Objective 1.0

Essential Tools

EX200 Practice Questions

Use this page to practise Essential Tools questions for this certification. Focus on how the exam tests essential tools in scenario format — understanding the why behind each answer builds more durable knowledge than memorising options.

Full Practice Test →All Objectives

What this objective tests

EX200 Essential Tools — Key Topics

Essential Tools questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage essential tools concepts in scenario-based situations.

Core Essential Tools concepts and how they apply in real-world cloud scenarios.
How to deploy essential tools correctly and verify the outcome.
Troubleshooting essential tools issues by interpreting error output and system state.
Cloud best practices and Essential Tools design trade-offs tested by this certification.

Common exam traps

Where candidates lose marks on Essential Tools

⚠Selecting the most expensive service when a simpler managed option meets the requirement.
⚠Forgetting that cloud resources must be explicitly secured — defaults are rarely secure.
⚠Choosing a global service fix when the issue is region-specific.
⚠Overlooking cost implications of cross-region data transfer in architecture questions.

EX200 Essential Tools — Practice Questions

30 questions from this objective

Question 2easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to find all files in /var/log that have been modified in the last 2 hours. Which command should be used?

Question 3mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A user complains that the 'ls' command no longer outputs colors. The administrator suspects a change in environment variables. Which command would help diagnose the issue?

Question 4hardmultiple choice

Full question →

During a security audit, an administrator needs to list all TCP ports on which the system is listening, showing only the port numbers and the associated process names. Which command best achieves this?

Question 5easymultiple choice

Full question →

A new Linux administrator needs to read the manual page for the 'ls' command but also wants to search for the word 'color' within the manual. Which command accomplishes this?

Question 6mediummultiple choice

Read the full NAT/PAT explanation →

An administrator needs to terminate a hung process with PID 3456 that does not respond to 'kill -15 3456'. Which signal should be used next?

Question 7hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A backup script uses tar to create an archive, but the administrator wants to exclude the /tmp directory from the backup. Which tar option should be added?

Question 8easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator wants to display a list of all currently logged-in users. Which command is most appropriate?

Question 9mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A developer needs to search for the string 'ERROR' in all files under /var/log, but wants to exclude files ending with '.gz'. Which command is correct?

Question 10easymulti select

Full question →

Which TWO commands can be used to display the current date and time in a format like '2023-10-05 14:30:00'?

Question 11mediummulti select

Full question →

Which TWO commands can be used to view the contents of a compressed file named 'archive.tar.gz' without extracting it?

Question 12hardmulti select

Full question →

Which THREE commands can be used to check the disk space usage of the /home partition?

Question 13easymultiple choice

Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. Why does the 'bin' user have /sbin/nologin as its shell?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ cat /etc/passwd | head -3
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin

Question 14mediummultiple choice

Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. Why does the /etc/shadow file have no read permissions for any user?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ ls -l /etc/shadow
----------. 1 root root 1234 Oct  5 14:30 /etc/shadow

Question 15hardmultiple choice

Full question →

You are a system administrator for a company running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. A developer reports that a script which runs daily at 2 AM is failing. The script is located at /opt/scripts/backup.sh and is owned by root. The developer says the script runs fine when executed manually with './backup.sh' from the /opt/scripts directory. The script is scheduled via a root crontab entry: '0 2 * * * /opt/scripts/backup.sh'. However, the script fails because it cannot find a configuration file located at './config.ini'. What is the most likely cause and the correct solution?

Question 16mediummultiple choice

Full question →

You are a Linux administrator. A user reports that when they log in via SSH, they see the message 'Could not chdir to home directory /home/john: No such file or directory' and are dropped into the root directory. The user's home directory does exist at /home/john but is empty. The user's entry in /etc/passwd is: 'john:x:1001:1001::/home/john:/bin/bash'. What is the most likely cause and the correct fix?

Question 17easymultiple choice

Full question →

A user reports that a script in their home directory fails to execute. The script has permissions -rw-r--r-- and is owned by the user. Which command will allow execution for the owner?

Question 18mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to find all regular files larger than 10MB in /var/log. Which find command should they use?

Question 19hardmultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator wants to ensure that when a user presses Ctrl+C during a long-running script, the script cleans up temporary files before exiting. Which approach should the script use?

Question 20easymultiple choice

Full question →

A user needs to view the last 15 lines of a log file that is constantly being updated. Which command should they use?

Question 21mediummultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to compress a directory 'data' into an archive named backup.tar.gz using gzip compression. Which command should they use?

Question 22easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to find all files modified in the last 24 hours under /var/log. Which command accomplishes this?

Question 23mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A user reports that they cannot use the 'systemctl' command to manage services. The user is part of the 'wheel' group. Which configuration change is required to allow this?

Question 24hardmultiple choice

Full question →

During boot, a server fails to mount an NFS filesystem listed in /etc/fstab. Which troubleshooting step should be taken first to isolate the issue?

Question 25easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator wants to edit a configuration file and ensure only the intended changes are saved. Which practice is recommended?

Question 26mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A script needs to be run at system boot for a specific user. Which method ensures the script runs with that user's environment?

Question 27hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A server has a disk with LVM logical volumes. The administrator needs to extend a logical volume to use all remaining free space in the volume group. Which command sequence is correct?

Question 28easymultiple choice

Full question →

Which command displays the current system time, timezone, and whether NTP synchronization is active?

Question 29mediummultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to monitor network traffic on a specific interface in real time. Which tool is most appropriate for this task?

Question 30hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A developer needs to compile software from source and install it under /opt/custom. To avoid affecting the system package manager, which approach should be used?

Question 31mediummulti select

Full question →

Which TWO commands can be used to display the contents of a compressed log file without decompressing it first?

More Essential Tools questions available in the full practice test.

Continue Practising →

All EX200 Objectives

1.Essential Tools

Objective 1.0

Essential Tools

EX200 Practice Questions

Full Practice Test →All Objectives

What this objective tests

EX200 Essential Tools — Key Topics

Essential Tools questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage essential tools concepts in scenario-based situations.

Core Essential Tools concepts and how they apply in real-world cloud scenarios.
How to deploy essential tools correctly and verify the outcome.
Troubleshooting essential tools issues by interpreting error output and system state.
Cloud best practices and Essential Tools design trade-offs tested by this certification.

Common exam traps

Where candidates lose marks on Essential Tools

⚠Selecting the most expensive service when a simpler managed option meets the requirement.
⚠Forgetting that cloud resources must be explicitly secured — defaults are rarely secure.
⚠Choosing a global service fix when the issue is region-specific.
⚠Overlooking cost implications of cross-region data transfer in architecture questions.

EX200 Essential Tools — Practice Questions

30 questions from this objective

Question 2easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to find all files in /var/log that have been modified in the last 2 hours. Which command should be used?

Question 3mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A user complains that the 'ls' command no longer outputs colors. The administrator suspects a change in environment variables. Which command would help diagnose the issue?

Question 4hardmultiple choice

Full question →

During a security audit, an administrator needs to list all TCP ports on which the system is listening, showing only the port numbers and the associated process names. Which command best achieves this?

Question 5easymultiple choice

Full question →

A new Linux administrator needs to read the manual page for the 'ls' command but also wants to search for the word 'color' within the manual. Which command accomplishes this?

Question 6mediummultiple choice

Read the full NAT/PAT explanation →

An administrator needs to terminate a hung process with PID 3456 that does not respond to 'kill -15 3456'. Which signal should be used next?

Question 7hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A backup script uses tar to create an archive, but the administrator wants to exclude the /tmp directory from the backup. Which tar option should be added?

Question 8easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator wants to display a list of all currently logged-in users. Which command is most appropriate?

Question 9mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A developer needs to search for the string 'ERROR' in all files under /var/log, but wants to exclude files ending with '.gz'. Which command is correct?

Question 10easymulti select

Full question →

Which TWO commands can be used to display the current date and time in a format like '2023-10-05 14:30:00'?

Question 11mediummulti select

Full question →

Which TWO commands can be used to view the contents of a compressed file named 'archive.tar.gz' without extracting it?

Question 12hardmulti select

Full question →

Which THREE commands can be used to check the disk space usage of the /home partition?

Question 13easymultiple choice

Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. Why does the 'bin' user have /sbin/nologin as its shell?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ cat /etc/passwd | head -3
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bin:x:1:1:bin:/bin:/sbin/nologin
daemon:x:2:2:daemon:/sbin:/sbin/nologin

Question 14mediummultiple choice

Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. Why does the /etc/shadow file have no read permissions for any user?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ ls -l /etc/shadow
----------. 1 root root 1234 Oct  5 14:30 /etc/shadow

Question 15hardmultiple choice

Full question →

You are a system administrator for a company running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. A developer reports that a script which runs daily at 2 AM is failing. The script is located at /opt/scripts/backup.sh and is owned by root. The developer says the script runs fine when executed manually with './backup.sh' from the /opt/scripts directory. The script is scheduled via a root crontab entry: '0 2 * * * /opt/scripts/backup.sh'. However, the script fails because it cannot find a configuration file located at './config.ini'. What is the most likely cause and the correct solution?

Question 16mediummultiple choice

Full question →

You are a Linux administrator. A user reports that when they log in via SSH, they see the message 'Could not chdir to home directory /home/john: No such file or directory' and are dropped into the root directory. The user's home directory does exist at /home/john but is empty. The user's entry in /etc/passwd is: 'john:x:1001:1001::/home/john:/bin/bash'. What is the most likely cause and the correct fix?

Question 17easymultiple choice

Full question →

A user reports that a script in their home directory fails to execute. The script has permissions -rw-r--r-- and is owned by the user. Which command will allow execution for the owner?

Question 18mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to find all regular files larger than 10MB in /var/log. Which find command should they use?

Question 19hardmultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator wants to ensure that when a user presses Ctrl+C during a long-running script, the script cleans up temporary files before exiting. Which approach should the script use?

Question 20easymultiple choice

Full question →

A user needs to view the last 15 lines of a log file that is constantly being updated. Which command should they use?

Question 21mediummultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to compress a directory 'data' into an archive named backup.tar.gz using gzip compression. Which command should they use?

Question 22easymultiple choice

Full question →

A system administrator needs to find all files modified in the last 24 hours under /var/log. Which command accomplishes this?

Question 23mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A user reports that they cannot use the 'systemctl' command to manage services. The user is part of the 'wheel' group. Which configuration change is required to allow this?

Question 24hardmultiple choice

Full question →

During boot, a server fails to mount an NFS filesystem listed in /etc/fstab. Which troubleshooting step should be taken first to isolate the issue?

Question 25easymultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator wants to edit a configuration file and ensure only the intended changes are saved. Which practice is recommended?

Question 26mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A script needs to be run at system boot for a specific user. Which method ensures the script runs with that user's environment?

Question 27hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A server has a disk with LVM logical volumes. The administrator needs to extend a logical volume to use all remaining free space in the volume group. Which command sequence is correct?

Question 28easymultiple choice

Full question →

Which command displays the current system time, timezone, and whether NTP synchronization is active?

Question 29mediummultiple choice

Full question →

An administrator needs to monitor network traffic on a specific interface in real time. Which tool is most appropriate for this task?

Question 30hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A developer needs to compile software from source and install it under /opt/custom. To avoid affecting the system package manager, which approach should be used?

Question 31mediummulti select

Full question →

Which TWO commands can be used to display the contents of a compressed log file without decompressing it first?

More Essential Tools questions available in the full practice test.

Continue Practising →

All EX200 Objectives

1.Essential Tools