Interview Q&A / Linux & Shell

INTERVIEW Q&A · 63 QUESTIONS

Linux & Shell interview questions

Permissions, processes, pipes and the commands you are expected to know cold.

  1. How do you make systemd restart a service automatically if it crashes?

    Set Restart=on-failure (or always) in the [Service] section, usually with RestartSec= to add a delay. systemd then restarts the process after a crash, and StartLimitBurst and StartLimitIntervalSec stop endless crash loops.

    IntermediateQuick answer1 min read
  2. How do you write a simple systemd service file for your own app?

    Create a .service file in /etc/systemd/system with a [Unit] description, a [Service] section giving ExecStart and a user, and an [Install] section with WantedBy=multi-user.target. Then run systemctl daemon-reload and systemctl enable --now name.

    IntermediateQuick answer1 min read
  3. What are systemd targets, and how do they relate to old runlevels?

    A target is a group of units that represents a system state, such as multi-user.target (text mode, networking) or graphical.target (with a desktop). They replace SysV runlevels: runlevel 3 is multi-user.target and 5 is graphical.target. Check or change with systemctl get-default and set-default.

    IntermediateQuick answer1 min read