Computer Operating System Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: Time-sharing systems

Round Robin gives each process a fixed time quantum in turn, so every user gets prompt attention and no one waits behind a long job. That responsiveness is exactly what a time-sharing system needs; batch systems favour throughput instead.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Bootstrap loader

When the machine is switched on, a tiny bootstrap loader in ROM runs first. It loads a slightly larger loader from a fixed place on disk, which in turn loads the operating system - each stage pulling in the next, which is where the name comes from.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Syntax check

Input data can be checked for consistency between fields, for a range a value must lie in, and for format and check digits. A syntax check applies to the grammar of a program, which is the compiler’s concern, not the data a running system reads.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Compiler

A compiler reads a high-level program and produces the machine instructions that carry it out, checking the source against the grammar of the language as it goes. A debugger helps find faults in a program that already runs, and an editor only creates the source text.

Answer: D

Correct answer: All the above

All three are core functions of an operating system: resource management allocates the processor, devices and files among competing processes; memory management decides where each program sits and protects one from another; and error recovery handles device failures and invalid requests without bringing the system down.

Answer: A

Correct answer: .OBJ and .COM or .EXE, respectively

In MS-DOS the assembler or compiler produces a relocatable object module with the extension .OBJ, and the linker turns one or more of those into a load module - a .EXE file, or a .COM file for a program that fits in a single 64 KB segment.

Answer: A

Correct answer: block

A process moves itself from running to blocked by asking for something not yet available - an input operation, or a semaphore held by another process. That transition is the one the process initiates. Dispatch, timer run-out and wake-up are all imposed on it by the scheduler or by another process.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Debugger

Utilities are the housekeeping programs that keep the system running - a spooler queuing output for the printer, an editor preparing text. A debugger belongs instead to the program development tools: it exists to find faults in a program being written, not to service the system.

Answer: D

Correct answer: all of the above

A file system must let users name their files freely, keep those files reliably for as long as they are wanted, and protect them against loss from system failure and against access by people not entitled to them. All three are among its functions.

Answer: C

Correct answer: allows only the correct receiver to decode the data

In public key encryption each party has a pair of keys: the public one, which anyone may use to encrypt a message, and the private one, which alone can decrypt it. So anyone can send, but only the intended receiver - the holder of the private key - can read what arrives.