>>> Most distros symlink /bin to /usr/bin. >> Uhm, no? I've only seen it in recent CentOS (older versions didn't have it), and maybe Fedora does this as well.

>>> Most distros symlink /bin to /usr/bin. >> Uhm, no? I've only seen it in recent CentOS (older versions didn't have it), and maybe Fedora does this as well. > Arch, Ubuntu, Debian all do it. I haven't checked Arch, but neither Ubuntu 16.04 nor Debian Jessie haven't created /bin as a symlink. >> You can do it [restoring execution bit on /bin/chmod] in any number of ways [...] > Only the last one is a clever solution On interview you don't need to have the most clever answer. It's better to show you understand the mechanisms underneath by having several sensible ways. > What do you mean? They didn't know there's a copy of the same binary? No, I meant this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11627670 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11627670 And there is no copy of the same binary.