B.S.W.E. Bachelor of Software Engineering Operating Systems & Systems Programming

Question 1

What is a process in the context of an operating system?

Accepted Answer

An instance of a program in execution with its own memory space

Answer

A process is a running instance of a program, with its own dedicated memory address space, program counter, and system resources.

Question 2

What is the main difference between a process and a thread?

Accepted Answer

Threads share the same memory space within a process; processes have separate memory spaces

Answer

Threads within the same process share the same address space and resources, while separate processes have independent memory spaces.

Question 3

Which CPU scheduling algorithm selects the process with the shortest expected execution time next?

Accepted Answer

Shortest Job First (SJF)

Answer

Shortest Job First (SJF) schedules the process with the smallest estimated execution time next, minimizing average waiting time.

Question 4

What is a deadlock in operating systems?

Accepted Answer

A condition where two or more processes are blocked forever, each waiting for a resource held by the other

Answer

Deadlock occurs when a set of processes are permanently blocked because each process holds a resource needed by another process in the set.

Question 5

In operating systems, what does virtual memory allow?

Accepted Answer

Programs to use more memory than physically available by using disk storage as an extension of RAM

Answer

Virtual memory extends physical RAM using disk space (swap), allowing processes to use address spaces larger than available physical memory.

B.S.W.E. Bachelor of Software Engineering Practice Test