Introduction to Linux & Programming OPPE: Syllabus & Preparation
A practical guide to the CS1102 Introduction to the Linux Shell OPPE in the IIT Madras BS Electronic Systems degree — syllabus, exam format, and preparation.
The Linux Shell OPPE is where your Linux skills are actually tested: you sit at a browser-based Linux virtual machine, read a problem, and type the commands or write the shell script that produces the required output. It's remote-proctored, so it rewards genuine fluency — you can't look answers up mid-exam. Practise on the Linux practice set.
The syllabus, in plain terms
The course moves from navigating the file system (ls, cd, pwd, chmod) through I/O redirection and pipes, then text-processing power tools (grep, cut, sort, tr), and finally shell programming — variables, if/for/while, functions, and the two heavyweights, sed and awk. The "programming" in the course title is bash shell scripting, not C. If you want to drill programming logic alongside it, use the Python practice track.
The commands that show up again and again
If your time is limited, master these first: grep with regular expressions, sed for search-and-replace, awk for column/field processing, find for locating files, permissions with chmod, and redirection (>, >>, |). A large share of OPPE questions reduce to chaining these together.
How to prepare (that actually works)
Practise inside a real terminal, not on paper. The biggest reason students underperform is reading about commands without building muscle memory. Use WSL, a Linux VM, or an online shell, and solve small problems daily.
Rebuild every weekly assignment from a blank prompt. Cover your old solutions and redo each task from scratch, timed — that mirrors the OPPE's fresh problem and ticking clock.
Learn man and --help well. The exam VM gives you the manual pages but no internet. Quickly finding a flag (grep -o, sort -k, awk -F) inside man is itself an exam skill.
Do full mock runs — one window, no notes, a timer, and mixed problems spanning permissions, text processing and a short script. Then compare yourself on the leaderboard.
Keep scripts small and testable. Write a few lines, run, check output, then extend. Debug with set -x and echo. A working 6-line script beats an elegant 20-line one that never runs.
Bookmark the GNU Bash manual and the Linux man-pages project.
FAQ
Is the CS1102 OPPE hard? It's very doable if you've practised in a live terminal. Students who only watched lectures tend to struggle; those who redid assignments hands-on generally clear it.
What tools are allowed? Only the exam VM and its built-in man-pages. No external internet, phones, notes, or AI assistants — the session is webcam- and screen-proctored.
Does the course teach C? No. The "programming" here is shell scripting. C is covered in the separate C Programming and Embedded C courses.
How many questions are in the OPPE? Typically a small set of mandatory, equally weighted questions spanning all topics. Confirm the count and duration in your term's grading document.
Where's the official info? The IITM BS Electronic Systems program and the IITM BS portal.