How do ps, top, and kill help you debug a slow Linux server?

ps, top, kill

For How do ps, top, and kill help you debug a slow Linux server, interviewers listen for a crisp definition, how the pieces interact in a real system, and one trade-off or failure mode you have seen or would guard against.

• ps — snapshot processes (PID, CPU%, command).
• top/htop — live CPU, memory, load average; find hot PID.
• kill -15 SIGTERM graceful; kill -9 last resort.
• Combine with jstack for Java thread dumps.