Top Operating System MCQs For Computer Science Test

Here are 50 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) on operating systems for a computer science test:

1. Which of the following is not an operating system?

   A) Windows

   B) Linux

   C) Apache

   D) macOS

2. What is the role of the kernel in an operating system?

   A) Managing user interfaces

   B) Handling file system operations

   C) Allocating memory resources

   D) Executing application programs

3. What is the purpose of virtual memory in an operating system?

   A) To increase the physical memory capacity of a system

   B) To store user data securely

   C) To manage input/output operations

   D) To execute system processes

4. Which scheduling algorithm provides the highest average turnaround time?

   A) Shortest Job First (SJF)

   B) Round Robin

   C) First Come, First Served (FCFS)

   D) Priority Scheduling

5. What is the primary function of the process scheduler in an operating system?

   A) Managing system processes

   B) Allocating memory resources

   C) Handling input/output operations

   D) Providing user interfaces

6. In a preemptive scheduling algorithm, when can a process be interrupted?

   A) Only when it voluntarily relinquishes control of the CPU

   B) At any point during its execution

   C) Only at the end of its execution

   D) Only during I/O operations

7. What is the purpose of an interrupt handler in an operating system?

   A) To execute system calls

   B) To manage memory allocation

   C) To handle hardware interrupts

   D) To maintain file system integrity

8. Which of the following is not a type of file system?

   A) FAT32

   B) NTFS

   C) HTTP

   D) ext4

9. What is the function of a device driver in an operating system?

   A) To manage system processes

   B) To provide user interfaces

   C) To facilitate communication with hardware devices

   D) To execute application programs

10. Which of the following is not a component of a process control block (PCB)?

    A) Process ID

    B) CPU Registers

    C) Memory Cache

    D) Process State

11. What is the purpose of deadlock detection in an operating system?

    A) To prevent processes from consuming excessive CPU time

    B) To identify and recover from system failures

    C) To detect and resolve resource conflicts among processes

    D) To optimize memory allocation

12. Which of the following is a characteristic of a real-time operating system (RTOS)?

    A) High priority given to user interfaces

    B) Predictable response times to external events

    C) Support for multitasking

    D) Emphasis on graphical user interfaces

13. What is the purpose of a semaphore in concurrent programming?

    A) To synchronize access to shared resources

    B) To allocate memory dynamically

    C) To manage disk space

    D) To perform arithmetic operations

14. Which of the following is a disadvantage of using a monolithic kernel architecture?

    A) Greater flexibility and modularity

    B) Lower performance due to context switching overhead

    C) Higher risk of system crashes

    D) Improved security

15. What is the purpose of the Master Boot Record (MBR) in a computer system?

    A) To store the operating system kernel

    B) To manage disk partitions and boot loaders

    C) To allocate memory resources

    D) To execute system processes

16. Which memory management technique involves dividing physical memory into fixed-sized blocks?

    A) Paging

    B) Segmentation

    C) Swapping

    D) Fragmentation

17. What is the purpose of a page table in virtual memory management?

    A) To translate logical addresses to physical addresses

    B) To allocate memory resources dynamically

    C) To manage disk space efficiently

    D) To synchronize access to shared resources

18. Which of the following is not a valid state of a process in the process lifecycle?

    A) Ready

    B) Running

    C) Completed

    D) Suspended

19. What is the primary purpose of a shell in an operating system?

    A) To manage memory allocation

    B) To provide a user interface for accessing system services

    C) To execute system processes

    D) To manage disk partitions

20. Which scheduling algorithm provides the highest average response time?

    A) Shortest Job First (SJF)

    B) Round Robin

    C) First Come, First Served (FCFS)

    D) Priority Scheduling

21. What is the function of a buffer cache in an operating system?

    A) To store file system metadata

    B) To manage system processes

    C) To cache disk block reads and writes

    D) To allocate memory resources dynamically

22. Which of the following is not a benefit of using multithreading in an operating system?

    A) Improved responsiveness and performance

    B) Simplified program design and debugging

    C) Enhanced utilization of multiprocessor systems

    D) Reduced overhead associated with context switching

23. What is the purpose of the Two-phase Commit protocol in distributed systems?

    A) To prevent deadlock situations

    B) To ensure consistency in distributed transactions

    C) To manage disk space allocation

    D) To synchronize access to shared resources

24. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a distributed operating system?

    A) Centralized control

    B) Scalability

    C) Fault tolerance

    D) Heterogeneity

25. What is the purpose of the init process in Unix-based operating systems?

    A) To initialize the system hardware

    B) To manage system processes

    C) To allocate memory resources

    D) To execute system calls

26. Which of the following is not a function of the Memory Management Unit (MMU) in a computer system?

    A) Translation of logical addresses to physical addresses

    B) Protection of memory regions

    C) Management of disk space

    D) Implementation of virtual memory

27. What is the role of a watchdog timer in embedded operating systems?

    A) To monitor system resources and prevent deadlock situations

    B) To detect and recover from system failures

    C) To manage communication between distributed nodes

    D) To synchronize access to shared resources

28. Which of the following is a characteristic of a distributed file system?

    A) Centralized data storage

    B) Low network latency

    C) Fault tolerance

    D) Limited scalability

29. What is the primary function of a boot loader in an operating system?

    A) To manage file system operations

    B) To initialize the system hardware

    C) To load the operating system kernel into memory

    D) To allocate memory resources

30. Which of the following is not a common file system in Unix-based operating systems?

    A) NTFS

    B) ext4

    C) ZFS

    D) HFS+

31. What is the purpose of a file descriptor in Unix-like operating systems?

    A) To represent an open file or socket

    B) To manage system processes

    C) To allocate memory resources

    D) To translate logical addresses to physical addresses

32. Which of the following is a characteristic of a distributed deadlock?

    A) Limited number of processes involved

    B) All processes are executing on the same node

    C) Lack of centralized control

    D) Possibility of circular wait condition

33. What is the purpose of a system call interface in an operating system?

    A) To execute system processes

    B) To provide a user interface for accessing system services

    C) To manage disk partitions

    D) To allocate memory resources

34. Which of the following is not a benefit of using demand paging in virtual memory management?

    A) Reduced memory overhead

    B) Improved system responsiveness

    C) Simplified memory management

    D) Enhanced utilization of physical memory

35. What is the role of a file allocation table (FAT) in file systems like FAT32?

    A) To store file metadata

    B) To manage disk partitions

    C) To translate logical addresses to physical addresses

    D) To keep track of file allocation status

36. Which of the following is not a component of a file system?

    A) Inode

    B) Superblock

    C) Semaphore

    D) Data block

37. What is the purpose of a deadlock avoidance algorithm in an operating system?

    A) To prevent processes from consuming excessive CPU time

    B) To identify and recover from system failures

    C) To detect and resolve resource conflicts among processes

    D) To optimize memory allocation

38. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a distributed shared memory (DSM) system?

    A) Centralized memory management

    B) Scalability

    C) Transparency

    D) Low latency

39. What is the function of a context switch in multitasking operating systems?

    A) To save and restore the state of a process

    B) To execute system calls

    C) To manage file system operations

    D) To allocate memory resources

40. Which of the following is not a reason for using distributed computing?

    A) Improved fault tolerance

    B) Enhanced scalability

    C) Decreased network latency

    D) Increased reliability

41. What is the purpose of a disk scheduler in an operating system?

    A) To manage file system operations

    B) To allocate memory resources

    C) To optimize disk access and improve performance

    D) To execute system processes

42. Which of the following is not a requirement for deadlock occurrence?

    A) Mutual exclusion

    B) Hold and wait

    C) Preemption

    D) Circular wait

43. What is the role of a process manager in an operating system?

    A) To allocate memory resources

    B) To manage system processes

    C) To execute system calls

    D) To provide a user interface for accessing system services

44. Which of the following is not a goal of memory management in operating systems?

    A) To provide a protected address space for each process

    B) To optimize memory usage and minimize fragmentation

    C) To prevent unauthorized access to system resources

    D) To ensure efficient allocation and deallocation of memory

45. What is the purpose of a transaction manager in database systems?

    A) To execute database queries

    B) To manage system processes

    C) To ensure ACID properties in database transactions

    D) To allocate memory resources

46. Which of the following is not a function of a file system?

    A) File creation and deletion

    B) Directory management

    C) Device driver management

    D) File access and modification

47. What is the purpose of a disk cache in an operating system?

    A) To store file system metadata

    B) To manage system processes

    C) To cache frequently accessed disk blocks

    D) To allocate memory resources

48. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a distributed database system?

    A) Centralized data storage

    B) Fault tolerance

    C) Scalability

    D) Data replication

49. What is the function of a RAID controller in disk management?

    A) To manage file system operations

    B) To execute system processes

    C) To optimize disk access and improve performance

    D) To implement redundant disk storage configurations

50. Which of the following is not a benefit of using solid-state drives (SSDs) over traditional hard disk drives (HDDs)?

    A) Faster data access times

    B) Lower power consumption

    C) Higher storage capacity

    D) Greater reliability and durability

These questions cover various aspects of operating systems suitable for a computer science test.

Here are the answer keys for the 50 operating system multiple-choice questions:

1. C) Apache

2. C) Allocating memory resources

3. A) To increase the physical memory capacity of a system

4. C) First Come, First Served (FCFS)

5. A) Managing system processes

6. B) At any point during its execution

7. C) To handle hardware interrupts

8. C) HTTP

9. C) To facilitate communication with hardware devices

10. C) Memory Cache

11. C) To detect and resolve resource conflicts among processes

12. B) Predictable response times to external events

13. A) To synchronize access to shared resources

14. A) Greater flexibility and modularity

15. B) To manage disk partitions and boot loaders

16. B) Segmentation

17. A) To translate logical addresses to physical addresses

18. D) Suspended

19. B) To provide a user interface for accessing system services

20. C) First Come, First Served (FCFS)

21. C) To cache disk block reads and writes

22. D) Reduced overhead associated with context switching

23. B) To ensure consistency in distributed transactions

24. A) Centralized control

25. B) To manage system processes

26. C) Management of disk space

27. B) To detect and recover from system failures

28. C) Fault tolerance

29. C) To load the operating system kernel into memory

30. A) NTFS

31. A) To represent an open file or socket

32. D) Possibility of circular wait condition

33. B) To provide a user interface for accessing system services

34. C) Simplified memory management

35. D) To keep track of file allocation status

36. C) Semaphore

37. C) To detect and resolve resource conflicts among processes

38. A) Centralized memory management

39. A) To save and restore the state of a process

40. C) Decreased network latency

41. C) To optimize disk access and improve performance

42. C) Preemption

43. B) To manage system processes

44. C) To prevent unauthorized access to system resources

45. C) To ensure ACID properties in database transactions

46. C) Device driver management

47. C) To cache frequently accessed disk blocks

48. A) Centralized data storage

49. D) To implement redundant disk storage configurations

50. C) Higher storage capacity

These answers correspond to the options provided in the questions.