Objective 1.0

System Management

XK0-005 Practice Questions

Use this page to practise System Management questions for this certification. Focus on how the exam tests system management in scenario format — understanding the why behind each answer builds more durable knowledge than memorising options.

Full Practice Test →All Objectives

What this objective tests

XK0-005 System Management — Key Topics

System Management questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage system management concepts in scenario-based situations.

Core System Management concepts and how they apply in real-world cloud scenarios.
How to deploy system management correctly and verify the outcome.
Troubleshooting system management issues by interpreting error output and system state.
Cloud best practices and System Management design trade-offs tested by this certification.

Common exam traps

Where candidates lose marks on System Management

⚠Selecting the most expensive service when a simpler managed option meets the requirement.
⚠Forgetting that cloud resources must be explicitly secured — defaults are rarely secure.
⚠Choosing a global service fix when the issue is region-specific.
⚠Overlooking cost implications of cross-region data transfer in architecture questions.

XK0-005 System Management — Practice Questions

30 questions from this objective

Question 2easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to determine which process is using the most memory on a Linux server. Which command should be used to display processes sorted by memory usage?

Question 3mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A Linux system is experiencing high CPU load. The administrator runs 'top' and sees that the 'kworker' processes are consuming significant CPU time. What is the most likely cause?

Question 4hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A company requires that all systems be configured to log all authentication attempts, both successful and failed. Which configuration file and directive should be used to ensure all auth messages are logged to /var/log/secure?

Question 5easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to update the system time using an NTP server immediately without waiting for the next scheduled sync. Which command should be used?

Question 6mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A Linux server runs a web application that frequently runs out of file descriptors. Which configuration change would permanently increase the maximum number of open files for all users?

Question 7mediummulti select

Full question →

A system administrator needs to configure a cron job to run a script every Monday at 3:00 AM. Which two cron expressions are correct? (Select TWO).

Question 8hardmulti select

Full question →

A Linux system is experiencing kernel panics after a recent update. The administrator wants to boot into a previous kernel version to restore functionality. Which three steps are required to achieve this? (Select THREE).

Question 9hardmultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, what is the most likely cause of the sshd service failure?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

# systemctl status sshd
● sshd.service - OpenSSH server daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2023-10-23 14:30:01 UTC; 5min ago
     Docs: man:sshd(8)
           man:sshd_config(5)
  Process: 1234 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sshd -D $OPTIONS (code=exited, status=255)
 Main PID: 1234 (code=exited, status=255)

Oct 23 14:30:01 server sshd[1234]: fatal: Cannot bind to port 22: Address already in use

Question 10mediummultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, the myapp service fails to start. Which troubleshooting step should be taken first?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

# cat /etc/systemd/system/myapp.service
[Unit]
Description=My Application
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/myapp
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

# systemctl daemon-reload
# systemctl start myapp
# systemctl status myapp
● myapp.service - My Application
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/myapp.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since ...
  Process: 5678 ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/myapp (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Oct 23 15:00:00 server myapp[5678]: Error: Configuration file not found

Question 11easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator notices that a server's disk space is critically low. Which command should be used to identify the largest files or directories consuming space?

Question 12mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A Linux server with systemd is experiencing boot issues after a recent kernel update. Which command sequence should be used to boot into the previous kernel version?

Question 13hardmultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to ensure that a custom script /usr/local/bin/backup.sh runs every day at 2:00 AM and logs output to /var/log/backup.log. How should this be configured using systemd?

Question 14mediummulti select

Full question →

A systems administrator wants to monitor system performance in real time. Which TWO commands can be used to display live updating information about processes, CPU, and memory usage? (Select TWO.)

Question 15hardmulti select

Full question →

A Linux administrator is troubleshooting a service that fails to start. Which THREE files or commands should be checked to diagnose the issue? (Select THREE.)

Question 16easymultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, what is the most likely cause of the sshd service failure?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ systemctl status sshd
● sshd.service - OpenSSH server daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2023-06-12 09:15:22 UTC; 5min ago
     Docs: man:sshd(8)
           man:sshd_config(5)
  Process: 1234 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sshd -D $OPTIONS (code=exited, status=255)
 Main PID: 1234 (code=exited, status=255)
   Status: "Failed to start sshd"

Jun 12 09:15:22 server sshd[1234]: fatal: Missing privilege separation directory: /var/empty/sshd

Question 17mediummultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, why does the mv command fail?

Network Topology

Question 18hardmultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator configures a new web server with Apache and needs to ensure it starts automatically after a system reboot. The administrator runs 'systemctl enable httpd' but the service still does not start after reboot. What is the most likely reason?

Question 19easymultiple choice

Full question →

A technician needs to find out which port the SSH daemon is listening on. Which command will show this information?

Question 20mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A systems administrator needs to ensure that a custom service runs with a specific priority on a Linux server. Which command should the administrator use to achieve this?

Question 21hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A server is experiencing intermittent high load. The administrator suspects a memory leak in a service. Which sysfs file should the administrator monitor to track memory usage per cgroup?

Question 22easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to schedule a system maintenance task to run at 3 AM every Sunday. Which cron expression should be used?

Question 23mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A developer needs to run a one-time script after the network is up on a systemd-based server. Which unit type should be used?

Question 24hardmulti select

Full question →

An administrator is troubleshooting a slow system. Which two commands can be used to identify processes consuming excessive CPU or memory? (Choose two.)

Question 25mediummulti select

Full question →

A technician is configuring a system to automatically mount an NFS share at boot. Which two files must be edited or created? (Choose two.)

Question 26mediummultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, which statement is true about the sshd service?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ systemctl status sshd.service
● sshd.service - OpenSSH server daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-06-12 10:23:45 UTC; 2h 15min ago
 Main PID: 1234 (sshd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/sshd.service
           └─1234 /usr/sbin/sshd -D

Question 27hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A financial services company runs a critical trading application on a Linux server. The application logs to /var/log/trade/app.log. Recently, the application has been crashing intermittently. The administrator suspects disk space issues. Upon checking, /var/log/trade is on a separate partition with 200 GB capacity, and df -h shows only 10% used. However, the administrator notices that log rotation is not working; the log file has grown to 50 GB and is still being written to. The administrator needs to immediately free up space without stopping the application, and also ensure proper log rotation is configured. Which command sequence should the administrator use?

Question 28easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to check the current runlevel on a system that uses systemd. Which command should the administrator use?

Question 29mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A Linux administrator is troubleshooting a server that intermittently becomes unresponsive. The administrator suspects a memory leak. Which command should be used to monitor memory usage over time and identify the consuming process?

Question 30hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A server running a critical application needs to be rebooted. To ensure the application stops gracefully and data is not corrupted, which sequence of commands should the administrator use?

Question 31easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator wants to schedule a script to run every Monday at 3 AM. Which crontab entry is correct?

More System Management questions available in the full practice test.

Continue Practising →

All XK0-005 Objectives

1.System Management

Objective 1.0

System Management

XK0-005 Practice Questions

Full Practice Test →All Objectives

What this objective tests

XK0-005 System Management — Key Topics

System Management questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage system management concepts in scenario-based situations.

Core System Management concepts and how they apply in real-world cloud scenarios.
How to deploy system management correctly and verify the outcome.
Troubleshooting system management issues by interpreting error output and system state.
Cloud best practices and System Management design trade-offs tested by this certification.

Common exam traps

Where candidates lose marks on System Management

⚠Selecting the most expensive service when a simpler managed option meets the requirement.
⚠Forgetting that cloud resources must be explicitly secured — defaults are rarely secure.
⚠Choosing a global service fix when the issue is region-specific.
⚠Overlooking cost implications of cross-region data transfer in architecture questions.

XK0-005 System Management — Practice Questions

30 questions from this objective

Question 2easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to determine which process is using the most memory on a Linux server. Which command should be used to display processes sorted by memory usage?

Question 3mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A Linux system is experiencing high CPU load. The administrator runs 'top' and sees that the 'kworker' processes are consuming significant CPU time. What is the most likely cause?

Question 4hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A company requires that all systems be configured to log all authentication attempts, both successful and failed. Which configuration file and directive should be used to ensure all auth messages are logged to /var/log/secure?

Question 5easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to update the system time using an NTP server immediately without waiting for the next scheduled sync. Which command should be used?

Question 6mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A Linux server runs a web application that frequently runs out of file descriptors. Which configuration change would permanently increase the maximum number of open files for all users?

Question 7mediummulti select

Full question →

A system administrator needs to configure a cron job to run a script every Monday at 3:00 AM. Which two cron expressions are correct? (Select TWO).

Question 8hardmulti select

Full question →

A Linux system is experiencing kernel panics after a recent update. The administrator wants to boot into a previous kernel version to restore functionality. Which three steps are required to achieve this? (Select THREE).

Question 9hardmultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, what is the most likely cause of the sshd service failure?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

# systemctl status sshd
● sshd.service - OpenSSH server daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2023-10-23 14:30:01 UTC; 5min ago
     Docs: man:sshd(8)
           man:sshd_config(5)
  Process: 1234 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sshd -D $OPTIONS (code=exited, status=255)
 Main PID: 1234 (code=exited, status=255)

Oct 23 14:30:01 server sshd[1234]: fatal: Cannot bind to port 22: Address already in use

Question 10mediummultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, the myapp service fails to start. Which troubleshooting step should be taken first?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

# cat /etc/systemd/system/myapp.service
[Unit]
Description=My Application
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/myapp
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

# systemctl daemon-reload
# systemctl start myapp
# systemctl status myapp
● myapp.service - My Application
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/myapp.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since ...
  Process: 5678 ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/myapp (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Oct 23 15:00:00 server myapp[5678]: Error: Configuration file not found

Question 11easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator notices that a server's disk space is critically low. Which command should be used to identify the largest files or directories consuming space?

Question 12mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A Linux server with systemd is experiencing boot issues after a recent kernel update. Which command sequence should be used to boot into the previous kernel version?

Question 13hardmultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to ensure that a custom script /usr/local/bin/backup.sh runs every day at 2:00 AM and logs output to /var/log/backup.log. How should this be configured using systemd?

Question 14mediummulti select

Full question →

A systems administrator wants to monitor system performance in real time. Which TWO commands can be used to display live updating information about processes, CPU, and memory usage? (Select TWO.)

Question 15hardmulti select

Full question →

A Linux administrator is troubleshooting a service that fails to start. Which THREE files or commands should be checked to diagnose the issue? (Select THREE.)

Question 16easymultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, what is the most likely cause of the sshd service failure?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ systemctl status sshd
● sshd.service - OpenSSH server daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2023-06-12 09:15:22 UTC; 5min ago
     Docs: man:sshd(8)
           man:sshd_config(5)
  Process: 1234 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sshd -D $OPTIONS (code=exited, status=255)
 Main PID: 1234 (code=exited, status=255)
   Status: "Failed to start sshd"

Jun 12 09:15:22 server sshd[1234]: fatal: Missing privilege separation directory: /var/empty/sshd

Question 17mediummultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, why does the mv command fail?

Network Topology

Question 18hardmultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator configures a new web server with Apache and needs to ensure it starts automatically after a system reboot. The administrator runs 'systemctl enable httpd' but the service still does not start after reboot. What is the most likely reason?

Question 19easymultiple choice

Full question →

A technician needs to find out which port the SSH daemon is listening on. Which command will show this information?

Question 20mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A systems administrator needs to ensure that a custom service runs with a specific priority on a Linux server. Which command should the administrator use to achieve this?

Question 21hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A server is experiencing intermittent high load. The administrator suspects a memory leak in a service. Which sysfs file should the administrator monitor to track memory usage per cgroup?

Question 22easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to schedule a system maintenance task to run at 3 AM every Sunday. Which cron expression should be used?

Question 23mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A developer needs to run a one-time script after the network is up on a systemd-based server. Which unit type should be used?

Question 24hardmulti select

Full question →

An administrator is troubleshooting a slow system. Which two commands can be used to identify processes consuming excessive CPU or memory? (Choose two.)

Question 25mediummulti select

Full question →

A technician is configuring a system to automatically mount an NFS share at boot. Which two files must be edited or created? (Choose two.)

Question 26mediummultiple choice

Full question →

Based on the exhibit, which statement is true about the sshd service?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ systemctl status sshd.service
● sshd.service - OpenSSH server daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-06-12 10:23:45 UTC; 2h 15min ago
 Main PID: 1234 (sshd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/sshd.service
           └─1234 /usr/sbin/sshd -D

Question 27hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A financial services company runs a critical trading application on a Linux server. The application logs to /var/log/trade/app.log. Recently, the application has been crashing intermittently. The administrator suspects disk space issues. Upon checking, /var/log/trade is on a separate partition with 200 GB capacity, and df -h shows only 10% used. However, the administrator notices that log rotation is not working; the log file has grown to 50 GB and is still being written to. The administrator needs to immediately free up space without stopping the application, and also ensure proper log rotation is configured. Which command sequence should the administrator use?

Question 28easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to check the current runlevel on a system that uses systemd. Which command should the administrator use?

Question 29mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A Linux administrator is troubleshooting a server that intermittently becomes unresponsive. The administrator suspects a memory leak. Which command should be used to monitor memory usage over time and identify the consuming process?

Question 30hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A server running a critical application needs to be rebooted. To ensure the application stops gracefully and data is not corrupted, which sequence of commands should the administrator use?

Question 31easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator wants to schedule a script to run every Monday at 3 AM. Which crontab entry is correct?

More System Management questions available in the full practice test.

Continue Practising →

All XK0-005 Objectives

1.System Management