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TechnicalInterviewPrep
TechnicalInterview
Introduction
CInterviewQuestions

1.Whatisanoperatingsystem?
An operating system is a program that acts as an intermediary between the user and the computer
hardware.ThepurposeofanOSistoprovideaconvenientenvironmentinwhichusercanexecute
programsinaconvenientandefficientmanner.

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2.Whatarethedifferentoperatingsystems?

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1.Batchedoperatingsystems

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2.Multiprogrammedoperatingsystems

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3.timesharingoperatingsystems
4.Distributedoperatingsystems
5.Realtimeoperatingsystems

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3.Whatarethebasicfunctionsofanoperatingsystem?

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Operatingsystemcontrolsandcoordinatestheuseofthehardwareamongthevariousapplications
programsforvarioususes.Operatingsystemactsasresourceallocatorandmanager.Alsooperating
systemiscontrolprogramwhichcontrolstheuserprogramstopreventerrorsandimproperuseofthe
computer.ItisespeciallyconcernedwiththeoperationandcontrolofI/Odevices.

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4.Whatiskernel?
Kernelisthecoreandessentialpartofcomputeroperatingsystemthatprovidesbasicservicesforall
partsofOS.

ElectricalInterviewQuestions

5.Whatisdifferencebetweenmicrokernelandmacrokernel?

ElectronicsInterviewQuestions

Microkernelisakernelwhichrunservicesthoseareminimalforoperatingsystemperformance.Inthis
kernelallotheroperationsareperformedbyprocessor.

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Questions

Macro Kernel is a combination of micro and monolithic kernel. In monolithic kernel all operating
systemcodeisinsingleexecutableimage.

Civil

AndroidInterviewQuestions

6.Whatisdeadlock?
Deadlockisasituationorconditionwherethetwoprocessesarewaitingforeachothertocompleteso
thattheycanstart.Thisresultboththeprocessestohang.
7.Whatisaprocess?
Aprograminexecutioniscalledaprocess.
Processesareoftwotypes:
1.Operatingsystemprocesses
2.Userprocesses

8.Whatarethestatesofaprocess?
1.New
2.Running
3.Waiting
4.Ready
5.Terminated

9.Whatisstarvationandaging?
StarvationisResourcemanagementproblemwhereaprocessdoesnotgettheresourcesitneedsfor
alongtimebecausetheresourcesarebeingallocatedtootherprocesses.
Agingisatechniquetoavoidstarvationinaschedulingsystem.

10.Whatissemaphore?
Semaphoreisavariable,whosestatusreportscommonresource,Semaphoreisoftwotypesoneis
BinarysemaphoreandotherisCountingsemaphore.

11.Whatiscontextswitching?
Transferringthecontrolfromoneprocesstootherprocessrequiressavingthestateoftheoldprocess
andloadingthesavedstatefornewprocess.Thistaskisknownascontextswitching.

12.Whatisathread?
Athreadisaprogramlineunderexecution.Threadsometimescalledalightweightprocess,isabasic
unitofCPUutilizationitcomprisesathreadid,aprogramcounter,aregisterset,andastack

13.Whatisprocesssynchronization?
A situation, where several processes access and manipulate the same data concurrently and the
outcomeoftheexecutiondependsontheparticularorderinwhichtheaccesstakesplace,iscalled
racecondition.Toguardagainsttheraceconditionweneedtoensurethatonlyoneprocessatatime
canbemanipulatingthesamedata.Thetechniqueweuseforthisiscalledprocesssynchronization.

14.Whatisvirtualmemory?
Virtualmemoryishardwaretechniquewherethesystemappearstohavemorememorythatitactually

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does.Thisisdonebytimesharing,thephysicalmemoryandstoragepartsofthememoryonedisk
whentheyarenotactivelybeingused.

15.Whatisthrashing?
Itisaphenomenoninvirtualmemoryschemeswhentheprocessorspendsmostofitstimeswapping
pages,ratherthanexecutinginstructions.Thisisduetoaninordinatenumberofpagefaults.

16.Whatisfragmentation?Tellaboutdifferenttypesoffragmentation?
When many of free blocks are too small to satisfy any request then fragmentation occurs. External
fragmentation and internal fragmentation are two types of fragmentation. External Fragmentation
happenswhenadynamicmemoryallocationalgorithmallocatessomememoryandasmallpieceis
leftoverthatcannotbeeffectivelyused.Internalfragmentationisthespacewastedinsideofallocated
memoryblocksbecauseofrestrictionontheallowedsizesofallocatedblocks.

17.Whatarenecessaryconditionsfordeadlock?
1.Mutualexclusion(whereatleastoneresourceisnonsharable)
2.Holdandwait(whereaprocessholdsoneresourceandwaitsforotherresource)
3.Nopreemption(wheretheresourcescantbepreempted)
4.Circularwait(wherep[i]iswaitingforp[j]toreleasearesource.i=1,2,n
j=if(i!=n)theni+1
else1)

18.Whatiscachememory?
Cachememoryisrandomaccessmemory(RAM)thatacomputermicroprocessorcanaccessmore
quickly than it can access regular RAM. As the microprocessor processes data, it looks first in the
cachememoryandifitfindsthedatathere(fromapreviousreadingofdata),itdoesnothavetodothe
moretimeconsumingreadingofdatafromlargermemory.

19.Whatislogicalandphysicaladdressesspace?
Logical address space is generated from CPU it bound to a separate physical address space is
centraltopropermemorymanagement.Physicaladdressspaceisseenbythememoryunit.Logical
addressspaceisvirtualaddressspace.Boththeseaddressspacewillbesameatcompiletimebut
differatexecutiontime.

20.DifferentiatebetweenComplierandInterpreter?
Aninterpreterreadsoneinstructionatatimeandcarriesouttheactionsimpliedbythatinstruction.It
doesnotperformanytranslation.Butacompilertranslatestheentireinstructions

21.WhatisThroughput,Turnaroundtime,waitingtimeandResponsetime?
Throughputnumberofprocessesthatcompletetheirexecutionpertimeunit
Turnaroundtimeamountoftimetoexecuteaparticularprocess
Waitingtimeamountoftimeaprocesshasbeenwaitinginthereadyqueue
Responsetimeamountoftimeittakesfromwhenarequestwassubmitteduntilthefirstresponseis
produced,notoutput(fortimesharingenvironment)

22.WhatisMemoryManagementUnit(MMU)?
Hardwaredevicethatmapsvirtualtophysicaladdress.InMMUscheme,thevalueintherelocation
registerisaddedtoeveryaddressgeneratedbyauserprocessatthetimeitissenttomemory.
>Theuserprogramdealswithlogicaladdressesitneverseestherealphysicaladdresses

23.WhatisaRealTimeSystem?
Arealtimeprocessisaprocessthatmustrespondtotheeventswithinacertaintimeperiod.Areal
timeoperatingsystemisanoperatingsystemthatcanrunrealtimeprocessessuccessfully

24.Whatisatrapandtrapdoor?
Trapdoorisasecretundocumentedentrypointintoaprogramusedtograntaccesswithoutnormal
methodsofaccessauthentication.Atrapisasoftwareinterrupt,usuallytheresultofanerrorcondition.

25.Whenisasysteminsafestate?
Thesetofdispatchableprocessesisinasafestateifthereexistsatleastonetemporalorderinwhich
allprocessescanberuntocompletionwithoutresultinginadeadlock.

26.ExplaintheconceptoftheDistributedsystems?
Distributedsystemsworkinanetwork.Theycansharethenetworkresources,communicatewitheach
other.

27.Whatiscachecoherency?
InamultiprocessorsystemthereexistseveralcacheseachmaycontainingacopyofsamevariableA.
Then a change in one cache should immediately be reflected in all other caches this process of
maintainingthesamevalueofadatainallthecachesscalledcachecoherency.

28.Whatisalongtermscheduler&shorttermschedulers?
Longtermschedulersarethejobschedulersthatselectprocessesfromthejobqueueandloadthem
intomemoryforexecution.TheshorttermschedulersaretheCPUschedulersthatselectaprocess
fromthereadyqueueandallocatetheCPUtooneofthem.

29.Explainthemeaningofmutex.
MutexistheshortformforMutualExclusionobject.Amutexallowsmultiplethreadsforsharingthe
sameresource.Theresourcecanbefile.Amutexwithauniquenameiscreatedatthetimeofstarting
a program. A mutex must be locked from other threads, when any thread that needs the resource.

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Whenthedataisnolongerused/needed,themutexissettounlock.

30.Whatiscyclestealing?
WeencountercyclestealinginthecontextofDirectMemoryAccess(DMA).EithertheDMAcontroller
canusethedatabuswhentheCPUdoesnotneedit,oritmayforcetheCPUtotemporarilysuspend
operation.Thelattertechniqueiscalledcyclestealing.Notethatcyclestealingcanbedoneonlyat
specificbreakpointsinaninstructioncycle.

31.WhatisMarshalling?
The process of packaging and sending interface method parameters across thread or process
boundaries.

32.Whatisadaemon?
Daemon is a program that runs in the background without users interaction. A daemon runs in a
multitasking operating system like UNIX. A daemon is initiated and controlled by special programs
knownasprocesses.

33.Whatispreemptiveandnonpreemptivescheduling?
Preemptivescheduling:Thepreemptiveschedulingisprioritized.Thehighestpriorityprocessshould
alwaysbetheprocessthatiscurrentlyutilized.
NonPreemptivescheduling:Whenaprocessentersthestateofrunning,thestateofthatprocessis
notdeletedfromthescheduleruntilitfinishesitsservicetime.

34.Whatisbusywaiting?
Therepeatedexecutionofaloopofcodewhilewaitingforaneventtooccuriscalledbusywaiting.
TheCPUisnotengagedinanyrealproductiveactivityduringthisperiod,andtheprocessdoesnot
progresstowardcompletion.

35.Whatispagecannibalizing?
Pageswappingorpagereplacementsarecalledpagecannibalizing.

36.WhatisSMP?
To achieve maximum efficiency and reliability a mode of operation known as symmetric
multiprocessing is used. In essence, with SMP any process or threads can be assigned to any
processor.

37.Whatisprocessmigration?
Itisthetransferofsufficientamountofthestateofprocessfromonemachinetothetargetmachine.

38.DifferencebetweenPrimarystorageandsecondarystorage?
Primarymemoryisthemainmemory(Harddisk,RAM)wheretheoperatingsystemresides.
Secondary memory can be external devices like CD, floppy magnetic discs etc. secondary storage
cannotbedirectlyaccessedbytheCPUandisalsoexternalmemorystorage.

39.Definecompactions.
Compactionisaprocessinwhichthefreespaceiscollectedinalargememorychunktomakesome
spaceavailableforprocesses.

40.Whatareresidencemonitors?
Earlyoperatingsystemswerecalledresidencemonitors.

41.Whatisdualmodeoperation?
Inordertoprotecttheoperatingsystemsandthesystemprogramsfromthemalfunctioningprograms
thetwomodeoperationswereevolved
Systemmode
Usermode.

42.Whatisadevicequeue?
AlistofprocesseswaitingforaparticularI/Odeviceiscalleddevicequeue.

43.WhatarethedifferenttypesofRealTimeScheduling?
Hardrealtimesystemsrequiredtocompleteacriticaltaskwithinaguaranteedamountoftime.
Softrealtimecomputingrequiresthatcriticalprocessesreceivepriorityoverlessfortunateones.

44.Whatisrelativepathandabsolutepath?
AbsolutepathExactpathfromrootdirectory.
RelativepathRelativetothecurrentpath.

45.Whatarethedisadvantagesofcontextswitching?
Timetakenforswitchingfromoneprocesstootherispureoverhead.Becausethesystemdoesno
usefulworkwhileswitching.Sooneofthesolutionsistogoforthreadingwheneverpossible.

46.Whatisadataregisterandaddressregister?
Dataregisterscanbeassignedtoavarietyoffunctionsbytheprogrammer.Theycanbeusedwith
anymachineinstructionthatperformsoperationsondata.
Addressregisterscontainmainmemoryaddressesofdataandinstructionsortheycontainaportion
oftheaddressthatisusedinthecalculationofthecompleteaddresses.

47.WhatisDRAM?

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DynamicRamstoresthedataintheformofCapacitance,andStaticRAMstoresthedatainVoltages.

48.Whatarelocalandglobalpagereplacements?
Localreplacementmeansthatanincomingpageisbroughtinonlytotherelevantprocess'address
space.Globalreplacementpolicyallowsanypageframefromanyprocesstobereplaced.Thelatteris
applicabletovariablepartitionsmodelonly.

49.Explaintheconceptofthebatchedoperatingsystems?
In batched operating system the users gives their jobs to the operator who sorts the programs
accordingtotheirrequirementsandexecutesthem.ThisistimeconsumingbutmakestheCPUbusy
allthetime.

50.WhatisSCSI?
SCSISmallcomputersystemsinterfaceisatypeofinterfaceusedforcomputercomponentssuchas
hard drives, optical drives, scanners and tape drives. It is a competing technology to standard IDE
(IntegratedDriveElectronics).

51.Whenisasysteminsafestate?
Thesetofdispatchableprocessesisinasafestateifthereexistsatleastonetemporalorderinwhich
allprocessescanberuntocompletionwithoutresultinginadeadlock.

52.Whatiscyclestealing?
WeencountercyclestealinginthecontextofDirectMemoryAccess(DMA).EithertheDMAcontroller
canusethedatabuswhentheCPUdoesnotneedit,oritmayforcetheCPUtotemporarilysuspend
operation.Thelattertechniqueiscalledcyclestealing.Notethatcyclestealingcanbedoneonlyat
specificbreakpointsinaninstructioncycle.

53.Whatisanidlethread?
Thespecialthreadadispatcherwillexecutewhennoreadythreadisfound.

54.WhatisFtDisk?
ItisafaulttolerancediskdriverforWindowsNT.

55.WhatisDispatcher?
DispatchermodulegivescontroloftheCPUtotheprocessselectedbytheshorttermschedulerthis
involves: Switching context, Switching to user mode, Jumping to the proper location in the user
programtorestartthatprogram,dispatchlatencytimeittakesforthedispatchertostoponeprocess
andstartanotherrunning.

56.Whendoesthecondition'rendezvous'arise?
Inmessagepassing,itistheconditioninwhich,both,thesenderandreceiverareblockeduntilthe
messageisdelivered.

57.Whatisprocessspawning?
WhentheOSattheexplicitrequestofanotherprocesscreatesaprocess,thisactioniscalledprocess
spawning

58.Whatarethereasonsforprocesssuspension?
1)swapping
2)interactiveuserrequest
3)timing
4)parentprocessrequest

59.WhatarethesubcomponentsofI/OmanagerinWindowsNT?
1)Networkredirector/Server
2)Cachemanager.
3)Filesystems
4)Networkdriver
5)Devicedriver

60.WhatisadrawbackofMVT?
1)abilitytosupportmultipleprocessors
2)virtualstorage
3)sourceleveldebugging

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