Which pair of commands pauses and resumes a background job respectively?

• A. kill -SIGTERM, kill -SIGKILL
• B. kill -SIGINT, kill -SIGQUIT
• C. kill -SIGSTOP, kill -SIGTSTP
• D. kill -SIGCONT, kill -SIGSTOP

Answer: (D)

The idea being tested is how signals control the state of a running process, specifically pausing and resuming a background job. The key signals are SIGSTOP, which pauses a process, and SIGCONT, which resumes a process that has been stopped. The pair shown includes both actions: one signal that can bring a stopped job back to execution and another that can pause a running one. This combination directly maps to the ability to manage a background job’s lifecycle.

The other signals in the options are mostly about termination or interruption rather than resuming from a paused state. SIGTERM and SIGKILL terminate processes; SIGINT and SIGQUIT interrupt or quit; SIGTSTP is a terminal stop used in interactive foreground scenarios. For reliable pause-and-resume control of background jobs, SIGSTOP and SIGCONT are the appropriate signals, and that’s why this pairing is the best choice. In practice you’d pause with kill -SIGSTOP and resume with kill -SIGCONT , or use the shell’s job control commands like bg and fg as needed.