010-160 Practice Test 23 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A systems engineer is evaluating a Linux distribution for a company that needs long-term stability, commercial support options, and certification for third-party enterprise applications. The company also wants the ability to obtain paid support contracts. Which distribution characteristic best aligns with these requirements?

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

Accepted Answer

An enterprise-focused distribution with a defined support lifecycle, vendor backing, and certification for commercial software.. The company needs long-term stability, commercial support contracts, and certification for third-party applications. Enterprise-focused distributions provide defined lifecycles, vendor support, and ISV certification programs that meet these needs. Rolling releases, source-based builds, and hobbyist projects do not offer the same guarantees, making the enterprise distribution the appropriate choice.

Answer

A hobbyist distribution maintained by a single volunteer with no formal release schedule or security response team.

Answer

A minimal distribution built from source with no package manager, requiring manual compilation of all software.

Answer

A community-driven rolling release distribution that receives frequent kernel and library updates with no fixed support lifecycle.

Question 2

You are browsing a directory and need to see hidden files alongside regular files. Which command achieves this?

Accepted Answer

ls -a. The 'ls -a' command lists all directory entries, including hidden files (those whose names begin with a dot, like .bashrc or .gitignore). This is the standard way to reveal hidden files alongside regular ones.

Answer

ls -R

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ls -h

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ls -l

Question 3

A junior administrator is troubleshooting a script and needs to know the exact location of the executable that runs when the command 'grep' is typed, without executing it. Which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

which grep. The which command is designed to locate a command's executable by searching the directories in the PATH environment variable in order, returning the first match that would be executed. This directly addresses the need to identify the exact binary without running it, and it respects the shell's command resolution behavior, unlike broader search tools that may return multiple or irrelevant results.

Answer

locate grep

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whereis grep

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find / -name grep

Question 4

You are trying to troubleshoot why a user cannot connect to your server via SSH. You want to see if the SSH daemon is listening on the appropriate port. Which command should you run?

Accepted Answer

ss -tulpn. The `ss -tulpn` command is the correct choice because it displays all listening TCP and UDP ports along with the associated process names and PIDs. The flags `-t` (TCP), `-u` (UDP), `-l` (listening), `-p` (processes), and `-n` (numeric ports) together provide a comprehensive view of which services are bound to which ports. This directly answers whether the SSH daemon (typically `sshd`) is listening on port 22 (or a custom port).

Answer

host

Answer

ping

Answer

ip link

Question 5

A Linux administrator is preparing a machine that must run headless as a file server. She needs to identify which of the following are characteristics of a Linux server installation rather than a typical desktop installation. (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

It commonly runs without a graphical desktop environment, exposing services over the network instead.. Server installations are characterized by headless operation, where services are exposed over the network and administration happens remotely, and by a conservative update philosophy that favors stability and timely security fixes over the newest upstream versions. Those two traits reflect how production file servers are actually built and maintained.

Answer

It cannot run the same Linux kernel as a desktop distribution.

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It always includes a full office productivity suite installed by default.

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It requires a dedicated physical display and keyboard to be administered.

Question 6

Which TWO of the following commands help in identifying hardware on a system?

Accepted Answer

lspci. lspci (option A) is correct because it enumerates the PCI bus and lists all PCI/PCIe devices such as GPUs, network adapters, and storage controllers, directly identifying hardware on the system. lsusb (option C) is correct because it queries the USB subsystem and lists connected USB devices (vendor and product IDs), which is another direct way to identify hardware. The remaining options do not identify hardware: pwd (B) prints the current working directory, whoami (D) prints the effective username, and date (E) displays the system date and time.

Answer

pwd

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whoami

Answer

date

Question 7

You suspect that a process is consuming too much CPU. Which command allows you to sort active processes by CPU usage?

Accepted Answer

top. `top` is an interactive process viewer that by default sorts processes by CPU usage in descending order, refreshing every few seconds. It shows PID, user, priority, %CPU, %MEM, and other metrics, making it the go-to tool for spotting CPU-hungry processes in real time.

Answer

kill

Answer

nice

Answer

ps -ef

Question 8

An operator is at a prompt and types cd - after having earlier changed from /etc/nginx to /var/www/html. What is the effect of that command?

Accepted Answer

It returns the shell to /etc/nginx, the previous working directory, and prints that path.. The shell maintains the OLDPWD variable and updates it after every successful directory change. The cd builtin treats a bare dash as a request to switch to that stored path and then prints it, giving a quick toggle between two working directories without retyping long paths.

Answer

It changes to the root directory because a lone dash is interpreted as the filesystem root.

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It fails with an error because cd requires a valid directory path and a dash is not a path.

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It moves up one level to the parent of the current directory, /var/www.

Question 9

A Linux administrator is reviewing the boot process on a server that uses systemd. She wants to determine which target the system will boot into by default and confirm the current default setting. Which command should she use?

Accepted Answer

systemctl get-default. In systemd, the default boot target is stored as a symbolic link and queried with systemctl get-default. Listing active targets or using legacy SysV tools does not reveal the configured default for future boots. This command is the authoritative, supported method to confirm which target the system will start by default.

Answer

systemctl list-units --type=target

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cat /etc/inittab

Answer

runlevel

Question 10

You want to create a symbolic link named 'link_to_file' that points to 'original_file'. Which command is correct?

Accepted Answer

ln -s original_file link_to_file. The `ln -s` command creates a symbolic link, which is a special file that points to another file by name. The syntax is `ln -s `, so `ln -s original_file link_to_file` correctly creates a symlink named `link_to_file` that references `original_file`. Without `-s`, `ln` creates a hard link, which is a different mechanism entirely.

Answer

link original_file link_to_file

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ln -h original_file link_to_file

Answer

ln original_file link_to_file

Question 11

A user reports that a script at /usr/local/bin/backup.sh runs with the permissions of the file's owner rather than the user who invoked it, and that this behaviour is intentional for a scheduled task. Which permission bit is responsible for this behaviour?

Accepted Answer

The setuid bit on the script, shown as an s in the owner execute position.. The setuid bit, set on an executable, makes the kernel run the resulting process with the effective UID of the file's owner. That is the only permission bit among the choices that changes the user identity of a running program. It is displayed as an s in the owner execute position of ls output.

Answer

The setgid bit on the script, shown as an s in the group execute position.

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The sticky bit on the script, shown as a t in the others execute position.

Answer

The execute bit for others combined with a umask of 022.

Question 12

You need to find files modified within the last 7 days. Which find flag is correct?

Accepted Answer

find . -mtime -7. The `-mtime -7` predicate matches files whose modification time is less than 7 days ago (i.e., within the last 7 days). The minus sign means 'less than N', so `-mtime -7` correctly captures recently modified files. This is the standard find syntax for time-based filtering and directly answers the requirement.

Answer

find . -ctime 7

Answer

find . -mtime +7

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find . -atime 7

Question 13

Which THREE of the following are common activities for a Linux system administrator?

Accepted Answer

Managing user accounts and permissions. Option A (Managing user accounts and permissions) is correct because a core Linux sysadmin duty is creating, modifying, and deleting users and groups with commands like useradd, usermod, and passwd, and controlling access via file ownership (chown/chgrp) and permission bits or ACLs. Option C (Applying security patches and updates) is correct because administrators must keep systems hardened and current by applying kernel and package updates through package managers such as apt, dnf/yum, or zypper, and by tracking security advisories (e.g., CVEs). Option D (Monitoring system logs and performance) is correct because admins routinely inspect logs in /var/log and via journalctl, and track CPU, memory, disk, and network metrics using tools like top, vmstat, iostat, sar, and monitoring platforms to detect and resolve issues. Option B (Creating commercial advertisements for Linux) is not a technical system administration task but a marketing function, and Option E (Developing proprietary hardware drivers) is kernel/driver development work typically performed by developers or vendors, not a routine sysadmin activity.

Answer

Creating commercial advertisements for Linux

Answer

Developing proprietary hardware drivers

Question 14

Which THREE of the following are valid ways to run commands sequentially?

Accepted Answer

;. Option A (;) is correct because the semicolon is the shell's unconditional command separator, so `cmd1 ; cmd2` runs cmd2 after cmd1 finishes regardless of cmd1's exit status. Option D (&&) is correct because the logical AND operator runs the second command only if the first command exits successfully (exit status 0), which is a standard way to chain commands sequentially with dependency. Option E (||) is correct because the logical OR operator runs the second command only if the first command fails (non-zero exit status), also executing commands one after another in sequence. Option B (|) is not a sequential runner but a pipe that connects the standard output of one command to the standard input of another, and both processes typically run concurrently. Option C (>) is a redirection operator that sends standard output to a file, not a command-sequencing construct.

Answer

|

Answer

>

Question 15

A software engineer at a medical device company wants to use an open source library licensed under the GNU GPLv3 in a product that will be shipped as a closed-source firmware binary. The company's legal team is concerned about compliance. What is the primary obligation the company must meet under the GPLv3?

Accepted Answer

The company must provide the source code of the GPLv3 library and any modifications it makes to that library, along with the license text, to recipients of the firmware.. The GPLv3 requires that when a covered library is distributed as part of a product, recipients receive the library's source code, any modifications, and the license text. The company's own proprietary firmware can remain closed if it is not a derivative work of the library. Compliance focuses on conveying source and license, not on relicensing the entire product or paying fees.

Answer

The company must remove all GPLv3 code from the firmware and replace it with a permissively licensed alternative to avoid disclosure.

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The company must publish the complete source code of its proprietary firmware under the GPLv3.

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The company must pay a royalty to the Free Software Foundation for each device sold that includes the GPLv3 library.