Find the busiest processes

Exercise 3 min read Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7

Written and tested by Dhrub Bharali · Updated 02 October 2026

Return the two processes with the highest cumulative CPU time.

An example to inspect

Preview the example. Sign in for the full lesson and activities.

Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 2

Scenario: Slow server

Inspect accumulated CPU time to find candidates for further investigation. One snapshot does not prove which process is causing a slowdown now.

Get process objects
Use Get-Process to retrieve process objects and their properties.
Sort CPU descending
Use Sort-Object CPU -Descending to put the largest values first.
Keep the first two
Select-Object -First 2 keeps the first two objects in the sorted result.

Hint

Commands in a pipeline pass objects, not display rows. Filter and sort before formatting.

Why sort before selecting?

Choose an answer, then check your reasoning.

Read the full exercise notes

Target

Return the two processes with the highest cumulative CPU time, highest first. CPU is measured in seconds, not percent.

Expected result

MsMpEng, chrome

Try the task

Show a worked solution

Reveal one approach

1PS> Get-Process | Sort-Object CPU -Descending | Select-Object -First 2

Try it in the lab

Write your pipeline below and run it against the fictional sample data, then check your result against the expected answer.

Your pipeline

Interactive simulation · fictional data

PowerShell skills

Process objects · Sorting · Selection · Descending order

Build the answer in three decisions

Read the pipeline from left to right. Each stage receives objects from the stage before it.

Collect

Get-Process

Start with 5 fictional process objects. Keep them as objects so later stages can inspect their properties.

Shape

Sort-Object CPU -Descending

Apply the condition or ordering required by the task. Sort CPU in descending order before selecting the first two objects.

Verify

Check order and returned names

The fixture should return MsMpEng, chrome. Order matters for this exercise.

Reason through the pipeline

The source stage returns 5 process objects. Then the pipeline applies Sort-Object CPU -Descending, Select-Object -First 2 without converting the objects to display text. That keeps the Name property available for the checker and for any later pipeline stage.

Why common attempts fail

Do not select the first rows before sorting when the task asks for a highest, lowest, first, or reverse-ordered result. Use Select-Object after the important filtering or ordering work; selecting too early can discard properties needed by later stages.

What the checker accepts

The evaluator runs the supported subset against the same fictional fixture. It expects MsMpEng, chrome. The returned order is part of the answer. Equivalent supported syntax is accepted.

Verify another attempt

First run Get-Process by itself and inspect the fixture. Then add one stage at a time and compare how many objects remain. This isolates the stage that changes the result and makes the final pipeline easier to explain and debug.

Primary documentation

PowerShell pipeline behavior

Next exercise