PowerShell on Linux - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

💻 Command Output

intermediate

PowerShell command output on Linux

What is the output of this PowerShell command run on a typical Linux system?

Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.CPU -gt 0 } | Select-Object -First 1 -Property Name,CPU

PowerShell

Get-Process | Where-Object { $_.CPU -gt 0 } | Select-Object -First 1 -Property Name,CPU

A @{Name=systemd; CPU=0.03125}

B No output, command fails on Linux

C @{Name=powershell; CPU=0.0}

D @{Name=code; CPU=0.015625}

💡 Hint

Think about common Linux processes that consume CPU and appear in Get-Process.

On Linux, Get-Process lists running processes. systemd is usually running and may have CPU usage above zero. The output is a hashtable-like object showing Name and CPU.

📝 Syntax

intermediate

Correct syntax for reading a file in PowerShell on Linux

Which option correctly reads the contents of a text file named 'log.txt' in the current directory on Linux using PowerShell?

A Read-Content log.txt

B cat log.txt | Read-File

C Get-Content ./log.txt

D Get-FileContent log.txt

💡 Hint

PowerShell uses a cmdlet to read file contents, similar to cat but with a different name.

Get-Content is the correct PowerShell cmdlet to read file contents. The other options are invalid or do not exist in PowerShell.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Fix the error in this PowerShell script on Linux

This script is intended to list all files in /tmp and output their names, but it throws an error on Linux. What is the cause?

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\tmp | ForEach-Object { $_.Name }

PowerShell

Get-ChildItem -Path C:\tmp | ForEach-Object { $_.Name }

A Get-ChildItem cannot list files on Linux.

B The path uses Windows-style backslashes; use /tmp instead.

C ForEach-Object is not supported on Linux PowerShell.

D The script is missing a pipeline to Out-File.

💡 Hint

Linux uses forward slashes in paths, unlike Windows.

The script uses a Windows path 'C:\tmp' which does not exist on Linux. Changing the path to '/tmp' fixes the error.

🚀 Application

advanced

Automate service restart with PowerShell on Linux

You want to restart the 'nginx' service on a Linux system using PowerShell. Which command correctly does this?

A Restart-Process nginx

B Invoke-Expression 'sudo systemctl restart nginx'

C systemctl restart nginx

D Restart-Service nginx

💡 Hint

PowerShell provides cross-platform cmdlets for service management on Linux.

Restart-Service is fully supported on Linux in PowerShell 6+ and uses systemd under the hood to manage services like nginx. Other options use invalid cmdlets, non-PowerShell commands, or unnecessary constructs.

🧠 Conceptual

expert

Understanding PowerShell environment differences on Linux

Which statement best describes a key difference when running PowerShell scripts on Linux compared to Windows?

A PowerShell on Linux uses case-sensitive file paths and supports native Linux commands.

B PowerShell on Linux cannot run native Linux commands directly.

C PowerShell on Linux uses Windows registry to store configuration settings.

D PowerShell on Linux does not support modules or scripts.

💡 Hint

Think about how Linux file systems differ from Windows and how PowerShell integrates with the OS.

Linux file systems are case-sensitive, unlike Windows. PowerShell on Linux can run native Linux commands directly and respects Linux conventions.