Given the following user's crontab entry: 15 14 1-5 /usr/local/bin/example.sh When will the script /usr/local/bin/example.sh be executed?

Question

Options

• AAt 14:15 local time, January till May.
• BAt 15:14 local time, 1st to 5th day of month.
• CAt 14:15 local time, February till June.
• DAt 14:15 local time, 1st to 5th day of month.
• EAt 14:15 local time, Monday to Friday

• A
  11% (5)
• B
  2% (1)
• C
  4% (2)
• D
  7% (3)
• E
  76% (35)

Explanation

Crontab format: minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week command

The five fields map to 15 14 * * 1-5, meaning minute=15, hour=14, day-of-month=any (*), month=any (*), day-of-week=1–5. In cron, day-of-week values 1–5 represent Monday through Friday, so the script runs at 14:15 (2:15 PM) local time on weekdays - making E correct.

Why the distractors fail:

• A & C misread the day-of-week field (1-5) as a month range (January–May or February–June); months use a separate field (position 4), which is * here.
• B & D misread 1-5 as the day-of-month (position 3), which is also * here - and B additionally swaps the minute and hour values (15:14 instead of 14:15).

Memory tip: Memorize the field order with the phrase "M H D M W" - Minute, Hour, Day-of-month, Month, Weekday. When you see * * 1-5 at the end, the range is always in the weekday slot (0=Sunday, 1=Monday … 6=Saturday), never months or days of the month.

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