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CompTIA XK0-005 Exam Topics

CompTIA XK0-005 Exam Overview :

Exam Name: CompTIA Linux+ Certification Exam
Exam Code: XK0-005
Certifications: CompTIA Linux+ Certification
Actual Exam Duration: 90 minutes
Expected no. of Questions in Actual Exam: 90
Exam Registration Price: $358
See Expected Questions: CompTIA XK0-005 Expected Questions in Actual Exam

CompTIA XK0-005 Exam Objectives :

Section Weight Objectives
1.0 System Management 32% 1.1 Summarize Linux fundamentals.
• Filesystem Hierarchy
Standard (FHS)
- /boot
- /proc
- /sys
- /var
- /usr
- /lib
- /dev
- /etc
- /opt
- /bin
- /sbin
- /home
- /media
- /mnt
- /root
- /tmp
• Basic boot process
- Basic input/output system (BIOS)
- Unified Extensible Firmware
Interface (UEFI)
- Commands
• mkinitrd
• grub2-install
• grub2-mkconfig
• grub2-update
• dracut
- initrd.img
- vmlinuz
- Grand Unified Bootloader
version 2 (GRUB2)
- Boot sources
• Preboot eXecution
Environment (PXE)
• Booting from Universal
Serial Bus (USB)
• Booting from ISO
• Kernel panic
• Device types in /dev
- Block devices
- Character devices
- Special character devices
• /dev/null
• /dev/zero
• /dev/urandom
• Basic package compilation
from source
- ./configure
- make
- make install
• Storage concepts
- File storage
- Block storage
- Object storage
- Partition typo
• Master boot record (MBR)
• GUID [globally unique identifier]
Partition Table (GPT)
- Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE)
- Redundant Array of
Independent (or Inexpensive)
Disks (RAID) levels
• Striping
• Mirroring
• Parity
• Listing hardware information
- lspci
- lsusb
- dmidecode

1.2  Given a scenario, manage files and directories.
• File editing
- sed
- awk
- printf
- nano
- vi(m)
• File compression,
archiving, and backup
- gzip
- bzip2
- zip
- tar
- xz
- cpio
- dd
• File metadata
- stat
- file
• Soft and hard links
• Copying files between systems
- rsync
- scp
- nc
• File and directory operations
- mv
- cp
- mkdir
- rmdir
- ls
- pwd
- rm
- cd
- .
- ..
- ~
- tree
- cat
- touch

1.3  Given a scenario, configure and manage storage using the appropriate tools.
• File editing
- sed
- awk
- printf
- nano
- vi(m)
• File compression,
archiving, and backup
- gzip
- bzip2
- zip
- tar
- xz
- cpio
- dd
• File metadata
- stat
- file
• Soft and hard links
• Copying files between systems
- rsync
- scp
- nc
• File and directory operations
- mv
- cp
- mkdir
- rmdir
- ls
- pwd
- rm
- cd
- .
- ..
- ~
- tree
- cat
- touch
• Disk partitioning
- Commands
• fdisk
• parted
• partprobe
• Mounting local and remote devices
- systemd.mount
- /etc/fstab
- mount
- Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS)
- External devices
• Filesystem management
- XFS tools
- Ext4 tools
- Btrfs tools
• Monitoring storage space
and disk usage
- df
- du
• Creating and modifying
volumes using Logical
Volume Manager (LVM)
- Commands
• pvs
• vgs
• lvs
• lvchange
• lvcreate
• vgcreate
• lvresize
• pvcreate
• vgextend
• Inspecting RAID implementations
- mdadm
- /proc/mdstat
• Storage area network (SAN)/
network-attached storage (NAS)
- multipathd
- Network filesystems
• Network File System (NFS)
• Server Message Block
(SMB)/Common Internet
File System (CIFS)
• Storage hardware
- lsscsi
- lsblk
- blkid
- fcstat

1.4  Given a scenario, configure and use the appropriate processes and services.
• System services
- systemctl
• stop
• start
• restart
• status
• enable
• disable
• mask
• Scheduling services
- cron
- crontab
- at
• Process management
- Kill signals
• SIGTERM
• SIGKILL
• SIGHUP
- Listing processes and open files
• top
• ps
• lsof
• htop
- Setting priorities
• nice
• renice
- Process states
• Zombie
• Sleeping
• Running
• Stopped
- Job control
• bg
• fg
• jobs
• Ctrl+Z
• Ctrl+C
• Ctrl+D
- pgrep
- pkill
- pidof

1.5  Given a scenario, use the appropriate networking tools or configuration files.
• Interface management
- iproute2 tools
• ip
• ss
- NetworkManager
• nmcli
- net-tools
• ifconfig
• ifcfg
• hostname
• arp
• route
- /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/
• Name resolution
- nsswitch
- /etc/resolv.conf
- systemd
• hostnamectl
• resolvectl
- Bind-utils
• dig
• nslookup
• host
- WHOIS
• Network monitoring
- tcpdump
- wireshark/tshark
- netstat
- traceroute
- ping
- mtr
• Remote networking tools
- Secure Shell (SSH)
- cURL
- wget
- nc
- rsync
- Secure Copy Protocol (SCP)
- SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)

1.6  Given a scenario, build and install software.
• Package management
- DNF
- YUM
- APT
- RPM
- dpkg
- ZYpp
• Sandboxed applications
- snapd
- Flatpak
- AppImage
• System updates
- Kernel updates
- Package updates

1.7  Given a scenario, manage software configurations.
• Updating configuration files
- Procedures
• Restart service
• Reload service
- .rpmnew
- .rpmsave
Repository configuration files
• /etc/apt.conf
• /etc/yum.conf
• /etc/dnf/dnf.conf
• /etc/yum.repo.d
• /etc/apt/sources.list.d
• Configure kernel options
- Parameters
• sysctl
• /etc/sysctl.conf
- Modules
• lsmod
• imsmod
• rmmod
• insmod
• modprobe
• modinfo
• Configure common system services
- SSH
- Network Time Protocol (NTP)
- Syslog
- chrony
• Localization
- timedatectl
- localectl
2.0 Security 21% 2.1  Summarize the purpose and use of security best practices in a Linux environment.
• Managing public key
infrastructure (PKI) certificates
- Public key
- Private key
- Self-signed certificate
- Digital signature
- Wildcard certificate
- Hashing
- Certificate authorities
• Certificate use cases
- Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/
Transport Layer Security (TLS)
- Certificate authentication
- Encryption
• Authentication
- Tokens
- Multifactor authentication (MFA)
- Pluggable authentication
modules (PAM)
- System Security Services
Daemon (SSSD)
- Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (LDAP)
- Single sign-on (SSO)
• Linux hardening
- Security scanning
- Secure boot
• UEFI
- System logging configurations
- Setting default umask
- Disabling/removing
insecure services
- Enforcing password strength
- Removing unused packages
- Tuning kernel parameters
- Securing service accounts
- Configuring the host firewall

2.2  Given a scenario, implement identity management.
• Account creation and deletion
- Utilities
• useradd
• groupadd
• userdel
• groupdel
• usermod
• groupmod
• id
• who
• w
- Default shell
- Configuration files
• /etc/passwd
• /etc/group
• /etc/shadow
• /etc/profile
• /etc/skel
• .bash_profile
• .bashrc
• Account management
- passwd
- chage
- pam_tally2
- faillock
- /etc/login.defs

2.3  Given a scenario, implement and configure firewalls.
• Firewall use cases
- Open and close ports
- Check current configuration
- Enable/disable Internet
protocol (IP) forwarding
• Common firewall technologies
- firewalld
- iptables
- nftables
- Uncomplicated firewall (UFW)
Key firewall features
- Zones
- Services
- Stateful
- Stateless

2.4  Given a scenario, configure and execute remote connectivity for system management.
• SSH
- Configuration files
• /etc/ssh/sshd_config
• /etc/ssh/ssh_config
• ~/.ssh/known_hosts
• ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
• /etc/ssh/sshd_config
• /etc/ssh/ssh_config
• ~/.ssh/config
- Commands
• ssh-keygen
• ssh-copy-id
• ssh-add
- Tunneling
• X11 forwarding
• Port forwarding
• Dynamic forwarding
• Executing commands
as another user
- /etc/sudoers
- PolicyKit rules
- Commands
• sudo
• visudo
• su –
• pkexec

2.5  Given a scenario, apply the appropriate access controls.
• File permissions
- Access control list (ACL)
- Set user ID (SUID)
- Set group ID (SGID)
- Sticky bit
• Security-enhanced Linux (SELinux)
- Context permissions
- Labels
• Autorelabel
- System booleans
- States
• Enforcing
• Permissive
• Disabled
- Policy types
• Targeted
• Minimum
• AppArmor
- Application permissions
• Command-line utilities
- chown
- umask
- chmod
- getfacl
- setfacl
- ls
- setenforce
- getenforce
- chattr
- lsattr
- chgrp
- setsebool
- getsebool
- chcon
- restorecon
- semanage
- audit2allow
3.0 Scripting, Containers, and Automation 19% 3.1  Given a scenario, create simple shell scripts to automate common tasks.
• Shell script elements
- Loops
• while
• for
• until
- Conditionals
• if
• switch/case
- Shell parameter expansion
• Globbing
• Brace expansions
- Comparisons
• Arithmetic
• String
• Boolean
- Variables
- Search and replace
- Regular expressions
- Standard stream redirection
• |
• ||
• >
• >>
• <
• <<
• &
• &&
• Redirecting
• stderr
• stdout
- Here documents
- Exit codes
- Shell built-in commands
• read
• echo
• source
• Common script utilities
• awk
• sed
• find
• xargs
• grep
• egrep
• tee
• wc
• cut
• tr
- head
- tail
• Environment variables
- $PATH
- $SHELL
- $?
• Relative and absolute paths

3.2  Given a scenario, perform basic container operations.
• Container management
- Starting/stopping
- Inspecting
- Listing
- Deploying existing images
- Connecting to containers
- Logging
- Exposing ports
• Container image operations
- build
- push
- pull
- list
- rm

3.3  Given a scenario, perform basic version control using Git.
• clone
• push
• pull
• commit
• add
• checkout
• branch
• tag
• gitignore

3.4  Summarize common infrastructure as code technologies.
• clone
• push
• pull
• commit
• add
• checkout
• branch
• tag
• gitignore
• File formats
- YAML Ain’t Markup
Language (YAML)
- JavaScript Object
Notation (JSON)
• Utilities
- Ansible
- Puppet
- Chef
- SaltStack
- Terraform
• Continuous integration/
continuous deployment (CI/CD)
- Use cases
• Advanced Git topics
- merge
- rebase
- Pull requests

3.5  Summarize container, cloud, and orchestration concepts.
• clone
• push
• pull
• commit
• add
• checkout
• branch
• tag
• gitignore
• File formats
- YAML Ain’t Markup
Language (YAML)
- JavaScript Object
Notation (JSON)
• Utilities
- Ansible
- Puppet
- Chef
- SaltStack
- Terraform
• Continuous integration/
continuous deployment (CI/CD)
- Use cases
• Advanced Git topics
- merge
- rebase
- Pull requests
• Kubernetes benefits and
application use cases
- Pods
- Sidecars
- Ambassador containers
• Single-node, multicontainer
use cases
- Compose
• Container persistent storage
• Container networks
- Overlay networks
- Bridging
- Network address translation (NAT)
- Host
• Service mesh
• Bootstrapping
- Cloud-init
• Container registries
4.0 Troubleshooting 28% 4.1 Given a scenario, analyze and troubleshoot storage issues.
• High latency
- Input/output (I/O) wait
• Low throughput
• Input/output operations per
second (IOPS) scenarios
- Low IOPS
• Capacity issues
- Low disk space
- Inode exhaustion
• Filesystem issues
- Corruption
- Mismatch
• I/O scheduler
• Device issues
- Non-volatile memory
express (NVMe)
- Solid-state drive (SSD)
- SSD trim
- RAID
- LVM
- I/O errors
• Mount option problems

4.2  Given a scenario, analyze and troubleshoot network resource issues.
• Network configuration issues
- Subnet
- Routing
• Firewall issues
• Interface errors
- Dropped packets
- Collisions
- Link status
• Bandwidth limitations
- High latency
• Name resolution issues
- Domain Name System (DNS)
• Testing remote systems
- Nmap
- openssl s_client

4.3  Given a scenario, analyze and troubleshoot central processing unit (CPU) and memory issues.
• Runaway processes
• Zombie processes
• High CPU utilization
• High load average
• High run queues
• CPU times
- steal
- user
- system
- idle
- iowait
• CPU process priorities
- nice
- renice
• Memory exhaustion
- Free memory vs. file cache
• Out of memory (OOM)
- Memory leaks
- Process killer
• Swapping
• Hardware
- lscpu
- lsmem
- /proc/cpuinfo
- /proc/meminfo

4.4  Given a scenario, analyze and troubleshoot user access and file permissions.
• User login issues
• User file access issues
- Group
- Context
- Permission
- ACL
- Attribute
- Policy/non-policy
• Password issues
• Privilege elevation
• Quota issues

4.5  Given a scenario, use systemd to diagnose and resolve common problems with a Linux system.
• Unit files
- Service
• Networking services
• ExecStart/ExecStop
• Before/after
• Type
• User
• Requires/wants
- Timer
• OnCalendar
• OnBootSec
• Unit
• Time expressions
- Mount
• Naming conventions
• What
• Where
• Type
• Options
- Target
• Default
• Multiuser
• Network-online
• Graphical
• Common problems
- Name resolution failure
- Application crash
- Time-zone configuration
- Boot issues
- Journal issues
- Services not starting on time
Official Information https://www.comptia.org/certifications/linux

Updates in the CompTIA XK0-005 Exam Topics:

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