Home directory (~) and shortcuts in Linux CLI - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this command?

Consider the command echo ~ executed by user alice. What will it output?

Linux CLI

echo ~

A /home/alice

B ~

C /root

D /home

💡 Hint

The tilde (~) expands to the current user's home directory.

The tilde (~) is a shortcut that the shell expands to the current user's home directory path. For user alice, this is typically /home/alice.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What does this command output?

What is the output of echo ~root when run by a normal user?

Linux CLI

echo ~root

A /root

B ~root

C /home/root

D Error: user not found

💡 Hint

The shell expands ~username to that user's home directory if it exists.

The shell expands ~root to the home directory of the root user, which is usually /root.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which command correctly changes directory to the home directory of user 'bob'?

You want to change directory to user bob's home using a shortcut. Which command is correct?

A cd ~ /bob

B cd ~/bob

C cd ~bob

D cd ~bob/

💡 Hint

The tilde followed immediately by username expands to that user's home directory.

cd ~bob changes directory to bob's home directory. Options A and B are incorrect because ~/bob means 'bob' folder inside current user's home, and ~ /bob is invalid syntax. Option D is valid and equivalent to C; the trailing slash is optional and does not change meaning.

🧠 Conceptual

advanced

What does the shortcut ~+ represent in the shell?

In bash and similar shells, what does the shortcut ~+ expand to?

A The root directory

B The previous working directory

C The current working directory

D The home directory

💡 Hint

Think about what the shell variable PWD holds.

The shortcut ~+ expands to the current working directory, same as the shell variable $PWD.

💻 Command Output

expert

What is the output of this command sequence?

Given the commands run in order:
cd /tmp
echo ~-
What will be printed?

Linux CLI

cd /tmp
echo ~-

A /

B /home/alice

C /tmp

D ~-

💡 Hint

The shortcut ~- expands to the previous working directory.

The shortcut ~- expands to the previous working directory. Assuming the user started in /home/alice and then changed to /tmp, ~- will expand to /home/alice.