LINUX Operating System MCQs

This comprehensive set of Linux Operating System MCQs is designed to cover all essential topics required for success in exams related to Linux administration and system management. Focused on key subjects such as Linux commands, file systems, shell scripting, process management, permissions, and network configuration, these MCQs are crafted to help students build a strong foundation in Linux operations.

Who should practice Linux Operating System MCQs?

Students preparing for computer science, IT, or software engineering exams that include Linux operating system concepts.
Individuals aiming to strengthen their knowledge of Linux commands, system administration, and network configuration.
Candidates preparing for Linux certification exams such as CompTIA Linux+, LPIC, or Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA).
Learners interested in mastering shell scripting, file management, process control, and user permissions in Linux.
IT professionals focused on improving their skills in server management, troubleshooting, and Linux security practices.
Suitable for all students and professionals seeking to enhance their performance in Linux-related tasks, exams, or certifications.

1. Which command is used to list all the files and directories in Linux?

A) ls
B) list
C) show
D) dir

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2. What is the default shell in most Linux distributions?

A) Korn Shell
B) Z Shell
C) Bash Shell
D) C Shell

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3. Which Linux command is used to change the ownership of a file?

A) chown
B) chmod
C) change
D) chgroup

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4. In Linux, what does the ‘pwd’ command do?

A) It prints the working directory
B) It prints the permissions of a file
C) It displays the disk usage
D) It lists the files in a directory

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5. Which of the following is the package manager for Debian-based Linux distributions?

A) yum
B) rpm
C) apt
D) pacman

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6. What is the purpose of the ‘chmod’ command in Linux?

A) To change file permissions
B) To change file ownership
C) To move files
D) To create directories

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7. Which Linux command is used to display the contents of a file?

A) read
B) show
C) cat
D) copy

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8. How do you display the first 10 lines of a file in Linux?

A) head
B) top
C) cat
D) first

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9. What does the ‘mkdir’ command do in Linux?

A) It removes a directory
B) It changes the current directory
C) It creates a new directory
D) It lists the directories

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10. Which command is used to view running processes in Linux?

A) top
B) view
C) ps
D) htop

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11. What is the purpose of the ‘df’ command in Linux?

A) To display the disk usage
B) To format a disk
C) To check file system integrity
D) To display free space

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12. How can you view the manual pages for a Linux command?

A) help
B) man
C) info
D) explain

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13. Which of the following is the correct command to remove a directory in Linux?

A) deldir
B) removedir
C) rmdir
D) delete

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14. Which Linux command is used to display the current date and time?

A) date
B) time
C) clock
D) datetime

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15. What does the ‘whoami’ command in Linux return?

A) The current username
B) The current directory
C) The current user ID
D) The list of users

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16. In Linux, how do you check the IP address of your machine?

A) ipconfig
B) ifconfig
C) netconfig
D) iplookup

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17. Which command is used to compress files in Linux?

A) zip
B) compress
C) archive
D) tar

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18. What is the purpose of the ‘grep’ command in Linux?

A) To search for a string or pattern in a file
B) To compare two files
C) To move files
D) To copy directories

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19. Which Linux command is used to display the last few lines of a file?

A) end
B) tail
C) cat
D) less

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20. In Linux, which command is used to change the group ownership of a file?

A) chmod
B) chgrp
C) chown
D) changegrp

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21. What is the purpose of the ‘find’ command in Linux?

A) To search for files based on specific criteria
B) To locate installed packages
C) To display hidden files
D) To find a command’s location

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22. Which command is used to install packages in Red Hat-based Linux distributions?

A) apt
B) rpm
C) dpkg
D) yum

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23. What does the ‘kill’ command do in Linux?

A) It terminates a running process
B) It removes a file
C) It stops a user session
D) It deletes directories

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24. How do you create a symbolic link in Linux?

A) link
B) symlink
C) ln -s
D) mklink

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25. In Linux, what is the purpose of the ‘sudo’ command?

A) To grant administrative privileges to a user
B) To switch users
C) To run scripts
D) To list users

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26. What is the default location for system log files in Linux?

A) /usr/logs
B) /var/log
C) /log
D) /etc/logs

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27. What does the ‘uname’ command do in Linux?

A) Displays system information
B) Changes the username
C) Lists users
D) Shows the current directory

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28. How do you update the list of available packages in Debian-based Linux distributions?

A) sudo apt-get upgrade
B) sudo apt-get update
C) sudo apt-get install
D) sudo apt-cache

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29. In Linux, how do you schedule a task to run at a specific time?

A) cron
B) task
C) runat
D) jobs

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30. What does the ‘mv’ command do in Linux?

A) Moves or renames files and directories
B) Displays file contents
C) Copies files
D) Deletes files

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31. How can you check the memory usage in a Linux system?

A) free
B) memusage
C) checkmem
D) top

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32. What is the purpose of the ‘scp’ command in Linux?

A) To securely copy files between hosts
B) To create symbolic links
C) To change file permissions
D) To view system processes

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33. How do you forcefully remove a file in Linux?

A) rm
B) rm -f
C) del -f
D) delete -force

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34. Which command is used to see a list of all currently logged-in users?

A) who
B) users
C) whoami
D) logins

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35. What does the ‘ps’ command display in Linux?

A) A list of active processes
B) The current directory
C) The available disk space
D) Network configurations

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36. How do you stop a process in Linux?

A) kill
B) stop
C) terminate
D) end

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37. In Linux, which directory contains the configuration files?

A) /usr
B) /config
C) /home
D) /etc

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38. What is the purpose of the ‘mount’ command in Linux?

A) To attach a file system to the directory structure
B) To install packages
C) To update system files
D) To check disk usage

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39. Which Linux command is used to view the kernel version?

A) uname -r
B) version -k
C) kernel -v
D) sysinfo

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40. How do you view the permissions of a file in Linux?

A) ls -l
B) chmod
C) view -perm
D) cat -p

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41. Which command is used to display the disk usage of files and directories?

A) du
B) df
C) diskusage
D) size

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42. What does the command ‘tar -xvf’ do?

A) Extracts files from a tarball
B) Compresses files into a tarball
C) Lists files in a tarball
D) Verifies a tarball

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43. How do you find the path of a command in Linux?

A) path
B) which
C) whereis
D) locate

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44. In Linux, what is the significance of the /root directory?

A) It is the home directory for the root user
B) It stores temporary files
C) It contains system configuration files
D) It is a backup directory

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45. Which command is used to search for files in a directory hierarchy?

A) find
B) search
C) locate
D) grep

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46. What is the purpose of the ‘history’ command in Linux?

A) To display a list of previously executed commands
B) To check system logs
C) To view the current user’s history
D) To manage user accounts

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47. Which file contains user account information in Linux?

A) /etc/passwd
B) /etc/group
C) /etc/shadow
D) /etc/user

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48. What does the command ‘chmod 755 file.txt’ do?

A) Sets read and execute permissions for everyone and write for the owner
B) Sets full permissions for the owner and read for the group and others
C) Sets read and write permissions for everyone
D) Removes all permissions from the file

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49. In Linux, what is the purpose of the ‘wget’ command?

A) To download files from the web
B) To transfer files between systems
C) To copy files
D) To create backups

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50. Which command is used to view real-time system performance and resource usage?

A) uptime
B) top
C) sysinfo
D) performance

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51. What is the function of the ‘echo’ command in Linux?

A) To display a line of text or a variable’s value
B) To create a file
C) To remove a file
D) To copy text to the clipboard

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52. How can you display hidden files in a directory?

A) ls -a
B) ls -l
C) ls -h
D) ls -d

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53. What is the purpose of the ‘alias’ command in Linux?

A) To create a shortcut for a command
B) To change a file’s owner
C) To list all available commands
D) To remove a command

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54. Which command is used to change the priority of a running process in Linux?

A) nice
B) renice
C) priority
D) changeprio

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55. In Linux, what does the ‘export’ command do?

A) It sets environment variables
B) It imports variables from a file
C) It exports files to another system
D) It saves configurations

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56. What does the command ‘sudo reboot’ do in Linux?

A) It reboots the system with administrative privileges
B) It shuts down the system
C) It logs out the current user
D) It restarts a specific service

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57. Which command can be used to edit text files in the terminal?

A) nano
B) edit
C) vim
D) both A and C

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58. How do you display the contents of a compressed file without extracting it?

A) zcat
B) unzip -c
C) viewzip
D) less

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59. What is the function of the ‘crontab’ command?

A) To schedule periodic tasks
B) To create backups
C) To edit files
D) To manage system logs

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60. How do you create a new file in Linux using the command line?

A) touch
B) create
C) newfile
D) mkfile

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61. Which command is used to display the amount of free and used memory in the system?

A) meminfo
B) free
C) ramusage
D) checkmem

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62. In Linux, what does the ‘shutdown’ command do?

A) It powers off the system
B) It logs out the user
C) It restarts the graphical interface
D) It suspends the system

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63. What is the purpose of the ‘/tmp’ directory in Linux?

A) To store temporary files
B) To keep system logs
C) To contain user data
D) To save backups

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64. How can you redirect the output of a command to a file?

A) command > file.txt
B) command >> file.txt
C) command : file.txt
D) both A and B

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65. What command is used to update a system’s package list in Fedora?

A) apt update
B) yum update
C) dnf update
D) upgrade

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66. Which command is used to check the disk space usage of a file system?

A) df
B) du
C) spacecheck
D) diskusage

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67. What is the default file system used by most Linux distributions?

A) NTFS
B) ext4
C) FAT32
D) HFS+

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68. How can you search for a specific string in a file using the command line?

A) search
B) grep
C) find
D) locate

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69. What does the ‘chmod 644 filename’ command do?

A) Sets read/write for the owner and read for group and others
B) Sets execute permissions for everyone
C) Removes all permissions
D) Sets full permissions for the owner only

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70. In Linux, how can you view the system’s current uptime?

A) uptime
B) sysinfo
C) time
D) status

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71. What does the ‘ln’ command do in Linux?

A) Creates hard and symbolic links
B) Changes file permissions
C) Renames files
D) Copies files

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72. Which command would you use to see the first 20 lines of a file?

A) tail -n 20 file.txt
B) head -n 20 file.txt
C) display -n 20 file.txt
D) show -n 20 file.txt

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73. What does the ‘service’ command do in Linux?

A) Manages system services
B) Displays system information
C) Configures network settings
D) Manages user accounts

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74. In Linux, which command is used to create a compressed archive of files?

A) zip
B) tar
C) compress
D) archive

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75. What does the command ‘killall’ do in Linux?

A) Terminates all processes with a specific name
B) Stops the current process
C) Removes all files in a directory
D) Clears the terminal

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76. How do you find out the current kernel version in Linux?

A) kernel –version
B) uname -r
C) version
D) ver

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77. What command would you use to display the last 50 lines of a file?

A) tail -50 file.txt
B) last -50 file.txt
C) show -50 file.txt
D) display -n 50 file.txt

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78. Which command is used to install software in Ubuntu?

A) install
B) apt-get
C) setup
D) add

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79. In Linux, what is the purpose of the ‘/etc/fstab’ file?

A) To configure file systems
B) To store user account information
C) To list all installed packages
D) To manage services

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80. How do you change the password for a user in Linux?

A) passwd username
B) change username
C) modify username
D) usermod username

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81. What command is used to remove all files in a directory?

A) delete
B) rm -r *
C) rm *
D) clear

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82. What does the ‘dd’ command do in Linux?

A) Converts and copies files
B) Displays disk usage
C) Deletes files
D) Displays the content of a file

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83. Which command is used to configure network interfaces in Linux?

A) ifconfig
B) netconfig
C) ipconfig
D) networksetup

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84. What does the ‘shutdown -h now’ command do?

A) Halts the system immediately
B) Restarts the system
C) Powers off the system after 1 minute
D) Logs out the user

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85. How do you check which services are running on a Linux system?

A) service list
B) systemctl list
C) service –status
D) ps aux

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86. What is the purpose of the ‘iptables’ command?

A) To manage firewall rules
B) To configure network interfaces
C) To view current processes
D) To set user permissions

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87. Which file is used to configure user authentication in Linux?

A) /etc/passwd
B) /etc/shadow
C) /etc/login.defs
D) /etc/group

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88. How can you see detailed information about disk partitions in Linux?

A) df -h
B) lsblk
C) diskinfo
D) partinfo

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89. What is the purpose of the ‘hostname’ command?

A) To display or set the system’s hostname
B) To manage network settings
C) To view system uptime
D) To list users

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90. Which command is used to compare two files in Linux?

A) diff
B) compare
C) comp
D) match

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91. In Linux, how can you view the system’s hardware information?

A) sysinfo
B) lshw
C) hwinfo
D) hardwareinfo

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92. What does the ‘uname -a’ command display?

A) Kernel version and system information
B) Current username
C) Current directory
D) User account information

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93. How do you create a new user in Linux?

A) useradd username
B) newuser username
C) createuser username
D) adduser username

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94. Which command is used to check the integrity of a file system?

A) fsck
B) checkfs
C) verify
D) integritycheck

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95. What does the ‘free -m’ command display?

A) Memory usage in megabytes
B) Disk space usage
C) CPU information
D) Running processes

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96. In Linux, how do you display the contents of a file one screen at a time?

A) less
B) view
C) more
D) both A and C

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97. Which command is used to remove a non-empty directory?

A) rmdir
B) rm -r
C) deldir
D) delete

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98. What is the function of the ‘history’ command?

A) Displays the command history
B) Changes command history
C) Deletes old commands
D) Saves command history

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99. How do you check for open ports on a Linux system?

A) netstat
B) openports
C) ports
D) checkports

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100. What does the ‘mount’ command do?

A) Attaches a file system to the directory tree
B) Formats a disk
C) Lists current file systems
D) Copies files to another location

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