010-160 Practice Test 4 — 10 Questions

Question 1

A junior admin is confused about the difference between software RAID and hardware RAID. Which of the following is a primary characteristic of software RAID?

Accepted Answer

It is managed by the OS and kernel.. Software RAID is implemented in the operating system kernel, which manages the RAID arrays and disk operations. This is its primary characteristic, as opposed to hardware RAID which uses a dedicated controller.

Answer

It is always faster than hardware RAID.

Answer

It is configured in the BIOS.

Answer

It requires a dedicated controller card.

Question 2

What is the result of 'echo $USER'?

Accepted Answer

It prints the current username.. $USER is a shell environment variable that holds the login name of the current user, so 'echo $USER' prints that username (e.g., 'alice'). The shell expands the variable before passing the argument to echo, so the literal string '$USER' is never printed.

Answer

It prints the path to the user home.

Answer

It returns an error.

Answer

It prints '$USER'.

Question 3

A user's account has been compromised. Which command is the most effective way to lock the user account immediately while preserving their files?

Accepted Answer

usermod -L jdoe. `usermod -L jdoe` locks the account by prepending an exclamation mark (!) to the password hash in /etc/shadow, immediately preventing password-based logins while leaving the user's home directory, files, UID, and group memberships fully intact. This is the standard, reversible administrative action for a compromised account because it disables authentication without destroying data or ownership.

Answer

userdel jdoe

Answer

killall -u jdoe

Answer

chsh -s /bin/false jdoe

Question 4

Which TWO of the following help manage compressed archive contents?

Accepted Answer

gzip. Option C, gzip, is correct because it is the standard GNU/Linux compression utility that compresses and decompresses files (creating .gz archives) and can also list compression information with gzip -l, directly managing compressed archive contents. Option E, tar, is correct because it is the archiving utility that bundles multiple files and directories into a single archive and, when combined with compression options such as -z (gzip), -j (bzip2), or -J (xz), creates and extracts compressed archives like .tar.gz, making it a primary tool for managing compressed archive contents. Option A, find, is incorrect because it searches the filesystem for files matching criteria such as name, size, or permissions; it does not compress, decompress, or manipulate archive contents. Option B, cat, is incorrect because it concatenates and displays file contents to standard output and has no archive or compression management capability. Option D, grep, is incorrect because it searches text patterns within files and, while it can search inside uncompressed streams, it does not create, extract, or otherwise manage compressed archives.

Answer

find

Answer

cat

Answer

grep

Question 5

You have created a script but it is not executable. Which command should you use to give the owner execute permissions?

Accepted Answer

chmod u+x. The 'chmod u+x' command adds execute permission for the user (owner) of the file. 'chmod' is the correct command to change file mode bits, and 'u+x' specifies adding execute permission for the user category. This is the standard way to make a script executable for its owner.

Answer

chown u+x

Answer

chgrp u+x

Answer

chperm u+x

Question 6

A file is owned by root and has permissions 600. What happens if a regular user tries to read this file?

Accepted Answer

Access is denied.. With permissions 600 (rw-------), only the file owner (root) has read and write access; group and other have no permissions at all. A regular user falls into the 'other' category, so the kernel denies the read attempt with EACCES (Permission denied). This is standard POSIX discretionary access control behavior — the owner bits apply only to UID 0 in this case, and no ACL or capability overrides the denial.

Answer

The user is prompted for a password.

Answer

The user can only read but not write.

Answer

Access is granted.

Question 7

A technician is preparing a presentation on how Linux organizes its filesystem and wants to describe the role of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard. Which two statements accurately describe the FHS as it applies to mainstream Linux distributions? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

It defines a common directory layout so that software and administrators can rely on predictable locations for files.. The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard exists to make file locations predictable across distributions, covering both core system directories and conventions for mounts such as /media and /mnt. It deliberately does not dictate storage formats or kernel versions, and configuration files are not forced into one universal directory. The two accurate statements reflect its real scope: consistent layout and defined mount conventions.

Answer

It guarantees that all configuration files are stored in a single directory regardless of the software package.

Answer

It specifies the exact kernel version that a conforming distribution must ship.

Answer

It mandates that every distribution use the ext4 filesystem for the root partition.

Question 8

Which of the following describes the core philosophy of 'Open Source' as defined by the Open Source Initiative?

Accepted Answer

The source code must be available for modification and redistribution.. The Open Source Initiative's Open Source Definition centers on the freedom to use, modify, and redistribute source code, including derivative works, without discrimination against persons, groups, or fields of endeavor. Option A captures this core requirement that source code must be available and modifiable. Free-of-charge distribution is explicitly not required — OSI-approved licenses may permit commercial sale.

Answer

The software must be provided for free without any charge.

Answer

The code must be written in C or C++.

Answer

The software must only be used for non-profit purposes.

Question 9

You are managing a Linux server and need to confirm the IP address assigned to the eth0 interface. Which command is most appropriate on modern distributions?

Accepted Answer

ip addr. The `ip addr` command is part of the iproute2 suite, which has replaced the legacy net-tools package on modern Linux distributions. It queries the kernel's network stack directly via netlink sockets and displays all interfaces with their assigned IPv4/IPv6 addresses, MAC addresses, and link state. Running `ip addr` (or its shorthand `ip a`) shows the eth0 interface with its inet address, making it the correct modern tool for this task.

Answer

ifconfig

Answer

route -n

Answer

netstat -rn

Question 10

A Linux administrator needs to check how much free space remains on each mounted filesystem before deploying a large application. The administrator wants a quick, human-readable summary showing used and available space per mount point. Which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

df -h. df -h is the standard tool for reporting filesystem capacity and remaining space across all mount points, with sizes scaled to KiB, MiB, and GiB for readability. It reads superblock information, so it is nearly instantaneous even on large volumes. du, lsblk, and fdisk provide usage totals, device layout, or partition geometry instead of per-filesystem free space.

Answer

fdisk -l

Answer

lsblk -f

Answer

du -sh /