B CompE Bachelor of Computer Engineering Bachelor of Computer Engineering Operating System 4

Question 1

Which synchronization construct guarantees that only one thread executes a protected block at a time and automatically releases on exit, including via exceptions?

Accepted Answer

Monitor

Answer

A monitor encapsulates shared data with mutual exclusion and condition variables, automatically releasing the lock when the thread exits the protected procedure.

Question 2

In the Banker's Algorithm for deadlock avoidance, what does the 'safe state' guarantee?

Accepted Answer

There exists a sequence in which every process can obtain its maximum resources and finish

Answer

A safe state means the OS can find an ordering (safe sequence) of processes such that each can run to completion using currently available and released resources.

Question 3

What is the role of the 'inode' in Unix/Linux file systems?

Accepted Answer

Hold metadata (permissions, size, block pointers) about a file

Answer

An inode stores file metadata including owner, permissions, timestamps, size, and pointers to data blocks, but not the file name itself.

Question 4

Which CPU scheduling algorithm can lead to indefinite postponement (starvation) of long jobs in favor of shorter ones?

Accepted Answer

Priority Scheduling

Answer

Priority Scheduling may indefinitely delay low-priority processes if higher-priority processes keep arriving; aging is the standard mitigation.

Question 5

What distinguishes a 'thread' from a 'process' in modern operating systems?

Accepted Answer

Threads share the address space of their process; processes have independent address spaces

Answer

Threads within the same process share code, data, and open file descriptors but have individual stacks and register sets, making context switching cheaper.

B CompE Bachelor of Computer Engineering Practice Test

B CompE Bachelor of Computer Engineering Practice Test

B CompE Bachelor of Computer Engineering Bachelor of Computer Engineering Operating System 4