Operating Systems Flashcards
6 cards from real IKM practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 Operating Systems flashcards as text
What is the difference between a process and a thread?
Answer: Processes have separate address spaces; threads share the same address space
Processes have independent memory spaces while threads share code, data, and heap.
Which page replacement algorithm is optimal but impractical?
Answer: Optimal (Belady's)
Belady's Optimal algorithm replaces the page not used for the longest future time, requiring future knowledge.
What is the primary advantage of a microkernel over a monolithic kernel?
Answer: Better modularity and fault isolation
Microkernels move drivers and services to user space, providing better fault isolation.
What is thrashing in virtual memory?
Answer: Excessive page faulting that severely degrades performance
Thrashing occurs when the system spends more time swapping pages than executing instructions.
Which I/O scheduling algorithm services requests in arrival order?
Answer: FCFS
FCFS processes disk I/O requests in the order received.
What is the role of the bootloader?
Answer: Load the OS kernel into memory and start execution
The bootloader loads the kernel from storage into RAM and transfers control to it.