Technical Questions

Object Oriented Programming

1. Encapsulation
2. Abstraction
3. Composition
4. Coupling /Cohesion
5. Class
6. Object
7. nheritance
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%. $ol&morphism '(tatic/"&namic)
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.Net Framework
1. -hat is the .net .rame,or/
2. Common language runtime purpose
3. C0(
4. nterme#iate language
5. 1ust in time compiler
6. 2arbage Collector
7. 3e4ection
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1. 2enerics
2. $artial class
3. Enumeration
4. 3e.erence +s. +alue t&pe 'heap +s. stac/)
5. Access mo#i7er
6. Our8 re. /e& ,or#s
7. (tatic
!. Collection t&pes
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2. -hat is A@C
3. -hich protocols it support
4. -hatAs the usage
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5. $age li.e c&cle
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2. 3"@=(
3. 5ormali9ation
4. "emorali9ation
5. n#e6es
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relationships ,hile #esigning tables
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Hiring smart software developers is not easy. If you're not careful you might end up hiring a
bunch of moronic mandrills, like I did last year. And you don't want that. Trust me. Stand-up
meetings are very hard to do in a tree.
The key is to ask challenging questions that enable you to distinguish the smart software
developers from the moronic mandrills. And to help you with that, I decided to publish my
private list of 100 interview questions for software developers.
This list covers most of the knowledge areas as defined by the Software ngineering !ody of
"nowledge. #f course, if you're $ust looking for brilliant programmers, you may want to limit
the topics to Construction, Algorithms, Data Structures and Testing. And if you're looking for
architects, you can $ust consider the %uestions under the headings Requirements, Functional
Design and Technical Design.
!ut whatever you do, keep this in mind&
For most of the questions in this list there are no right and wrong answers'
My questions are simply starting points for interesting discussions. (or e)ample& there is a
%uestion about reasons to use static methods vs. singletons. If this triggers your candidate to start
a tirade againt both static methods and singletons, there's a good chance you're dealing with a
smart software developer' !ut if the candidate can produce nothing more than a blank stare and
this sound, then he might very well be a moronic mandrill. *ikewise, there are many correct
ways to find out whether a number is a power of +. !ut if the candidate suggests using the mod
operator, well... you know what I mean. ,And if you don't, no problem. (ancy a banana-.
Requirements
/. 0an you name a number of non-functional ,or %uality. re%uirements-
+. 1hat is your advice when a customer wants high performance, high usability and high
security-
2. 0an you name a number of different techni%ues for specifying re%uirements- 1hat works
best in which case-
3. 1hat is re%uirements tracing- 1hat is backward tracing vs. forward tracing-
4. 1hich tools do you like to use for keeping track of re%uirements-
5. 6ow do you treat changing re%uirements- Are they good or bad- 1hy-
7. 6ow do you search and find re%uirements- 1hat are possible sources-
8. 6ow do you prioriti9e re%uirements- :o you know different techni%ues-
;. 0an you name the responsibilities of the user, the customer and the developer in the
re%uirements process-
/<. 1hat do you do with re%uirements that are incomplete or incomprehensible-
Functional Design
/. 1hat are metaphors used for in functional design- 0an you name some successful
e)amples-
+. 6ow can you reduce the user's perception of waiting when some functions take a lot of
time-
2. 1hich controls would you use when a user must select multiple items from a big list, in a
minimal amount of space-
3. 0an you name different measures to guarantee correctness of data entry-
4. 0an you name different techni%ues for prototyping an application-
5. 0an you name e)amples of how an application can anticipate user behavior-
7. 0an you name different ways of designing access to a large and comple) list of features-
8. 6ow would you design editing twenty fields for a list of /< items- And editing 2 fields
for a list of /<<< items-
;. 1hat is the problem of using different colors when highlighting pieces of a te)t-
/<. 0an you name some limitations of a web environment vs. a 1indows environment-
Technical Design
/. 1hat do low coupling and high cohesion mean- 1hat does the principle of encapsulation
mean-
+. 6ow do you manage conflicts in a web application when different people are editing the
same data-
2. :o you know about design patterns- 1hich design patterns have you used, and in what
situations-
3. :o you know what a stateless business layer is- 1here do long-running transactions fit
into that picture-
4. 1hat kinds of diagrams have you used in designing parts of an architecture, or a
technical design-
5. 0an you name the different tiers and responsibilities in an =-tier architecture-
7. 0an you name different measures to guarantee correctness and robustness of data in an
architecture-
8. 0an you name any differences between ob$ect-oriented design and component-based
design-
;. 6ow would you model user authori9ation, user profiles and permissions in a database-
/<. 6ow would you model the animal kingdom ,with species and their behavior. as a class
system-
Construction
/. 6ow do you make sure that your code can handle different kinds of error situations-
+. 0an you e)plain what Test-:riven :evelopment is- 0an you name some principles of
)treme >rogramming-
2. 1hat do you care about most when reviewing somebody else's code-
3. 1hen do you use an abstract class and when do you use an interface-
4. Apart from the I:, which other favorite tools do you use that you think are essential to
you-
5. 6ow do you make sure that your code is both safe and fast-
7. 1hen do you use polymorphism and when do you use delegates-
8. 1hen would you use a class with static members and when would you use a Singleton
class-
;. 0an you name e)amples of anticipating changing re%uirements in your code-
/<. 0an you describe the process you use for writing a piece of code, from re%uirements to
delivery-
lgorithms
/. 6ow do you find out if a number is a power of +- And how do you know if it is an odd
number-
+. 6ow do you find the middle item in a linked list-
2. 6ow would you change the format of all the phone numbers in /<,<<< static html web
pages-
3. 0an you name an e)ample of a recursive solution that you created-
4. 1hich is faster& finding an item in a hashtable or in a sorted list-
5. 1hat is the last thing you learned about algorithms from a book, maga9ine or web site-
7. 6ow would you write a function to reverse a string- And can you do that without a
temporary string-
8. 1hat type of language do you prefer for writing comple) algorithms-
;. In an array with integers between / and /,<<<,<<< one value is in the array twice. 6ow do
you determine which one-
/<. :o you know about the Traveling Salesman >roblem-
Data !tructures
/. 6ow would you implement the structure of the *ondon underground in a computer's
memory-
+. 6ow would you store the value of a color in a database, as efficiently as possible-
2. 1hat is the difference between a %ueue and a stack-
3. 1hat is the difference between storing data on the heap vs. on the stack-
4. 6ow would you store a vector in = dimensions in a datatable-
5. 1hat type of language do you prefer for writing comple) data structures-
7. 1hat is the number +/ in binary format- And in he)-
8. 1hat is the last thing you learned about data structures from a book, maga9ine or web
site-
;. 6ow would you store the results of a soccer?football competition ,with teams and scores.
in an @A* document-
/<. 0an you name some different te)t file formats for storing unicode characters-
Testing
/. :o you know what a regression test is- 6ow do you verify that new changes have not
broken e)isting features-
+. 6ow can you implement unit testing when there are dependencies between a business
layer and a data layer-
2. 1hich tools are essential to you for testing the %uality of your code-
3. 1hat types of problems have you encountered most often in your products after
deployment-
4. :o you know what code coverage is- 1hat types of code coverage are there-
5. :o you know the difference between functional testing and e)ploratory testing- 6ow
would you test a web site-
7. 1hat is the difference between a test suite, a test case and a test plan- 6ow would you
organi9e testing-
8. 1hat kind of tests would you include for a smoke test of an ecommerce web site-
;. 1hat can you do reduce the chance that a customer finds things that he doesn't like
during acceptance testing-
/<. 0an you tell me something that you have learned about testing and %uality assurance in
the last year-
Maintenance
/. 1hat kind of tools are important to you for monitoring a product during maintenance-
+. 1hat is important when updating a product that is in production and is being used-
2. 6ow do you find an error in a large file with code that you cannot step through-
3. 6ow can you make sure that changes in code will not affect any other parts of the
product-
4. 6ow do you create technical documentation for your products-
5. 1hat measures have you taken to make your software products more easily
maintainable-
7. 6ow can you debug a system in a production environment, while it is being used-
8. :o you know what load balancing is- 0an you name different types of load balancing-
;. 0an you name reasons why maintenance of software is the biggest?most e)pensive part of
an application's life cycle-
/<. 1hat is the difference between re-engineering and reverse engineering-
Configuration Management
/. :o you know what a baseline is in configuration management- 6ow do you free9e an
important moment in a pro$ect-
+. 1hich items do you normally place under version control-
2. 6ow can you make sure that team members know who changed what in a software
pro$ect-
3. :o you know the differences between tags and branches- 1hen do you use which-
4. 6ow would you manage changes to technical documentation, like the architecture of a
product-
5. 1hich tools do you need to manage the state of all digital information in a pro$ect-
1hich tools do you like best-
7. 6ow do you deal with changes that a customer wants in a released product-
8. Are there differences in managing versions and releases-
;. 1hat is the difference between managing changes in te)t files vs. managing changes in
binary files-
/<. 6ow would you treat simultaneous development of multiple Bf0's or increments and
maintenance issues-
"ro#ect Management
/. 6ow many of the three variables scope, time and cost can be fi)ed by the customer-
+. 1ho should make estimates for the effort of a pro$ect- 1ho is allowed to set the
deadline-
2. :o you prefer minimi9ation of the number of releases or minimi9ation of the amount of
work-in-progress-
3. 1hich kind of diagrams do you use to track progress in a pro$ect-
4. 1hat is the difference between iteration and an increment-
5. 0an you e)plain the practice of risk management- 6ow should risks be managed-
7. :o you prefer a work breakdown structure or a rolling wave planning-
8. 1hat do you need to be able to determine if a pro$ect is on time and within budget-
;. 0an you name some differences between :S:A, >rince+ and Scrum-
/<. 6ow do you agree on scope and time with the customer, when the customer wants too
much-