ITPEC FE Morning April 2018 Question 16
ITPEC FE Morning April 2018 — Question 16 of 80
Page Fault — accessing a page mapped in virtual memory but not loaded in physical memory.
A page fault occurs when a program references a virtual address whose page is not currently in RAM. The OS then loads the required page from disk (swap/page file).
Why not others:
- (b) Hardware error — a physical memory defect is a hardware failure, not a page fault
- (c) Inserting more data than memory can hold — describes an out-of-memory condition, not a page fault
- (d) Reference to another program's page — describes a protection/access violation (segfault), not a page fault
Key rule: Page fault = valid virtual address, but the page is absent from physical memory → OS loads it from disk.
AI-generated — may contain errors
The original exam layout is preserved in the image so diagrams, formulas, tables, and code remain accurate.
This question comes from an official ITPEC past paper. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with ITPEC. See the official FE past-paper collection or Report an issue.