010-160 Finding Your Way ON A Linux System — Timed 10 Questions

Question 1

Which command would you use to list files in long format, sorted by modification time, with the newest files appearing first?

Accepted Answer

ls -ltr. The -l (long), -t (time), and -r (reverse) flags together achieve this.

Answer

ls -lt

Answer

ls -lr

Answer

ls -Rlt

Question 2

You are trying to find the location of a binary file, specifically the 'ls' command. Which command is best suited for this?

Accepted Answer

which. The which command searches the directories listed in the PATH environment variable and returns the full path of the executable that would run when the command is invoked. For locating the 'ls' binary that the shell will actually execute, which is the precise tool. It respects aliases and PATH order, making it ideal for resolving command locations.

Answer

find

Answer

locate

Answer

whereis

Question 3

Which command is used to view the contents of a file one screen at a time?

Accepted Answer

less. The less command is a terminal pager that displays file contents one screen at a time, allowing forward and backward navigation, searching, and is the standard tool for viewing files interactively. It is more feature-rich than more and is the correct answer for viewing contents screen by screen.

Answer

head

Answer

more

Answer

cat

Question 4

You are currently in a directory and want to find files ending in '.conf' within the current folder and its subfolders. Which command is correct?

Accepted Answer

find -name "*.conf". The 'find' command with the '-name' predicate searches recursively through the current directory and all subdirectories for files matching the given pattern. Using 'find -name "*.conf"' (or more explicitly 'find . -name "*.conf"') returns every file whose name ends in .conf, regardless of depth. The quotes prevent the shell from expanding the glob before find sees it, allowing find to perform the pattern match itself.

Answer

grep "*.conf"

Answer

search *.conf

Answer

ls *.conf

Question 5

Which TWO of the following flags can be used with 'ls' to modify its output?

Accepted Answer

-a. Option B (-a) is correct because the -a flag tells ls to list all entries, including hidden files and directories whose names begin with a dot (e.g., .bashrc), which directly modifies the command's output. Option E (-l) is correct because the -l flag switches ls to long-listing format, showing permissions, link count, owner, group, size, modification time, and filename for each entry. The other options do not modify ls output in this way: -o is not a standard ls flag (in GNU ls it is accepted only as a synonym related to -l without group, but it is not the intended answer here), -z is not an ls option (it is commonly a gzip or grep flag), and -x is a valid ls flag that changes column sorting to row-major order, but it is not marked as correct for this question.

Answer

-o

Answer

-z

Answer

-x

Question 6

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to list directory contents?

Accepted Answer

ls. Option C, ls, is correct because ls is the standard Unix/Linux command that lists the contents of a directory, showing files and subdirectories. Option E, dir, is correct because dir is a valid directory-listing command (commonly used in Windows/DOS, and also available on many Unix-like systems as an alias or equivalent to ls). Option A, pwd, is incorrect because pwd prints the current working directory path rather than listing its contents. Option B, cd, is incorrect because cd changes the current working directory instead of listing files. Option D, cat, is incorrect because cat concatenates and displays file contents, not directory listings.

Answer

pwd

Answer

cd

Answer

cat

Question 7

You are working in a shell and need to display the full pathname of the executable that would run if you typed 'ls'. Which command should you execute?

Accepted Answer

command -v ls. The shell builtin 'command -v' reports how the shell resolves a command name, printing the full pathname of the executable that would be invoked. Unlike external helpers, it is portable and reflects aliases, functions, and PATH order, so it reliably answers which executable would run when the user types 'ls'.

Answer

whereis ls

Answer

type ls

Answer

which ls

Question 8

A junior administrator is logged into a Linux server and wants to display the full pathname of the current working directory, including any symbolic links that were traversed to get there. Which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

pwd -L. The pwd command prints the current working directory. Its -L option (also the default behavior) returns the logical path, preserving symbolic link names as traversed, while -P resolves them to physical paths. Because the scenario explicitly asks for the path including symbolic links, the logical form is the correct choice.

Answer

pwd -P

Answer

ls -d .

Answer

cd .

Question 9

A junior administrator is at the shell prompt and wants to display detailed information about all currently mounted filesystems, including their type, size, and mount point. Which command should be used?

Accepted Answer

mount. The mount command, when executed without arguments, reads /etc/mtab or /proc/mounts and displays each mounted filesystem with its device, mount point, filesystem type, and options. This directly satisfies the need to see type and mount point details. Other commands like df, lsblk, and fdisk provide storage or partition data but not the full mount metadata required here.

Answer

fdisk -l

Answer

lsblk

Answer

df -h

Question 10

A technician needs to locate every occurrence of the word 'timeout' in the manual page for the ssh command, and also wants the search to ignore case differences. Which TWO commands will accomplish this? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

man ssh | grep -i timeout. Both a case-insensitive grep pipeline and a case-insensitive less search inspect the ssh manual content for the pattern. The keyword search option only queries the manual index, the inverted grep returns non-matching lines, and a plain grep would miss capitalized variants. Thus the two approaches that combine content search with case insensitivity are correct.

Answer

man -k timeout

Answer

man ssh | grep -v timeout

Answer

man ssh | grep timeout