Interview Q&A / Operating Systems
Operating Systems interview questions
Processes, threads, scheduling, memory and deadlocks, in plain words.
Prefer rapid revision? Practise Operating Systems short interview answers →
- What is a Process Control Block (PCB) and what does it store?
A PCB is the kernel data structure holding everything the OS needs to manage one process: its ID, state, saved registers, program counter, memory information, open files and scheduling data.
BeginnerQuick answer1 min read - What is the difference between user-level threads and kernel-level threads?
User-level threads are managed by a library in user space, and the kernel sees only one process. Kernel-level threads are managed by the OS itself, so they can run on several cores and block independently.
IntermediateQuick answer1 min read