There are several ways to verify whether Magento cron is running correctly:

• Check the cron log: All cron job information is written to /var/log/cron.log. Jobs with ERROR status are logged as CRITICAL in exception.log, and MISSED jobs appear in debug.log in developer mode.
• Query the database: Magento logs cron execution details — including job ID, created date, scheduled date, executed date, and finished date — in the cron_schedule table. Run SELECT * FROM cron_schedule; in your database to view this data.
• Use the CLI: Run bin/magento cron:run and check for output confirming jobs were scheduled and executed.
• Check the crontab: Run crontab -l on the server to confirm the Magento cron entry exists between the #~ MAGENTO START and #~ MAGENTO END markers.
• Use an admin extension: The Magento 2 Cron Scheduler & Task Manager provides a real-time admin dashboard showing job status (pending, running, success, missed, error) without any CLI access.