XK0-006 System Management Practice Question
A system administrator notices that a process with PID 1234 is consuming excessive CPU. The administrator wants to terminate this process gracefully. Which command should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is conflating 'terminate' with 'force kill' — candidates see 'terminate' and reach for `-9`, but the word 'gracefully' is the key qualifier that points to the default 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
✓
kill 1234
The `kill` command sends SIGTERM (signal 15) by default, which requests that the process terminate gracefully — allowing it to save state, close file handles, and clean up before exiting. Since the administrator wants a graceful termination, `kill 1234` is the correct choice because it targets the specific PID with the default SIGTERM signal.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
killall 1234
Why it's wrong here
killall matches by process name, not PID, so 'killall 1234' targets a process literally named 1234 and leaves PID 1234 running. It is tempting because killall does terminate processes, and would be correct had the administrator identified the runaway process by its command name instead of its numeric PID.
- ✓
kill 1234
Why this is correct
`kill 1234` sends SIGTERM (signal 15) by default, which requests graceful termination and lets the process run cleanup handlers before exiting. This satisfies the stem's requirement to terminate PID 1234 gracefully, unlike `kill -9`, which sends SIGKILL and terminates immediately without cleanup.
- ✗
pkill -9 1234
Why it's wrong here
pkill matches processes by name or pattern rather than PID, so 'pkill -9 1234' would not target PID 1234, and SIGKILL bypasses graceful termination anyway. It is tempting because pkill can signal processes by pattern, and would suit terminating every process matching a name when graceful shutdown is not required.
- ✗
kill -9 1234
Why it's wrong here
SIGKILL cannot be caught or handled, so the process is removed immediately without running cleanup handlers, contradicting the graceful requirement. It is tempting because it guarantees termination of an unresponsive process, and would be correct if PID 1234 ignored SIGTERM and had to be killed forcibly.
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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.