DEPARTMENT : COMMON SUBJECT

COURSE CODE : 22CS401

COURSE NAME : OPERATING SYSTEMS

QUESTION BANK

2 MARKS

1. Compare tightly coupled and loosely coupled systems.

2. A computer user notices that the system manages hardware and software interactions smoothly
without their intervention.
3. Why do businesses prefer virtual machines over traditional hardware?
4. How does a computer system automatically manage the coordination between hardware and
software?
5. When a program creates a new process to run another program in a multitasking environment,
what are the basic steps involved in this process creation?
6. How does deadlock affect system performance, and what factors contribute to its occurrence?
7. What do you mean by system calls? Classify different types with suitable examples.
8. While observing how a computer handles multiple running programs, a user wonders how the
system organizes these programs waiting for CPU time. Based on this, identify the different
types of queues the operating system uses to manage process scheduling.
9. In what situations would message passing be preferred over shared memory for inter-process
communication?
10. In the context of process synchronization, how are the critical regions of a process managed
before and after accessing shared resources, and why are these stages important?
11. While multitasking on a computer, a user notices that some applications are actively working,
some are waiting, and others are suddenly closed. Based on this behavior, identify the various
stages a process may pass through in an operating system.
12. A video editing software running on a low-memory system temporarily moves inactive
processes to storage to keep the application responsive. What is this memory management
technique called, and how does it help?
13. A user notices that two programs on their computer are stuck — each waiting for the other to
release a resource, and nothing seems to move forward. What is this situation known as, and
what basic conditions must be true for it to happen in an operating system?
14. How does segmentation with paging enhance memory allocation efficiency in modern operating
systems?
15. Identify virtual memory role in managing large applications in modern computer systems.
16. A video editing software running on a low-memory system temporarily moves inactive
processes to storage to keep the application responsive. What is this memory management
technique called, and how does it help?
17. Why does thrashing occur, and how can an OS handle it to improve system performance?
18. A USB drive is plugged into a computer, and its contents become accessible to the user. What
fundamental process enables this, and how does it help in managing storage devices?
19. In a cloud-based gaming application, players experience faster loading times despite limited
physical memory. What fundamental memory management technique enables this efficiency,
and how does it work?
20. In a server handling multiple virtual machines, how does efficient swap space management
influence system performance and responsiveness under high memory load?
21. A cloud data center processes multiple user requests to read and write data from storage disks
simultaneously. What fundamental technique helps manage these requests efficiently?
22. In a cloud-based collaboration platform where multiple users access shared documents, how do
file system protection mechanisms prevent unauthorized access and ensure data security?
23. In a cloud-based database system handling thousands of read/write requests per second, how
does disk scheduling enhance storage performance and response time?
24. In a multi-user Linux server handling numerous simultaneous processes, how does the operating
system efficiently manage memory to ensure optimal performance and resource allocation?
25. In a mobile operating system, multiple apps run simultaneously, including background services
and real-time tasks. How does process scheduling impact system performance and user
experience?
26. In a cloud storage platform where users frequently upload and delete files, how does efficient
free space management impact system performance and storage availability?
27. An iOS app developer needs low-level system services like memory management and file
handling for app performance optimization. Which OS layer provides these functionalities, and
what are its key roles?
28. How does application sandboxing in iOS enhance security by isolating applications and
restricting access to system resources and user data?
29. A Linux-based web server dynamically loads additional functionality, such as network drivers,
without rebooting. What fundamental OS component enables this, and what is its role?
30. A mobile app developer notices differences in how background processes are handled on iOS
and Android devices. Identify two key differences in process management between these
operating systems.

13 MARKS

1. Illustrate how performance evaluation (throughput, latency, response time) helps in OS improvements for
handling modern workloads like AI, cloud computing, and IoT?
2. Discuss the advantages and challenges of using layered operating systems in enterprise computing
environments.
3. Multiprocessor and multicore architectures are widely used in modern computing. Justify their adoption by
comparing their advantages and challenges.
4. Why does increasing system performance require cache memory? Using examples from everyday life, explain
its function and how it relates to the operating system and direct memory access (DMA).
5. Why does increasing system performance require cache memory? Using examples from everyday life, explain
its function and how it relates to the operating system and direct memory access (DMA).
6. Utilize the role of low-latency task scheduling, efficient memory management, and parallel processing in
enhancing the performance of High-Performance Computing (HPC) operating systems. Develop a structured
approach to optimize these factors and evaluate their impact on handling complex computational workloads and
overall system efficiency.
7. Given a real-time multi-threaded system where multiple processes compete for shared resources, analyze and
implement an efficient synchronization mechanism inspired by the Dining Philosophers Problem to prevent
race conditions and deadlocks. Justify your approach with suitable real-world applications.
8. Illustrate the conflicts between scheduling criteria in CPU scheduling by discussing how the following pairs
impact system performance:
(i) CPU utilization vs. response time (4)
(ii) Average turnaround time vs. maximum waiting time (5)
(iii) I/O device utilization vs. CPU utilization. (4)
9. Discuss process synchronization techniques used to solve the critical-section problem. Provide real-
world examples and justify their effectiveness in preventing race conditions.
10. Discuss process synchronization techniques used to solve the critical-section problem. Provide real-
world examples and justify their effectiveness in preventing race conditions.
11. Explain various CPU scheduling algorithms with suitable examples. Use their effectiveness in different
computing environments and justify their selection based on performance metric.
12. Apply the concept of hybrid memory management using paging and segmentation to support dynamic
memory requirements in a high-performance 3D simulation environment.
13. In a real-time multi-user transaction system, multiple processes simultaneously access and update shared data
(e.g., a banking system, e-commerce inventory, or airline seat booking). A scenario where the critical section
problem arises, implement a suitable synchronization mechanism, and justify how it mitigates race conditions
and other concurrency challenges.
14. A cloud service provider experiences memory fragmentation due to variable-sized data processing tasks. How
can contiguous memory allocation be used to improve memory efficiency in this scenario?
15. Illustrate how different page replacement strategies (such as FIFO, LRU, and Optimal) can help enhance
system responsiveness under such real-time conditions.
16. A financial transaction system faces security risks due to inefficient memory handling in a multi-user
environment. Propose an optimized address translation mechanism in paging to ensure secure and efficient
memory access.
17. Explain the working principles of various disk scheduling algorithms and discuss how they influence the
performance of read/write operations in such high-demand applications. Support your explanation with suitable
examples.
18. A real-time video streaming platform needs efficient memory allocation to load video segments
dynamically. Explain demand paging with a practical example related to video buffering and adaptive
streaming.
19. An organization manages multiple types of files across its distributed servers. Apply the following file concepts
and their significance in ensuring efficient file management:
 File Attributes (4)
 File types and its operations (5)
 Internal File Structure (4)

20. Discuss the various RAID and then helps in achieving fault tolerance and performance enhancement in real-
time enterprise environments, using suitable examples.
21. A real-time banking application processes thousands of transactions per second. Analyze different disk
scheduling algorithms and determine which algorithm would best optimize read/write operations to minimize
delays. Provide relevant examples.
22. A financial transaction system faces security risks due to inefficient memory handling in a multi-user
environment. Propose an optimized address translation mechanism in paging to ensure secure and efficient
memory access.
23. A cloud service provider wants to enable multiple operating systems to run efficiently on a single
physical machine. Explain virtualization in detail, including its types, advantages, and challenges in large-
scale cloud computing.
24. A smartphone manufacturer is designing a new mobile OS. Discuss the essential components of Mobile OS
Architecture and how it impacts performance, security, and user experience.
25. A Linux-based IoT system is being developed for real-time data processing in smart cities. Analyze the
core concepts of the Linux system and apply its principles to ensure efficient scheduling, memory
management, and inter-process communication in IoT applications.
26. A large e-commerce company maintains millions of product-related files in its database. Describe the following
directory implementation methods and discuss which method is more efficient for handling a vast number of
files:

27. An enterprise is considering Linux for its server infrastructure but is concerned about security threats. Explain
the security system in Linux, including authentication, access control, and encryption techniques.

28. A media streaming platform must efficiently retrieve and manage large audio and video files to ensure seamless
playback for users. List the various file access methods used in operating systems and apply which method
would be the most effective for optimizing performance in real-time streaming applications.
29. Discuss the concept of Virtual Machines (VMs) by explaining their implementation methods and analyzing the
advantages they offer in optimizing resource utilization within multi-user, cloud-based development
environments.
30. Explain how Linux security mechanisms such as authentication, access control, and encryption techniques can
be applied to protect an enterprise server infrastructure from security threats.

16 MARKS

1. A self-driving car system operates in a dynamic environment with limited onboard memory. The system needs
to make real-time decisions while processing sensor data. Critically analyze how virtual memory and demand
paging impact the performance of real-time decision-making in such a system.(5)
 Compare different page replacement strategies and justify which one would best suit a safety-critical
application like autonomous driving. (5)
Propose an optimized memory management approach to ensure low-latency and high-reliability execution. (5)
2. Effective operating system performance and security rely on efficient task scheduling, virtual memory
management, and user access control mechanisms. Develop a structured framework to evaluate Windows 10's
efficiency in these areas. Analyze its impact on system stability, responsiveness, and security, and justify your
evaluation with real-world case studies or performance metrics.
3. A financial institution that handles millions of transactions per day is facing a storage crisis due to inefficient
file system allocation and free space management.
Analyze how different file allocation methods and free space management strategies affect transaction speed,
storage efficiency, and fragmentation. Based on your analysis, propose a file system design that ensures data
integrity, fast access, and efficient transaction handling under heavy system loads.
4. Given the following set of processes with their respective burst and arrival times, analyze the scheduling
behavior using First-Come First-Served (FCFS), Shortest Job First (SJF) non-preemptive, and Round Robin
(RR) with a time quantum of 2 ms.
 Process Burst Time Arrival Time

P1 10 0

P2 1 1

P3 2 2

P4 1 1

P5 5 2

Construct the corresponding Gantt charts for each scheduling method and compute the average waiting time
and turnaround time. Compare the results and discuss the scheduling efficiency of each algorithm.
5. A financial transaction system handles concurrent access to shared account data. During simultaneous
transactions, inconsistencies are observed in the account balance calculations, leading to incorrect
fund transfers. Analyze the underlying issue in this scenario and evaluate how the concept of a
critical section can be applied to prevent such inconsistencies. Additionally, examine the essential
properties a data item must possess to ensure a reliable critical section implementation in a multi-
threaded real-time system. Provide a well-structured justification for your analysis.
6. A mobile banking application must operate efficiently across iOS and Android while maintaining high security
and performance.
 Discriminate the security architecture of iOS and Android, focusing on sandboxing, permissions, and
encryption mechanisms. (5)
 Examine how the SDK frameworks of both operating systems impact app development, background
processing, and resource management. (5)
 Analyze the key challenges and compromises involved in enhancing application performance without
compromising the security of user transactions. (5)