010-160 Practice Test 18 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which TWO of the following are differences between a community-driven and a vendor-supported Linux distribution?

Accepted Answer

Predictability of release cycles. Option C is correct because community-driven distributions such as Debian or Arch typically follow their own volunteer-paced release schedules (or rolling releases), whereas vendor-supported distributions like RHEL or Ubuntu LTS commit to published, predictable lifecycles and release cadences backed by a company. Option D is correct because vendor-supported distributions offer commercial support contracts, SLAs, and certified hardware/software ecosystems from the vendor, while community-driven distributions rely on forums, mailing lists, and community volunteers rather than paid enterprise support. Options A and B are not differences because both community and vendor distributions are built predominantly on open source software and both commonly run on x86 (and x86-64) hardware. Option E is not a distinguishing difference because kernel development is an upstream, community-wide effort that both types of distributions consume and contribute to, rather than a defining split between them.

Answer

The usage of open source software

Answer

The ability to run on x86 hardware

Answer

Kernel development capability

Question 2

Which TWO of the following locations or methods are commonly used to define where a user's home directory is located?

Accepted Answer

The useradd -d flag. Option A (the useradd -d flag) is correct because useradd -d /path/to/home explicitly sets the home directory field (field 6) for the new account when the user is created, writing that value into the account database. Option B (/etc/passwd file) is correct because the passwd file stores the home directory as the sixth colon-separated field of each user entry, and this is the authoritative location from which login programs read the user's home directory. Option C (/etc/profile) is not correct because it is a shell startup script that sets environment variables and login behavior, not the home directory definition. Option D (/etc/group) is not correct because it defines group membership, not user home directories. Option E (/etc/shadow) is not correct because it stores password hashes and aging information, not the home directory path.

Answer

The /etc/profile file

Answer

The /etc/group file

Answer

The /etc/shadow file

Question 3

Which TWO of the following are valid commands for displaying file contents?

Accepted Answer

cat. Option A, cat, is correct because the cat command concatenates and prints file contents to standard output, making it a standard way to display a file's contents. Option E, less, is correct because less is a pager that displays file contents one screen at a time and allows scrolling through the file. Option B, touch, is not correct because touch creates empty files or updates file timestamps rather than displaying contents. Option C, chmod, is not correct because chmod changes file permission modes and does not read or display file data. Option D, grep, is not correct because grep searches for and prints matching lines from input or files, which is a filtering operation rather than a general file-content display command.

Answer

touch

Answer

chmod

Answer

grep

Question 4

Which TWO of these tools can modify file ownership or permissions?

Accepted Answer

chown. chown (C) is correct because it directly changes the owner and/or group of files and directories, e.g. chown user:group file. chmod (E) is correct because it modifies file permission bits (read/write/execute for user, group, and others) using symbolic or octal modes. groupdel (A) only removes a group from the system and does not alter file ownership or permissions. useradd (B) creates new user accounts and does not touch existing files' ownership or permissions. usermod (D) modifies user account attributes such as group membership or shell, but it does not change file ownership or permissions.

Answer

groupdel

Answer

useradd

Answer

usermod

Question 5

A university research group wants to release a data-analysis tool under a license that allows companies to embed it in proprietary products without releasing their own source code. Which type of license best fits this requirement?

Accepted Answer

A permissive license such as the MIT License. Permissive licenses such as MIT grant broad reuse rights with minimal obligations, allowing proprietary embedding. Copyleft would force source disclosure, while a EULA or NDA would restrict distribution entirely, so only the permissive license satisfies the research group's goal.

Answer

A proprietary end-user license agreement (EULA)

Answer

A copyleft license such as the GNU GPL

Answer

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

Question 6

An auditor asks how to confirm which groups the currently logged-in user belongs to, including supplementary groups, from a shell prompt. Which single command displays this information for the invoking user?

Accepted Answer

groups. The groups command, run without arguments, reports the group set for the current effective user, including the primary group and supplementary groups. That makes it the correct single command for confirming the invoking user's memberships during an audit, without needing to inspect /etc/group manually.

Answer

newgrp

Answer

groupmod

Answer

chgrp

Question 7

A user needs to view the first few lines of a large log file to confirm its format before processing it. Which command displays the beginning of the file by default?

Accepted Answer

head /var/log/syslog. The 'head' command prints the first ten lines of a file by default, making it ideal for quickly inspecting the start of a large log to verify its format. The 'tail' command shows the end, 'cat' dumps the whole file, and 'less' opens an interactive pager, so none of them matches the simple default behavior requested.

Answer

tail /var/log/syslog

Answer

less /var/log/syslog

Answer

cat /var/log/syslog

Question 8

A new user wants to display the contents of the file /etc/hostname on the terminal. Which command will print the file's contents to standard output?

Accepted Answer

cat /etc/hostname. Displaying a text file's contents on the terminal is the primary purpose of cat, which reads the file and writes it to standard output. The touch command manages timestamps and empty files, chmod alters permissions, and file identifies a file's type. Only cat outputs the actual data contained in /etc/hostname.

Answer

file /etc/hostname

Answer

touch /etc/hostname

Answer

chmod /etc/hostname

Question 9

A server hosts a directory /srv/dropbox that many users write into. The administrator wants every new file created inside it to automatically belong to the group 'projects' rather than each creator's primary group, without changing anyone's account settings. Which action achieves this?

Accepted Answer

Run chmod g+s /srv/dropbox so new entries inherit the directory's group.. The setgid bit on a directory is the standard Linux mechanism for group inheritance: files and subdirectories created inside take the directory's group, and the bit is copied to new subdirectories. Setting it on a directory already group-owned by projects satisfies the requirement without editing /etc/passwd or /etc/group for individual users.

Answer

Run chgrp projects /srv/dropbox and rely on the default umask for inheritance.

Answer

Add every user to the projects group and set their primary group with newgrp.

Answer

Run chmod u+s /srv/dropbox so new entries inherit the directory's owner.

Question 10

A career counselor is advising a student who wants to work as a Linux systems administrator. Which skill area is most directly relevant to that entry-level role?

Accepted Answer

Managing user accounts, file permissions, and system services from the command line.. Entry-level Linux administration centers on operating the system: creating and managing accounts, setting file permissions, and controlling services. Command-line competence in these areas is what employers screen for. Hardware design, marketing, and facilities negotiation fall outside the role's core technical responsibilities.

Answer

Designing printed circuit boards for embedded hardware.

Answer

Writing marketing copy for software product launches.

Answer

Negotiating real estate leases for data center space.

Question 11

A Linux administrator is auditing user accounts and needs to identify which files store local user account and hashed password information on a typical distribution. (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

/etc/passwd. Local authentication data is split between /etc/passwd, which holds account attributes, and /etc/shadow, which holds the hashed passwords and aging policy. Together they form the complete local user database consulted by tools such as login, su, and passwd. The group file, login defaults, and sudo policy govern membership, defaults, and privilege delegation rather than storing credentials.

Answer

/etc/sudoers

Answer

/etc/group

Answer

/etc/login.defs

Question 12

A user wants to check the amount of free disk space on all mounted filesystems in a human-readable format. Which command should they use?

Accepted Answer

df -h. df -h is the correct command to display free disk space on mounted filesystems in a human-readable format. It summarizes total, used, and available space per filesystem. Other commands like du, free, and lsblk serve different purposes, such as directory usage, memory usage, and block device listing, respectively.

Answer

du -h

Answer

free -h

Answer

lsblk -f

Question 13

A small business is selecting open source software for its accounting and customer management needs. The owner wants to understand common characteristics of open source projects and their communities. (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The source code is typically available for inspection, modification, and redistribution under the project's license.. Open source projects typically provide access to source code under a license permitting modification and redistribution, and they commonly use public repositories where community members can contribute bug reports and patches. These two characteristics reflect the transparency and collaboration central to open source. Free support and prohibitions on commercial use are not inherent to open source, and governance varies widely across projects.

Answer

All open source projects are legally required to provide free technical support to every user.

Answer

Every open source project is governed by a single company that owns all copyright and controls all decisions.

Answer

Open source software can never be sold or used in a commercial product.

Question 14

A developer stores a private SSH key at /home/dev/id_rsa and wants to remove all permissions for group and others while keeping full owner access, using octal notation. Which command achieves exactly this?

Accepted Answer

chmod 600 /home/dev/id_rsa. Octal mode 600 sets rw- for the owner and --- for both group and others. That isolates the private key to its owner while keeping read and write access intact, satisfying the stated requirement and aligning with the restrictive permissions SSH expects for private key material.

Answer

chmod 644 /home/dev/id_rsa

Answer

chmod 400 /home/dev/id_rsa

Answer

chmod 700 /home/dev/id_rsa

Question 15

Which command lists all files in a directory including hidden ones?

Accepted Answer

ls -a. `ls -a` lists all directory entries including those beginning with a dot (hidden files such as `.bashrc`, `.git`, `.ssh`). The `-a` flag is shorthand for 'all' and overrides the default behavior of suppressing dotfiles. It is the standard way to reveal hidden content in a directory.

Answer

ls -h

Answer

ls -l

Answer

dir -hidden