EX200 Essential Tools Practice Question
An administrator needs to measure the execution time of the command 'backup.sh'. Which command prefix should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse 'time' with 'timeout' because both involve time, but 'timeout' controls execution duration while 'time' measures it.
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
✓
time
The 'time' command is the correct prefix to measure the execution time of a command in Linux. When placed before 'backup.sh', it runs the script and then outputs the real, user, and system time consumed, providing the precise measurement the administrator needs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
time
Why this is correct
The `time` utility, whether the Bash reserved word or the external `/usr/bin/time` binary, is specifically designed to measure how long a command takes to complete. It reports real (wall-clock), user, and system CPU time consumed by the command, typically written to stderr. For example, `time ls -lR /etc` prints a timing summary after the command finishes, making it the correct tool for measuring execution duration.
- ✗
date
Why it's wrong here
The `date` command displays or sets the system's date and time, and it does not have a built-in mechanism for timing other commands. While you could theoretically capture `date +%s%N` before and after a command to compute an elapsed time difference, this is a manual workaround and lacks the precision, CPU-time breakdown, and convenience of `time`. Therefore, `date` is not appropriate for measuring command execution time.
- ✗
watch
Why it's wrong here
The `watch` command repeatedly executes a command at a fixed interval (e.g., `watch -n 1 df -h`) to let an administrator observe changing output over time. It does not measure the execution duration of a single invocation; instead, it maintains a display cycle and may show a session elapsed time, but not the runtime of the command itself. `watch` is for monitoring changes, not for benchmarking a command's completion time.
- ✗
timeout
Why it's wrong here
The `timeout` command runs a command with a time limit, sending a signal (default SIGTERM) to the process if it exceeds the specified duration. It enforces a maximum execution time, but it never reports how long the command actually ran before finishing or being killed. Thus, `timeout` is a watchdog for controlling runtime, not a measurement tool.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This EX200 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Red Hat 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 EX200 exam.