Operating Systems interview questions

Master Operating Systems interview questions with 26+ curated problems, answer outlines, and placement-focused preparation.

Preview Questions

  1. What is an Operating System?

    An operating system is a system software that acts as an intermediary between users and computer hardware. It manages all computer hardware and software resources, coordinating their interaction to ensure smooth...

  2. Explain Virtual Memory and how it works.

    Virtual memory is a memory management technique that extends available physical RAM by using hard disk space as auxiliary memory. Physical memory is often insufficient for running multiple large programs simultaneously....

  3. What are the main functions of an Operating System?

    The operating system performs several critical functions to manage computer hardware and enable applications to run effectively. Resource management allocates computing resources including CPU, memory, and I/O devices...

  4. What is a Deadlock and what are its necessary conditions?

    A deadlock is a situation in which two or more processes cannot proceed because each is waiting for resources held by other processes, creating a circular dependency. When deadlock occurs, all involved processes are...

  5. What is a Process and what are its states?

    A process is a running instance of a program loaded into memory and executing on the processor. Unlike a program, which is passive code stored on disk, a process is an active entity with its own memory address space,...

  6. Explain Context Switching and its overhead.

    Context switching is the process of saving the execution context of one process and loading the execution context of another process onto the CPU. The execution context includes all information necessary to resume...

  7. What is the difference between Process and Thread?

    A process is an independent program executing with its own memory address space, including separate code, data, and heap segments. Each process has its own set of resources and is protected from other processes,...

  8. What is CPU Scheduling and why is it important?

    CPU scheduling is the process of selecting which process should execute on the CPU when multiple processes are ready to run. Since most systems have more runnable processes than available processors, the operating...