Day 1 Quiz & Exercises#

TDS Bridge Bootcamp — Setup Day#

Instructions: Attempt the MCQs first (no Googling). Then do the exercises in your terminal. The goal is to think before you type.

Part A — 30 Multiple Choice Questions#

Q1. You open a terminal and see this prompt: alice@laptop:~$. What does the ~ mean?

  • A) The terminal is connected to the internet
  • B) You are in the root directory /
  • C) You are in your home directory
  • D) You are running as administrator
Answer

C — ~ is the shorthand for your home directory.

Q2. On Windows, a file path looks like C:\Users\alice\notes.txt. What is the equivalent Linux path for a file called notes.txt in alice’s home directory?

  • A) C:/Users/alice/notes.txt
  • B) /home/alice/notes.txt
  • C) home\alice\notes.txt
  • D) /alice/home/notes.txt
Answer

B — Linux home is /home/<username>/.

Q3. You are in /home/alice/projects/ and you run cd ... Where are you now?

  • A) /home/
  • B) /home/alice/
  • C) /
  • D) /home/alice/projects/..
Answer

B — .. goes one level up.

Q4. Which command tells you the full path of your current location?

  • A) ls
  • B) where
  • C) pwd
  • D) cd
Answer

C — pwd prints the working directory.

Q5. You run echo "hello" > output.txt twice. What does output.txt contain?

  • A) hello twice (two lines)
  • B) hello once (the second run overwrites)
  • C) An error — you cannot run echo twice
  • D) The file is empty
Answer

B — > overwrites the file.

Q6. What is the difference between > and >> in the terminal?

  • A) > appends to a file; >> overwrites it
  • B) > overwrites a file; >> appends to it
  • C) They do the same thing
  • D) >> is used only for error messages
Answer

B — > overwrites, >> appends.

Q7. On Linux, File.txt and file.txt are:

  • A) The same file
  • B) Two different files
  • C) One overwrites the other
  • D) Both invalid filenames
Answer

B — Linux is case-sensitive.

Q8. You want to list all files including hidden ones in your current directory. Which command do you use?

  • A) ls
  • B) ls -l
  • C) ls -la
  • D) list --all
Answer

C — -a shows hidden files; -l shows details.

Q9. What makes a file “hidden” in Linux?

  • A) It has a .hidden extension
  • B) Its filename starts with a dot (.)
  • C) It is stored in the /hidden/ folder
  • D) It is owned by root
Answer

B — dotfiles are hidden by default.

Q10. Which of these is an absolute path?

  • A) ./notes.txt
  • B) ../projects/
  • C) notes.txt
  • D) /home/alice/notes.txt
Answer

D — absolute paths start with /.

Q11. You are in /home/alice/tds/ and run cd ./bootcamp. Where are you now?

  • A) /home/alice/bootcamp/
  • B) /home/alice/tds/bootcamp/
  • C) /bootcamp/
  • D) /home/alice/tds/./bootcamp/ (an error)
Answer

B — ./bootcamp means “bootcamp inside the current directory”.

Q12. What does WSL2 stand for, and what does it do?

  • A) Web Server Layer 2 — runs websites locally
  • B) Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 — runs a real Linux kernel inside Windows
  • C) Windows Software Library 2 — manages installed software
  • D) Workspace Shell Layer 2 — a special terminal for Windows
Answer

B — WSL2 runs a real Linux environment inside Windows.

Q13. A student on Windows stores their TDS files at /mnt/c/Users/alice/tds/. Their instructor says to move them to ~/tds/. Why?

  • A) Files in /mnt/c/ cannot be read by Python
  • B) GitHub can’t access /mnt/c/
  • C) Working in /mnt/c/ from WSL can be slow and cause permission issues
  • D) uv doesn’t work outside the home directory
Answer

C — /mnt/c can be slower and have permission quirks in WSL.

Q14. After installing uv, you run uv --version and get “command not found”. What is the most likely fix?

  • A) Reinstall your operating system
  • B) Run source ~/.bashrc or restart the terminal so the PATH updates
  • C) Use sudo uv --version
  • D) Install Python first
Answer

B — restart the shell or source your shell config so PATH updates.

Q15. You run git config --global user.name "Alice". What does this do?

  • A) Logs you in to GitHub
  • B) Sets the name that will appear in your Git commits on this machine
  • C) Creates a new GitHub account called Alice
  • D) Gives you admin rights in the repo
Answer

B — sets commit author identity (not GitHub login).

Q16. You run mkdir -p ~/tds/bootcamp/day-1. What does the -p flag do?

  • A) Makes the folder private
  • B) Creates all intermediate folders in the path if they don’t exist
  • C) Prints the created folder path
  • D) Prevents overwriting an existing folder
Answer

B — creates parent directories as needed.

Q17. Which command creates an empty file called notes.txt?

  • A) create notes.txt
  • B) new notes.txt
  • C) touch notes.txt
  • D) echo notes.txt
Answer

C — touch creates an empty file.

Q18. You open VS Code from your WSL terminal using code .. In the bottom-left corner of VS Code you see WSL: Ubuntu. What does this confirm?

  • A) VS Code is connected to the internet
  • B) VS Code is running inside the WSL Linux environment (not Windows)
  • C) Ubuntu needs to be updated
  • D) Your code will be uploaded to Ubuntu servers
Answer

B — VS Code is connected to the WSL environment.

Q19. The root directory in Linux is:

  • A) /home/
  • B) ~/
  • C) /
  • D) /root/
Answer

C — / is the root directory.

Q20. A file saved on Windows has line endings \r\n (CRLF). You open it in Linux and notice Git complains. Why?

  • A) Linux doesn’t support text files
  • B) The file is corrupted and needs to be re-downloaded
  • C) Linux expects line endings \n (LF) only; CRLF causes differences Git tracks as changes
  • D) Git on Linux cannot open files created on Windows
Answer

C — CRLF vs LF is a real difference Git can detect.

Q21. You see a file named .env in a project. What does the leading dot mean on Linux?

  • A) It is a folder, not a file
  • B) It is a hidden file by default
  • C) It is an executable file
  • D) It is a Windows-only file
Answer

B — files starting with . are hidden by default.

Q22. You are in /home/alice/tds/bootcamp/ and run cat ./notes.txt. What does ./ mean here?

  • A) “Search everywhere on the computer”
  • B) “Use the root directory”
  • C) “Use the current directory”
  • D) “Use the parent directory”
Answer

C — ./ means “current directory”.

Q23. You are in /home/alice/tds/bootcamp/ and run cat ../notes.txt. Where does it look for notes.txt?

  • A) In /home/alice/tds/
  • B) In /home/alice/tds/bootcamp/
  • C) In /home/alice/
  • D) In /notes.txt
Answer

A — ../ means “parent directory”.

Q24. Which of the following is a correct statement about .xyz, ./xyz, and ../xyz?

  • A) .xyz always means “current directory”
  • B) ./xyz refers to a file/folder named xyz in the current directory
  • C) ../xyz refers to a hidden file called xyz
  • D) They are three different ways to write the same thing
Answer

B — .xyz is a dotfile name; ./ and ../ are path shorthands.

Q25. In WSL on Windows, where is your Windows C: drive typically mounted?

  • A) /windows/c
  • B) /drives/c
  • C) /mnt/c
  • D) ~/c
Answer

C — Windows drives are mounted under /mnt.

Q26. You want to check which Windows drives are available inside WSL. What is the best first command?

  • A) ls /mnt
  • B) ls /home
  • C) ls /windows
  • D) pwd /mnt
Answer

A — list /mnt to see available mounts.

Q27. Which statement best matches “in Linux, everything is a file”?

  • A) Only files with extensions like .txt count as files
  • B) Many system resources (including devices and directories) are represented through the filesystem
  • C) Linux cannot store files bigger than memory
  • D) Files are stored only in /home
Answer

B — Linux exposes lots of “things” via files.

Q28. You run cd /mnt/d and get “No such file or directory”. What is the most likely explanation?

  • A) WSL is broken and must be reinstalled
  • B) Your machine probably doesn’t have a D: drive mounted (or it uses a different mount)
  • C) You need to run sudo cd /mnt/d
  • D) cd cannot be used with /mnt
Answer

B — not everyone has a /mnt/d mount; check ls /mnt.

Q29. You are in ~/tds/bootcamp/ and run ls ../. What are you listing?

  • A) The contents of your current folder
  • B) The contents of the parent folder (~/tds/)
  • C) The contents of the root folder (/)
  • D) Hidden files only
Answer

B — ../ is the parent directory.

Q30. You run touch .xyz and then ls but you can’t see the file. Why?

  • A) touch failed because filenames cannot start with a dot
  • B) ls hides dotfiles by default; use ls -a or ls -la
  • C) The file was created in /tmp
  • D) Hidden files only appear after restarting the terminal
Answer

B — use ls -a (or ls -la) to show dotfiles.

Full Answer Key (spoilers)
QAnswer
1C
2B
3B
4C
5B
6B
7B
8C
9B
10D
11B
12B
13C
14B
15B
16B
17C
18B
19C
20C
21B
22C
23A
24B
25C
26A
27B
28B
29B
30B

Part B — Small Terminal Exercises#

Do these in your terminal after the session. Each takes 3–5 minutes.

Exercise 1 — Explore and navigate#

# 1. Print your current directory
pwd

# 2. Go to your home directory
cd ~

# 3. List everything including hidden files
ls -la

# 4. How many items do you see? (count the lines)

Question to answer: What hidden files or folders do you see? Write down at least two.

Exercise 2 — Build a folder structure#

Without using a file manager (mouse), create this structure using only the terminal:

~/tds/
├── bootcamp/
│   └── day-1/
│       └── notes.txt
└── practice/

Commands to use: mkdir -p, touch, ls

After creating it, run:

ls ~/tds/
ls ~/tds/bootcamp/day-1/

Exercise 3 — Write and read files#

cd ~/tds/bootcamp/day-1/

# Write your name into notes.txt
echo "My name is [YOUR NAME]" > notes.txt

# Check what's in it
cat notes.txt

# Append a second line
echo "Today is Day 1 of TDS Bridge Bootcamp" >> notes.txt

# Read the whole file again
cat notes.txt

Expected output:

My name is [YOUR NAME]
Today is Day 1 of TDS Bridge Bootcamp

Exercise 4 — Verify your tools#

Run each of these and write down the output you see:

python --version
git --version
uv --version
code --version

If any fails with “command not found”, note it down and bring it to Day 2.

Exercise 5 — Spot the path type#

Label each path below as Absolute or Relative:

  1. /home/alice/projects/app.py → ___________
  2. ./scripts/run.sh → ___________
  3. ../data/input.csv → ___________
  4. ~/tds/bootcamp/ → ___________ (bonus: is ~ absolute or relative? Think about it.)
  5. notes.txt → ___________

Bonus thinking question: ~ expands to /home/yourname. Does that make it absolute or relative? Discuss with a classmate.

Exercise 6 — (Windows + WSL) Navigate to C: and D: drives#

  1. List available drive mounts:
ls /mnt
  1. Go to your Windows C: drive:
cd /mnt/c
pwd
ls
  1. If you see a d entry in /mnt, try:
cd /mnt/d
pwd
ls
  1. Return to your Linux home:
cd ~
pwd

Question to answer: Why do we recommend doing day-to-day coding work in ~/tds/ instead of /mnt/c/...?

Exercise 7 — Practice .xyz vs ./xyz vs ../xyz#

Run these commands and explain what each one is referencing:

cd ~/tds/bootcamp/day-1

touch .xyz
echo "current folder" > xyz
echo "parent folder" > ../parent.txt

ls
ls -la

cat ./xyz
cat ../parent.txt

Questions to answer:

  1. Why does ls not show .xyz but ls -la does?
  2. What’s the difference between .xyz and ./xyz?
  3. What does ../ mean in a path?

End of Day 1 Quiz & Exercises