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System Architecture practice questions

Use this page to practise System Architecture questions for this certification. Focus on how the exam tests system architecture in scenario format — understanding the why behind each answer builds more durable knowledge than memorising options.

Courseiva uses original exam-style practice questions designed for learning and revision. The goal is to understand the concepts, recognise exam patterns, and improve through explanations — not memorise copied exam dumps.

Reviewed byJohnson Ajibi· MSc IT Security
20 questionsDomain: System Architecture
Practice 10 questionsBrowse domain →

What the exam tests

What to know about System Architecture

System Architecture questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage system architecture concepts in scenario-based situations.

Core System Architecture concepts and how they apply in real-world cloud scenarios.

How to deploy system architecture correctly and verify the outcome.

Troubleshooting system architecture issues by interpreting error output and system state.

Cloud best practices and System Architecture design trade-offs tested by this certification.

Watch out for

Common System Architecture exam traps

  • ▸Selecting the most expensive service when a simpler managed option meets the requirement.
  • ▸Forgetting that cloud resources must be explicitly secured — defaults are rarely secure.
  • ▸Choosing a global service fix when the issue is region-specific.
  • ▸Overlooking cost implications of cross-region data transfer in architecture questions.

Practice set

System Architecture questions

20 questions · select your answer, then reveal the explanation

Question 1mediummultiple choice
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A system administrator notices that the server's clock is consistently off by several minutes. Which service should be used to synchronize the time with an external time source?

Question 2easymultiple choice
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During boot, the kernel must mount the root filesystem. Which of the following is responsible for providing the kernel with the location of the root filesystem?

Question 3hardmultiple choice
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A server has two disk drives: /dev/sda (SSD) and /dev/sdb (HDD). The administrator wants to place frequently accessed files on the SSD for performance. Which approach best achieves this using Linux filesystem features?

Question 4mediummultiple choice
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A technician is troubleshooting a system that fails to boot with the error 'Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)'. What is the most likely cause?

Question 5easymultiple choice
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Which hardware component uses a unique address to identify itself on the network at the data link layer?

Question 6mediummultiple choice
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A Linux system has two network interfaces: eth0 and eth1. The administrator wants to bond them for increased throughput. Which kernel module is required for bonding?

Question 7hardmultiple choice
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An administrator needs to ensure that a specific kernel module is loaded automatically at boot. Which file should be used to permanently load the module?

Question 8easymultiple choice
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Which command displays information about the CPU, including model name, cache size, and flags?

Question 9mediummultiple choice
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A server with a udev rule fails to consistently assign a persistent network interface name. What is the most likely cause?

Question 10mediummulti select
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Which TWO of the following are valid methods to reduce boot time on a Linux system? (Select exactly 2.)

Question 11hardmulti select
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Which THREE of the following are characteristics of UEFI firmware compared to legacy BIOS? (Select exactly 3.)

Question 12easymulti select
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Which TWO commands can be used to display the amount of free and used memory on a Linux system? (Select exactly 2.)

Question 13mediummultiple choice
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Refer to the exhibit. The system has a single disk with three partitions. Which partition contains the root filesystem?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 223.6G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0   512M  0 part /boot
├─sda2   8:2    0    16G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda3   8:3    0 207.1G  0 part /
Question 14hardmultiple choice
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Refer to the exhibit. How many SATA controllers are detected, and what is the connection speed of the SSD?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

$ dmesg | grep -i "ata"
[    1.234567] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xfebf8000 port 0xfebf8100 irq 24
[    1.234568] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xfebf8000 port 0xfebf8180 irq 24
[    1.345678] ata1: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[    1.345679] ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[    1.567890] ata1.00: ATA-11: Samsung SSD 860 EVO, MZ-76E250, max UDMA/133
[    1.567891] ata1.00: 488397168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 32)
[    1.567892] ata2.00: ATA-9: WDC WD10EZEX-00WN4A0, 01.01A01, max UDMA/133
[    1.567893] ata2.00: 1953525168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 32)
Question 15hardmultiple choice
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A company runs a critical database server on Linux. The server has a hardware RAID controller with two logical volumes: one for the operating system (LV1) and one for the database data (LV2). The server uses LVM on top of the RAID volumes. Recently, the database performance has degraded. The administrator suspects that the file system on LV2 is heavily fragmented. The server uses the ext4 filesystem. The administrator wants to check the fragmentation level and, if necessary, defragment the filesystem without unmounting it or causing downtime. However, ext4 does not support online defragmentation. What should the administrator do to minimize fragmentation impact while maintaining availability?

Question 16mediummultiple choice
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A Linux system administrator is tasked with setting up a new server that will host multiple virtual machines using KVM. The server has 64 GB of RAM and two physical CPUs, each with 8 cores (16 threads). The administrator needs to allocate resources efficiently. The VMs will have varying workloads. The administrator wants to ensure that the host system has enough resources for itself and that VMs can use all available CPU cores. Which approach should the administrator take to configure CPU allocation for the host and VMs?

Question 17mediummultiple choice
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A system administrator notices that a server with a freshly installed Linux system fails to boot with the error 'No bootable device found'. The server has a single SATA hard disk connected to the motherboard's SATA controller. Which of the following is the most likely cause of this issue?

Question 18easymulti select
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Which TWO of the following are valid methods to change the default runlevel on a SysV init-based system?

Question 19hardmultiple choice
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Refer to the exhibit. A Linux system fails to boot with a kernel panic. The dmesg output shows the disk is detected and partitions are recognized. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the kernel panic?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

# dmesg | grep -i 'ata\|sda'
[    0.000000] ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
[    0.000000] ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
[    2.345678] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[    2.345679] ata1.00: ATA-8: ST31000524AS, JC45, max UDMA/133
[    2.345680] ata1.00: 1953525168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)
[    2.345681] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
[    2.345682] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      ST31000524AS     JC45 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    2.345683] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/931 GiB)
[    2.345684] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[    2.345685] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[    2.345686] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[    2.345687] sda: sda1 sda2
[    2.345688] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Question 20mediummultiple choice
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A Linux administrator manages a server that runs a custom application requiring a specific kernel module to be loaded at boot. The server uses SysV init and has the module listed in /etc/modules. However, after a recent kernel update, the module fails to load automatically at boot. The administrator can manually load the module with 'modprobe <module>' after the system is running. The application depends on this module being loaded before any network services start. Which of the following actions should the administrator take to ensure the module loads automatically at the correct time during boot?

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Frequently asked questions

What does the LPIC-1 exam test about System Architecture?
System Architecture questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage system architecture concepts in scenario-based situations.
How should I use these practice questions?
Select your answer before revealing the explanation. Then read why each option is right or wrong — this active recall approach builds retention far faster than re-reading notes.
Can I practise just System Architecture questions in a focused session?
Yes — the session launcher on this page draws every question from the System Architecture domain. Use a 10-question session first to gauge your baseline, then move to 20 or 30 once the weak spots are clear.
Where can I practise other LPIC-1 topics?
Use the topic links above to move to related areas, or go back to the LPIC-1 question bank to see all topics.
Are these real exam questions or dumps?
These are original practice questions written to test the same concepts the LPIC-1 exam covers. They are not copied from any real exam or dump site.