XK0-006 Troubleshooting Practice Question
A Linux server becomes unresponsive, and the administrator suspects a process is consuming excessive CPU. The administrator needs to identify the offending process and then terminate it cleanly by PID. Which TWO commands should be used to accomplish these tasks? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is reaching for killall or kill -9, which act by name or forcefully, instead of identifying the PID and requesting a graceful SIGTERM.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
top
Identifying a CPU hog requires a live process viewer that sorts by CPU, and top provides exactly that with PIDs. Once the PID is known, sending SIGTERM with kill requests an orderly shutdown so the process can release resources. Together these two steps find and cleanly stop the offending process, matching the scenario without resorting to a forceful, name-based kill.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
top
Why this is correct
top displays a live, sorted view of processes with CPU and memory usage, defaulting to the highest CPU consumers at the top. It lets the administrator quickly identify the process name and its PID during an active incident. This directly satisfies the requirement to find the process driving CPU usage before acting on it.
- ✗
nohup ./service &
Why it's wrong here
nohup with an ampersand runs a command immune to hangup and in the background. It starts a new process rather than locating or stopping an existing high-CPU one. This is unrelated to diagnosing or terminating the offending process and would not help resolve the unresponsive server.
- ✗
killall -9 bash
Why it's wrong here
killall acts on processes by name rather than PID and, with -9, sends SIGKILL, which cannot be caught and prevents cleanup. Targeting bash could terminate many unrelated shells and user sessions. It neither identifies the CPU consumer nor terminates a specific process cleanly, so it does not meet the stated objectives.
- ✓
kill -SIGTERM <PID>
Why this is correct
kill sends a signal to a process identified by PID. Using SIGTERM requests a graceful shutdown, allowing the process to flush buffers and clean up, which matches the requirement to terminate the process cleanly. This is the standard, safe way to end a well-behaved process once its PID is known.
- ✗
lsof -i :80
Why it's wrong here
lsof -i :80 lists processes with open connections on TCP port 80, which is useful for network or port troubleshooting. It does not rank processes by CPU consumption and does not terminate anything. This command addresses a different problem than identifying and stopping a CPU-bound process.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Process Management and System Monitoring
Key term
Linux
Linux is an open-source operating system that manages computer hardware and software, widely used in servers, desktops, and embedded systems.
Key term
Process
In IT service management, a process is a structured set of activities designed to accomplish a specific objective, such as managing incidents or changes, by transforming inputs into defined outputs.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This XK0-006 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the XK0-006 exam.