Operating System Advanced Questions with Solutions
This topic covers the deeper operating system concepts tested in MCA entrance exams. It includes processes and threads, process states, CPU scheduling algorithms (FCFS, SJF, priority and round robin), and measures such as waiting time and turnaround time. It also covers process synchronisation, semaphores, deadlock (its four necessary conditions, prevention, avoidance with the banker's algorithm, and detection), and memory management techniques such as paging, segmentation, virtual memory and page replacement algorithms (FIFO, LRU and optimal). Numerical questions on scheduling and page replacement appear regularly. Drawing a Gantt chart for scheduling questions and a frame table for page replacement questions makes them straightforward. Remember that the four necessary conditions for deadlock are mutual exclusion, hold and wait, no preemption, and circular wait. Practise the advanced operating system questions below, each with a step-by-step solution.