Which command provides live resource monitoring for CPU and RAM usage with an interactive interface?

• A. top
• B. htop
• C. vmstat 1
• D. ps aux

Answer: (A)

Real-time resource monitoring in a terminal with an interactive interface shows CPU and RAM usage and updates continuously. Top provides exactly that: a live, real-time view of overall CPU usage, memory (and swap) details, and a list of running processes with their CPU and memory consumption, refreshing automatically. It also supports interactive controls to sort the process list, change the display, and manage processes without leaving the screen, which is what makes it interactive.

Other options don’t fit as cleanly for this scenario. vmstat can show CPU and memory statistics, but it isn’t an interactive interface and doesn’t present a per-process view. ps aux lists processes, but it’s a static snapshot unless you continually re-run it (e.g., in a loop or with watch). htop is interactive and similar in function, but it isn’t guaranteed to be installed on all systems, whereas top is typically available by default.