LPI 101: Proving Your Linux Competency
This vendor-neutral exam from the Linux Professional Institute is a good starting point to measure your Linux knowledge.
by Greg Neilson
7/10/2001 --
The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) is developing a Linux certification program using the same open principles that are used to develop Linux itself. As an "open body," it's sponsored by a large number of vendors (including SuSE, HP, Linuxcare, IBM, and Caldera); anyone can take part in the exam preparation process.
Why, you might ask, when there are so many other Linux certification offerings emerging right now -- Red Hat's RHCE program,the SAIR-GNU Linux program, and soon Linux+ from CompTIA -- would I pursue this one? I elected to take this certification now because it's available and because it's non-vendor-specific. In addition, I made the assessment that the RHCE was probably a more advanced level of certification, which I'm probably not ready for right now. My goal was to strengthen my Linux skills; taking the LPI program was a structured path to that end.
The LPI Linux certification will eventually have three levels of certification, though only the first level of certification is available now. LPI Level-1 certification requires you to pass two exams, 101 and 102. This article deals with the content for the 101 exam, which I recently took. I'll deal with the 102 content in a later article.
Most of the information you need to take this exam is available at the LPI Web site. You'll find the exam objectives at www.lpi.org/p-obj-101.html. When you're ready to check your studies, you'll find sample questions at www.lpi.org/p-sample-101.html.
Although the exam objectives are detailed -- covering over four printed pages -- they don't cover all of the content of the exam. A number of commands aren't mentioned in the study guide, including pstree and telinit, which are important for getting through this test. However, I did use O'Reilly's "LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell" as a study guide for this exam, and that was comprehensive. I recommend this book if you're looking for a study guide for your exam preparations. (Note: O'Reilly is also the publisher of my book, so you might think I'm biased in recommending this study guide. You should know, though, that the cost for me to order this book from Amazon and get it shipped to me in Australia was AUD$137. If the book had sucked, I'd be the first to tell you!).
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There's another unique area of the exam objectives worth mentioning. Each exam objective is weighted between one and 10 to denote the relative importance of each objective. The more important the objective, the more questions you're likely to get on the test that address that objective.
The objectives with the highest weighting (seven) are "Process text streams using text processing filters" and "Manage users and group accounts and related system files." Therefore, it's reasonable to expect that you should know these two areas well. Similarly, three objectives have a rating of one ("Set and view disk quota," "Write System Documentation" and "Provide User Support"). That means the chances of your facing a question on those topics is diminished.
The exam covers material from five broad subject areas. In total, there are over 60 commands you're going to need to master. For many of these you'll need to know the common options used for each. That's a lot of memorization. You also need to know about 15 specific files in the system -- what they contain and why. Also, make sure you know what each field in the file is for as well, for example, with /etc/passwd and crontab. Much of the exam is multiple choice. Other questions require you to fill in a short answer. Still other questions tell you to choose all options that are correction, without telling you how many to select.
Here's a quick summary of the main concepts you'll need to master for the exam. This isn't intended to be a comprehensive list. Consider it a starting point for your exam revision.
GNU and Unix Commands
You need to know a great deal about entering commands, working with the shell, and using regular expressions to search text files with grep and sed. You'll also need to be familiar with pipes and command input/output redirection, since these concepts are explored throughout the exam.
I've mentioned before that the 16 commands from the textutils package are heavily tested, so make sure you understand exactly what each of these are used for: sed, sort, cut, expand, fmt, head, join, nl, od, paste, pr, split, tac, tail, tr and wc. (Tip: Know the different options for the wc command, since these are always useful in counting words, lines and characters in text files).
Linux process scheduling priority ranges from -19 (the highest) to 20 (the lowest). The default scheduling priority is 0, and only the root user can schedule processes with a priority higher than this. The nice command is used to start a command with a priority different to the default, and the renice command is used to change the priority of a running process.
You can use a variety of commands when working with running processes -- ps, top, kill, bg, fg, jobs and pstree. You'll need to know when to use the commands as well as their common options. For example, a commonly used command to list all running processes on a system is ps -aux; but do you really know what these three options do to the output of the command?
Devices, Linux File Systems and Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
Become familiar with creating partitions with fdisk, creating filesystems using mkfs and using fsck to check the integrity of a file system. Know how to use the /etc/fstab file. You can also use the mount and unmount commands to mount filesystems manually.
Master file system ownership and permission. This includes understanding how to use these commands: chmod (change permissions), chown (change ownership, can also change group) and chgrp (change group). Know how to work with permissions defined by mnemonics (for example, rwx) or octals (for example, 744).
Tip: Use the ln command to create links from one file to another, which can be either hard or soft. Hard links can only be created in the same filesystem as the original file, whereas soft links can be used anywhere.
Boot, Initialization, Shutdown, Run Levels
You'll need to know the dmesg command to review bootup messages, as well as the shutdown and halt commands.
Learn how to change the runlevel of the system using the init or telinit commands. Some of these runlevels are implementation-specific, but you need to know these main runlevels:
- 0 -- halts the system
- 1 -- starts the system in single-user mode
- 6 -- restarts the system
Know how to read the output of the runlevel command to determine the previous and current runlevel.
Tip: When the previous runlevel is listed as N, this means that the runlevel hasn't been changed since the system was booted.
Documentation
With a couple of exceptions, this has a fairly low rating in the objectives list. However, make sure you know the difference between the man and info commands.
Administrative Tasks
Make sure you understand how and why shadow passwords are used. Since everyone has read access to the /etc/passwd file, anyone can attempt to crack the hashed passwords stored there. When shadow passwords are used, the password field in /etc/passwd contains a value of "x" and new file /etc/shadow is used to store the hashed passwords that only the root account can read.
Remember that a typical /etc/passwd entry contains:
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
The fields it contains are:
- username
- password (hashed)
- user ID
- group ID
- user name
- home directory
- default shell to use
Cron is used to run commands regularly. The at command is used for commands that need to be run once only. Make sure you know the meaning of the fields within crontab files:
- minute
- hour
- day of the month
- month (1 to 12, or jan to dec)
- day of the week (0 to 6, starting on Sunday, or sun to sat)
- command to execute
Final Impressions
Overall, I came away quite impressed by this exam. It was certainly demanding, but at the same time the questions cover the information you really need to know to be able to manage a Linux system. I'm scheduled to take the 102 exam in a couple of weeks, and armed with the knowledge of how tough this test proved to be, I'll be redoubling my study efforts in that time. If you too choose to take these exams, I'm think you'll find the experience of preparing for them rewarding. Good luck!
Greg Neilson, MCSE+Internet, MCNE, PCLP, is a Contributing Editor for Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and a manager at a large IT services firm in Australia. He's the author of Lotus Domino Administration in a Nutshell (O'Reilly and Associates, ISBN 1-56592-717-6). You can reach him at Attn: Greg.
More articles by Greg Neilson:
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Post your comment below, or better yet, go to our Discussion Forums and really post your mind.
Current  user rating for "LPI 101: Proving Your Linux Competency " is 
8/22/01 - Anonymous says:
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Terrible test! Almost the entire test was about obscure commands that you will never use on a day-to-day basis. And the marking schema...truely horid. |
8/22/01 - Anonymous says:
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don't know |
8/23/01 - Anonymous says:
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The preparation for 101 was challenging, but I learned a lot. The objectives represent general unix knowledge which will be valuable nearly forever. A must for IT professionals and for those who want to understand an operating system. |
8/25/01 - Anonymous says:
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DUH! |
8/25/01 - ltiu says:
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I took the exam last year. Exam 101 is very hard and obscure in a way that certain concepts tested are rarely used by a typical admin. It is actually harder than the Sun Solaris Unix Cert. Exams that I have taken before. Exam 102 is better since the questions reflect more of what an actual Linux admin does. ltiu |
8/27/01 - Henk Kloepping says:
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I passed LPIC-1 in july 2001. You'll need practical experience with (networked-)Linux to be able to pass these exams. However, experienced users/sysadmins do not really need to prepare much to pass. LPI certification does the job it was intended for. |
8/27/01 - Anonymous says:
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This test was was just plain bad! I can't belive that they think it is important to know switches to commands. These can easily be looked up using the man pages. I don't understand how they think this test if you are an admin or not. Don't waste you money on this sorry test! |
8/27/01 - Anonymous says:
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I have to agree with the other comments, because this test is sad. I took two of them, passed them both, and still think that I am not ready to be an admin. How did they figure out what needed to be on the test? |
8/27/01 - /dev/Idiot says:
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The way I see it, these curriculums are not "learn this and you will be an admin" but more of "if you hire someone who has passed X curriculum then you can be sure they have Y skills and knowledge". If you want a job as an admin I sugest you look at why employers like certification courses and why they don't like them. If you want to have a meaningful benchmark for admins in an organisation then that is a differednt story all together. Ever wounder why CCNA and MCSE mean exactly squat? People use them as a "school course" and think that they are entitled to call themselves an admin. A good part of this is the fault of the cert providers advertising depts. But realy, know what you are talking about and use the cert courses for what they were intended for. Just my e$0.02 |
8/27/01 - Ethiel Garcia says:
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Bring it on! |
8/31/01 - ming says:
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the test is BAD. they asked questions that a practical admin will never try to memorize. it is sad that a poor test like this is released |
9/4/01 - Steve says:
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As stated in an earlier comment, the objective of certification is to show employers you know Linux, not to learn it. Given that I'm interested in gaining certification. I have not taken the certification, so please ignore my rating. From what I've learned about LPI, there is one thing that bugs me about the test. Testees do not have access to the standard on-line documentation which real life administrators take for granted. Even with access to man, info and apropos it still takes skill to administer a system, reading a man page is a skill in itself. The main drawback I see is that when given on-line documentation multiple choice questions would be less effective and the test would then need to rely more on fill in the blank and short essay questions, both take more man-power to grade than multiple guess :) questions. |
9/9/01 - Anonymous says:
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I was an RHCE first, and took the LPI 101-102 next. I can say that both exams were challenging (I have also taken the beta for Linux+ which was much lighter fare). The LPI exams were more challenging than the RHCE written exam. I would tend to trust the depth of knowledge of someone who holds the LPIC-1 cert over the RHCE cert. But don't get me wrong about the RHCE, although it is expensive (about $800) and has a weak written exam, its performance/troubleshooting part of the exam really would weed out techno wannabes. Not true of MCSE or CCNA exams. |
9/10/01 - Bas Vermeulen says:
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I've taken both LPI 101 and 102. They' re both (imo anyways) way too focused on stuff you can learn without understanding (what do you mean I have to know a command and it's options by hand. That's what man is for!) what it actually does. It asks for facts, and not understanding, which is, in my book, wrong. Of course ymmv, and this is all imho. |
9/19/01 - Jeremiah Isom says:
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http://www.lpi.org/c-process.html Check out that page to see what each level means. A summary for the lazy shows that level one ceritification does not necessarily make you a sysadmin. In fact it shows a level of knowledge closer to that of "helpdesk" personnel or a assistant admin. A quote: "This is somewhat heavier than the SAGE "Novice" level: we aim beyond the power-user & helpdesk level. It is about at the "prerequisites" level of the RedHat training program. " Oh, I haven't taken the test yet. I've still to drag my sorry behind to a larger city with a test site. :) |
10/9/01 - mike heydrich says:
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Welcher Blödmann hat sich denn diesen Test ausgedacht ? Der hat ja nun mit der Praxis absolut gar nichts zu tun ! |
10/19/01 - Karl Bickmore says:
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I have taken and passed the 101 and 102 exams. I also have taken and passed the Comptia Linux+. Here is the breakdown. The Linux+ test asks about the same subject matter of the 101 with some added hardware( guess they can't get enough of the A+ stuff). It's questions are all multiple choice with one answer. That is why it is lighter. The LPI 101 does a much better job in asking the questions in a harder way. The 102 was very focused on RPM, DEB and the kernel module commands, with some added X-Windows stuff. In general I think the LPI tests are hard (for a cert test). I dissagree with most of the previous comments stating that the LPI doesn't cover practical subject matter. I found their subject matter very appropriate for junior admin or help desk. Of course thier is missing subject matter for senior admin, but isn't that what level 2 and 3 are for? I'm glad LPI is doing what they are. |
10/26/01 - SY says:
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I have studied for about 2 weeks and just passed the Exam 101. I think the most difficult part is "MC with several answers" and the "man" related questions. There are a lot of fill in the blanks but they are not difficult. I think this is the exam for those Linux/UNIX system administrators rather than the guys want to become administrators. |
11/15/01 - Anonymous says:
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first test |
12/14/01 - Adam Bagi says:
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(Haven't taken it yet.) Mine is a different perspective: I'm a language teacher, and have some knowledge of testing in general. LPI, IMHO, is a well designed, reliable, and valid test. It is designed, administered and evaluated according to the most up-to-date standards (won't go into details, there's plenty of literature on testing for anyone curious). And that isn't to be said about the majority of certification tests, AFAIK. As for learning commnd options, no access to man pages, etc.: the FAQ on the LPI page is quite argumentative. May give it a read before you post... (Besides, when you boot from a floppy/cd to fix a broken system, you'd better know some basic options w/o resort to man pages ;) Difficulty: 1. There are different levels, so "too easy/difficult" complaints hardly make any sense. 2. Test items are standardized (more difficult ones are worth more). 3. Evaluation is based on the normalized average score of testees (a more difficult series of questions can be passed with a lower score). Just one note about MC questions (a controversial topic in testing theory): an MC item is answered by _recognizing_ the correct answer, rather than _recalling_ it. Actually, LPI doesn't test how well you _memorize_ commands and options, but how _familiar_ you are with them. This is all about testing; about the content of the test, I leave it for admins to decide. (For example: I, being influenced greatly by the classic Kerningham-Pike UNIX book, have a zeal for those "text processing tools", but I admit they may not be essential or central to the work of all sysadmins.) |
12/23/01 - Bill Elliot says:
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I have taken 101 already and I do think that this cert. really reflects the strong and the weak in Linux. People are not technical enough would regard this test as poor, but we the proficient would trust this test rocks! |
12/24/01 - David Cooper says:
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Agree. The poor and incompetent people in Linux will not be capable of passing LPI. When they failed, they said this test is poor. Poor people. |
12/31/01 - Anthony Yeung says:
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I have taken the 101 test and passed. I think the test can examine the people advanced skills and knowledge in Linux. If you understand the concept and remember some command options which is used regularly, you can pass it. |
12/31/01 - dp says:
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I just took 101 and the test was not so difficult. Taking the test is not only to get a cert, but also to learn sth. |
1/1/02 - Anonymous says:
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I have passed the 101 test, am scheduled to take the 102 tommorrow, and have begun studying for level 2. I do think there is a lot of practical knowledge involved and it has helped me accomplish a lot already. The preparation materials I used were: LPIC Prep Kit General Linux 1 ISBN 0-7897-2292-5 Exam Cram General Linux 2 ISBN 1-57610-962-3 Aside from the usual typos, both of the guides I think are great. On the first test, the most difficult objectives for me were the heaviest weighted objectives. I'm going to keep that in mind when I take the 2nd exam tommorrow. |
1/2/02 - Andras Arato says:
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I have passed LPI101 and LPI102 yesterday. What makes this test somewhat difficult is that you need to remember a few commands and options that you may not use frequently or at all. How about the options for Debian's dpkg....?? some questions are extremely easy. If you are an experienced Linux administrator with networking skills, you do not need to study a lot (if at all) for this exam. The passing score seems to be low compared to other exams. LPI Linux Certification In A Nutshell from O'REILLY is an excellent book on the topic. |
1/5/02 - Anonymous says:
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I've been using linux since 1996..and have been running it as a production mail, web, DNS and file server since around 1998. I took a few practice tests (no studying) awhile back and got a failing grade. Its the switches! From what I recall, there is way too much empahasis on switches when there really shouldnt be. You look that up when you need to. Just ask me what I know what "grep" does..not if i know what grep -vddfow does. There was even this silly question on "Which of the following is not a Security Related site" I recogized Bugtraq and CERT but not the other two. Hope they dont have similar silly questions on the actual exam. |
1/25/02 - F.Meyer from Germany says:
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I passed LPI 101 and I was astounished how difficult it was. I study now for 102 and take this into account. The O'Reilly Book is extremly helpful. I learned a lot about things I avoided since years. So the test forces me to round up my linux knowledge which is a good thing. I'm a little bit scared about 201 und 202 I must say. |
1/28/02 - F. Tivolle from Canada says:
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Quite difficult test. I based my revision on the LPI Certification in a Nutshell. The book is good but the test require more knowledge than that in order to get a good score. In itself the LPI certification does very well it's job. If you pass the test it means that you know much more than the Linux basics. Congratulation to LPI team for setting up this certification. |
2/18/02 - dan from wv says:
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I had problem understanding the questions, this test is fundamentals of linux It was like they had some guru make it up just to kick the test taker in the face I was not happy about failing this test after all the long hours of studying I could have used a brain dump or some kind of help on how the questions would be worded I have 3 years of RedHat basic administrator not a guru or a programmer Should I even try to get the LPI ( I?m not sure ) If there is help out there could someone let me in on it so I don?t waist more money that I don?t have Thanks |
3/2/02 - BJ from nc says:
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To: dan from wv Please refer to the book LPI in a Nutshell. This is a good book for LPI level 1 exam. And the words from F. Tivolle are very true. You must have much more knowledge than the LPI in a Nutshell contains. |
3/2/02 - Jason Miller says:
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DO NOT take this test and expect you will pass it if you are only a Linux user. Take it if you are a Linux administrator. |
3/4/02 - B Ng from Hong Kong says:
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I had passed 101 months ago and passed 102 yesterday. I had been using the O'Reilly book to aid my studying. However, some questions in the exams were never introduced in the book. You must have practical experience in Linux in order to answer those. New hands in Linux would find it rather difficult to pass the exams. By just studying the O-book, 101 is relatively easier since most topics are covered in the book. However, may be due to the range/scope of 102 is broader, practical Linux plus network administration experience in UNIX environment is strongly needed in order to obsecure a pass in 102. What I believe now is, since LPI exams are tough and demanding, I have chosen the right test/cert to certify my knowledge on Linux. |
3/5/02 - jhoke from New York, NY says:
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I took this test (101) last week, and passed. I agree with some of the posters who say this test is difficult... it is. But this is a test, and IMO it should not be an easy thing to pass. It should be fair and I feel that it is fair, and if you have the requisite skill set, you should have no issues with it. That said... There are not really any GREAT LPI courseware or training manuals available... I have skimmed through the OReilly and others but they are all lacking ... this could be seen as a negative, but its good... books that "teach the test" cheapen the exam and the certification (paper CNE/MCSE's anyone?) Overall, it is a good test,and I am taking 102 next week... |
3/22/02 - James NG from HK says:
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Passed 101 today, but it's a very "exciting" experience. The difficulty is out of my expectation but I think is reasonable and realistic - in contrast to those saying this is about a whole bunch of obscure commands - i.e. it test for things an sys admin need to know. Taking 102 is in my schedule now, but have to take it "very seriously", and won't count on those certXX.com thing - it wasted my time, sadly...~ |
3/22/02 - James NG from HK says:
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Hi, Mr. B Ng, would you mind to drop me a few words (here or via e-mail)to share your experience in preparing for 102 (or even 201, 202) ? Thankyou for your kind concern. |
3/25/02 - unhappy camper from CA says:
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What a load of crap. I submitted questions from the exam with errors on them. They acknowledged them, and said they would be fixed the end of april. The question I submitted made the difference between pass and fail. |
3/25/02 - unhappy camper from CA says:
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I think all you people up above with 5 stars should have picked up on the errors on the actual exam. Keep in mind, Linux is case-sensitive. |
4/7/02 - Anonymous says:
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I have passed both 101 and 102 and the exams are suffeciently hard to test for Sysadmin standard. I have no issue with the switches they called for either as the ones they ask are indeed ones I find useful day to day and it forced me to learn them, reducing the time I spend looking at man pages. I also did the Sair LCA tests and can honestly say they are of a similiar standard though LPIs give you a box to fill in questions are harder than MC. |
4/23/02 - mohammed shafi from india says:
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I want a question paper to be emailed for me |
4/23/02 - Azim Ali from London says:
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the test is very good. they asked questions that a practical admin will never try to memorize. it's good to know command-line interface then x, that you remotely do more things, |
8/21/02 - Sapper from Midwest says:
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Having taled to several people who have taken the test, it really depends on the types of questions you end up with as to the difficulty. I have passed both the 101 and the 102 and had a much tougher time with the 102 because of the switch memorization.I have also passed the Linux-plus exam and thought it easy compared to the LPI exams. |
9/8/02 - rags from Midwest says:
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The questions are short and to the point. You either know the answer or you miss it! Very refreshing after MCSE exam BS. The 101 test covered many commands that I would never have used had I not learned them for the test. These "obscure" commands generally improve my ablilities and efficiency. Now I use most of them daily. The real power of a Linux server is still in the command line. It was as difficult if not more difficult than any of the many MS exams I have taken and much more practical. |
10/4/02 - Anonymous from CA says:
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I've taken and passed 101 and 102. I've been using linux for about two years now. These test were pretty challanging. I've configured and installed many packages, but didn't really some of the fundamentals. This test allowed me to probe into the boot process, initalization scripts and user configuration. Alot of material to cover, but worth it. |
11/8/02 - exitus from Vienna says:
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when I first took 102, I was really surprised how difficult it was (I failed that time, with a score of 440), but it was my own fault because I didn't study hard enough. I passed the second time, though the questions were even harder that time. the funny thing is that on my first try, one third of the questions dealt with dpkg and rpm, while on my second try about half of the questions were related to X11 (some of them were REALLY in-depth). the network questions were also harder the second time. as some of the people above mentioned, the test has some errors (3 that I'm sure of, 2 of them in the security field). to sum it up, I think ths test is quite difficult, challenging, but all together worth studying for. it certainly proves your linux competency. some minor improvements are necessary though. |
12/9/02 - kang dhemittz from indonesia says:
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oh dear, sir, I've seen your exam; why U use MC as your tools. I'd suggests better if U use "pure shells" commands such as : bash, or csh. MC is not showing the pure essence of UNIX and it's not be on my minimal systems machine. Would you mailed me some harder exams to do, better than that ? |
1/2/03 - Pallavi from San Jose says:
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It was tooo difficult |
3/30/03 - Jane from LA says:
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Passed 101 today. It was harder than I thought. Some changes you may want to know though. There are total 65 questios. You need to score 500 on a scale of 200 to 890 to pass. Time to get back to study 102!! |
4/11/03 - Ferric Lam from HK says:
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What a demanding test! You have to prepared well to get pass. Few simple questions while most are detail and tricky, especally related to filter and rpm or dpkg topics. Even system admin might not has the knowledge to answer(the parm). Study is essential. Schedule to take 102. Cheer! |
5/19/03 - Coke from HK says:
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Just pass 117-101-RPM, prepare for 102 now. This exam is a good one, it not just tests your skills on how to use the commands but in detail(Some books are not point out so detail, so makes the exam more challenge). some people say that LPI is bad design as no people will try to memorize the switches to commands, they can find man-manual. All things have two faces. If your boss asks you about some commands, can you tell him, "Wait, let me "man" it first" ??? People, Do you know what is a professional is? LPI may be one way to tell you. |
6/13/03 - Ritu from United States says:
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The exam needs a well versed person. It requires a thorough understanding of the subject. Stick to the objectives set by lpi.org for success |
9/15/03 - Anonymous says:
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I just passed the test that was revised in March of 2003, it was very difficult. When they ask for fill in the blanks it's unclear exactly want they want sometimes. Very challenging test. |
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