Question 1

What is the difference between a process and a thread?

Accepted Answer

A process has its own memory space; threads share the process's memory. A process is an independent program with its own memory. Threads are lightweight units within a process that share code, data, and heap but have separate stacks.

Question 2

Which CPU scheduling algorithm may cause starvation?

Accepted Answer

Priority Scheduling. Priority Scheduling can starve low-priority processes if high-priority processes keep arriving. Round Robin and FCFS give every process a turn, preventing starvation.

Question 3

What are the four conditions for a deadlock (Coffman conditions)?

Accepted Answer

Mutual exclusion, Hold and wait, No preemption, Circular wait. All four must hold simultaneously for deadlock: (1) Mutual Exclusion, (2) Hold & Wait, (3) No Preemption, (4) Circular Wait. Remove any one to prevent deadlock.

Question 4

What is virtual memory?

Accepted Answer

A technique that lets programs use more memory than physically available by using disk as extension. Virtual memory creates an illusion of a large address space. The OS maps virtual addresses to physical RAM or disk (swap space), loading pages on demand.

Question 5

What is a semaphore?

Accepted Answer

A synchronization variable used to control access to shared resources. A semaphore is an integer variable with atomic wait() (P) and signal() (V) operations. Binary semaphore (0 or 1) acts like a mutex. Counting semaphore allows n concurrent accesses.

Operating Systems MCQ Quiz

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