XK0-006 System Management Practice Question
A process is consuming excessive CPU and needs to be terminated immediately. The PID is 1234. Which command will terminate the process with the most forceful signal?
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
✓
kill -9 1234
kill -9 (SIGKILL) forcibly terminates the process. SIGTERM (15) is graceful; SIGHUP (1) reloads config; SIGSTOP (19) suspends.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
kill -15 1234
Why it's wrong here
SIGTERM (15) requests graceful termination, allowing the process to catch the signal, run cleanup handlers and exit — so a wedged or unresponsive process may ignore it entirely. It suits ordinary shutdowns where data integrity matters. The stem demands the most forceful signal, which is SIGKILL (9), delivered by kill -9 1234.
- ✗
kill -1 1234
Why it's wrong here
Sending SIGHUP (signal 1) requests a hangup, which many daemons treat as a reload rather than a termination, so PID 1234 may keep running. It is tempting because SIGHUP legitimately restarts or reinitialises services after configuration changes, but the stem demands the most forceful signal, SIGKILL (kill -9).
- ✓
kill -9 1234
Why this is correct
SIGKILL (signal 9) cannot be caught, blocked, or ignored by the process, so the kernel terminates PID 1234 immediately without allowing cleanup — satisfying the stem's demand for the most forceful signal. Weaker signals such as SIGTERM (15) can be trapped or deferred, which would not guarantee immediate termination.
- ✗
kill -19 1234
Why it's wrong here
SIGSTOP (signal 19) suspends a process without terminating it, so PID 1234 would remain resident and still hold its resources. It is tempting because SIGSTOP is the correct choice when you need to pause a runaway process for inspection or debugging before deciding whether to resume or kill it.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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