Process management is the foundation the rest of Operating Systems is built on, and examiners treat it that way. The reliable question types are compact: name the standard process states, decide which state transitions are legal, work out what a context switch must save, and separate what interrupts a running process from what does not. GATE probes the transition diagrams and the context-switch details; UGC NET, DSSSB and PSU papers reuse the state definitions almost word for word.
Below are 12 solved MCQs from KnowledgeGate's published question bank, most of them real previous-year questions with the exam and year noted. Attempt each before checking the answer; the explanation stays short on purpose. The full theory sits in the process management learn module.
A note on the deep links: where a question is a GATE PYQ carried inside the GATE course, we link its exact solved page. The questions from other recruitment papers live in the same module's practice sets, so for those the module link above is your entry point.
Process states and the lifecycle
Q1. Which of the following is NOT a process state? (BEL 2023)
(a) Ready
(b) Start
(c) New
(d) Running
Answer: (b) Start.
The standard process lifecycle runs through New, Ready, Running, Waiting or Blocked, and Terminated. New means the process is being created, Ready means it is waiting for the CPU, and Running means it is executing. "Start" is not one of these named states, so it is the odd one out.
Q2. In which state is the process waiting to be assigned to a processor? (CDAC CCAT 2017)
(a) New
(b) Running
(c) Waiting
(d) Ready
Answer: (d) Ready.
A process in the Ready state has everything it needs except the CPU, and it sits in the ready queue until the scheduler dispatches it. New means it is still being created, and Waiting means it is blocked on some event such as I/O. Only Ready describes a process that is prepared to run the moment a processor frees up.
Q3. Match the process states with their definitions: I New, II Running, III Ready against 1 waiting to be assigned to a processor, 2 instructions are being executed, 3 the process is being created. (DSSSB 2024)
(a) I-3, II-1, III-2
(b) I-1, II-3, III-2
(c) I-1, II-2, III-3
(d) I-3, II-2, III-1
Answer: (d) I-3, II-2, III-1.
New pairs with "being created", Running pairs with "instructions are being executed", and Ready pairs with "waiting to be assigned to a processor". Lining those up gives I-3, II-2 and III-1. Keeping New and Ready distinct is the trap the other options exploit.
Q4. Which of the following is NOT a process state? (CDAC CCAT 2025)
(a) New
(b) Ready
(c) Running
(d) Compiled
Answer: (d) Compiled.
New, Ready and Running are all genuine states in the process model. "Compiled" describes a stage in building a program, not a runtime state a process occupies. Compilation happens before execution ever begins, so it never appears in the lifecycle.
Q5. When a program is terminated abnormally, it is called ______. (DSSSB 2022)
(a) End
(b) Stop
(c) Abort
(d) Terminate
Answer: (c) Abort.
Abort is the specific term for a program ending abnormally, whether from an error or a forced kill. Normal completion is just termination, and End and Stop are informal words with no precise meaning here. The distinction between a clean exit and an abort is what the question tests.
Q6. Which of the following process state transitions is not possible in a typical operating system? (MPPSC 2025)
(a) Running to Ready
(b) Waiting to Ready
(c) Ready to Waiting
(d) Running to Waiting
Answer: (c) Ready to Waiting.
A process becomes blocked only while it is actually running and then requests something like I/O, so the Waiting state is entered from Running, not from Ready. A ready process has made no such request yet, so it cannot jump straight to Waiting. The other three transitions are all part of the normal five-state model.
The process control block and context switching
Q7. Process Control Block of a process in an Operating System does not contain: (CDAC CCAT 2019)
(a) Process number
(b) Process state
(c) Program counter
(d) Program name
Answer: (d) Program name.
The PCB is the kernel's per-process record: it holds the process number, the current state, the program counter, register values and scheduling information, everything needed to pause the process and resume it later. The program's name plays no part in that bookkeeping, so it is the field that does not belong.
Q8. Data structure maintained by the operating system to maintain information for each thread within a process is known as ______. (DSSSB 2021)
(a) Process Control Block
(b) Thread Control Block
(c) Symbol Table
(d) Scheduling Queue
Answer: (b) Thread Control Block.
Each thread gets its own Thread Control Block recording its thread ID, program counter, registers and stack pointer, which is what lets the OS switch between threads inside one process. The PCB describes the process as a whole, a symbol table belongs to compilers, and a scheduling queue holds processes waiting to run rather than describing one.
Schedulers, interrupts and context switching
Q9. Match the schedulers with their functions: I Long-term scheduler, II Medium-term scheduler, III Short-term scheduler against A Swapping, B Job scheduling, C CPU scheduling. (DSSSB 2018)
(a) I-C, II-A, III-B
(b) I-A, II-B, III-C
(c) I-B, II-A, III-C
(d) I-A, II-C, III-B
Answer: (c) I-B, II-A, III-C.
The long-term scheduler admits jobs into the system, so it pairs with job scheduling. The medium-term scheduler suspends and resumes processes by swapping them out of and back into memory, and the short-term scheduler picks the next ready process to receive the CPU. Lining those up gives I-B, II-A and III-C.
Q10. A process state transition diagram that includes a direct Running to Ready transition, in addition to the usual dispatch and block edges, is representative of *(GATE 1996, see the solved page)*
(a) a batch operating system
(b) an operating system with a preemptive scheduler
(c) an operating system with a non-preemptive scheduler
(d) a uni-programmed operating system
Answer: (b) an operating system with a preemptive scheduler.
The telling edge is Running back to Ready, which means the OS can pull a process off the CPU before it voluntarily gives it up, for example when its time slice expires. Only a preemptive scheduler produces that transition. A non-preemptive system would show a process leaving Running only to block or finish, never to be forced back to Ready.
Q11. What is the name of the technique in which the operating system executes several programs concurrently by switching back and forth between them? (BEL 2007)
(a) Partitioning
(b) Multitasking
(c) Windowing
(d) Paging
Answer: (b) Multitasking.
Multitasking is the illusion of concurrency created when the CPU rapidly switches among several programs. Partitioning and paging are memory-management ideas, and windowing belongs to the user interface. The rapid switch-among-programs description points squarely at multitasking.
Q12. Which statements about process states are true? (i) A running process moves to the ready state when it is interrupted. (ii) A process moves to the waiting state when it has completed its execution. (DSSSB 2022)
(a) Only (i)
(b) Only (ii)
(c) Both (i) and (ii)
(d) Neither (i) nor (ii)
Answer: (a) Only (i).
Statement (i) is correct: an interrupt or an expired time slice sends a running process back to the ready queue so others can use the CPU. Statement (ii) is wrong, because a process that finishes execution moves to the terminated state, not to waiting. Waiting is for a process blocked on an event, so only (i) holds.
Where these 12 fit in your preparation
The set mirrors how the topic is examined: the state definitions and legal-transition questions that anchor most papers (Q1 to Q6), the control-block items that ask what the OS must record for each process and thread (Q7 to Q8), and the scheduler, preemption and multitasking questions that round out the section (Q9 to Q12). If a transition question stumps you, redraw the five-state diagram from memory and check that Waiting is only ever entered from Running.
For the theory behind every answer, work through the process management learn module and place the topic in context with our Operating Systems for GATE breakdown. GATE aspirants get the full OS sequence inside GATE Guidance by Sanchit Sir; for teaching and PSU papers, browse the GATE CS category page. Solve, review the ones you missed, and return to the transition questions a week later.
