Operating System (BCS401) important questions and topics for AKTU
These are ranked by how often AKTU repeats them across 6 papers. Repeated questions and "very likely" topics are the safest marks in the exam.
Most repeated Operating System questions
- A system shares 9 tape drives. Current allocation and maximum requirement: P1(alloc=3, max=7), P2(alloc=1, max=6), P3(alloc=3, max=5). Which of the following best describes current state: 1. Safe, Deadlocked 2. Safe, Not Deadlocked 3. Not Safe, Deadlocked 4. Not Safe, Not deadlocked. Explain. (7 marks, 2025, Deadlock) – also asked in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024
- Explain the process concept in detail with its states and state transition diagram. (7 marks, 2025, CPU Scheduling) – also asked in 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024
- In optimal page replacement algorithm, information about all future page references is available to the OS. A modification: OS correctly predicts only up to next 4 page references. A process accesses pages: 1, 3, 2, 4, 2, 3, 1, 2, 4, 3, 1, 4. If the system has three memory frames that are initially empty, find the number of page faults. (7 marks, 2025, Virtual Memory) – also asked in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023
- Two semaphores S1 and S2 are both initialized to 1. Process P1 executes wait(S1); wait(S2); and P2 executes wait(S2); wait(S1);. Explain how a deadlock may occur and under what sequence. (7 marks, 2025, Deadlock) – also asked in 2018, 2022, 2023, 2024
- Define the Critical Section Problem and list the conditions that a solution must satisfy. (7 marks, 2025, Mutual Exclusion) – also asked in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024
High-probability Operating System topics
- CPU Scheduling (Unit 3: CPU Scheduling and Deadlock) – asked 22 times in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
- Deadlock (Unit 3: CPU Scheduling and Deadlock) – asked 14 times in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
- File System (Unit 5: I/O Management and File Systems) – asked 12 times in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025