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Refer to the Exhibit Practice Questions

Practise Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator LFCS practice questions — original exam-style scenarios covering every exam domain, with detailed explanations, wrong-answer analysis, and common exam traps.

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Scenario guide

How to approach refer to the exhibit practice questions

Practise exhibit-style questions that ask you to read a topology, table, command output or diagram before choosing the best answer.

Quick answer

Exhibit-style questions test whether you can read a topology, command output, diagram or table before choosing the best answer.

How to extract the relevant detail from an exhibit.

How topology, command output or routing information affects the answer.

How to avoid answering from memory before reading the evidence.

How to map the exhibit back to the exam objective.

Related practice questions

Related LFCS topic practice pages

Scenario questions usually connect to one or more exam topics. Use these links to review the underlying concepts behind the scenario.

User and Group Management practice questions

Practise LFCS questions linked to User and Group Management.

Operation of Running Systems practice questions

Sharpen your LFCS knowledge of Operation of Running Systems.

Essential Commands practice questions

Targeted LFCS practice covering Essential Commands.

Networking practice questions

Practise LFCS questions linked to Networking.

Service Configuration practice questions

Targeted LFCS practice covering Service Configuration.

Storage Management practice questions

Targeted LFCS practice covering Storage Management.

LFCS fundamentals practice questions

Work through LFCS questions on LFCS fundamentals.

LFCS scenario practice questions

Practise LFCS questions linked to LFCS scenario.

LFCS troubleshooting practice questions

Work through LFCS questions on LFCS troubleshooting.

Practice set

Practice scenarios

Question 1hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. An administrator attempts to mount all filesystems using mount -a, but it fails. The error message indicates that UUID=jkl012 is not found. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

# device UUID mountpoint type options dump pass
UUID=abc123 /boot ext4 defaults 1 2
UUID=def456 / ext4 defaults 1 1
UUID=ghi789 /home xfs defaults 0 0
UUID=jkl012 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/mapper/vg_data-lv_data /data ext4 defaults 0 2
//192.168.1.100/share /mnt/nfs nfs defaults 0 0
Question 2hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. What is the most likely issue with the Apache web server?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.
```
$ systemctl status apache2
● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2025-03-18 10:15:23 UTC; 2h 15min ago
 Main PID: 1234 (apache2)
    Tasks: 5 (limit: 1000)
   Memory: 15.2M
   CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
           ├─1234 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           ├─1235 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           ├─1236 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           ├─1237 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           └─1238 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Apr 18 10:15:23 server systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Apr 18 10:15:23 server apachectl[1190]: AH00112: Warning: DocumentRoot [/var/www/html] does not exist
Apr 18 10:15:23 server systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
```
Question 3easymultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. Which filesystem is close to full capacity?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.
```
$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1        20G   15G  5.0G  75% /
/dev/sdb1       100G   90G   10G  90% /data
```
Question 4mediummultiple choice
Full question →

Based on the exhibit, what is the correct interpretation?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

Output of `systemctl status apache2`:

● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; generated; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-08-14 10:15:30 UTC; 5min ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 1234 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/apache2 start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 5678 (apache2)

Warning: apache2.service changed on disk. Run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload units.
Question 5hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Based on the exhibit, what is the most likely cause of the nginx failure and the appropriate first step to resolve it?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

[root@server ~]# systemctl status nginx
● nginx.service - The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2025-03-10 09:23:45 UTC; 2min ago
  Process: 12345 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 12345 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Mar 10 09:23:43 server systemd[1]: Starting The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server...
Mar 10 09:23:45 server nginx[12345]: nginx: [emerg] bind() to 0.0.0.0:80 failed (98: Address already in use)
Mar 10 09:23:45 server systemd[1]: nginx.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Mar 10 09:23:45 server systemd[1]: nginx.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Question 6easymultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. Which filesystem is mounted using the XFS filesystem type?

Exhibit

/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext4 (rw,relatime,data=ordered)
/dev/sda2 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered)
/dev/sdb1 on /home type xfs (rw,relatime,attr2,inode64,noquota)
none on /proc type proc (rw,relatime)
Question 7mediummultiple choice
Review the full routing breakdown →

Given the routing table output in the exhibit, what will happen when the system tries to send a packet to 10.1.1.1?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ ip route show
192.168.1.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.10 metric 100
10.0.0.0/8 via 192.168.1.1 dev eth0 proto static metric 100
default via 192.168.1.1 dev eth0 proto static metric 100
Question 8mediummultiple choice
Full question →

Based on the exhibit, which process is using the most physical memory (RES)?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

Tasks: 120 total, 1 running, 119 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  8.3 us,  2.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 89.7 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  8092260 total,  1025468 free,  3892240 used,  3774552 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  2097148 total,  2097148 free,        0 used.  3598988 avail Mem

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 5678 wwwdata   20   0  556240  89748  22012 S   0.3  1.1   0:00.12 nginx
 9101 mysql     20   0 1874452 102456  18520 S   0.0  1.3   0:05.34 mysqld
 1234 root      20   0  305600   6428   3920 S   0.0  0.1   0:00.01 systemd
Question 9hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit.

A user attempts to create a file in /backup/snapshots/ but receives an error. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sda2 on /var type ext4 (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sdb1 on /backup type ext4 (ro)
Question 10easymultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. An administrator wants to bring up the eth1 interface using the existing connection. Which command should be used?

Exhibit

[root@server ~]# nmcli connection show
NAME   UUID                                  TYPE      DEVICE 
eth0   a1b2c3d4-...                          ethernet  eth0   
eth1   e5f6g7h8-...                          ethernet  --     
br0    i9j0k1l2-...                          bridge    br0
Question 11easymultiple choice
Full question →

Based on the tcpdump output in the exhibit, what can be concluded about the TCP handshake?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ tcpdump -i eth0 -c 5 'port 80'
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on eth0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 262144 bytes
11:11:11.111111 IP 10.0.0.1.12345 > 192.168.1.1.80: Flags [S], seq 123, win 29200, options [mss 1460], length 0
11:11:11.222222 IP 192.168.1.1.80 > 10.0.0.1.12345: Flags [S.], seq 456, ack 124, win 28960, options [mss 1460], length 0
11:11:11.333333 IP 10.0.0.1.12345 > 192.168.1.1.80: Flags [.], ack 457, win 29312, length 0
Question 12hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. What is the most likely security issue?

Network Topology
$ journalctl -u sshd.serviceno-pagerRefer to the exhibit.```
Question 13easymultiple choice
Full question →

Based on the exhibit, which port is listening only on the loopback interface?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

[root@server ~]# ss -tln
State   Recv-Q   Send-Q   Local Address:Port   Peer Address:Port   
LISTEN  0        128      0.0.0.0:22          0.0.0.0:*          
LISTEN  0        128      *:80                *:*                 
LISTEN  0        128      *:443               *:*                 
LISTEN  0        128      127.0.0.1:53        0.0.0.0:*          
LISTEN  0        128      0.0.0.0:8080        0.0.0.0:*
Question 14mediummultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. The service unit file has Restart=on-failure, but systemctl show displays Restart=no. What is the most likely reason?

Exhibit

$ cat /etc/systemd/system/backup.service
[Unit]
Description=Backup Service
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/backup.sh
User=backup
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

$ systemctl show backup.service -p Restart
Restart=no
Question 15mediummultiple choice
Full question →

An administrator is unable to SSH into the server from a remote host at 192.168.1.100. Based on the exhibited iptables rules, what is the most likely reason?

Network Topology
10 840 ACCEPT alllo * 0.0.0.0/05 300 ACCEPT tcp0 0 DROP tcpRefer to the exhibit.

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