Sample Coding Question
1. Problem Statement Write a shell script that lists all files and directories in the current
directory.
Input Format: No input required; operates in the current directory.
Output Format: Displays the names of all files and directories.
Code Constraints:
• Use the ls command.
• The script should work in a Unix/Linux environment.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
ls
Sample Testcase 1 Initial Files in current directory: documents [Link]
Output: documents [Link]
2. Problem Statement
Write a shell script that backs up all .txt files from the /home/user/documents/ directory to
/home/user/backup/. The script should ensure the backup directory exists before copying the
files and should append the current date to each filename.
Input Format:
The script does not take user input; it operates on files in the /home/user/documents/
directory.
Output Format:
The script creates backup files in /home/user/backup/ with the format filename_YYYY-MM-
[Link].
Code Constraints:
The script should work in a Unix/Linux environment.
The backup directory should be created if it does not exist.
The current date should be appended in YYYY-MM-DD format to each backed-up file.
Solution: (in Shell Script)
#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p /home/user/backup
for file in /home/user/documents/*.txt; do
cp "$file" "/home/user/backup/$(basename "$file")_$(date +%Y%m%d)"
done
Sample Testcase 1
Initial Files in /home/user/documents/:
[Link]
[Link]
Output Files in /home/user/backup/ (assuming today's date is 2025-03-03):
notes_2025-[Link]
report_2025-[Link]
3. Problem Statement Write a shell script that changes the current directory to /var/log and lists all log
files.
Input Format: No input required.
Output Format: Displays a list of files in /var/log.
Code Constraints:
• Use the cd and ls commands.
• Handle errors if the directory does not exist.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
cd /var/log || { echo "Directory not found"; exit 1; }
ls
Sample Testcase 1 Initial Directory: /
Output: [Link] syslog
4. Problem Statement Write a shell script that displays the full path of the current working directory.
Input Format: No input required.
Output Format: Prints the absolute path.
Code Constraints:
• Use the pwd command.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
pwd
Sample Testcase 1 Current Directory: /home/user/projects
Expected Output: /home/user/projects
5. Problem Statement : Write a shell script that copies a file named [Link] from the current directory
to /tmp.
Input Format: No user input required.
Output Format: File is copied to /tmp directory.
Code Constraints:
• Use the cp command.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
cp [Link] /tmp/
Sample Testcase 1 Initial Files in current directory: [Link]
Expected Files in /tmp: [Link]
6. Problem Statement
Write a shell script that moves a file named [Link] from /tmp to the current directory.
Input Format:No user input.
Output Format:File is moved to the current directory.
Code Constraints:
• Use the mv command.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
mv /tmp/[Link] .
Sample Testcase 1
Initial Files in /tmp:
[Link]
Expected Files in current directory:
[Link]
7. Problem Statement Write a shell script that appends the current date and time to a log file called
[Link].
Input Format: No user input.
Output Format: Date and time appended to the log file.
Code Constraints:
• Use >> redirection operator.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
date >> [Link]
Sample Testcase 1 Expected Output in [Link] (example): Sat Apr 20 [Link] UTC 2025
8. Problem Statement Write a shell script that redirects the output of the ls command to a file named
file_list.txt.
Input Format: No input.
Output Format: Output saved in file_list.txt
Code Constraints:
• Use > redirection operator.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
ls > file_list.txt
Sample Testcase 1 Initial Files: [Link]
Expected file_list.txt content: [Link]
9. Problem Statement
Write a shell script to delete a directory named old_folder from the current directory.
Input Format: No user input.
Output Format: The directory is deleted.
Code Constraints:
• Use rmdir, assuming the directory is empty.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
rmdir old_folder
Sample Testcase 1
Initial Directories:
old_folder (empty)
Expected State after execution:
old_folder removed
10. Problem Statement
Write a shell script to create a directory named new folder in the current directory.
Input Format: No user input.
Output Format: A directory named new folder is created.
Code Constraints:
• Use the mkdir command.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
mkdir new folder
Sample Testcase 1
Initial State:
No new folder present
Expected State after execution:
new_folder directory created
11. Problem Statement
Write a shell script that removes all .bak files in the current directory.
Input Format:No user input.
Output Format:All .bak files are deleted.
Code Constraints:
• Use the rm command with wildcard.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
rm -f *.bak
Sample Testcase 1Initial Files in current directory:
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
Expected Files after execution:
[Link]
[Link] Statement
Write a shell script that counts the total number of lines across all .sh files in the /scripts directory and
prints the sum.
Input Format:
The script does not take user input; it operates on .sh files in the /scripts directory.
Output Format:
The script prints the total number of lines across all .sh files in the /scripts directory.
Code Constraints:
The script should work in a Unix/Linux environment.
If there are no .sh files in the /scripts directory, the output should be 0.
The script should handle cases where files contain spaces in their names.
Solution: (in Shell Script)
#!/bin/bash
total=0
for file in /scripts/*.sh; do
total=$((total + $(wc -l < "$file")))
done
echo "Total lines: $total"
Sample Testcase 1
Initial Files in /scripts/:
plaintext
CopyEdit
[Link] (5 lines)
[Link] (8 lines)
[Link] (10 lines)
Output:
plaintext
CopyEdit
23
Sample Testcase 2
Initial Files in /scripts/:
No .sh files present.
Output:
plaintext
CopyEdit
13. Problem Statement Write a shell script that counts how many .sh files are in the current directory.
Input Format: No user input.
Output Format: Total count of .sh files.
Code Constraints:
• Use ls and wc -l.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
ls *.sh 2>/dev/null | wc -l
Sample Testcase 1 Files: [Link] [Link] [Link]
Expected Output: 2
13. Problem Statement Write a shell script to display the size of each .log file in the current directory.
Input Format: No user input.
Output Format: File names with sizes.
Code Constraints:
• Use du -h.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
du -h *.log
Sample Testcase 1 Files: [Link] (512K) [Link] (1.1M)
Expected Output: [Link] 512K [Link] 1.1M
14. Problem Statement Write a shell script that reads user input and writes it to a file called
user_input.txt.
Input Format: User types a string.
Output Format: String saved in user_input.txt
Code Constraints:
• Use read and > operator.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
echo "Enter text:"
read input
echo "$input" > user_input.txt
Sample Testcase 1 User Input: Learning Linux
Expected Output: user_input.txt contains "Learning Linux"
15. Problem Statement Write a shell script that creates a backup of all .txt files from
/home/user/documents to /home/user/backup with date appended.
Input Format: No input; operates on files in /home/user/documents.
Output Format: Files created in /home/user/backup as filename_YYYY-[Link].
Code Constraints:
• Ensure backup directory exists.
• Append date to filename.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
mkdir -p /home/user/backup
for file in /home/user/documents/*.txt; do
cp "$file" "/home/user/backup/$(basename "$file" .txt)_$(date +%Y-%m-%d).txt"
done
Sample Testcase 1 Initial Files in /home/user/documents/: [Link] [Link]
Output Files in /home/user/backup/ (assuming today's date is 2025-03-03): notes_2025-[Link]
report_2025-[Link]
16. Problem Statement Write a shell script to display the number of words in all .txt files in the current
directory.
Input Format: No user input.
Output Format: Total word count.
Code Constraints:
• Use wc -w.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
cat *.txt | wc -w
Sample Testcase 1 Files: [Link] (5 words) [Link] (3 words)
Expected Output: 8
17. Sample Coding Question
Problem Statement
Write a shell script that extracts lines containing the word "ERROR" from the /var/log/syslog file and
saves them to error_logs.txt. The script should ensure that the error_logs.txt file is created or
overwritten each time the script runs.
Input Format:
The script does not take user input; it operates on the /var/log/syslog file.
Output Format:
The script creates a file named error_logs.txt, containing all lines from /var/log/syslog that include the
word "ERROR".
Code Constraints:
The script should work in a Unix/Linux environment.
It should extract only lines containing the exact word "ERROR" (case-sensitive).
The output file should be saved in the current working directory.
Solution: (in Shell Script)
#!/bin/bash
grep "ERROR" /var/log/syslog > error_logs.txt
Sample Testcase 1
Initial Content in /var/log/syslog:
Mar 03 [Link] server kernel: INFO: System boot complete
Mar 03 [Link] server app: ERROR: Failed to start service
Mar 03 [Link] server daemon: WARNING: Low disk space
Mar 03 [Link] server app: ERROR: Connection timed out
Output File (error_logs.txt):
Mar 03 [Link] server app: ERROR: Failed to start service
Mar 03 [Link] server app: ERROR: Connection timed out
18. Problem Statement Write a shell script that sets read, write, and execute permissions for the owner
only on all .sh files in /home/scripts/.
Input Format: The script targets all .sh files.
Output Format: Only the owner has read/write/execute permission (chmod 700).
Code Constraints:
• Works in a Unix/Linux environment.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
chmod 700 /home/scripts/*.sh
Sample Testcase 1: Initial Files in /home/scripts/: [Link] - permissions: -rwxr-xr-x [Link] -
permissions: -rw-r--r--
Output Files in /home/scripts/: [Link] - permissions: -rwx------ [Link] - permissions: -rwx------
19. Problem Statement Write a shell script that changes the ownership of all files in /project/data/ to
user "manager" and group "staff".
Input Format: Static path used in script.
Output Format: Ownership of all files in /project/data/ is updated to manager:staff.
Code Constraints:
• Script should recursively change ownership.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
chown -R manager:staff /project/data/
Sample Testcase 1: Initial Files in /project/data/: [Link] - owner: root:root [Link] - owner:
root:root
Output Files in /project/data/: [Link] - owner: manager:staff [Link] - owner: manager:staff
20. Problem Statement Write a shell script that creates a group named "analytics" and assigns an
existing user "datauser" to this group.
Input Format: No user input required.
Output Format: Group "analytics" is created and "datauser" is added to it.
Code Constraints: • Script should work in a Unix/Linux environment. • Should not error if the group
already exists.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
groupadd analytics 2>/dev/null
usermod -aG analytics datauser
Sample Testcase 1: Initial System State:
User "datauser" exists
Group "analytics" does not exist
Output:
Group "analytics" created
"datauser" is now part of "analytics"
21. Problem Statement Write a shell script to delete a user named "tempuser" and remove their home
directory.
Input Format: No user input; the script targets "tempuser" specifically.
Output Format: User "tempuser" is deleted and their home directory is removed.
Code Constraints:
• The script should work in a Unix/Linux environment.
• It should not throw an error if the user doesn't exist.
Solution:
#!/bin/bash
deluser --remove-home tempuser 2>/dev/null
Sample Testcase 1: Initial System State:
User "tempuser" exists
Home directory: /home/tempuser
Output:
User "tempuser" deleted
Directory /home/tempuser removed
22. Problem Statement Write a shell script that creates a new user named "projectuser" and adds the
user to a group called "devteam".
Input Format: The script does not take user input; it creates a specific user and group.
Output Format: A new user "projectuser" is created and added to the group "devteam".
Code Constraints:
• The script should work in a Unix/Linux environment.
• It should check if the group exists before adding the user.
Solution: (in Shell Script)
#!/bin/bash
groupadd devteam 2>/dev/null
adduser --disabled-password --gecos "" projectuser
usermod -aG devteam projectuser
Sample Testcase 1: Initial System State:
No user named "projectuser"
No group named "devteam"
Output:
User "projectuser" is created
Group "devteam" is created
User "projectuser" is added to "devteam"
23. Problem Statement
Write a shell script that continuously checks the CPU load every 5 seconds and logs the output into a file
named [Link]. The script should run indefinitely and append each entry with a timestamp.
Input Format:
The script does not take user input; it continuously monitors the system's CPU load.
Output Format:
The script appends CPU load values with timestamps to [Link] in the format:
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS CPU Load: <value>
Code Constraints:
The script should work in a Unix/Linux environment.
It should log the CPU load every 5 seconds.
It should append logs rather than overwriting them.
Solution: (in Shell Script)
#!/bin/bash
while true; do
uptime >> [Link]
sleep 5
done
Sample Testcase 1
Initial State:
No [Link] file exists.
After Running the Script for 10 Seconds:
Contents of [Link] (assuming sample CPU load values):
2025-03-03 [Link] CPU Load: 0.58
2025-03-03 [Link] CPU Load: 0.62
