50 Operating System Objective Questions with Answers

1. Which of the following is not a function of the operating system?

A. Resource allocation
B. File management
C. Accounting
D. Compilation ✅
2. Which of the following is the core of an operating system?
A. Shell
B. Kernel ✅
C. Command interpreter
D. File system
3. Which scheduling algorithm assigns the CPU to the process with the smallest next
CPU burst time?
A. FCFS
B. SJF ✅
C. Round Robin
D. Priority
4. Which of these is a non-preemptive scheduling algorithm?
A. Round Robin
B. FCFS ✅
C. Priority (preemptive)
D. Multilevel Queue
5. A process in the ‘Ready’ state is:
A. Running
B. Waiting for I/O
C. Ready to run and waiting for CPU ✅
D. Being created
6. Which of the following is used for inter-process communication (IPC)?
A. Pipes
B. Signals
C. Message Queues
D. All of the above ✅
7. Which of the following memory management schemes does not support
multiprogramming?
A. Paging
B. Segmentation
C. Fixed partitioning
D. Single Contiguous Allocation ✅
8. Thrashing is caused by:
A. A large cache
B. Too many page faults ✅
C. Too many processes in memory
D. Lack of CPU time
9. Which of these is not a page replacement algorithm?
A. FIFO
B. LRU
C. SSTF ✅
D. Optimal
10. The primary purpose of the fork() system call is to:
A. Execute a command
B. Terminate a process
C. Create a new process ✅
D. Block a process
11. Which of the following is not a valid process state?
A. Ready
B. Executing
C. Suspended
D. Destroyed ✅
12. Which register contains the address of the next instruction to be executed?
A. Instruction Register
B. Program Counter ✅
C. Stack Pointer
D. Accumulator
13. Deadlock can occur when:
A. Resources are shared
B. There is preemption
C. Mutual exclusion exists ✅
D. All processes run simultaneously
14. Which of the following is not a condition for deadlock?
A. Mutual Exclusion
B. Hold and Wait
C. Preemption ✅
D. Circular Wait
15. Which of the following is a type of fragmentation?
A. Virtual
B. Logical
C. External ✅
D. Swap
16. In paging, the page table is used to:
A. Manage processes
B. Translate logical to physical addresses ✅
C. Store files
D. Schedule processes
17. Which of the following is not a file access method?
A. Sequential
B. Random
C. Direct
D. Circular ✅
18. The Banker's Algorithm is used to:
A. Prevent deadlock
B. Detect deadlock
C. Avoid deadlock ✅
D. Resolve deadlock
19. Which system call is used to terminate a process?
A. exit() ✅
B. fork()
C. kill()
D. terminate()
20. What is the main role of the dispatcher in CPU scheduling?
A. Select process from the ready queue
B. Switch context between processes ✅
C. Handle interrupts
D. Maintain system time
21. Which technique allows executing multiple programs at once?
A. Paging
B. Spooling
C. Multiprogramming ✅
D. Thrashing
22. Swapping is:
A. Writing to a disk
B. Switching between user and kernel mode
C. Moving process memory to secondary storage ✅
D. Context switching
23. Which OS component interacts directly with the hardware?
A. Shell
B. Compiler
C. Kernel ✅
D. Loader
24. The critical section problem arises in:
A. Single-threaded systems
B. Multiprogramming
C. Multithreaded systems ✅
D. Inter-process communication
25. Which is not a type of operating system?
A. Batch
B. Real-time
C. Distributed
D. Compiled ✅
26. Which of the following best describes spooling?
A. Storing process data
B. Buffering data for slow devices ✅
C. Fragmenting memory
D. Swapping memory
27. Virtual memory allows:
A. Large processes to be stored in RAM
B. Use of secondary storage as if it were RAM ✅
C. More hardware
D. Only real addresses
28. In UNIX, everything is treated as a:
A. File ✅
B. Command
C. Process
D. Terminal
29. Which one of these is an example of a real-time operating system?
A. Windows XP
B. UNIX
C. VxWorks ✅
D. MS-DOS
30. Which layer of OS handles device drivers?
A. Application
B. Shell
C. Kernel ✅
D. None
31. What is the time between submission and completion of a process called?
A. Waiting Time
B. Turnaround Time ✅
C. Response Time
D. Execution Time
32. Which algorithm gives minimum average waiting time?
A. FCFS
B. SJF ✅
C. RR
D. Priority
33. Which is the fastest inter-process communication method?
A. Message passing
B. Shared memory ✅
C. Pipes
D. Sockets
34. Which OS uses time slicing?
A. Batch OS
B. Real-time OS
C. Time-sharing OS ✅
D. Embedded OS
35. The command interpreter of an OS is also called:
A. Shell ✅
B. Kernel
C. Compiler
D. Scheduler
36. Which of these is a type of scheduler?
A. Ready
B. Job ✅
C. Deadlock
D. Thread
37. What is context switching?
A. Changing file context
B. Swapping between user and kernel mode
C. Saving and restoring process state ✅
D. Running a command
38. Which of the following is a disk scheduling algorithm?
A. FCFS
B. SSTF
C. SCAN
D. All of the above ✅
39. Which of the following statements about multiprogramming is true?
A. It executes one job at a time
B. It increases CPU utilization ✅
C. It decreases throughput
D. It reduces concurrency
40. Which of these is not an attribute of a process?
A. PID
B. Program counter
C. Stack
D. File ✅
41. A semaphore is used to:
A. Access CPU
B. Avoid deadlock
C. Synchronize processes ✅
D. Allocate memory
42. The command nice in Li nux is used to:
A. Change user
B. Terminate a process
C. Set priority ✅
D. Schedule jobs
43. Which OS feature ensures only authorized users access the system?
A. Scheduling
B. Security ✅
C. File system
D. I/O management
44. A thread is:
A. A lightweight process ✅
B. A heavy process
C. A type of file
D. A segment
45. Which of the following is a block device?
A. Keyboard
B. Monitor
C. Hard Disk ✅
D. Mouse
46. Which system call is used to open a file in most OS?
A. fopen()
B. open() ✅
C. create()
D. load()
47. Which type of OS is used in ATM machines?
A. Real-time
B. Time-sharing
C. Batch
D. Embedded ✅
48. DMA stands for:
A. Direct Memory Allocation
B. Dual Memory Access
C. Direct Memory Access ✅
D. Dynamic Memory Addressing
49. The file allocation table (FAT) is used in:
A. UNIX
B. Windows ✅
C. Linux
D. Android
50. Which of the following OS is open-source?
A. Windows
B. Linux ✅
C. macOS
D. MS-DOS