Courseiva

XK0-006 · domain

System Management

Practise CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-006) System Management practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.

149 questions35 easy72 medium42 hard

Focused practice

Practice System Management questions

Scored sessions drawing only from this domain — pick a length below.

Start 20-question practice test →

What this domain covers

What to know about System Management

System Management questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.

How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.

Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.

How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.

How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.

Watch out for

Common System Management exam traps

  • Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
  • Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
  • Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
  • Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.

Question index

All System Management questions (149)

Click any question to see the full explanation, or start a practice session above.

1

A Linux administrator needs to display the amount of disk space used by each mounted filesystem. Which two commands can be used? (Choose two.)

Medium
2

An administrator wants to replace all occurrences of 'oldstring' with 'newstring' in a configuration file named config.cfg, and save the changes. Which sed command should be used?

Medium
3

A system administrator wants to change the priority of a running process with PID 1234 to a lower priority (higher nice value). Which command should be used?

Medium
4

Which command is used to display the contents of the systemd journal for a specific unit?

Easy
5

A Linux administrator needs to locate all files in the /var/log directory that have been modified within the last 2 days and contain the word 'error' (case-insensitive). Which command accomplishes this?

Medium
6

A system administrator needs to find all files in the /etc directory that are larger than 1 MB and are regular files. Which find command accomplishes this?

Medium
7

A technician wants to create a symbolic link in /usr/local/bin that points to /opt/myapp/bin/start.sh. The technician has write permissions to /usr/local/bin. Which command should be used?

Hard
8

A Linux administrator needs to view real-time information about running processes, including CPU and memory usage. Which TWO commands can be used for this purpose? (Choose two.)

Medium
9

A technician needs to kill a process with PID 1234 that is not responding to normal termination. Which command sends SIGKILL?

Medium
10

Which of the following directories in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) contains variable data files such as logs, spool files, and temporary files that persist across reboots?

Easy
11

A Linux administrator wants to limit the disk space used by the /var/log directory. Which tool can be used to set disk usage quotas for a filesystem?

Hard
12

A technician wants to extract the third column of a tab-separated file and sort the output uniquely. Which three commands can be combined using pipes to achieve this? (Choose three.)

Medium
13

A technician needs to remove all files in /tmp that are owned by the user 'jdoe' and have not been accessed in 10 days. Which THREE commands or options would be part of a correct solution? (Select THREE.)

Hard
14

A service called 'myapp' fails to start automatically after a system reboot. The administrator wants to ensure the service starts at boot. Which systemctl command should be used?

Medium
15

An administrator wants to locate files that have the SUID or SGID special permission set. Which three find commands can accomplish this? (Choose three.)

Hard
16

A Linux administrator needs to locate all files in /var/log that were modified more than 7 days ago. Which command should be used?

Easy
17

An administrator wants to list all USB storage devices attached to the system. Which command provides this information?

Medium
18

A system administrator needs to install a package from a local RPM file without resolving dependencies automatically. Which command should be used?

Hard
19

A Linux administrator wants to change the permissions of a file to allow the owner to read, write, and execute; the group to read and execute; and others to read only. Which chmod command should be used?

Easy
20

A system administrator wants to view the last 10 lines of a log file and also save those lines to another file for analysis. Which command should the administrator use?

Medium
21

A Linux administrator is configuring file permissions for a shared directory used by a development team. The administrator wants to ensure that any new files created in the directory inherit the group ownership of the directory and that the group has read and write permissions on those files. Which TWO actions should the administrator take? (Choose TWO.)

Medium
22

An administrator runs 'rpm -V httpd' and sees output like 'S.5....T. /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf'. What does this indicate?

Hard
23

An administrator is troubleshooting a service that fails to start. The administrator wants to view the last 50 lines of the service's journal log entries from the current boot. Which journalctl command should be used?

Hard
24

Which command displays the amount of disk space used and available on mounted filesystems in a human-readable format (e.g., GB, MB)?

Easy
25

A developer wants to grant a user named 'john' read and write permissions to a file, but the file currently has an ACL that gives 'jane' full control. The administrator wants to add an ACL entry for 'john' without modifying existing entries. Which command accomplishes this?

Hard
26

A technician notices a script fails to execute because the user does not have permission. The script currently has permissions 644. The technician needs to add execute permission for the owner only. Which command accomplishes this?

Medium
27

A process with PID 2345 is not responding. The administrator wants to force stop the process immediately. Which command should be used?

Hard
28

A technician needs to search a log file for lines containing either 'ERROR' or 'FATAL' and display the line numbers. Which command accomplishes this?

Medium
29

A system administrator needs to locate all regular files in /var/log that have been modified within the last 7 days and have a size greater than 10 MB. The administrator then needs to compress these files using gzip. Which THREE commands or options should be used together to accomplish this? (Choose THREE.)

Hard
30

A system administrator is configuring a new disk partition for a database server. The disk has been partitioned as /dev/sdb1. Which three steps are necessary to make the filesystem available for use? (Choose three.)

Hard
31

An administrator wants to monitor real-time system resource usage to identify performance bottlenecks. Which two commands are suitable? (Choose two.)

Medium
32

A user wants to create a hard link named 'linkfile' to an existing file 'original'. Which command accomplishes this?

Easy
33

An administrator needs to replace all occurrences of 'oldhost' with 'newhost' in the file /etc/hosts. Which sed command should be used?

Medium
34

A technician wants to find all files owned by user 'jane' in the /home directory. Which command accomplishes this?

Easy
35

Which command would a Linux administrator use to locate all files in the /var/log directory that have been modified within the last 7 days?

Easy
36

A technician needs to check which package provides the file /usr/bin/foo on a CentOS 8 system. Which command should be used?

Medium
37

Which command would display the disk usage of each file and directory in /home in a human-readable format, but only showing one level deep?

Medium
38

A Linux administrator needs to view the contents of a compressed log file without decompressing it. Which command should be used?

Easy
39

An administrator wants to view the last 20 lines of a log file and continue to watch for new entries. Which command should be used?

Medium
40

Which command displays the current default umask value for a user?

Easy
41

Which directory in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) contains variable data such as logs and spool files?

Easy
42

An administrator needs to permanently mount an ext4 filesystem on /dev/sdb1 to the /data directory. Which file must be edited to ensure the mount persists across reboots?

Medium
43

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?

Medium
44

A Linux administrator needs to change the permissions of a file to allow the owner to read and write, the group to read only, and others to have no access. Which chmod command should be used?

Easy
45

Which command displays the amount of free and used disk space on all mounted file systems in a human-readable format?

Easy
46

A Linux system fails to boot, and the administrator wants to access a minimal environment to repair the system. Which systemd target should be specified in the kernel command line to achieve this?

Medium
47

Which command displays the number of lines, words, and characters in a file?

Medium
48

A Linux administrator is investigating a performance issue on a server. The administrator needs to identify which processes are consuming the most CPU and memory, and then adjust their priority. Which TWO commands should the administrator use to accomplish this? (Choose TWO.)

Medium
49

A user wants to change the permissions of a file to give the owner full control, the group read and execute, and others no access. Which of the following chmod commands will achieve this?

Easy
50

A user reports that they cannot access a file because permission is denied. The file's permissions are -rwsr-xr-x. What special permission is set?

Medium
51

An administrator needs to replace all occurrences of '192.168.1.1' with '10.0.0.1' in a configuration file named config.txt. Which sed command should be used to perform an in-place edit?

Medium
52

Which of the following commands will display the last 10 lines of a log file and also output new lines as they are appended?

Medium
53

A system administrator runs 'umask 027' in a Bash shell. What will be the default permissions for a new directory created in that shell? (Assume no other umask changes.)

Hard
54

An administrator wants to change the runlevel/target to a state where only a minimal set of processes is running, and network services are disabled. Which two systemd targets achieve this? (Choose two.)

Hard
55

A system administrator is investigating a performance issue and wants to view kernel-related messages. Which three commands can be used to access kernel ring buffer messages? (Choose three.)

Hard
56

During the boot process, after the kernel is loaded and the initramfs is executed, which component is responsible for starting the user-space services and managing the system state?

Hard
57

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

Medium
58

Which directory in the FHS contains essential user command binaries that are needed in single-user mode?

Easy
59

A Linux server is booting but stops at a prompt with the message 'Give root password for maintenance'. Which systemd target is the system likely trying to reach?

Hard
60

A system administrator wants to ensure a service starts automatically at boot and also starts immediately without rebooting. Which of the following systemctl commands or command combinations achieve both goals? (Choose all that apply.)

Hard
61

A Linux administrator needs to identify which of the following filesystems are journaling filesystems commonly used in Linux. (Choose three.)

Hard
62

A security analyst wants to identify all lines in a log file that contain either 'ERROR' or 'WARNING' and also contain 'timeout'. Which three commands can be used to achieve this? (Select THREE).

Medium
63

A system administrator wants to find all files in /var/log that have been modified in the last 7 days and are larger than 10MB, then delete them interactively. Which command accomplishes this?

Hard
64

After making changes to /etc/grub.d/ and /etc/default/grub, an administrator needs to regenerate the GRUB2 configuration file. Which command should be used?

Medium
65

Which of the following directories is defined by the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) as containing essential user command binaries that need to be available in single-user mode?

Easy
66

A system administrator wants to find all files in /var/log that have been modified in the last 7 days and are larger than 100MB. Which command should be used?

Medium
67

Which command is used to query the status of a service managed by systemd?

Easy
68

A process is consuming excessive CPU and needs to be stopped immediately. The process ID is 4582. Which command should be used?

Medium
69

An administrator wants to ensure a service starts automatically at boot on a systemd-based system. Which command should be used?

Medium
70

An administrator wants to find all files in /var/log that have been modified within the last 2 days and have a .log extension. Which command should be used?

Medium
71

Which command is used to create a symbolic link named 'link' pointing to the file 'original'?

Easy
72

An administrator wants to grant a specific user, 'jdoe', read and write access to a file that is owned by root:root with permissions 640. The administrator does not want to change the file's owner or group. Which approach should be used?

Medium
73

A developer creates a hard link to a file and then deletes the original file. What happens to the hard link?

Hard
74

An administrator wants to list all files in the current directory that are larger than 1 MB. Which find commands are correct? (Choose two.)

Hard
75

An administrator wants to start a long-running script in the background so that it continues running even after logging out. Which command should be used?

Medium
76

An administrator wants to change the priority of a running process with PID 1234 to a lower priority (nicer). The current nice value is 0. Which command will set the nice value to 10?

Medium
77

A technician is troubleshooting a service that fails to start. The service file is located in /usr/lib/systemd/system. Which THREE commands can be used to investigate the service's status and logs? (Choose three.)

Hard
78

A Linux administrator needs to locate all files in the /var directory that have been modified within the last 30 minutes and are larger than 10MB. Which command accomplishes this task?

Medium
79

Which three directories are required by the FHS to be present on a Linux system? (Select THREE.)

Easy
80

A Linux administrator needs to locate all files in the /etc directory that have been modified in the last 24 hours and are not owned by root. Which two commands can be combined to achieve this? (Select TWO.)

Medium
81

Which command displays real-time information about running processes, including CPU and memory usage, and updates the display dynamically?

Easy
82

A user wants to create a hard link to a file. Which three conditions must be true for a hard link to be created successfully? (Choose three.)

Medium
83

A technician needs to apply an access control list (ACL) to a file to grant read and write permissions to a specific user. Which two commands are used to manage ACLs? (Choose two.)

Medium
84

An administrator needs to find all files in /etc that have the SUID bit set. Which find command is correct?

Hard
85

A user reports that a specific process is consuming too much CPU. The administrator needs to change the priority of the process to a lower value (nicer). Which command sequence is appropriate?

Medium
86

A Linux administrator needs to view the last 10 lines of a log file named 'syslog'. Which command should be used?

Easy
87

A Linux engineer is troubleshooting a boot issue. The system boots to a command-line interface but does not start the graphical interface. Which systemd target should be set as default to boot into a graphical environment?

Hard
88

A Linux administrator wants to search for all occurrences of the word 'ERROR' in log files under /var/log, ignoring case, and also print the line numbers. Which command should be used?

Medium
89

A Linux administrator needs to remove a package installed via RPM and all its configuration files. Which command should the administrator use?

Medium
90

An administrator needs to permanently disable a systemd service from starting at boot. Which two commands can achieve this? (Choose two.)

Medium
91

A Linux administrator wants to search for the pattern 'ERROR' in all files under /var/log, ignoring case, and display line numbers. Which THREE options should be used with the grep command? (Select THREE).

Medium
92

A process is running with a nice value of 5. The system administrator wants to increase its priority (lower the nice value) to -5 but is not the owner of the process. What must the administrator do first to achieve this?

Hard
93

An administrator suspects that a malicious process is running and wants to list all processes, including those without a controlling terminal, and see their full command line. Which two commands can provide this information? (Select TWO.)

Hard
94

A user reports that a script in /home/user/script.sh fails to execute. The output of 'ls -l script.sh' is '-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 1024 Apr 1 10:00 script.sh'. Which command should be used to make the script executable for all users?

Easy
95

An administrator runs the command `ls -l file.txt` and sees the permissions `-rwsr-xr-x`. What special permission is set on this file?

Medium
96

An administrator wants to view the contents of a compressed log file /var/log/syslog.2.gz without decompressing it to disk. Which two commands can be used to display the file contents? (Select TWO).

Hard
97

Which command creates a symbolic link named 'link.txt' that points to 'original.txt'?

Easy
98

A user needs to view the first 15 lines of a large log file. Which command is most appropriate?

Easy
99

An administrator wants to gather information about disk usage for a specific directory and its subdirectories. Which TWO commands can be used for this purpose? (Choose two.)

Medium
100

A file has permissions rwxr-x--- and is owned by user alice and group devs. Which command would add the SUID bit while preserving existing permissions?

Hard
101

An administrator needs to update the package cache and upgrade all installed packages on a Debian-based system. Which TWO commands are appropriate for this task? (Select TWO.)

Medium
102

A technician is troubleshooting a service that fails to start at boot. Which systemctl command should be used to ensure the service starts automatically on subsequent boots?

Medium
103

A system administrator needs to set the umask so that newly created files have permissions of 644 and directories have permissions of 755. Which umask value should be set?

Hard
104

A system administrator is working with compressed files. Which THREE commands can be used to view their contents? (Select THREE).

Hard
105

Given an ACL entry 'u:john:rwx' on a file, which command would remove only the ACL entry for user john without affecting other ACL entries?

Hard
106

A Linux administrator needs to change the permissions of a file to be readable and writable by the owner, readable by the group, and no access for others. Which command accomplishes this?

Easy
107

A system running systemd is failing to boot properly. The administrator wants to boot into an environment with only the essential services for troubleshooting. Which systemd target should be selected at boot?

Hard
108

Which of the following commands can be used to display the contents of a file one page at a time? (Choose two.)

Easy
109

A system administrator wants to ensure that a service starts automatically at boot time using systemd. Which command should be used?

Medium
110

A user wants to run a command that will continue running even after the user logs out. Which command should be used?

Medium
111

A system administrator wants to display a list of all currently running processes, including those of other users, with full command lines. Which TWO commands can achieve this? (Select TWO.)

Medium
112

An administrator needs to view the last 20 lines of the systemd journal for the 'sshd' service. Which command should be used?

Medium
113

A system administrator runs the command 'chmod 4755 /usr/local/bin/backup'. What effect does this have on the file?

Hard
114

An administrator wants to display the last 20 lines of a log file and also write those lines to a file called recent.log. Which command should be used?

Medium
115

A technician needs to find all files in /home that have the SUID or SGID permission set. Which THREE commands can accomplish this? (Choose three.)

Hard
116

A developer wants to change all occurrences of 'foo' to 'bar' in a configuration file and save the changes in-place. Which sed command should be used?

Medium
117

An administrator needs to find the line number of the first occurrence of the string 'ERROR' in a log file, ignoring case. Which command is most appropriate?

Medium
118

A Linux administrator needs to add an ACL entry to grant read permission to a user named 'jdoe' on a file. Which TWO commands can be used to achieve this? (Select TWO).

Medium
119

Which directory in the Linux filesystem contains essential user command binaries that are needed for booting and repairing the system?

Easy
120

An administrator notices that a service named 'httpd' is not running. They want to check its current status and, if inactive, start it. Which set of systemctl commands should be used?

Medium
121

Which command is used to display the contents of a compressed log file without decompressing it?

Easy
122

A user wants to view the contents of a text file one page at a time. Which two commands can be used? (Choose two.)

Easy
123

A Linux administrator needs to find all files in /var/log that have been modified within the last 7 days and are larger than 10 MB. Which find command accomplishes this?

Medium
124

A technician needs to replace all occurrences of '192.168.1.' with '10.0.0.' in the file /etc/network/interfaces and save the changes. Which command accomplishes this?

Hard
125

Which directory in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) contains essential user commands available to all users, such as 'ls' and 'cp'?

Easy
126

A technician needs to replace the string 'old_config' with 'new_config' in the file /etc/app.conf and save the changes in place. Which sed command accomplishes this?

Medium
127

An administrator wants to change the default systemd target to multi-user.target so the system boots to a text console. Which command should be used?

Hard
128

An administrator is troubleshooting a boot issue. The system boots to a console with limited functionality. Which systemd target should be used to bring up the system with network and multi-user support?

Hard
129

A technician needs to create a new ext4 filesystem on /dev/sdb1 and mount it persistently at /mnt/data. Which set of commands accomplishes this?

Hard
130

An administrator needs to create a hard link to an existing file. Which two statements are true about hard links? (Choose two.)

Easy
131

An administrator wants to find all files larger than 100MB in the /var directory. Which command should be used?

Easy
132

A system administrator is troubleshooting a service that fails to start at boot. The system uses systemd. Which of the following commands would the administrator use to check the service's status and view its recent log entries?

Hard
133

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?

Medium
134

A system administrator needs to monitor real-time process information and system resource usage. Which two commands can be used for this purpose? (Choose two.)

Medium
135

Which command is used to display the current process hierarchy in a tree format?

Easy
136

Which command will display the disk usage of each directory in the current directory, in human-readable format?

Medium
137

Which command displays the disk usage of files and directories in a human-readable format (e.g., KB, MB)?

Easy
138

An administrator needs to apply a set of permissions to an existing directory and all its contents, setting the owner to 'rwx', group to 'rx', and others to '---'. Additionally, newly created files within the directory should inherit the group. Which commands should the administrator run? (Assume the directory is /data, and the group is 'staff'.)

Hard
139

A user wants to create a symbolic link to a file named 'original' in their home directory. Which command creates a symbolic link named 'link'?

Medium
140

An administrator wants to display only the second field from a colon-delimited file named 'passwd' using a text processing tool. Which command will achieve this?

Hard
141

A system administrator needs to remove all files in /tmp that have not been accessed in the last 30 days and are not owned by root. Which two commands, combined, could be used to accomplish this? (Select TWO).

Medium
142

An administrator needs to give a user read and write access to a file without changing the file's group or adding the user to any group. Which method should be used?

Medium
143

A user has a file with permissions set to 644. Which of the following commands will add the setuid permission to the file? (Choose two.)

Medium
144

Which command displays the current umask value in symbolic mode?

Easy
145

An administrator needs to replace all occurrences of 'oldhost' with 'newhost' in the configuration file /etc/hosts. Which command will perform the replacement and save the changes directly to the file?

Medium
146

A file has permissions set to 2755. Which special permission is enabled, and what does it do?

Medium
147

During boot, the system stops at a shell with limited functionality. The administrator suspects the root filesystem is corrupted. Which target should the system be booted into to perform recovery?

Hard
148

A Linux system has a directory with permissions drwxr-xr-x. A user in the group 'dev' tries to create a new file inside this directory. Which permission is missing that prevents the user from creating the file?

Medium
149

An administrator needs to add an ACL entry to a file that grants the user 'john' read and write permissions. The file currently has no ACLs. Which command should the administrator use?

Medium

Frequently asked questions

What does the System Management domain cover on the XK0-006 exam?
System Management questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How many questions are in this domain?
This page lists all 149 System Management questions in the XK0-006 question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
What is the best way to practise this domain?
Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
Can I practise only System Management questions?
Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.
linux-plus LINUX-PLUS lxp system management Practice Questions