b) Power failure
c) Wrong programming
d) CD Failure
Software that measures, monitors, analyzes, and controls real-world events is called ??
A. system software
B. real-time software
C. scientific software
D. business software
What is a computer attached to the Internet that runs special webserver software and can send web pages out to other computers over the Internet ??
a)Web Client
b)Web System
c)Web page
d)Web Server
The details of all external symbols and relocation formation (relocation list or map) are provided to the linker by ??
A. Macro processor
B. Translator
C. Loader
D. Editor
The human-readable version of a program is called ??
a) source code
b) program code
c) human code
d) system code
The macro processor must perform ??
A. recognize macro definitions and macro calls
B. save the macro definitions
C. expand macros calls and substitute arguments
D. all of the above
What converts and executes one statement at a time ??
a) compiler
b) interpreter
c) converter
d) instructions
Operating System Interview Questions
A development strategy whereby the executive control modules of a system are coded and tested first is known as ??
A. Bottom-up development
B. Top-down development
C. Left-Right development
D. All of the above
What is the act of copying or downloading a program from a network and making multiple copies of it ??
a) Network piracy
b) Plagiarism
c) Site-license piracy
d) Software piracy
Which of the following is helpful in evaluating applications software that will best suit your needs ??
A. recommendations by other users
B. computer magazines
C. objective software reviews
D. all of the above
Which is the best definition of a software package ??
a) An add-on for your computer such as additional memory
b) A set of computer programs used for a certain function such as word processing
c) A protection you can buy for a computer
d) The box, manual, and license agreement that accompany commercial software
The dispatcher is what ??
A. actually schedules the tasks into the processor
B. puts tasks in I/O wait
C. is always small and simple
D. never changes task priorities
When installing –the user must copy and usually decompress program files from a CD-ROM or other medium to the hard-disk ??
a) programming software
b) system hardware
c) applications hardware
d) application software
If the number of bits in a virtual address of a program is 16 and the page size is 0.5 K bytes, the number of pages in the virtual address space is ??
A. 16
B. 32
C. 64
D. 128
What problem is solved by Dijkstra’s banker’s algorithm ??
A. mutual exclusion
B. deadlock recovery
C. deadlock avoidance
D. cache coherence
Programs designed specifically to address general purpose applications and special purpose applications are called ??
a) Operating system
b) System software
c) Application software
d) Management
System programs such as Compilers are designed so that they are ??
A. reenterable
B. nonreusable
C. serially usable
D. recursive
Operating System Interview Questions
A series of instructions that tells a computer what to do and how to do it is called a what ??
a) Program
b) Command
c) User response
d) Processor
IBM released its first PC in 1981. Can you name the operating system which was most popular at that time ??
A. MS-DOS
B. PC-DOS
C. OS/360
D. CP/M
Programs or a set of electronic instructions that tell a computer what to do ??
a) Menu
b) Monitor
c) Hardware
d) Software
Which table is a permanent database that has an entry for each terminal symbol ??
A. Terminal table
B. Literal table
C. Identifier table
D. Reductions
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