Automation, Orchestration, and Scripting

An administrator is managing a Kubernetes cluster. A pod is running but not responding as expected. The administrator wants to view the standard output logs from the pod's main container. Which kubectl command should be used?

A Linux administrator needs a cron job that runs /usr/local/bin/collect.sh at 02:30 every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The job must be added for the root user without editing the global /etc/crontab file. Which command should the administrator run to open the correct crontab for editing?

A Linux administrator needs to extract the value of the 'version' field from a JSON file named config.json. The file contains a top-level key 'version' with a string value. Which command should be used to retrieve just the value?

A system administrator is writing a Bash script that must check if a file exists and is readable. Which two test expressions can be used to achieve this? (Choose two.)

An Ansible playbook includes a handler that restarts a service when a configuration file is changed. Which directive in a task triggers the handler?

A Linux administrator schedules a maintenance script with cron using the entry `30 2 * * 1 /usr/local/bin/backup.sh`. The script runs but produces no output and fails silently when executed by cron, though it works when run interactively. Which action best addresses the silent failure?

A container is running a web server on port 8080 internally, and the administrator wants to access it on the host on port 80. Which Docker run option accomplishes this?

A system administrator wants to create a bind mount in Docker to share a host directory `/data` with a container at `/mnt/data`. Which of the following docker run options should be used?

A user wants to run a Docker container in detached mode, remove it automatically after it stops, and map host port 8080 to container port 80. Which command accomplishes this?

A Linux administrator wants to ensure a bash script stops execution immediately if any command fails. Which line should be added to the script?

A Linux administrator is packaging an internal automation tool as a container image and must ensure the resulting image is minimal, reproducible, and does not include a shell or package manager. Which TWO practices best support that goal? (Choose two.)

A Linux administrator is configuring a systemd timer to run a maintenance script daily. The administrator creates maint.service and maint.timer unit files, then runs systemctl start maint.timer. The script does not run at the expected time. Which command should the administrator run to enable the timer so it starts automatically at boot and triggers on schedule?

Which of the following is a key difference between Docker and Podman?

An administrator wants to use Ansible to ensure a service is running on a remote host. Which Ansible module should be used in a playbook?

An administrator needs to create a Docker image from a Dockerfile located in the current directory and tag it as 'myapp:v1'. Which command should be used?

A Linux administrator uses Ansible to manage a fleet of servers and needs to ensure a configuration file is present with specific contents on all web servers, restarting the service only when the file changes. Which Ansible module and handler pattern accomplishes this?

A bash script uses a loop to iterate over files in a directory. Which TWO of the following loop constructs will correctly iterate over each .txt file in the current directory? (Select TWO).

A Linux administrator needs to parse a structured configuration file and extract the value of a specific key. The file format is JSON, and the administrator wants to use a command-line tool that is commonly preinstalled on modern Linux distributions. Which command should the administrator use?

A Bash script contains the following line: set -e. What is the effect of this command?

In bash, what is the difference between single quotes and double quotes?

An administrator is troubleshooting a Pod in a Kubernetes cluster that is not starting. Which TWO kubectl commands are most useful for diagnosing the issue? (Choose TWO.)

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script that must parse command-line options, accept a required input file argument, and provide a help message when invoked with -h. The script will be run on several distributions. Which TWO practices should the administrator follow? (Choose two.)

A Linux administrator needs to write a Bash script that runs a series of commands and stops immediately if any command fails. Which directive should be included at the beginning of the script?

A Kubernetes administrator needs to expose a deployment named 'web-app' running on port 80 internally within the cluster. Which kubectl command creates a service of type ClusterIP that maps port 80 to the target port 8080 on the pods?

A Docker container is running in the background. Which command allows the administrator to execute an interactive bash shell inside the running container named 'webapp'?

An administrator is troubleshooting a Kubernetes deployment that is not receiving traffic. The deployment has one replica and the pod is running. The service is of type ClusterIP. Which command would help verify that the service endpoints are correctly associated with the pod?

A Linux administrator writes a bash script that needs to exit immediately if any command fails. Which of the following should be included at the beginning of the script?

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script that must continue running even if an unset variable is referenced, but must still abort on a failed command. Currently the script has only `#!/bin/bash` at the top. Which line should be added to meet these requirements?

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script that processes a list of hostnames stored one per line in /etc/app/hosts.list. The script must read each line into the variable host and run a command against it, and the loop must not consume standard input from the terminal so that interactive commands inside the loop can still read from the keyboard. Which construct satisfies these requirements?

A DevOps engineer needs to debug a bash script that unexpectedly fails when processing files. Which of the following should be added to the script to print each command before execution?

A Linux administrator wants to ensure a Bash script exits immediately if any command fails. Which directive should be included at the beginning of the script?

A configuration-management script must take a YAML inventory file and convert it into JSON so a downstream API can consume it, preserving all nested structure. Which command accomplishes this most directly?

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script that must run a cleanup routine when the script exits, whether it exits normally or is interrupted by a signal. The script defines a function named cleanup. Which command should the administrator use to ensure cleanup runs on exit?

A DevOps engineer is writing a Bash script that checks if a file exists and is readable. Which test condition should be used inside an if statement?

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script that uses a function. Which two statements about Bash functions are correct? (Choose TWO.)

In a Kubernetes cluster, a developer needs to create a Deployment that runs three replicas of a container image 'myapp:1.0' and exposes port 8080. Which YAML snippet correctly defines this Deployment?

A Kubernetes YAML manifest defines a Deployment. Which field specifies the number of pod replicas to run?

In a Bash script, what is the purpose of the shebang '#!/bin/bash'?

A Linux administrator needs to run a Docker container in detached mode with port mapping from host port 8080 to container port 80, and mount a host directory /data to /app/data inside the container. Which command achieves this?

In a Bash script, what is the correct way to check if a file named '/etc/passwd' exists and is a regular file?

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script that processes a list of filenames stored one per line in a file. Some filenames contain spaces. The administrator wants the loop to treat each full line as a single item without word-splitting, and also wants to strip the trailing newline from each item. Which construct accomplishes this?

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script that accepts a filename as its first argument. The script should print an error and exit if the argument is missing. Which construct should the administrator use to reference the first positional parameter and test whether it is empty?

A developer wants to run a containerized application using Podman in a rootless environment. Which of the following is a key difference between Podman and Docker that the developer should be aware of?

A Linux administrator needs to schedule a maintenance script to run every Monday at 03:15 on a systemd-based server. The script must persist across reboots and must not depend on a user being logged in. Which of the following is the BEST approach?

A Linux administrator needs to schedule a script to run every Monday at 3:00 AM. The script is located at /opt/scripts/weekly_report.sh. Which entry should be added to the crontab to accomplish this?

A Linux administrator needs to schedule a recurring backup script to run every Monday at 02:30 using the system-wide cron facility on a systemd-based distribution. Which entry correctly achieves this when placed in /etc/cron.d/backup?

In a Bash script, the administrator wants to capture the output of a command into a variable. Which syntax should be used?

A Linux administrator is automating container builds and needs to reduce image size and ensure reproducibility. Which TWO practices should be applied when writing the Dockerfile? (Choose two.)

In a Bash script, what is the difference between single quotes and double quotes?

A DevOps engineer is creating a Dockerfile for a Node.js application. Which THREE of the following instructions are valid and commonly used in a Dockerfile? (Choose THREE.)

A Docker container needs to persistently store data that should survive container removal and be accessible by other containers. Which storage method should be used?

An automation engineer uses Ansible to configure a fleet of Linux servers. A playbook task installs a package and then starts a service, but the service fails to start because the package installs a configuration file only on the first run. The engineer wants the handler to notify only when the package actually changes state. Which Ansible construct ensures the service restart handler fires only when the package task reports a change?

A Linux administrator needs to automate the deployment of a Kubernetes application from a manifest file and verify that the rollout completes successfully within a script. Which pair of actions should the script perform to apply the manifest and block until the Deployment's rollout finishes?

A team uses Ansible for configuration management. They want to ensure a service is running on all managed nodes. Which Ansible module should be used in the playbook?

In a bash script, a developer needs to parse command-line options such as -f filename and -v (verbose). Which built-in command is best suited for this task?

A Linux administrator is troubleshooting a Bash script that must parse each line of a file named `servers.txt` and process fields separated by colons. The script currently uses `for line in $(cat servers.txt)` and breaks on lines containing spaces. Which construct should replace the loop to correctly iterate over lines while preserving whitespace?

A Linux administrator is automating container lifecycle tasks with a script and needs to ensure a specific container, named webapp, is stopped cleanly and removed, while also removing its anonymous volumes. Which TWO docker commands should be used to accomplish this? (Choose two.)

A Linux administrator writes a Bash script that processes a list of hostnames read from a file and must continue processing remaining hosts even if an SSH command to one host fails. The script currently uses set -e and exits on the first failure. Which change allows the loop to keep running while still exiting on other unhandled errors?

A Linux administrator is writing a bash script that must exit immediately if any command fails. Which of the following should be included at the beginning of the script?

A Bash script contains the following function: ```bash myfunc() { local result="$(( $1 + $2 ))" echo "$result" } ``` If the script calls `myfunc 5 10`, what is the output?

In a bash script, a function is defined to calculate a value. Which TWO of the following are valid ways to return a value from the function to the caller? (Select TWO).

A Linux administrator needs a scheduled task to run a backup script at 02:30 every day of the week. The system uses cron, and the administrator is editing the crontab for the `backup` user. Which crontab entry accomplishes this?

An administrator is creating an Ansible playbook to configure multiple web servers. Which of the following are valid ways to define variables for different groups of hosts? (Choose TWO.)

A Linux administrator is using Git to manage a configuration repository. They need to undo a commit that has already been pushed to a shared remote repository, without rewriting history. Which command should they use?

In an Ansible playbook, which THREE of the following are valid modules for managing files and packages? (Select THREE).

A Bash script uses getopts to parse command-line options. The script is invoked as: ./script -a -b value. Which getopts string should be used to correctly parse -a (no argument) and -b (requires an argument)?

A Linux administrator writes a Bash script and includes the line `#!/bin/bash` at the top. What is the purpose of this line?

An administrator is building a container image and needs to reduce its final size while keeping the build reproducible. Which TWO practices improve image efficiency and build reliability? (Choose two.)

A developer is writing a Dockerfile. The application requires a configuration file that should be copied from the build context and the container should expose port 8080. Which combination of Dockerfile instructions is correct?

In a Bash script, which THREE of the following are valid ways to define a function? (Select THREE.)

In a Bash script, a variable is assigned the output of a command using: result=$(ls -l). What is the purpose of the $() syntax?

A system administrator needs to update a configuration file on multiple servers using Ansible. The playbook must ensure the line 'MaxAuthTries 3' is present in /etc/ssh/sshd_config. Which Ansible module is most appropriate?

In a bash script, a variable is set as follows: myvar='Hello World'. Which of the following correctly prints the first 5 characters of the variable?

An administrator is debugging a Docker container that exits immediately after starting. Which THREE commands can help diagnose the issue? (Select THREE).

A Linux administrator is troubleshooting a Bash script that unexpectedly terminates when a command fails. The script uses `#!/bin/bash`. Which of the following commands, if placed at the beginning of the script, would cause it to exit on any command failure?

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script that must safely process a list of filenames, some of which may contain spaces or special characters. The script reads each line from a file into a variable and then iterates over the entries. Which TWO practices should the administrator follow to avoid word-splitting and globbing issues? (Choose two.)

A Linux administrator is reviewing an Ansible playbook that manages a fleet of servers. The playbook must run a task only on hosts in the group webservers and must notify a handler when a configuration file changes. Which TWO of the following are valid Ansible constructs that the administrator should use? (Choose two.)

A Linux administrator is writing a bash script that accepts command-line options: -a for all, -f for file, and -o for output. Which of the following correctly uses getopts to parse these options?

A Linux administrator is debugging a Bash script that uses a function to set a global counter. The function increments the variable, but after the function returns, the counter retains its original value. The script does not use subshells or pipelines around the function call. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

A container is running and a technician needs to execute an interactive shell inside it. The container was started with 'docker run -d --name myapp myimage'. Which command will achieve this?

An administrator is writing a Bash script that must run a cleanup function when the script exits, whether it finishes normally or is interrupted. Which construct guarantees the function runs in both cases?

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash automation script that must continue processing the remaining entries in a loop even when an individual command returns a non-zero exit status. The script currently starts with `#!/bin/bash` and uses `set -e` for safety elsewhere. Which construct should the administrator use to run a command whose failure must be tolerated inside the loop?

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script that must read a file line by line and preserve leading whitespace in each line. The script currently uses `for line in $(cat file.txt)`. Which construct should replace the current loop to preserve whitespace and avoid word splitting?

A Linux administrator is writing a systemd unit file at /etc/systemd/system/backup.service that must execute /usr/local/bin/backup.sh only after the network is fully reachable and the /mnt/archive mount is active. The unit currently has no ordering directives. Which directive should be added to the [Unit] section to satisfy this requirement?

A Linux administrator needs to schedule a script at /opt/scripts/report.sh to run every Monday at 02:30 for the user svcacct, without editing the system-wide /etc/crontab. Which cron entry correctly accomplishes this when placed in svcacct's crontab via crontab -e?

A DevOps engineer needs to run a Docker container in the background with port mapping from host port 8080 to container port 80, and name the container 'webapp'. Which command accomplishes this?

A cloud engineer is using Ansible to manage configuration across multiple servers. The engineer needs to store variable data that is specific to each host and sensitive database passwords. Which two Ansible features should be used for these purposes? (Choose two.)

A Linux administrator is writing a Bash script to back up a directory. The script must continue running even if a particular command fails, but the administrator wants to log the error and take corrective action. Which of the following should be used to handle the error condition?

A Bash script contains the following code: if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then echo 'No arguments'; fi. What does this code check?

A Linux administrator needs a scheduled job on a production server to run the backup script /usr/local/bin/backup.sh every day at 02:30, and the job must run as the root user regardless of who is logged in. Which single entry in /etc/crontab accomplishes this?

A Linux administrator needs to run a recurring backup script located at /usr/local/bin/backup.sh every day at 02:30. The system uses systemd and the administrator wants the job scheduled through a systemd timer rather than cron. Which combination of unit files must be created and enabled?

An Ansible playbook is being written to install the Nginx web server on a group of Ubuntu servers. Which module should be used in the playbook to install the package?

A developer wants to view the logs from a running Docker container named 'myapp'. Which docker command should be used?

A Kubernetes administrator needs to expose a deployment named 'webapp' as a service accessible externally on port 80. Which kubectl command should be used?

An administrator needs to deploy a set of microservices using Docker Compose. The services require configuration values that vary between development and production environments. Which approach allows the administrator to override values without modifying the docker-compose.yml file?

A Linux administrator uses Ansible to configure a fleet of web servers. A playbook task must copy a template file and then restart the nginx service only when the template content actually changes, avoiding needless restarts on every run. Which task construct enforces that behavior?

A developer is writing a Bash script that needs to parse command-line options with arguments, such as -f filename and -v. Which built-in command should be used to handle these options?

Which Dockerfile instruction sets the command to run when the container starts, but allows the user to override it when using docker run?

A Docker container needs persistent storage that survives container restarts. Which of the following is the recommended method to achieve this?

A Linux administrator needs to automate the deployment of a configuration file to fifty servers. The administrator wants to run a single command from a control node that copies the file to all servers in parallel and reports any failures. Which of the following tools is designed specifically for this task?

A configuration-management playbook run by an administrator must install the nginx package only on hosts whose inventory group is webservers, and must restart the nginx service whenever the package installation changes the system. The administrator is using Ansible. Which pair of task attributes achieves both the conditional execution and the conditional restart?

A Linux administrator is automating user account creation. The script reads a list of usernames from a file and creates each account. The administrator wants the script to continue processing remaining users even if one useradd command fails due to a duplicate username. Which Bash construct should be used to run useradd and handle the failure without aborting the script?

An administrator wants to run a script on multiple remote servers using Ansible. The script requires a variable that differs per host. Where should the administrator define this variable to follow best practices?

Which Kubernetes resource is used to store non-sensitive configuration data as key-value pairs that can be consumed by pods?

An Ansible playbook is being written to manage web servers. Which TWO modules can be used to ensure a package is installed? (Select TWO.)

A user wants to execute a command inside a running Docker container named 'db'. Which command should be used?

A Linux administrator maintains a Bash deployment script that runs unattended from cron. The script currently contains `set -e` and `set -u`, but it silently continues past a failing command inside a pipeline such as `tar -czf backup.tgz /srv | tee /var/log/backup.log`. The administrator wants the script to abort whenever any element of that pipeline returns a non-zero status. Which line should be added to the top of the script?

A system administrator is writing an Ansible playbook to manage a web server. Which three of the following are valid Ansible modules for system administration? (Choose THREE.)

A Bash script uses getopts to parse command-line options. The options are -a (requires an argument) and -b (flag). Which code correctly implements this and stores the argument for -a in $optarg?

A bash script needs to test whether a string variable $NAME is non-empty and equals 'admin'. Which of the following conditionals is correct?

An administrator is writing a Dockerfile. They need to set a default command that can be overridden when running the container. Which instruction should be used?

A DevOps team uses Podman to run containers rootlessly. Which TWO of the following characteristics apply to rootless Podman compared to Docker? (Select TWO).