ping for connectivity testing in Linux CLI - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this ping command?

You run the command ping -c 3 8.8.8.8 on a Linux terminal. What will the output show?

Linux CLI

ping -c 3 8.8.8.8

A It sends 3 ping requests to 8.8.8.8 and shows 3 replies with round-trip times.

B It sends continuous ping requests until stopped manually.

C It shows an error because the -c option is invalid.

D It sends 3 ping requests but does not show any reply output.

💡 Hint

The -c option limits the number of ping requests sent.

The -c 3 option tells ping to send exactly 3 packets and then stop, showing replies and timing info.

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What error does this ping command produce?

What error message appears when running ping -c three 8.8.8.8?

Linux CLI

ping -c three 8.8.8.8

A ping: invalid count of packets: 'three'

B ping: unknown host three

C ping: option requires an argument -- 'c'

D No error, it sends 3 packets anyway.

💡 Hint

The -c option expects a number, not a word.

The -c option requires a numeric argument. Using 'three' causes an invalid count error.

📝 Syntax

advanced

Which ping command syntax correctly sends 5 packets to example.com?

Choose the correct ping command to send exactly 5 packets to example.com.

A ping example.com -count 5

B ping -c 5 example.com

C ping -count=5 example.com

D ping -n 5 example.com

💡 Hint

The standard option to specify count is -c followed by a number.

The correct syntax is 'ping -c 5 example.com'. Other options are invalid or for different OS.

🚀 Application

advanced

How to automate ping to check connectivity every 10 seconds for 1 minute?

You want to check if google.com is reachable every 10 seconds for 1 minute using ping. Which command achieves this?

A ping -w 60 -i 10 google.com

B ping -c 6 -i 1 google.com

C ping -i 10 -c 6 google.com

D ping -c 60 -i 10 google.com

💡 Hint

The -i option sets interval between packets, -c sets count.

Sending 6 packets (-c 6) every 10 seconds (-i 10) totals about 1 minute.

🧠 Conceptual

expert

What does the ping command's exit status indicate?

After running a ping command, what does an exit status of 0 mean?

A No replies were received; the host is unreachable.

B The ping command was interrupted by the user.

C The ping command failed due to invalid arguments.

D At least one reply was received from the target host.

💡 Hint

Exit status 0 usually means success in Linux commands.

Ping returns 0 if it receives any reply packets, indicating connectivity.