EX200 Cheat Sheet

#	Domain	Weight	Questions	Practice
1.0	Essential Tools	11%	75	Practice →
Total	11%	546

Domain

Weight

Questions

Practice

1.0

Essential Tools

11%

Practice →

Total

11%

546

Domain Quick Reference

1.0Essential Tools

Redirect output with >, >>, 2>, and pipes, then process text using grep, sed, awk, cut, and sort; find files with find and locate, archive with tar and gzip, and create hard and symbolic links with ln. Get absolute versus relative path handling right.

11%

Key concepts

✓Redirect stdout and stderr with >, >>, 2>, and pipes between grep, cut, sort, and wc
✓Locate files by name, owner, size, or mtime using find with -exec and xargs
✓Create and extract tar archives, including gzip and bzip2 compression with tar czf and tar xjf
✓Manage hard links and symbolic links with ln and ln -s, and read file contents via cat, less, head, tail

Watch out for

⚠Using > when >> is needed, silently truncating an existing file instead of appending the new output to it
⚠Forgetting that 2>&1 must follow the redirection order, so stderr still prints to the terminal instead of the file
⚠Creating a hard link across filesystems or to a directory, which ln refuses, when a symbolic link was intended

Exam Day Reminders

→Read every question stem fully — look for qualifiers like 'MOST likely,' 'BEST,' or 'EXCEPT.'

→Flag uncertain questions and come back — don't waste time on one question.

→Eliminate obviously wrong options first, then choose between remaining ones.

→Trust your first instinct unless you have a specific reason to change.

→For EX200, scenarios typically have one clearly best answer — look for the option that matches the specific constraints in the question.

#	Domain	Weight	Questions	Practice
1.0	Essential Tools	11%	75	Practice →
Total	11%	546

Domain

Weight

Questions

Practice

1.0

Essential Tools

11%

Practice →

Total

11%

546

Domain Quick Reference

1.0Essential Tools

11%

Key concepts

✓Redirect stdout and stderr with >, >>, 2>, and pipes between grep, cut, sort, and wc
✓Locate files by name, owner, size, or mtime using find with -exec and xargs
✓Create and extract tar archives, including gzip and bzip2 compression with tar czf and tar xjf
✓Manage hard links and symbolic links with ln and ln -s, and read file contents via cat, less, head, tail

Watch out for

⚠Using > when >> is needed, silently truncating an existing file instead of appending the new output to it
⚠Forgetting that 2>&1 must follow the redirection order, so stderr still prints to the terminal instead of the file
⚠Creating a hard link across filesystems or to a directory, which ln refuses, when a symbolic link was intended

Exam Day Reminders

→Read every question stem fully — look for qualifiers like 'MOST likely,' 'BEST,' or 'EXCEPT.'

→Flag uncertain questions and come back — don't waste time on one question.

→Eliminate obviously wrong options first, then choose between remaining ones.

→Trust your first instinct unless you have a specific reason to change.

→For EX200, scenarios typically have one clearly best answer — look for the option that matches the specific constraints in the question.

EX200 Exam Blueprint — At a Glance

Domain Quick Reference

1.0Essential Tools

Exam Day Reminders

More EX200 resources

EX200 Cheat Sheet

EX200 Exam Blueprint — At a Glance

Domain Quick Reference

1.0Essential Tools

Exam Day Reminders

More EX200 resources