Apple Certified Support Professional 2026 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

When a Mac starts up and displays a flashing question mark screen, it indicates that the operating system is unable to locate a valid startup disk or the system software required for booting. This typically occurs when the Mac cannot find a macOS installation or when the startup disk has been corrupted or erased.

The flashing question mark serves as a visual cue to the user that there is a problem with the startup process, specifically related to the system’s ability to boot from a recognized disk. This situation requires troubleshooting steps to either select a different startup disk or reinstall the operating system if the current one is not functioning properly.

The other options hint at different situations; for example, updating the operating system does not manifest as a flashing question mark, and the same goes for being in safe mode, which presents differently. An empty startup disk would likely show a different type of error indicating no volumes available, rather than the specific flashing question mark that denotes an unrecognized or missing system software.