Operating System Concepts Quiz

What is a process in an operating system?

• A program in execution

• A network protocol

• A file stored on disk

• A hardware component

Which section of a process contains the program code?

• Heap

• Text section

• Current activity

• Data section

What is the state of a process when it is waiting for some event to occur?

• Running

• Waiting

• New

• Ready

What information is stored in a Process Control Block (PCB)?

• Only CPU registers

• Only memory-management information

• Process state, CPU registers, memory-management information, and more

• Only process state

What is a thread in a process?

• A single program counter

• A hardware component

• A type of process

• A type of memory

How does the process scheduler select the next process for execution?

• By alphabetical order

• By size of the process

• By priority

• By random selection

What occurs during a context switch in an operating system?

• The system reboots

• The CPU switches to another process

• The system deletes the old process

• The system saves the state of the old process and loads the saved state for the new process

What is the purpose of interprocess communication in an operating system?

• To limit the number of processes

• To prevent processes from communicating

• To allow processes to share data and cooperate

• To slow down the processes

What is the difference between shared memory and message passing in IPC?

• Shared memory allows processes to communicate without shared variables, while message passing requires shared variables

• Shared memory requires a mailbox, while message passing does not

• Shared memory is synchronous, while message passing is asynchronous

• Shared memory uses physical communication links, while message passing uses logical links

What is the purpose of buffering in message passing?

• To slow down the communication

• To prevent communication between processes

• To queue messages attached to the link

• To limit the number of messages exchanged