Absolute vs relative paths in Linux CLI - Practice Questions

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this command?

Assume you are currently in the directory /home/user/docs. What will be the output of pwd after running this command?

cd ../pictures
pwd

Linux CLI

cd ../pictures
pwd

A /home/user/pictures

B /home/user/docs/pictures

C /pictures

D /home/pictures

💡 Hint

Remember that .. means the parent directory.

The command cd ../pictures moves up one directory from /home/user/docs to /home/user, then into pictures. So the new path is /home/user/pictures.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What does this absolute path command do?

What directory will you be in after running this command?

cd /var/log
pwd

Linux CLI

cd /var/log
pwd

A /home/user/var/log

B /var/log

C /log

D /var

💡 Hint

Absolute paths start from the root directory /.

The command cd /var/log moves directly to the absolute path /var/log. So pwd outputs /var/log.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which command correctly changes to the parent directory using a relative path?

You want to move to the parent directory of your current location. Which command is correct?

A cd .

B cd ../..

C cd ./..

D cd ..

💡 Hint

The parent directory is represented by ...

The command cd .. moves you up one directory level. cd ../.. moves up two levels, cd ./.. is valid but equivalent to cd .., and cd . stays in the current directory.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Why does this relative path command fail?

You are in /home/user. You run:

cd documents/reports

But you get an error: bash: cd: documents/reports: No such file or directory.

What is the most likely reason?

Linux CLI

cd documents/reports

A You must use 'cd ./documents/reports' instead.

B You need to use an absolute path starting with '/'.

C The directory 'documents' does not exist in '/home/user'.

D The command should be 'cd ../documents/reports'.

💡 Hint

Check if the directory exists in your current location.

The error means the path 'documents/reports' does not exist relative to your current directory. The most common cause is that 'documents' folder is missing or misspelled.

🚀 Application

expert

How many directories are in the path after this sequence?

Starting in /home/user, you run these commands:

cd ../var
cd log
cd ../../etc

After these commands, how many directories deep is your current location from the root /?

Linux CLI

cd ../var
cd log
cd ../../etc

A 2

B 4

C 1

D 3

💡 Hint

Track each step carefully from the root directory.

Starting at '/home/user':
1) 'cd ../var' moves to '/home/var' (2 levels deep)
2) 'cd log' moves to '/home/var/log' (3 levels deep)
3) 'cd ../../etc' moves up two levels to '/home' then into 'etc' to '/home/etc' (2 levels deep)
So the final directory is '/home/etc' which is 2 levels deep from root.