010-160 Practice Exam 3 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A community college instructor is preparing a lesson on the origins of the Linux operating system. She wants to explain why Linux is described as a 'kernel' rather than a complete operating system, and which project provided the essential user-space tools that were combined with it. Which project supplied those foundational command-line utilities?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

The GNU Project. Linux by itself is only a kernel: it manages hardware, processes, and memory but offers no shell, compiler, or standard utilities. The GNU Project had already built those user-space components, so merging them with the Linux kernel produced a complete operating system. This is why the community frequently refers to the combined result as GNU/Linux, and why GNU is the correct source of the foundational tools.

Answer

The Mozilla Foundation

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The Apache Software Foundation

Answer

The XFree86 Project

Question 2

What is the purpose of the '..' notation in a file path?

Accepted Answer

Parent directory. In filesystem path notation, a single dot (.) refers to the current directory, while two dots (..) refer to the parent directory — the directory one level above the current working directory. This is a POSIX convention used across Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like systems.

Answer

Current directory

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Root directory

Answer

Home directory

Question 3

An administrator needs to monitor network traffic in real-time on a specific interface. Which tool is commonly used to capture and display packets?

Accepted Answer

tcpdump. tcpdump is the classic command-line packet capture tool that reads frames from a network interface via libpcap and displays them in real time or writes them to a pcap file. It supports BPF filter expressions to narrow captured traffic, making it ideal for live monitoring on a specific interface (e.g., tcpdump -i eth0). This matches the requirement to capture and display packets.

Answer

netstat

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iptables

Answer

nmap

Question 4

You are currently in '/home/user/docs' and need to move to '/etc'. Which command is correct?

Accepted Answer

cd /etc. `cd /etc` uses an absolute path (starting with /), which navigates directly to /etc regardless of the current working directory. Absolute paths are resolved from the filesystem root, so this works from anywhere. This is the correct and unambiguous way to move to /etc.

Answer

cd ~/etc

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cd ../../etc

Answer

cd etc

Question 5

You need to search for a specific command description within the manual pages using a keyword. Which command should you use?

Accepted Answer

man -k. The 'man -k' option (equivalent to 'apropos') searches the manual page short descriptions for a keyword and returns all matching entries, which is exactly what you need when you know a concept but not the command name. It queries the whatis database built by mandb/makewhatis. This is the standard way to locate commands by keyword rather than by exact name.

Answer

man -s

Answer

man -f

Answer

help

Question 6

Which THREE of the following are types of manual page sections?

Accepted Answer

User commands (1). The Linux manual pages are organized into numbered sections, and the three options marked correct are genuine section types: B 'User commands (1)' is section 1, which documents executable programs and shell commands users can run; C 'System calls (2)' is section 2, which documents the kernel system-call interface used by programs such as open(2) and read(2); and D 'File formats (5)' is section 5, which documents file formats and conventions such as /etc/passwd(5) and proc(5). The unmarked options do not belong: A 'Network protocols (10)' is not a manual section (section 10 does not exist in the standard man-pages layout), and E 'Kernel hardware (20)' is not a manual section either (section 20 is not a standard section; hardware-related pages typically appear in section 4, 'Devices and special files').

Answer

Network protocols (10)

Answer

Kernel hardware (20)

Question 7

Which command is used to display the current working directory in the terminal?

Accepted Answer

pwd. The `pwd` command stands for 'print working directory' and is specifically designed to output the absolute path of the current directory in a Linux/Unix terminal. It reads the current directory from the kernel and displays it, making it the correct choice for this task. This is a fundamental command in the Linux Essentials (010-160) exam domain.

Answer

dir

Answer

cd

Answer

ls

Question 8

A junior administrator needs to display the full contents of /etc/hostname and also see line numbers next to each line. Which command accomplishes this?

Accepted Answer

cat -n /etc/hostname. The cat command copies file contents to standard output, and its -n option prepends a line number to every line, including empty ones. That combination displays the entire file with numbering in a single non-interactive command. The alternatives either misuse an option, open an interactive pager, or merely count lines instead of showing the content.

Answer

wc -l /etc/hostname

Answer

less -N /etc/hostname

Answer

head -n /etc/hostname

Question 9

Which THREE commands are used to manage user account lifecycle?

Accepted Answer

useradd. The three commands that manage the user account lifecycle are useradd (C), userdel (D), and usermod (E). useradd creates a new user account, including its entry in /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group, and optionally provisions a home directory and default shell, which is the creation phase of the lifecycle. userdel removes a user account and, with options like -r, also deletes the home directory and mail spool, covering the deletion phase. usermod modifies an existing account's attributes such as login name (-l), UID (-u), shell (-s), groups (-aG), and account expiry, covering the maintenance/modification phase. passwd (A) only changes or manages a user's password and password aging, and groupadd (B) only creates groups, so neither manages the full user account lifecycle of create, modify, and delete.

Answer

passwd

Answer

groupadd

Question 10

A junior Linux administrator is exploring ways to participate in the open source community beyond simply using the software. Which two activities represent direct contributions to an open source project? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Writing or updating documentation that explains how to install and configure the software. Direct contributions are artifacts submitted back to a project: code patches, documentation updates, translations, bug reports with reproductions, and testing feedback. Submitting a patch or pull request and writing or updating documentation both produce reviewable artifacts that maintainers can merge. Personal use, reading release notes, and recommending the software are consumption or advocacy activities that do not add anything to the project itself.

Answer

Recommending the software to colleagues who are looking for alternatives

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Reading the project's release notes to learn about new features

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Installing the software on a personal laptop and using it for daily tasks

Question 11

Which THREE of the following are environment variables commonly seen in a Linux shell?

Accepted Answer

USER. USER is a standard environment variable that holds the username of the currently logged-in user, so option A is correct. HOME is a standard environment variable that specifies the current user's home directory path, making option C correct. PATH is a standard environment variable that lists the directories the shell searches for executable commands, so option E is correct. ROOT (B) is not a standard environment variable; it is a common username or directory name, not a shell variable. FILE (D) is not a standard environment variable either; it is only a special variable inside Makefiles, not a general Linux shell environment variable.

Answer

ROOT

Answer

FILE

Question 12

A community college is designing an introductory course on Linux and open source culture. The instructor wants to include activities that reflect the collaborative practices of the open source community. (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Asking students to fork a project on a public hosting platform and open a pull request with improvements.. Open source collaboration centers on transparent, public participation. Filing bug reports and patches through public trackers, and forking repositories to submit pull requests, are authentic activities that teach the tools and social norms of community development. Reverse engineering proprietary code, hoarding changes, and requiring paid licenses contradict those practices.

Answer

Requiring students to reverse engineer a proprietary application and publish its source code.

Answer

Having students purchase a commercial license before reading any project documentation.

Answer

Instructing students to keep all modifications private and never share changes with the upstream project.

Question 13

You are hardening a server and must ensure that ordinary users cannot read the contents of `/etc/shadow`. Which two statements about `/etc/shadow` access are correct? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Its permissions are typically 640 with owner root and group shadow, so only root and members of the shadow group can read it.. On typical Linux systems /etc/shadow is mode 640 with owner root and group shadow, leaving the others category with no access, which is what keeps ordinary users from reading password hashes. Those hashes are salted but still vulnerable to offline cracking if exposed, so read restriction is the key control. Direct reads happen through privileged programs, not through ordinary user access.

Answer

It is readable by all users because the passwd command must consult it during a normal login.

Answer

It can be read by any user who supplies the correct password through the sudo prompt.

Answer

Its contents are encrypted with a system-wide key stored in /etc/crypttab, so permissions are largely irrelevant.

Question 14

A firm wants to contribute back to the open source community to improve their internal Linux tools. What is the best practice for submitting these improvements?

Accepted Answer

Submit patches or pull requests to the original project's repository.. The best practice for contributing improvements back to an open source project is to submit patches or pull requests to the original project's repository. This allows the maintainers to review, test, and merge the changes, ensuring the improvements benefit the entire community and are maintained in future releases. It also respects the project's governance and licensing.

Answer

Post the code on a private internal company wiki.

Answer

Rename the software and sell it as a proprietary product.

Answer

Fork the code and never release the changes publicly.

Question 15

You are copying a directory named 'source' to 'destination' and want to ensure all subdirectories and file attributes are preserved. Which flag is essential?

Accepted Answer

cp -a. The `-a` (archive) flag is a combination of `-dR --preserve=all`, which recursively copies directories while preserving symbolic links, file permissions, ownership, timestamps, and extended attributes. This makes it the only option that ensures all subdirectories and file attributes are preserved in a single command. While `-p` preserves some attributes, it does not recurse into subdirectories, and `-r` recurses but does not preserve attributes. Therefore, `cp -a` is essential for a complete archive copy.

Answer

cp -p

Answer

cp -v

Answer

cp -r

Question 16

A system administrator wants to check the partition table of a specific disk. Which tool is used for this?

Accepted Answer

fdisk. fdisk is the classic interactive tool for viewing and editing a disk's partition table, invoked as 'fdisk -l /dev/sda' to list partitions. It reads the MBR or GPT structures on the device and displays partition start/end sectors, sizes, types, and IDs. This makes it the correct tool for inspecting partition layout.

Answer

fsck

Answer

df

Answer

mkfs

Question 17

What is the purpose of the /proc directory in Linux?

Accepted Answer

To provide information about kernel and processes.. The /proc directory is a virtual filesystem (procfs) that provides a real-time interface to kernel data structures and running process information. It does not exist on disk — the kernel generates its contents dynamically, exposing details like CPU info (/proc/cpuinfo), memory usage (/proc/meminfo), and per-process data under /proc/[PID]/. This makes it the correct answer for providing kernel and process information.

Answer

To store configuration files for boot.

Answer

To store user passwords.

Answer

To store temporary system files.

Question 18

You are logged into a terminal and want to identify your current working directory. Which command should you execute?

Accepted Answer

pwd. The pwd (print working directory) command displays the absolute path of the current working directory. It is the standard Linux command for identifying where you are in the filesystem hierarchy.

Answer

whoami

Answer

ls

Answer

cd

Question 19

To see the contents of a directory, which command is standard?

Accepted Answer

ls. `ls` is the standard POSIX/Linux command for listing directory contents, and it is present on every Linux distribution as part of coreutils. It reads directory entries via the readdir() system call and prints them to stdout, with options like -l, -a, and -h for formatting. It is the canonical answer for 'list directory contents' on Linux.

Answer

dir

Answer

list

Answer

cat

Question 20

Which TWO of the following commands can be used to display the contents of a text file?

Accepted Answer

cat. Option C, cat, is correct because the cat command concatenates and prints file contents directly to standard output, making it the standard way to display a text file's contents. Option D, less, is correct because it is a pager that displays a text file's contents one screen at a time, allowing scrolling and searching through the file. The unmarked options do not belong: cd changes the current working directory, mkdir creates a new directory, and mv moves or renames files or directories—none of these display file contents.

Answer

cd

Answer

mkdir

Answer

mv