102-500 · Question #208
Which command can be used to delete a group from a Linux system?
The correct answer is A. groupdel. See the full explanation below for the reasoning.
Question
Options
- Agroupdel
- Bgroupmod
- Cgroups
- Dgroupedit
How the community answered
(25 responses)- A72% (18)
- B4% (1)
- C16% (4)
- D8% (2)
Community Discussion
8
Samuel O.May 8, 2026groupdel is the right call here, and it does exactly what the name says. I spent years in manufacturing IT where we had shared accounts and role-based groups set up for shift workers, and whenever someone left or a role got reorganized, groupdel followed by the group name was the command that cleaned up /etc/group and /etc/gshadow in one shot. groupmod is for modifying an existing group, like renaming it or changing the GID, not removing it entirely. groups just lists what groups a user belongs to, and groupedit is not a real command you will find on a standard Linux system.
Mateus R.May 10, 2026Samuel nails it, and the one thing worth adding is that groupdel will refuse to remove a group if it is still set as the primary group of any existing user, so you need to either delete those users first or change their primary group with usermod -g before groupdel will let you through.
Wesley A.May 24, 2026groupdel is your answer here, A, and it is one of those commands you want to have muscle memory for because the exam will test you on the whole group management family together. Quick question for you though: do you know what actually happens to files owned by that deleted group after you run groupdel, and whether Linux handles that automatically or leaves it on you to clean up?
Lena V.May 26, 2026groupdel does not touch the files, Linux leaves orphaned group-owned files right where they are with the old GID still attached, so manual cleanup with find and chown or chgrp is on you.
Lena V.May 20, 2026groupmod trips people up here because it sounds destructive when you hear "modify," but it only changes group attributes like the name or GID. groupdel is the one command that actually removes the group entry from /etc/group and /etc/gshadow, so A is your answer.
Wesley A.May 23, 2026Lena has it right, and worth adding that groupdel will refuse to delete a group if it is set as any user's primary group, so you may need to change those users first with usermod before the command will go through.
Prof. SaraJun 16, 2026My first instinct was to pick groupmod because "mod" sounds like it does the heavy lifting for group management, and students often confuse modification commands with deletion commands on this section of the blueprint. What snapped me back was the mnemonic I drill in class, D-E-L spells delete, so groupdel is the one and only command that removes a group entry from /etc/group and /etc/gshadow entirely. groupmod changes group attributes like the name or GID, groups just lists what groups a user belongs to, and groupedit is a distractor that does not exist as a standard Linux command. On the 102-500, whenever you see a "remove or delete a system object" scenario, train your brain to hunt for the command that ends in del, because LPIC follows that naming convention consistently across users, groups, and more.
Mateus R.Jun 9, 2026A is the one, groupdel is like the HR department filing a termination notice for a group account, it removes the group entry from /etc/group and /etc/gshadow but leaves the actual user accounts untouched. groupmod is just for editing an existing group, groups only displays group memberships, and groupedit is not even a real command.