26. What is the primary purpose of system calls?
a) To communicate between hardware devices
b) To allow user programs to request services from the operating system
c) To enhance CPU performance
d) To schedule processes
Answer: b
27. Which of the following is NOT a function of the operating system?
a) Memory management
b) Process scheduling
c) Application software development
d) File system management
Answer: c
28. What is context switching?
a) Switching between the operating system and user programs
b) Transferring data between memory and CPU
c) Saving the state of a process and loading another
d) Allocating memory for processes
Answer: c
29. What is spooling in an operating system?
a) Storing jobs in a buffer for execution
b) Synchronizing processes
c) Scheduling multiple users on a single processor
d) Allocating memory dynamically
Answer: a
30. What type of scheduling is used in time-sharing systems?
a) First Come First Serve
b) Round Robin
c) Priority Scheduling
d) Shortest Job First
Answer: b
31. Which of the following is a disadvantage of the contiguous file allocation method?
a) Fragmentation
b) Low disk utilization
c) Slow access speed
d) Difficult to locate files
Answer: a
32. A thread is:
a) A lightweight process
b) A hardware component
c) An independent program
d) A segment of memory
Answer: a
33. Which of these is a characteristic of a distributed operating system?
a) Centralized resource management
b) Resources shared across multiple systems
c) Limited to batch processing
d) No networking support
Answer: b
34. The purpose of a device driver is to:
a) Translate application instructions into machine instructions
b) Act as an interface between the hardware and the operating system
c) Manage memory
d) Perform context switching
Answer: b
35. In the Unix operating system, the fork() system call is used to:
a) Terminate a process
b) Create a new process
c) Schedule processes
d) Allocate memory
Answer: b
36. Which scheduling algorithm minimizes the average waiting time?
a) First Come First Serve
b) Shortest Job Next
c) Round Robin
d) Priority Scheduling
Answer: b
37. Which of the following is a key feature of microkernels?
a) All system services run in the kernel mode
b) Minimal functionality in the kernel, with most services in user space
c) No support for hardware interaction
d) Kernel supports only process scheduling
Answer: b
38. The critical section problem can be solved using:
a) Deadlock
b) Paging
c) Semaphores and mutexes
d) Context switching
Answer: c
39. The function of the bootloader in an operating system is to:
a) Execute application programs
b) Load the operating system into memory
c) Handle user input
d) Perform file management tasks
Answer: b
40. Which of the following is an example of an open-source operating system?
a) macOS
b) Linux
c) Windows
d) Unix (Proprietary Version)
Answer: b
41. A page fault occurs when:
a) The required page is not in main memory
b) The CPU is idle
c) A process runs out of memory
d) There is a hardware failure
Answer: a
42. What does the term “preemptive multitasking” mean?
a) A process is stopped to allocate resources to another higher-priority process
b) The operating system uses batch processing
c) Processes run without interruption
d) Only one process is executed at a time
Answer: a
43. What is the role of the memory management unit (MMU)?
a) Manage CPU utilization
b) Convert logical addresses into physical addresses
c) Handle file system operations
d) Manage device drivers
Answer: b
44. What is the main difference between paging and segmentation?
a) Paging divides memory into variable-sized blocks, segmentation uses fixed-sized blocks
b) Paging uses fixed-sized blocks, segmentation uses variable-sized blocks
c) Paging is used only for virtual memory
d) Segmentation is a faster alternative to paging
Answer: b
45. Which of these is a characteristic of a monolithic kernel?
a) Only basic functions are included in the kernel
b) All operating system functions are implemented in the kernel
c) No hardware interaction
d) Resource sharing is limited
Answer: b
46. What is the main advantage of multithreading?
a) Reduced system performance
b) Increased resource utilization and responsiveness
c) Complex scheduling
d) Requires more memory
Answer: b
47. What is the term used for combining multiple processes into one process to improve CPU utilization?
a) Process Pooling
b) Multitasking
c) Job Scheduling
d) Batch Processing
Answer: d
48. In disk scheduling, the SCAN algorithm is also known as:
a) Elevator algorithm
b) Round Robin algorithm
c) Circular algorithm
d) FIFO algorithm
Answer: a
49. The process control block (PCB) contains information about:
a) The contents of the file system
b) A specific process, including its state and resources
c) Hardware configurations
d) Inter-process communication methods
Answer: b
50. What does "load balancing" refer to in distributed systems?
a) Ensuring processes do not exceed memory limits
b) Distributing workload across multiple systems to optimize performance
c) Allocating disk space for user data
d) Scheduling user input
Answer: b
