EX200 Essential Tools Practice Question
An administrator needs to schedule a script to run every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 2:30 PM. Which cron expression should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Red Hat often tests the 24-hour time format and the correct ordering of minute and hour fields, causing candidates to swap them (as in Option C) or to confuse the day-of-week numbering (Sunday=0 vs Monday=1) as seen in Option D.
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
✓
30 14 * * 1,3,5
Cron uses five fields (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week). 2:30 PM is 14:30 in 24-hour format, so minute=30 and hour=14. The day-of-week field uses 0-7 (0 and 7 = Sunday), with Monday=1, Wednesday=3, Friday=5. The asterisks for day-of-month and month mean 'every day' and 'every month', so the expression `30 14 * * 1,3,5` runs the script at 2:30 PM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
30 14 * * 1,3,5
Why this is correct
The cron expression has the correct field order: minute (30), hour (14), day of month (*), month (*), and day of week (1,3,5). Numeric day-of-week values start at 0 for Sunday, so 1 is Monday, 3 is Wednesday, and 5 is Friday. Because the day-of-month and month fields are wildcards, the job would run solely on those weekdays at 2:30 PM.
- ✗
30 14 * * 1-5
Why it's wrong here
This expression specifies 30 for the minute and 14 for the hour, which would correctly target 2:30 PM, but the day-of-week range '1-5' includes Tuesday (2) and Thursday (4) as well as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In cron, a hyphen denotes an inclusive range, so 1-5 covers all five weekdays rather than only the three requested days. Consequently, it would also execute on days that were not part of the schedule.
- ✗
14 30 * * 1,3,5
Why it's wrong here
Here the numeric fields are swapped: cron expects the first field to be the minute and the second to be the hour, so '14 30' is interpreted as minute 14 and hour 30 rather than 2:30 PM. Since 30 is not a valid hour (0-23) in standard cron, this entry will either be rejected or never match a real time; even if a nonstandard cron permitted it, the intended time would be wrong. To run at 14:30 the expression must place 30 in the minute field, as in '30 14'.
- ✗
30 14 * * 0,2,4
Why it's wrong here
This entry uses the correct minute (30) and hour (14), but the day-of-week list '0,2,4' selects Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. In cron's day-of-week numbering, 0 represents Sunday, so the days chosen here are not the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday requested. The job would therefore run on the wrong weekdays.
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