Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town

(School of University of Engineering and Management

Kolkata)

Degree: MCA, Stream: MCA

Third Semester Examination 2024
Paper Code: MCA301
Paper Name: Operating System and System Software

Full Duratio
Examination No. of Questions and Marks Division
Marks n
Part A : 10 x 2 marks with alternatives = 20 questions
End Semester 100 Part B : 6 x 5 marks with alternatives = 12 questions 3 hours
Part C : 5 x 10 marks with alternatives = 10 questions

Points to Note:
1. Course Outcome (CO) Levels should be mentioned as COx, where x denotes the CO
between 1 to 7 (Example: CO1), as defined per subject. One questions shall be under
only ONE CO.
2. Bloom’s Taxonomy Level (BL) should be mentioned in words (Example: Remember) as
follow, as defined per question:
a. BL1 – Remember
b. BL2 – Understand
c. BL3 – Apply
d. BL4 – Analyze
e. BL5 – Evaluate
f. BL6 – Create
Part A
QB
Question
Sr. Question Module CO BL
Marks
No.
1 What is the need for an operating system? 2 1 CO1 Understand
2 What is SPOOL? What is the benefit of spooling? 2 1 CO1 Remember
Explain the characteristics of multi-processor and distributed
3 2 1 CO1 Remember
systems.
4 What is a timer? Explain its role in an operating system. 2 1 CO1 Understand
5 Give examples of hardware, software, and virtual resources. 2 1 CO1 Remember
What is the difference between a system call and a system
6 2 1 CO1 Understand
program?
7 What are the shortcomings of monolithic architecture? 2 1 CO1 Understand
8 Differentiate between monolithic and microkernel. 2 1 CO1 Understand
Some CPUs provide for more than two modes of operation. What
9 2 1 CO1 Analyze
are two possible uses of these multiple modes?
10 What is the purpose of system calls? 2 1 CO1 Understand
11 What is the purpose of system programs? 2 1 CO1 Understand

Page 1 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

Why do some systems store the operating system in firmware,

12 2 1 CO1 Analyze
while others store it on disk?
13 What is the difference between a system call and a function call? 2 1 CO1 Analyze
14 What is the difference between a program and a process? 2 1 CO1 Remember
15 How is context switching implemented? 2 1 CO1 Apply
16 What is context switch time? What is its disadvantage? 2 1 CO1 Apply
17 What is the difference between a process and a thread? 2 1 CO1 Apply
18 What is the need to create a thread? 2 1 CO1 Apply
19 What is process spawning? 2 1 CO1 Remember
Describe the actions taken by a kernel to context-switch between
20 2 1 CO1 Understand
processes.
21 How is the process scheduling implemented? 2 2 CO2 Apply
22 How is the process dispatching implemented? 2 2 CO2 Apply
23 What is the difference between a scheduler and a dispatcher? 2 2 CO2 Apply
Explain the difference between preemptive and non-preemptive
24 2 2 CO2 Understand
scheduling.
Which of the following scheduling algorithms could result in
starvation? Justify.
a. First-come, first-served
25 2 2 CO2 Remember
b. Shortest job first
c. Round robin
d. Priority
26 Differentiate between job, program, and task. 2 2 CO2 Remember
27 What are the contents of the PCB? 2 2 CO2 Remember
28 List the process attributes. 2 2 CO2 Understand
29 Explain the situation when scheduling needs to be performed. 2 2 CO2 Understand
30 When does starvation occur? 2 2 CO2 Remember
31 Explain the roles of different queues used in process management. 2 2 CO2 Evaluate
In a system, the following state of processes and resources are
given:
32 2 2 CO2 Create
P1→R1, P2→R3, R2→P1, R1→P3, P4→R3, R1→P4
Draw the RAG for the system.
33 What is the effect of deadlock in a system? 2 2 CO2 Analyze
34 Explain the shared memory method for process communication. 2 2 CO2 Evaluate
35 What is a synchronized method? 2 2 CO2 Remember
36 What is a critical region? 2 2 CO2 Remember
37 What is the difference between deadlock avoidance and detection? 2 2 CO2 Analyze
38 Can there be a deadlock in the main memory? 2 2 CO2 Create
39 Does an unsafe state always lead to a deadlock? 2 3 CO2 Evaluate
‘Deadlocks are not always deterministic’. Comment on this
40 2 3 CO2 Create
statement.
41 Name two differences between logical and physical addresses. 2 3 CO3 Evaluate
42 Why are page sizes always powers of 2? 2 3 CO3 Evaluate
Describe a mechanism by which one segment could belong to the
43 2 3 CO3 Create
address space of two different processes.
44 What is the purpose of paging the page tables? 2 3 CO3 Analyze
What are the advantages and disadvantages of contiguous
45 2 3 CO3 Understand
allocation with fixed partitioning?
46 What is the use of Partition Description Table (PDT)? 2 3 CO3 Remember

Page 2 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

47 What is the need for segmentation? 2 3 CO3 Understand

What are the advantages and disadvantages of contiguous
48 2 3 CO3 Understand
allocation with variable partitioning?
49 What is the need of a virtual memory? 2 3 CO3 Understand
50 How do you implement demand paging? 2 3 CO3 Analyze
51 What is a free frame list? 2 3 CO3 Remember
52 How many types of data structures are used by a VM handler? 2 3 CO3 Analyze
53 What is thrashing? Why does it occur? 2 3 CO3 Remember
54 What is a paging daemon process? 2 3 CO3 Understand
55 What is the need of locking a page frame? 2 3 CO3 Understand
56 What is pre-paging? What is its use? 2 3 CO3 Apply
57 What is a paging device? 2 3 CO3 Understand
58 What is the thumb rule for demand loading? 2 3 CO3 Understand
Is there any way to implement truly stable storage? Explain your
59 2 3 CO3 Create
answer.
60 Explain why SSDs often use an FCFS disk-scheduling algorithm. 2 3 CO3 Create
61 What do you mean by a compiler? 2 4 CO4 Remember
62 What is an interpreter? 2 4 CO4 Remember
63 What is the function of an assembler? 2 4 CO4 Understand
64 What functionality does a loader/linker perform? 2 4 CO4 Remember
What are the different phases in which the task of a compiler can
65 2 4 CO4 Understand
be divided into?
What do you mean by a tightly coupled system in an
66 2 4 CO4 Remember
interconnected multiprocessor system?
What is a loosely coupled system in an interconnected
67 2 4 CO4 Remember
multiprocessor system?
68 What is a lexical analyzer? 2 4 CO4 Remember
69 What is the difference between a pass and a phase? 2 4 CO4 Remember
Give the output of each phase of a compiler for the following
source text:
70 2 4 CO4 Apply
for(i=0; i<10; i++)
a=a+10;
71 What is retargeting? What is its use? 2 4 CO4 Remember
72 What are the tools available for compiler construction? 2 4 CO4 Remember
73 What is the front end and back end of a compiler? Explain. 2 4 CO4 Remember
74 Explain the analysis and synthesis model of a compiler. 2 4 CO4 Remember
Explain the different translators required to convert a high-level
75 2 4 CO4 Remember
language to an executable code.
What are the three issues related to the correctness of distributed
76 2 4 CO4 Remember
message passing?

Page 3 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

In a distributed system, what types of inter-process communication

77 2 4 CO4 Understand
are possible in the message-passing system?
What are the types of addressing handled by the message-passing
78 2 4 CO4 Remember
system of a distributed computing environment?
How distributed operating system is different from its generic
79 2 4 CO4 Understand
counterpart?
80 What are the different distributed computing models available? 2 4 CO4 Remember
81 What is a bootstrap program? 2 1 CO1 Remember
82 Write the sequence in which resources may be utilized. 2 3 CO2 Apply
83 Differentiate CPU bound process and I/O bound process. 2 2 CO3 Understand

84 What is the key difference between sequential access and direct 4 CO4 Analyze
access to a file?
2

Part B
QB
Question
Sr. Question Module CO BL
Marks
No.
The major drawback of multiprogrammed batch systems was the
1 lack of user/programmer interaction with their jobs. How can you 5 1 CO1 Understand
overcome this?
What are the five major activities of an operating system with
2 5 1 CO1 Understand
regard to file management?
Can a process switch from ready to terminated or blocked to
3 5 1 CO1 Apply
terminated state? Justify your answer.
What is the difference between
4 (a) consumable and non-consumable resources 5 1 CO1 Understand
(b) pre-emptive and non-pre-emptive resources
Is it true that the role of IPC mechanisms will increase in real-time
5 5 1 CO1 Analyze
systems?
6 How is reliability increased in microkernel architecture? 5 1 CO1 Analyze
7 How can scheduling be application-specific in case of user threads? 5 1 CO1 Apply
What are two differences between user-level threads and kernel-
8 level threads? Under what circumstances is one type better than 5 1 CO1 Understand
the other?
Describe the actions taken by a kernel to context-switch between
9 5 1 CO1 Remember
processes.
What is the purpose of the command interpreter? Why is it usually
10 5 1 CO1 Analyze
separate from the kernel?
11 Why does FCFS tend to favour long processes? 5 2 CO2 Understand

Page 4 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

Consider the following scenario of processes with time quantum =

2.
Process Arrival Time Execution Time
P1 0 5
P2 1 9
P3 2 7
12 P4 3 2 5 2 CO2 Apply
P5 4 4
Draw the Gantt chart for the execution of the processes, showing
their start time and end time using RR scheduling. Calculate
turnaround time, normalized turnaround time, and waiting time for
each process and average turnaround time, average normalized
turnaround time, and average waiting time for the system.
Consider the following snapshot of the processes:
Process Burst Arrival Priority
P1 8 0 1
P2 20 1 3
P3 3 2 2
P4 6 3 5
P5 12 4 4 5 2 CO2 Apply
Draw the Gantt chart for the execution of the processes, showing
their start time and end time using priority number-based
scheduling (pre-emptive) scheduling. Calculate turnaround time,
normalized turnaround time, and waiting time for each process
and average turnaround time, average normalized turnaround
13 time, and average waiting time for the system.
Which of the following scheduling algorithms could result in
starvation? Justify your answer.
a. First-come, first-served
5 2 CO2 Analyze
b. Shortest job first
c. Round robin
14 d. Priority
Consider a variant of the RR scheduling algorithm in which the
entries in the ready queue are pointers to the PCBs.
a. What would be the effect of putting two pointers to the same
5 2 CO2 Analyze
process in the ready queue?
b. What would be two major advantages and two disadvantages of
15 this scheme?
What are the problems faced by programmers in the
5 2 CO2 Apply
16 implementation of a semaphore?
Explain why spinlocks are not appropriate for single-processor
5 2 CO2 Analyze
17 systems yet are often used in multiprocessor systems.
Show that, if the wait() and signal() semaphore operations are not
5 2 CO2 Apply
18 executed atomically, then mutual exclusion may be violated.
Illustrate how a binary semaphore can be used to implement
5 2 CO2 Create
19 mutual exclusion among n processes.
In a system, the following state of processes and resources is given:
R2→P1, P1→R2, P2→R3, R1→P2, R3→P3, P3→R4, P4→R3, R4→P4,
P4→R1, R1→P5 5 2 CO2 Apply
Draw a RAG and wait-for graph for the system, and check the
20 deadlock condition.

Page 5 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

Consider a system with the following information. Determine

whether the system is in a deadlock situation.

21 5 3 CO2 Apply

22 Why can deadlock not happen in two-phase locking? 5 3 CO2 Understand

23 Two-phase locking can lead to starvation. How? 5 3 CO2 Understand
24 What is wait-for graph? Where is it used? 5 3 CO2 Remember
Distinguish between (Any two):
(a) Static and dynamic allocation
25 (b) Logical and physical addresses 5 3 CO3 Remember
(c) Swapping and paging
(d) Fixed and variable partitioning
What are the advantages and disadvantages of contiguous
26 5 3 CO3 Remember
allocation with fixed partitioning?
27 How does paging eliminate external fragmentation? 5 3 CO3 Understand
Explain the difference between internal and external
28 5 3 CO3 Understand
fragmentation.
29 What is the purpose of paging the page tables? 5 3 CO3 Remember
Could a RAID level 1 organisation achieve better performance for
30 read requests than a RAID level 0 organization (with nonredundant 5 4 CO3 Create
striping of data)? If so, how?
In what respect are distributed computing systems better than
parallel processing systems? Give examples of three applications
31 5 4 CO4 Analyze
for which distributed computing systems will be more suitable than
parallel processing systems.
Draw and explain the minicomputer model of a distributed
32 5 4 CO4 Apply
computing system.
Draw and explain the workstation model of a distributed
33 5 4 CO4 Apply
computing system.
Draw and explain the workstation-server model of a distributed
34 5 4 CO4 Apply
computing system.
Draw and explain the processor-pool model of a distributed
35 5 4 CO4 Apply
computing system.
What is a distributed operating system? What are the primary tasks
36 5 4 CO4 Remember
performed by such operating systems?
What is a cross-compiler? What is the advantage of the
37 5 4 CO4 Remember
bootstrapping technique with compilers?
What are the desirable features of a good message-passing system
38 5 4 CO4 Evaluate
in a distributed computing environment?

Page 6 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

What are the different issues encountered while designing a

39 distributed operating system with respect to the transparency of 5 4 CO4 Analyze
the system?
How fault detection and recovery is handled in a distributed
40 5 4 CO4 Understand
system?
41 Explain process states with a suitable diagram. 5 1 CO1 Remember
42 Differentiate distributed systems from multiprocessor system. 5 1 CO1 Understand
Consider the following set of processes:

CPU Burst
Process Priority Arrival Time
Time

P1 10 3 0

P2 1 1 0
43 5 2 CO2 Evaluate
P3 2 3 1

P4 1 4 3

P5 5 2 6

Draw the Gantt chart using RR scheduling (TQ = 2) & pre-emptive

priority scheduling. Calculate AWT.
A parent may terminate the execution of one of its children. What
44 5 2 CO2 Analyze
are the probable reasons?
45 Explain Peterson’s solution to process synchronization. 5 3 CO3 Apply

Page 7 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

Consider the following resource allocation state:

Resource Allocated Resource Needed

Process
R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4

A 3 0 1 1 1 1 0 0

B 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 2

C 1 1 1 0 3 1 0 0

D 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0
46 5 3 CO3 Evaluate
E 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0

Resource Available

R1 R2 R3 R4

1 0 2 0

Determine whether the system is in a safe state or not. Give the

safe sequence.
Consider six memory partitions of size 200 KB, 400 KB, 600 KB, 500
KB, 300 KB and 250 KB. These partitions need to be allocated to
four processes of sizes 357 KB, 210 KB, 468 KB and 491 KB in that
order. Perform the allocation of processes using-

47 i. First-fit algorithm 5 4 CO4 Evaluate

ii. Best-fit algorithm
iii. Worst-fit algorithm
Which algorithm makes the most efficient use of memory?
Differentiate between:
48 a. Viruses and Worms 5 4 CO4 Remember
b. Symmetric and Asymmetric Cryptography

Part C
QB
Sr. Question
Question Module CO BL
No Marks
.

Page 8 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

When a process creates a new process using the fork() operation,

which of the following states is shared between the parent process
and the child process?
1 10 1 CO1 Apply
a. Stack
b. Heap
c. Shared memory segments
Draw the process state diagram explaining each state and the
2 10 1 CO1 Create
events that can trigger state transitions.
Draw the interaction between Disk Storage, Main Memory and
3 CPU with respect to Long-Term Scheduler, Short-Term Scheduler 10 1 CO1 Create
and Medium Term Scheduler and different queues in play.
Under what circumstances does a multithreaded solution using
4 multiple kernel threads provide better performance than a single- 10 1 CO1 Understand
threaded solution on a single-processor system?
Using Amdahl’s Law, calculate the speedup gain of an application
5 that has a 60 percent parallel component for (a) two processing 10 1 CO1 Evaluate
cores and (b) four processing cores.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the same
6 system call interface for manipulating both files and devices? 10 1 CO1 Analyze
Justify.
It is sometimes difficult to achieve a layered approach if two
components
7 of the operating system are dependent on each other. Identify a 10 1 CO1 Create
scenario in which it is unclear how to layer two system
components that require tight coupling of their functionalities.
Consider the following set of processes, with the length of the CPU
burst
given in milliseconds:
Process Burst Time Priority
P1 2 2
P2 1 1
P3 8 4
P4 4 2
8 10 2 CO2 Create
P5 5 3
The processes are assumed to have arrived in the order P1, P2, P3,
P4, P5,
all at time 0.
Draw four Gantt charts that illustrate the execution of these
processes using the following scheduling algorithms: FCFS, SJF,
non-preemptive priority (a larger priority number implies a higher
priority), and RR (quantum = 2).

Page 9 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

Consider the following snapshot of a system:

Allocation Max Available

10 2 CO2 Evaluate

Answer the following questions using the banker’s algorithm:

a. What is the content of the matrix Need?
b. Is the system in a safe state?
c. If a request from process P1 arrives for (0,4,2,0), can the request
be granted immediately?

Consider the following snapshot of the processes:

Draw the Gantt chart for the execution of the processes, showing 10 2 CO2 Evaluate
their start time and end time using priority number-based
scheduling (pre-emptive) & RR (with time quantum = 5, ignoring
the priority). Calculate turnaround time, normalized turnaround
time, and waiting time for each process and average turnaround
time, average normalized turnaround time, and average waiting
time for the system and conclude which algorithm is better suited
for the given set of processes.

10

Page 10 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

Consider the following scenario of processes.

10 2 CO2 Evaluate
Draw the Gantt chart for the execution of the processes,
showing their start time and end time, using SPN and SRN
scheduling. Calculate turnaround time, normalized turnaround
time, and waiting time for each process and average turnaround
time, average normalized turnaround time, and average waiting
time for the system.

11

Consider the following scenario of processes with time quantum =

2.

10 2 CO2 Evaluate

Draw the Gantt chart for the execution of the processes, showing
their start time and end time using FCFS, RR. Calculate turnaround
time, normalized turnaround time, and waiting time for each
process and average turnaround time, average normalized
turnaround time, and average waiting time for the system.

12
Prove that all the CS protocol requirements are satisfied in
10 2 CO2 Apply
13 Dekker’s solution for process synchronization.
Prove that all the CS protocol requirements are satisfied in
10 2 CO2 Apply
14 Petorson’s solution for process synchronization.
There is a unisex salon where both males and females can get the
salon service. However, there is a condition that males and
females cannot come to the salon at the same time. The second
10 2 CO2 Create
condition is that there cannot be more
than three persons in the salon at a time. Give a synchronization
15 solution using semaphores.
A working couple has three babies. The babies cannot be left
unattended: Any one from the couple must be present at home for
10 2 CO2 Create
the babies. Write a solution for synchronizing the parents with the
16 babies.
What is the meaning of the term busy waiting? What other kinds
of waiting are there in an operating system? Can busy waiting be 10 2 CO2 Remember
17 avoided altogether? Explain your answer.
Page 11 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

What is a critical section problem? What are the requirements that

must be satisfied by a critical section problem? What are the two
10 2 CO2 Remember
general approaches that are used to handle critical sections in
18 operating systems?
Five processes are competing for resources R0, R1, R2, and R3
where (R1, R2, R3, R4) = (6, 4, 4, 2). The maximum claim of these
processes and the initial resources allocated to these processes
are given in the following space:

10 2 CO2 Apply

Does this initial allocation lead to a safe state? Explain with reason.
If P2 requests two instances of R1, one instance of R3, and one
instance of R4, check whether the system is still in safe state.
If it is, find out the safe sequence of process execution.

19

Consider the memory allocation scenario as shown in the figure.

Allocate memory for additional requests of 4K and 10K (in this
order). Compare the memory allocation, using first-fit, best-fit, and
worst-fit allocation methods, in terms of internal fragmentation.
10 3 CO3 Evaluate

20
What is Segmentation? Draw the concerned diagram and state all
the steps required for logical to physical address conversion where 10 3 CO3 Create
21 segmentation and segment table is involved.
22 What is TLB? Draw and explain the Paging implementation of TLB. 10 3 CO3 Create
What is Belady's Anomaly? For the given reference string check if
Belady's anomaly will occur with frame sizes 3 & 4 respectively. 10 3 CO3 Analyze
23 432143543215
What is the significance of Page Replacement Algorithms? For the
given reference string identify the better page replacement
10 3 CO3 Analyze
algorithm among FIFO and LRU with frame size 3. Clearly state the
24 reason for your choice.
Suppose that a disk drive has 5,000 cylinders, numbered 0 to
4,999. The drive is currently serving a request at cylinder 2,150,
and the previous request was at cylinder 1,805. The queue of 10 3 CO3 Evaluate
pending requests, in FIFO order, is:
25 2,069, 1,212, 2,296, 2,800, 544, 1,618, 356, 1,523, 4,965, 3681

Page 12 of 5
 Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, New Town
(School of University of Engineering and Management
Kolkata)

Discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of the various

commonly used models for configuring distributed computing
10 4 CO4 Analyze
systems. Which model do you think is going to become the most
26 popular model in future? Give a reason for your answer.
Explain in detail why are distributed computing systems gaining
10 4 CO4 Analyze
27 popularity?
28 What are the features of distributed operating system? 10 4 CO4 Analyze
What is Distributed Computing Environment (DCE)? Mention the
10 4 CO4 Understand
29 components of DCE and their interdependence.
Why flexibility is considered as the most important feature of
distributed computing system? State the reasons and compare 10 4 CO4 Analyze
30 with monolithic and microkernel environments.
What are different types of operating system? Explain them in
10 1 CO1 Remember
31 detail.
Describe the differences between symmetric and asymmetric
multiprocessing. What are the advantages and disadvantages of 10 1 CO1 Remember
32 multiprocessor system?
Consider the following reference string:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 3, 4, 1, 6, 7, 8, 7, 8, 9, 7, 8, 9, 5, 4, 5, 4, 2
Calculate the page fault rate for the following algorithms:
i. FIFO
10 4 CO4 Evaluate
ii. LRU
iii. Optimal
Assume that the memory size is 4 frames.
33

Page 13 of 5