OS Core Internals

About this track

Process management, virtual memory internals, linkers and loaders, ELF/PE formats, and syscall interfaces across operating systems.

The OS Core Internals track collects 4 modules and 16 lessons into a single ordered path. Each module ends with a checkpoint quiz; passing the checkpoint unlocks the next module so you can track your progress without guessing whether the material has stuck.

You start with "Process Management & Scheduling" and finish on "Syscall Interfaces & the Kernel Boundary". The whole track sits inside the Systems Deep Dives area of the curriculum, so the writing assumes the prerequisites listed above and skips ground that an earlier track has already covered.

What this track covers

• Process Management & Scheduling — Understand how operating systems manage processes. Explore the process lifecycle, scheduling algorithms from simple FIFO to Linux's CFS, and the low-level mechanics of context switching.
• Virtual Memory Internals — Go deep into virtual memory implementation. Walk multi-level page tables, understand TLB behaviour, learn how demand paging and copy-on-write work under the hood, and explore memory-mapped files.
• Linking, Loading & Binary Formats — Follow a program from source code to execution. Understand the compilation pipeline, dissect ELF and PE binary formats, and learn how the dynamic linker resolves symbols through the GOT and PLT at runtime.
• Syscall Interfaces & the Kernel Boundary — Understand how user-space programs communicate with the kernel. Trace the mechanics of the syscall instruction on x86-64, compare Linux and Windows syscall interfaces, and learn how the vDSO optimises frequent calls.