(Spring 2005 - Brewer & Culler): "The exam contained three questions centered on topics of error handling, driver isolation and migration. However, each qeustion provided a chance to demonstrate broad knowledge of aspects of operating systems."
(Fall 2004 - Smith & Wagner): "The exam consisted of 3 questions. The first concerned the interface between the operating system and the computer architecture. The second involved distributed system design, tradeoffs and optimizations. The third concerned virtual machine design and operation."
(Fall 2003 - Brewer & Joseph): "The exam contained three questions centered on (1) disk read/write caching and filesystem interactions, (2) segments and paging issues, and (3) issues in migrating a centralized server to a decentralized, fault-tolerant environment. In each case the question started from basic knowledge and extended toward open-ended design."
(Fall 2002 - Katz & Joseph): "The exam consisted of the following topics: 1) How do you build a transaction for disk writes? (only single page writes are atomic) 2) How do you design a system for airplane collision prevention? (distributed systems problem with some reliability challenges) 3) How would you build a new streaming protocol? (application- and OS-level networking)
(Fall 2001 - Smith & Wagner): "The exam consisted of questions regarding: memory management, fault tolerance, virsuses, and network-attached storage."
(Fall 2000 - Smith & Brewer): "The exam consisted of three questions regarding: (1) paging, (2) virtual machines, and (3) RPC."
(Spring 2000 - Katz & Joseph): "The exam consisted of three questions centered on (1) reliability, availability, and consistency, (2) time management, ordering, synchronization, and communication in distributed systems, and (3) redirection in operating systems and networking. In each case, the question started from basic knowledge and extended towards open-ended design."
(Fall 1999 - Culler & Brewer): "Q1: Microkernel architectures were traditionally designed with distributed computation and high-performance servers in mind. These days, however, microkernels are almost never used in these situations. Microkernels are making a comeback in the development of small devices. Describe the properties of microkernels that might contribute to these phenomenon. Q2: Logs, what are they good for? And transaction? (Fishing for: ACID applications, batched writes, auditing, etc.) Q3: Suppose you were interested in accessing network services (e.g., Amazon.com, information about a room you just entered, etc.) while protecting your anonymity. How would you do this? How would you support persistent sessions? How would you prevent different services from correlating your actions to deduce additional information about you?"
(Spring 1999 - Brewer & Joseph): "The exam consisted of three questions centered on (1) the impact of technology trends on the design of distributed computing systems, (2) the benefits and drawbacks to microkernels, and (3) the construction of an RPC protocol that ensures exactly once execution. In each case, the question started from basic knowledge and extended towards open-ended design."
(Fall 1998 - Culler & Joseph): "The exam consisted of three questions centered on (1) the impact of technology trends on operating system design, (2) time management, ordering, synchronization, and communication in distributed systems, and (3) security in financial systems with smart user devices. In each case, the question started from basic knowledge and extended towards open-ended design."
August 2000