Linux skills assessment: beginner
Timed, hands-on questions measure your basic skills with files, permissions, text and processes, and after each section you get study suggestions for your gaps.
Level 101 · 12 lessons · 12 practice labs
Lessons
Warm-up
- Exam format: timing, scoring and how to work
- Practice round: five short questions
- Short task: file and folder tasks against the clock
Section tests
- Assessment: navigation and file operations
- Assessment: users and permissions
- Assessment: text, redirection and pipes
- Assessment: processes and services
- Assessment: archives and help pages
- Short task: redo the questions you got wrong and write down why
Final
- Mixed practice 1 (45 minutes)
- Mixed practice 2 (45 minutes)
- Capstone: a 90-minute beginner hands-on exam
Practice labs
- Timed check: file and folder tasks: In fifteen minutes create a directory tree, copy, move and rename files so the result passes the checker.
- Timed check: user and permission tasks: Create two users and a group, give a shared directory the requested permissions and verify by testing as another user.
- Mixed practice: files, permissions and search: Complete eight short tasks in twenty-five minutes, redo the ones you got wrong and write the reason in one sentence.
- Timed check: redirection and pipes: Write a command's output and errors to separate files and sort a list counting duplicates.
- Timed check: extracting information from text: From a given log extract lines with a given word, the second column and the most frequent value.
- Timed check: a small report with a pipeline: With a one-line pipeline produce a report of file count per user in descending order and save it to a file.
- Timed check: finding and ending a process: Find the process running under a given name, record its PID and end it cleanly.
- Timed check: service tasks: Start and enable one service, stop and disable another and verify the state with the checker.
- Timed check: fix a service that will not start: In fifteen minutes find the error of a service that will not start from the log, fix it and clear the old process holding the port.
- Timed check: creating and extracting archives: Archive a directory compressed, list its contents and extract it into another directory.
- Timed check: finding options in the help pages: For three commands you have not used, find in the help pages the option that does the requested job and apply it.
- Final practice: a short beginner exam: Complete ten tasks across files, permissions, text, processes and archives in twenty-five minutes and get your score from the checker.
About this course
Timed, hands-on questions measure your basic skills with files, permissions, text and processes, and after each section you get study suggestions for your gaps.
What you will learn
- Warm-up
- Section tests
- Final
Prerequisites
No prior knowledge is needed; the course starts from zero.
Lab environment
Lessons run in your own Kali Linux terminal that opens in the browser. Nothing to install; the lab starts clean in every lesson.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this course right for my level?
- The course is at beginner level; every term is explained where it first appears.
- Is there anything to install?
- No. Every lesson runs in your own lab environment that opens in the browser.
- How do lessons work?
- Each lesson has 8 to 10 steps and a short quiz. Early steps show the command to type, later steps give less help; if two attempts fail, the solution opens.
- Can I try it for free?
- Yes. The first three lessons of every course are free.