Certifiable: LPIC Level 1 Exam Question Types - Part 1 of 2
Certifiable is a series dedicated to helping you get ready to take the LPIC 1 exams, both in mental state and how to study and experiment more effectively.
LPIC Exam Question Types
In this article, you will learn more about how the LPIC test questions look and how they can and should be answered. Several types will be unfamiliar to those used to Microsoft and Cisco exams; these are covered in detail along with the usual question types/suspects.
Overall, the LPIC exams are most similar to the Sun Solaris exams; they feature the same question types and similar styles of answers. LPIC questions are short, blunt, and easy to answer if you’ve done the action or item being tested. I have seen grown-ups nearly cry in frustration, particularly if the requisite labs and studying haven’t been performed.
Multiple-choice Questions
Multiple-choice questions are single-answer, as opposed to a Choose Two or Choose All That Apply question. LPIs are much the same as any other vendor’s multiple-choice questions. The main difference consists of long command strings and a lot of options to parse through. There is only one answer, and this question type is the easiest to get through.
Tip: An important strategy for getting through multiple-choice questions is to read all the possible answers and discard any that are silly, obscure, or outright wrong. It’s possible to not know the answer and get the question right through the process of elimination.
This is a main reason the LPIC exams have so many of the other question types—they don’t want us to guess our way into a certification! Guessing a Multiple-Choice is not very hard, you have at least a 1 in 4 chance, maybe as high as 50/50 if you read it right.
Sample Multiple-choice Question
Which of the following commands shows the full listing of normal files in the current directory?
❍ A. ls –l
❍ B. ls -1
❍ C. du .
❍ D. df -h
Answer A is correct because the ls command and stat are the only utilities to show a full set of inode information about a file.
Answer B is incorrect because the 1 option shows files in a single column and shows just the filenames.
Answer C is incorrect because the du command doesn’t show the full file information.
Answer D is incorrect because the df command shows only the free/used disk space.
Choose Two/Three Questions
These are a little tougher than the multiple-choice questions because there are usually five or six answers and the question has you choose two or three answers from the available choices. Not selecting enough of the answers marks this question in the review screen as incomplete. If the exam wants you to choose all the correct answers from the list, the question states, “Choose all that apply.”
Sample Choose Two/Three Question
Which steps must be performed before a newly installed hard drive is available for use by a normal user account? (Choose three.)
❑ A. mkfs
❑ B. mount
❑ C. scsi_info
❑ D. dd
❑ E. fdisk
Answers A, B, and E are correct. For a disk to be used by a standard or normal user, it must have at least one partition put on it (fdisk), have a file system of some type on that partition (mkfs), and be mounted by the root user or an entry in the /etc/fstab file that enables users to mount it without the root user’s help.
Answer C is incorrect because the scsi_info tool gathers information about SCSI devices but is not necessary to the process of a user gaining access to a disk.
Answer D is incorrect because the dd command transfers one file format to another but has no effect on users accessing disks.
Choose All That Apply Questions
More difficult than the previous types, these actually make you think through all the possible answers because any of them might be right. LPI is the only vendor to my knowledge that uses these questions with only a single answer in some cases. The best strategy is to read all the answers and mark the correct ones. Use your note paper to keep track if it’s confusing.
Sample Choose All That Apply Question
Which of the following commands creates a second file that is identical to the first? (Choose all that apply.)
❑ A. cp file1 file2
❑ B. cat file1 | file2
❑ C. cp < file1 > file2
❑ D. dd if=file1 of=file2
❑ E. cat file1 > file2
Answers A, D, and E are correct. Using the cp command to copy one file to the other is normal; the difference between answers B and E is the incorrect use of the | symbol to another file. It must be followed by a program, and the unusual usage of the dd command will work in this case.
Answer B is incorrect because files may not be redirected via a pipe symbol (|).
Answer C is incorrect because the use of the < and > characters produces a syntax error.
To Be Continued…
RossB
