Get-ADUser in PowerShell - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

What is the output of this Get-ADUser command?

Consider the following PowerShell command to get a user named 'jdoe' from Active Directory:

Get-ADUser -Identity jdoe -Properties EmailAddress | Select-Object Name, EmailAddress

What will this command output if the user 'jdoe' exists and has the email '[e-mail]'?

PowerShell

Get-ADUser -Identity jdoe -Properties EmailAddress | Select-Object Name, EmailAddress

A

Name       EmailAddress
----       ------------
Error: Property 'EmailAddress' not found

B

Name       EmailAddress
----       ------------
jdoe       [e-mail]

C

EmailAddress
------------
[e-mail]

D

Name
----
jdoe

💡 Hint

The command uses Select-Object to show both Name and EmailAddress properties.

The command retrieves the user 'jdoe' including the EmailAddress property, then selects and displays both Name and EmailAddress. So the output shows both fields with their values.

📝 Syntax

intermediate

Which Get-ADUser command syntax correctly retrieves users with 'Manager' property?

You want to get all users and include their 'Manager' property in the output. Which of these commands is syntactically correct?

A Get-ADUser -Filter * -PropertiesManager

B Get-ADUser -Filter * -Property Manager

C Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties 'Manager'

D Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties Manager

💡 Hint

The parameter to include extra properties is '-Properties' followed by property names.

The correct parameter is '-Properties' (plural) followed by the property name without quotes. Option D uses correct syntax.

🔧 Debug

advanced

What error does this Get-ADUser command produce?

Analyze this command:

Get-ADUser -Filter {Name -eq 'jdoe' -and Enabled -eq $true} -Properties EmailAddress | Select Name, EmailAddress

What error will PowerShell show when running this?

A Get-ADUser : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument '-and'.

B Get-ADUser : The term 'Enabled' is not recognized as a cmdlet.

C No error, command runs successfully.

D Get-ADUser : Property 'EmailAddress' does not exist.

💡 Hint

The filter syntax uses script block {} but Get-ADUser expects a string filter.

Get-ADUser expects the -Filter parameter as a string, not a script block. Using {} causes PowerShell to misinterpret the filter and throw a positional parameter error.

🚀 Application

advanced

How many users will this command return?

What is the number of users returned by this command?

Get-ADUser -Filter "Enabled -eq $false" -Properties LastLogonDate | Where-Object { $_.LastLogonDate -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-90) }

Assuming the Active Directory has 1000 users, 200 are disabled, and 50 of those disabled have last logon date older than 90 days.

PowerShell

Get-ADUser -Filter "Enabled -eq $false" -Properties LastLogonDate | Where-Object { $_.LastLogonDate -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-90) }

A 1000

B 200

C 50

D 0

💡 Hint

The command filters disabled users, then filters those with last logon older than 90 days.

The command first gets 200 disabled users, then filters those with LastLogonDate older than 90 days, which is 50 users.

🧠 Conceptual

expert

What is the value of variable $userCount after running this script?

Given this PowerShell script:

$users = Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties Department | Where-Object { $_.Department -eq 'Sales' }
$userCount = $users.Count

If Active Directory has 500 users, 120 of which have Department set to 'Sales', what is the value of $userCount?

A 120

B 500

C 0

D null

💡 Hint

Count property returns the number of items in the collection.

The script filters users with Department 'Sales' and stores them in $users. $userCount is the number of those users, which is 120.