Operating System Interview

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Top 50 Operating
System Interview
Questions and
Answers
Find most asked operating system interview
questions on this page. These are
commonly asked OS Interview Questions
with their answers and are frequently asked
in Technical Interviews.

OS Questions

Introduction to
Operating
System
An operating system (OS) is the
essential software that manages your
computer’s hardware and software
resources, ensuring they work
together seamlessly. It’s like the
conductor of a digital orchestra,
making your device perform
efficiently.

Uses of Operating System

1. Manage Resources: Control

hardware like CPU, memory, and

storage.

2. Run Programs: Handle multiple

tasks simultaneously.

3. Organize Files: Manage file storage

and retrieval.

4. Interact with Devices: Handle

peripherals like keyboards and

printers.

5. Provide Security: Protect against

threats and unauthorized access.

6. Offer User Interface: Enable user

interaction with the system.

7. Support Networking: Facilitate

communication in networked

environments.

8. Handle Errors: Manage and prevent

system errors.

9. Enable Updates: Allow for software

enhancements and security

patches.

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OS Interview
Questions and
Answers for Freshers

Ques 1: What is Operating

System?

Ans.

The operating system is a software

program that facilitates computer
hardware to communicate and operate
with the software applications and it
acts as an interface between the user
and the computer hardware. It is the
most important part of a computer
system without it computer is just like a
box.

Ques 2: What is Deadlock?

Ans.

Deadlock is a situation when two or

more processes wait for each other to
finish and none of them ever finish.
Consider an example when two trains
are coming toward each other on same
track and there is only one track, none
of the trains can move once they are in
front of each other. Similar situation
occurs in operating systems when there
are two or more processes hold some
resources and wait for resources held
by other(s).

Ques 3: What is Time-

sharing system?

Ans.

In a Time-sharing system, the CPU

executes multiple jobs by switching
among them, also known as
multitasking. This process happens so
fast that users can interact with each
program while it is running.

Ques 4: DeGne
Thoroughput.

Ans.

Throughput – number of processes that

complete their execution per time unit.
Turnaround time – amount of time to
execute a particular process. Waiting
time – amount of time a process has
been waiting in the ready queue.
Response time – amount of time it takes
from when a request was submitted
until the first response is produced, not
output (for time-sharing environment).

Ques 5: What are the

functions of operating
system?

Ans.

The operating system controls and

coordinates the use of hardware among
the different processes and
applications. It provides the various
functionalities to the users. The
following are the main job of operating
system.

Resource utilization

Resource allocation

Process management

Memory management

File management

I/O management

Device management

Operating System
Interview Questions

Ques 6: What Are Real-

time Systems?

Ans. Real-time systems are used when

rigid time requirements have been
placed on the operation of a processor.
It has well defined and fixed time
constraints.

Ques 7: Explain the

concept of Reentrancy?

Ans.

It is a useful, memory-saving technique

for multiprogrammed timesharing
systems. A Reentrant Procedure is one
in which multiple users can share a
single copy of a program during the
same period. Reentrancy has 2 key
aspects: The program code cannot
modify itself, and the local data for each
user process must be stored separately.
Thus, the permanent part is the code,
and the temporary part is the pointer
back to the calling program and local
variables used by that program. Each
execution instance is called activation. It
executes the code in the permanent
part, but has its own copy of local
variables/parameters. The temporary
part associated with each activation is
the activation record. Generally, the
activation record is kept on the stack.

Note: A reentrant procedure can be

interrupted and called by an
interrupting program, and still execute
correctly on returning to the procedure.

Ques 8: What is multi-

programming, and what
are the advantages?

Ans.

A multiprogramming operating system

is one that allows a process where
multiple programs execute over one
CPU. If your interviewer asks OS
questions on multiprogramming, you
can highlight key differences between a
multiprogramming OS and other
systems.

One way to display that you understand

the benefits of multi-programming is to
use a real-life example. By offering an
instance when you used multi-
programming to receive such benefits,
you are displaying hands-on knowledge
of a system that might be important to
the interviewer.

Ques 9: What is virtual

memory?

Ans.

Virtual memory is a memory

management method that helps to
execute the process using the primary
and secondary memory. Though the
program gets executed using the main
memory, the resources and pages load
from the secondary memory.

Ques 10: What is

Thrashing?

Ans.

Thrashing is a situation when the

performance of a computer degrades or
collapses. Thrashing occurs when a
system spends more time processing
page faults than executing transactions.
While processing page faults is
necessary to in order to appreciate the
benefits of virtual memory, thrashing
has a negative affect on the system. As
the page fault rate increases, more
transactions need processing from the
paging device. The queue at the paging
device increases, resulting in increased
service time for a page fault.

Operating System
Interview Questions
for Freshers

Ques 11: What is the

difference between micro
kernel and macro kernel?

Ans.

Micro kernel: micro kernel is the kernel

which runs minimal performance
affecting services for operating system.
In micro kernel operating system all
other operations are performed by
processor.

Macro Kernel: Macro Kernel is a

combination of micro and monolithic
kernel.

Ques 12: Enumerate the

different RAID levels.

Ans.

RAID 0 – Non-redundant striping

RAID 1 – Mirrored Disks

RAID 2 – Memory-style error-correcting

codes

RAID 3 – Bit-interleaved Parity

RAID 4 – Block-interleaved Parity

RAID 5 – Block-interleaved distributed

Parity

RAID 6 – P+Q Redundancy

Ques 13: Is it possible to

have a deadlock involving
only one process? Explain
your answer.

Ans.

Deadlock with one process is not

possible. Here is the explanation. A
deadlock situation can arise if the
following four conditions hold
simultaneously in a system.

Mutual Exclusion.

Hold and Wait.

No Preemption.

Circular-wait.

It is not possible to have circular wait

with only one process, thus failing a
necessary condition for Circular wait.
There is no second process to form a
circle with the first one. So it is not
possible to have a deadlock involving
only one process.

Ques 14: How Are Server

Systems ClassiGed?

Ans.

Server systems can be classified

as either computer-server systems
or file server systems. In the first
case, an interface is made
available for clients to send
requests to perform an action. In
the second case, provisions are
available for clients to create,
access and update files.

Ques 15: List the

Coffman’s conditions that
lead to a deadlock.

Ans.

1. Mutual Exclusion: Only one process

may use a critical resource at a

time.

2. Hold & Wait: A process may be

allocated some resources while

waiting for others.

3. No Pre-emption: No resource can

be forcible removed from a process

holding it.

4. Circular Wait: A closed chain of

processes exist such that each

process holds at least one resource

needed by another process in the

chain.

OS Questions for
Interview

Ques 16: Describe how to

boot an operating system.

Ans.

The word “boot” is short for “bootstrap,”

which is the name of the program that
prompts the operating system at
startup. Booting occurs when you start
a computer from the kernel. This usually
happens when you start it for the first
time. It may also occur when the
computer malfunctions and you have to
put it in safe mode or reboot it as
though it were a new CPU.

Booting an operating system is an

essential function that applies to many
varied work environments. If you have a
workplace with computers, it’s highly
likely you will have to boot new and
existing computers as an IT
professional. The answer to this
question offers the interviewer a read
on your fundamental skills with regards
to operating systems.

Ques 17: What is

demanding Paging?

Ans.

Demanding pages is a concept used by

the virtual machine. Only a part of the
process needs to be present in the main
memory to execute some process,
which means that only a few pages will
only be present in the main memory at
any time, and rest will be kept in the
secondary memory.

Ques 18: What is Banker’s

algorithm?

Ans.

Banker’s algorithm is used to avoid

deadlock. It is the one of deadlock-
avoidance method. It is named as
Banker’s algorithm on the banking
system where bank never allocates
available cash in such a manner that it
can no longer satisfy the requirements
of all of its customers.

Ques 19 :Give an example

of a Process State.

Ans.

New State – means a process is

being created

Running – means instructions are

being executed

Waiting – means a process is

waiting for certain conditions or

events to occur

Ready – means a process is waiting

for an instruction from the main

processor

Terminate – means a process is

stopped abruptly

Ques 20: What is a pipe?

Ans.

A traditional pipe is unnamed and

can be used only for the

communication of related process.

If unrelated processes are required

to communicate – named pipes are

required.

It is a pipe whose access point is a

file available on the file system.

When this file is opened for reading,

a process is granted access to the

reading end of the pipe. Similarly,

when the file is opened for writing,

the process is granted access to

writing end of the pipe.

A named pipe is also referred to as

FIFO or named FIFO.

Operating System
Interview Questions
and Answers

Ques 21: Explain the main

purpose of an operating
system?

Ans.

There are two main purposes of

Operating systems :

One is that it is designed to make

sure a computer system performs

well by managing its computational

activities.

Another is that it provides an

environment for the development

and execution of programs.

 Ques 22: What are the
advantages of a
multiprocessor system?

Ans.

With an increased number of

processors, there is a considerable
increase in throughput. It can also save
more money because they can share
resources. Finally, overall reliability is
increased as well.

Ques 23: What is kernel?

Ans.

A kernel is the core of every operating

system. It connects applications to the
actual processing of data. It also
manages all communications between
software and hardware components to
ensure usability and reliability.

Ques 24:What are real-

time systems?

Ans.

Real-time systems are used when rigid

time requirements have been placed on
the operation of a processor. It has well
defined and fixed time constraints.

Ques 25: What do you

mean by a process?

Ans.

An executing program is known as a

process. There are two types of
processes:

Operating System Processes

User Processes

Operating System
Questions with
Answers

Ques 26: What is time-

sharing system?

Ans.

In a Time-sharing system, the CPU

executes multiple jobs by switching
among them, also known as
multitasking. This process happens so
fast that users can interact with each
program while it is running.

Ques 27: What are the

different states of a
process?

Ans.

New Process

Running Process

Waiting Process

Ready Process

Terminated Process

Ques 28: What is the

difference between
process and program?

Ans.

A degree of relation is also known as

Cardinality it is defined as the number
of occurrence of one entity which is
connected to the number of occurrence
of other entity.

Ques 29: What are the

disadvantages of Gle
processing systems?

Ans.

Program Process

Program is a Process is a
set of program in
instructions execution.
written to
complete a
task.

Program is a Process is an
passive/static active/dynamic
entity. entity.

Program A process in
resides in execution
secondary resides in
memory. Primary
Memory.

Program has A process has

a longer life a limited life
span. span.

A program Process needs

only requires execution time
memory in CPU, I/O
space to requirements,
store itself. shared
resources,
Cles, memory
addresses and
more.

It has no Has a
signiCcant signiCcant
overhead. overhead.

Ques 30: What is the basic

difference between pre-
emptive and non-
preemptive scheduling?

Ans.

A dead lock avoidance algorithm

dynamically examines the resource-
allocation state to ensure that a circular
wait condition can never exist. The
resource allocation state is defined by
the number of available and allocated
resources, and the maximum demand of
the process. There are two algorithms:

Resource allocation graph

algorithm

Banker’s algorithm

Safety algorithm

Resource request algorithm

Operating System
Interview Questions
and Answers

Ques 31: What is CPU

Scheduler?

Ans.

Selects from among the processes in

memory that are ready to execute, and
allocates the CPU to one of them. CPU
scheduling decisions may take place
when a process:

1. Switches from running to waiting

state.

2. Switches from running to ready

state.

3. Switches from waiting to ready.

4. Terminates.

Ques 32: What is

Dispatcher?

Ans.

Dispatcher module gives control of the

CPU to the process selected by the
short-term scheduler; this involves:

Switching context

Switching to user mode

Jumping to the proper location in

the user program to restart that

program

Dispatch latency – time it takes for

the dispatcher to stop one process

and start another running.

Ques 33: Which are the

necessary conditions to
achieve a deadlock?

Ans.
There are 4 necessary conditions to
achieve a deadlock:

Mutual Exclusion: At least one

resource must be held in a non-

sharable mode. If any other process

requests this resource, then that

process must wait for the resource

to be released.

Hold and Wait: A process must be

simultaneously holding at least one

resource and waiting for at least

one resource that is currently being

held by some other process.

No preemption: Once a process is

holding a resource ( i.e. once its

request has been granted ), then

that resource cannot be taken away

from that process until the process

voluntarily releases it.

Circular Wait: A set of processes {

P0, P1, P2, . . ., PN } must exist such

that every P[ i ] is waiting for P[ ( i +

1 ) % ( N + 1 ) ].

Ques 34: How many types

of fragmentation occur in
Operating System?

Ans.

There are two types of fragmentation:

Internal fragmentation: It is

occurred when we deal with the

systems that have fixed size

allocation units.

External fragmentation: It is

occurred when we deal with

systems that have variable-size

allocation units.

Ques 35: What is Memory-

Management Unit (MMU)?

Ans.

Hardware device that maps virtual to

physical address. In MMU scheme, the
value in the relocation register is added
to every address generated by a user
process at the time it is sent to memory.
The user program deals with logical
addresses; it never sees the real
physical addresses

Ques 36: Explain the

different sections of a
process.

Ans.

Every process has a process memory,

which is generally divided into 4, this is
done to make the most efficient
functioning as possible –

Stack – This houses all the

temporary data and local variables

like function parameters and

addresses.

Heap – When the process is in its

run time, for dynamic memory

allocation, for operations such as

new(), delete(), malloc(), etc heap is

used for fastest access at the run

time.

Text – Contains value of Program

Counter and the contents of the

processor’s registers which just the

most low level instructions of the

compiled program

Data – Has static and global

variables.

Ques 37: What are the

different types of
scheduling algorithms?

Ans.

This is the advanced OS Interview

Questions which is asked in an
interview. The different types of
scheduling algorithms are as follows:

First come First serve(FCFS): First

came process is served first.

Round Robin(RR): Each process is

given a quantum amount of time.

Shortest job first(SJF): Process

with lowest execution time is given

first preference.

Priority scheduling (PS): Priority

value called (nice value) is used for

selecting process. Its value is from

0 to 99. 0 being maxed and 99

being least.

Ques 38: What are the

difference between user
level thread and kernel
level thread?

Ans.

User-Level Multi-Threaded
Threads Model

User Threads Kernel Threads

are are
implemented implemented
by users. by OS.

OS does not Kernel threads

recognize are recognized
user level by OS.
threads.

Implemetation Implementation
is easy. is complicated.

Context Context switch

switch time is time is more.
less.

Context Hardware
switch-no support is
hardware needed.
support.

If one user If one kernel

level thread thread perform
perform blocking
blocking operation then
operation then another thread
entire process can continue
will be execution.
blocked.

Ques 39: What is

synchronization? What are
the different
synchronization
mechanisms?

Ans.

When several threads (or processes)

share data, running in parallel on
different cores, then changes made by
one process may override changes
made by another process running
parallel. Resulting in inconsistent data.
So, this requires processes to be
synchronized, handling system
resources and processes to avoid such
situation is known as Process
Synchronization.

Different synchronization mechanisms

are:

Mutex

Semaphores

Monitors

Condition variables

Critical regions

Read/ Write locks

Ques 40: What is the use

of paging in operating
system?

Ans.

Paging is a memory-management
scheme that permits the physical
address space of a process to be non
contiguous or in other words eliminates
the need for contiguous allocation of
physical memory.

That is we can have logically use

memory spaces that physically lie

at different locations in the memory.

This allows viewing memory spaces

that physically lie at different

locations in the hardware to be

logically viewed as contiguous.

Operating System Interview

Ques 41: What is the

Zombie process?

Ans.

A zombie process is a process that has

completed and in the terminated state
but has its entry in the process table. It
shows that the resources are held by
the process and are not free.

Ques 42: When does the

Belady’s anomaly occur?

Ans.

In the Virtual memory system, all the

processes are divided into fixed-sized
pages. These pages are loaded into the
physical memory using the method of
demand paging. Under demand paging,
during the execution of a particular
process, whenever a page is required, a
page fault occurs, and then the required
page gets loaded into the memory
replacing some other page. The page
replacement algorithm specifies the
choice of the page which is to be
replaced. Now, Belady’s Anomaly is said
to occur when the number of page
faults increases significantly.

Ques 43: What is the basic

difference between
Segmentation and
Paging?

Ans.

Paging Segmentation

A page is a A segment is
physical unit a logical unit
of of
information. information.

Frames on No frames are

main memory required.
are required.

No frames The page is of

are required. the variable
block size

It leads to It leads to
internal external
fragmentation fragmentation

The page size Segment size

is decided by is decided by
hardware in the user in
paging segmentation

It does not It allows

allow logical logical
partitioning partitioning
and and protection
protection of of application
application components
components

Paging Segmentation
involves a involves the
page table segment table
that contains that contains
the base the segment
address of number and
each page offset

Ques 44: What are the

different types of Kernel?

Ans. Kernels are basically of two

types:
Monolithic Kernels –In this

architecture of kernel, all the

system services were packaged into

a single system module which lead

to poor maintainability and huge

size of kernel.

Microkernels – They follow the

modular approach of architecture.

Maintainability became easier with

this model as only the concerned

module is to be altered and loaded

for every function. This model also

keeps a tab on the ever growing

code size of the kernel.

Ques 45: What is

Starvation?

Ans.

If the CPU gets the processes of the

higher burst time at the front end of the
ready queue then the processes of
lower burst time may get blocked which
means they may never get the CPU if
the job in the execution has a very high
burst time. This is called convoy effect
or starvation.

In starvation resources are

continuously utilized by high

priority processes. Problem of

starvation can be resolved using

Aging.

In Aging priority of long waiting

processes is gradually increased.

Ques 46: What is a safe

state and what is its use
of deadlock avoidance?

Ans.

A state is safe if the system can allocate

all resources requested by all processes
( up to their stated maximums ) without
entering a deadlock state. System is in
safe state if there exists a safe
sequence of all processes. Deadlock
Avoidance: Ensure that a system will
never enter an unsafe state.

Ques 47: What are turn

around time and response
time?

Ans.

The basic difference b/w the turn

around time and response time is:-

Turn around time is the interval

between the submission of a job

 and its completion.

Response time is the interval b/w

the submission of the request, and

the first response to that request.

Ques48: What are the

reasons for process
suspension?

Ans.

1. Swapping

2. Interactive User Request

3. Timing

4. Parent Process Reques

Ques 49: What are various

scheduling queues?

Ans.

Given below are the scheduling

queues:-

Job Queue:- When a process enters

the system it is placed in the job

queue.

Ready Queue:- The processes that

are residing in the main memory

and are ready and waiting to

execute are kept on a list called the

ready queue.

Device Queue:- A list of processes

waiting for a particular I/O device is

called device queue.

Ques 50: What is the main

goal of RAID technology?

Ans.

The main goal of RAID (Redundant Array

of Independent Disks) technology is to
improve data storage reliability,
availability, and performance by
combining multiple physical hard drives
into a single logical unit. RAID achieves
this primarily through techniques like
data striping, mirroring, and
redundancy. The specific goals of RAID
technology include:

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Linux is not the Operating
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