Duration of the online course: 6 hours and 0 minutes
4.71
(108)
Understanding operating systems is one of the fastest ways to level up in technology, whether your goal is IT support, hardware troubleshooting, or software development. This free online course builds a solid foundation in how modern computers actually work behind the scenes, helping you move from simply using a device to reasoning about its behavior, performance, and reliability. By the end, you will be able to explain core operating system responsibilities and make sense of the decisions that affect speed, responsiveness, and stability.
You will start with the essential concepts: what an operating system is, why it exists, and which components work together to manage hardware and applications. From there, the course moves into operating system design and structure, clarifying common architectural approaches and why some are more flexible than others. This knowledge is especially valuable when you need to compare systems, understand constraints, or choose the right environment for a task.
A major focus is the process model: how programs become processes, how the system keeps track of them, and what happens when multiple tasks share a single CPU. You will practice reasoning with process states and the data structures that preserve execution context. Next, you will develop a practical understanding of CPU scheduling, including how different policies impact turnaround time, response time, and overall efficiency. The exercises guide you through realistic scheduling scenarios so you can confidently analyze outcomes instead of memorizing definitions.
As the course progresses, you will explore threads, interprocess communication, and the challenges that appear when work runs concurrently. You will learn why synchronization is necessary, what can go wrong without it, and how classical solutions and semaphores coordinate safe access to shared resources. Frequent questions and practice activities reinforce each concept, making the course useful both for beginners and for learners preparing for interviews or strengthening day-to-day troubleshooting skills.
Video class: MODULE 1 - VIDEO 1 - Introduction to operating systems concept
08m
Exercise: What is an operating system?
Video class: MODULE 1 - VIDEO 2 - Operating system components
09m
Exercise: What is a Single Processor System?
Video class: MODULE 2 - VIDEO 1 - operating system design
07m
Exercise: Which service is not typically provided by an operating system?
Video class: MODULE 2 - VIDEO 2 - operating system structure
08m
Exercise: Which operating system structure offers the most flexibility?
Video class: MODULE 3 - VIDEO 1 - process concept
08m
Exercise: What is a Process Control Block (PCB)?
Video class: MODULE 3 - VIDEO 2 - operations on processes
09m
Exercise: What role does the medium-term scheduler play in an operating system?
Video class: MODULE 4 - VIDEO 1 - processes and scheduling
08m
Exercise: Which type of process spend more time in the CPU?
Video class: MODULE 4 - VIDEO 2 - CPU scheduling FCFS and SJF
09m
Exercise: What is the average turnaround time for the first-come-first-serve scheduling algorithm given the processes P1, P2, and P3?
Video class: 9. MODULE 4 - non preemptive FCFS, SJF, priority algorithm practice
13m
Exercise: What is the difference between non-preemptive and preemptive CPU scheduling algorithms?
Video class: MODULE 4 - VIDEO 3 - preemptive CPU scheduling
09m
Exercise: What is the response time of P3 in a preemptive priority scheduling?
Video class: MODULE 4 - RR, SRT, preepmtive algorithm priority practice
18m
Exercise: What is the total turnaround time for P1 using pre-emptive CPU scheduling algorithms?
Video class: MODULE 5 - VIDEO 1- round robin and SRT
08m
Exercise: What is the response time for process P3 in shortest remaining time scheduling?
Video class: MODULE 5 - VIDEO 2 - MLQ and MLFQ CPU scheduling
08m
Exercise: What is the main characteristic of multi-level feedback queues (MLFQ)?
Video class: MODULE 5 - MLQ CPU scheduling practice
14m
Exercise: What is the response time for process P3 in the given multi-level queue scheduling example?
Video class: CPU scheduling Practice - FCFS, SJF, MLFQ
23m
Exercise: What is the total CPU time for the execution of processes using First Come First Serve scheduling?
Video class: MODULE 7 - VIDEO 1 - Interprocess communication (IPC)
09m
Exercise: What is the key difference between direct and indirect communication in inter-process communication?
Video class: MODULE 7 - VIDEO 2 - thread concept
08m
Exercise: What is a thread in the context of operating systems?
Video class: MODULE 8 VIDEO - Introduction to process synchronization
08m
Exercise: What critical problem does the Peterson solution address in operating systems?
Video class: MODULE 9 VIDEO 1 - synchronization with semaphores
08m
Exercise: What is the primary purpose of the 'signal' operation in a semaphore?
Video class: MODULE 9 VIDEO 2 - counting semaphore example
03m
Exercise: What is the initial value of the Sr semaphore in the given example?
6 hours and 0 minutes of online video course
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Course comments: Computer operating systems
Students praised the course as awesome, helpful, and informative. They appreciated the clear, concise, easy-to-understand introduction and thanked the professor for guiding them through the studies.
Suryawanshi Pratap Santosh
Awesome content
Muskan Pant
nice
Ikpi Godswill Sunday
thanks for putting mie through with this studies.
Jose Amandio de Almeida
This Course I verry like is Because Help full. Thanks Coach Tami Sorgente
Deepak
AWESOME KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION
Mpho Tseki
Thank You very much for making a clear concise understandable introduction into Operation System