Top 30 OOPS Interview Questions and Answers

What is a class?

A class is nothing more than a description of an object. It is a model, design, or prototype that
describes an object’s features.

What is an object?

An object is termed as an instance of a class, and it has its own state, behavior, and identity.

Define a constructor.

A constructor is a method used to initialize the state of an object, and it gets invoked at the time
of object creation.

Rules for constructor are:

 Constructor Name should be the same as the class name.

 A constructor must have no return type.

What is the difference between multiple and multilevel inheritance?

Multiple Inheritance Multilevel Inheritance

when a class inherits more than one base when a class inherits from another class which itself is
class a subclass of some other base class
Example:- A class defining a child Example:- A class describing a sport car will inherit
inherits from two base classes Mother from one base class car which in turn inherits another
and Father class Vehicle

What is a superclass?

A superclass or base class is a class that acts as a parent to some other class or classes.

For example, the Vehicle class is a superclass of Class Car. or, BMW is a type of car, so the
superclass for BMW is Class Car.

Differentiate between overloading and overriding.

overloading overriding
two or more methods have same name child class redefining methods present in the base class or
but different parameters or signatures parent class with the same parameters/signatures
resolved during compile time resolved during run time
What is the use of ‘finalize’?

Finalize is a method used to free up unmanaged resources and cleanup before Garbage
Collection(GC). It performs memory management tasks.

What is a try/ catch block?

A try/ catch block is used to handle exceptions. The try block defines a set of statements that
may lead to an error. The catch block basically catches the exception.

What is exception handling?

Exception handling in Object-Oriented Programming is a very important concept that is used to

manage errors. An exception handler allows errors to be thrown and caught and implements a
centralized mechanism to resolve them.

What is Encapsulation?

Encapsulation is a feature of an entity that holds all secret data. The members of that class can
only see the hidden details. Public, Protected, Private are the different levels.

What is Inheritance? Explain the use of Inheritance?

Inheritance is a concept where one class shares the structure and behavior defined in another
class. Inheritance applied to one class is called Single Inheritance, and if it depends on multiple
classes, then it is called multiple Inheritance.

Uses:-

 For Method Overriding (so runtime polymorphism can be achieved).

 For Code Reusability.

What are Static Binding and Dynamic Binding?

 Static Binding is a binding in which the name can be combined with the class during
collection time, and it is also called early binding.
 Dynamic Binding is a binding in which name can be identified with the class during
execution time, and it is also known as Late Binding.

Can you call the base class method without creating an instance?

Yes, you can call the base class without instantiating it if :

 It is a static method.
 The base class is inherited by some other subclass.
How Can We Call The Base Method Without Creating An Instance?

Yes, it is possible to call the base method without creating an instance. And that method should
be the static method. Doing inheritance from that class use the Base Keyword from a derived
class.

What are the differences between method and constructor?

Constructors Methods
constructor name should match with the name of the Methods should not have the same name
class as the class name
used to execute certain statements written
used to initialize and allocate memory of to the object
inside them
constructors are invoked by the system whenever
invoked when it is called
objects are created
they are invoked using new keyword while creating an
invoked during program execution
instance of the class
does not have a return type has a return type
cannot be inherited by subclass can be inherited by a subclass

What is Abstract Class and Abstract Method?

Abstract Class:-

 An object cannot be inherited from the abstract class.

 Subclass created or inherit abstract class to access members of the abstract class.
 An abstract class can contain abstract methods or non-abstract methods.

Abstract Method:-

 An abstract method has a signature but does not have a body

 It is compulsory to override abstract methods of the superclass in their sub-class
 Class containing abstract method should be made abstract class

What is the difference between extends and implements?

Extends Implements
A class can extend another class interface A class can implement an interface
A subclass extending superclass may not A class implementing interface has to implement
override all of the superclass methods all the methods of the interface
A class can only extend a single superclass A class can implement any number of interfaces
An interface can extend more than one An interface cannot implement any other
interfaces interface
Syntax: Class child Extend Class Parent Syntax: Class Hybrid implements Rose
What is a need for Object-oriented programming?

Need for OOPS:-

 more protection and control over data access

 OOPS offers data hiding functionalities
 code reusability
 data redundancy
 code maintenance

What are the various types of constructors?

There are three types of constructors:

 Default Constructor – With no parameters.

 Parametric Constructor – These constructors are those having parameters. Create a new
instance of a class and also pass arguments simultaneously.
 Copy Constructor – This creates a new object as a copy of an existing object.

What is a destructor?

It is a method which is called when the object is destroyed. Destructor name is the same as class
name with “~” symbol before the name.

What is a virtual function?

Virtual function is a special member function that is declared within a base class and redefined
by derived class to go with its own task. It is declared using a token, and is implemented by
using the virtual keyword.

What is a friend function?

A friend function is capable of accessing private/protected data of a class in which it is declared

as a friend in spite of not being a member of that class.

What is an abstract class?

Abstract classes are special classes which are declared but are initialized, which means that it is
not possible to create an object for the abstract class.

What are the characteristics of an abstract class?

 There can only be one class

 Derived class used abstract class to create interfaces
 They are used for upcasting
Can a class inherit the constructor of its base class?

No, a class cannot inherit the constructor of its base class.

What are the disadvantages of OOPS?

 Cannot be applied in all scenarios

 Programs are comparatively more complex than those of Procedural programming
 OOPS Projects need more planning and designing as using oops is tricky
 Long programs need more time for testing

What are access specifiers?

Access specifiers are used to hide or show data to the end user. It is used in data hiding or data
abstraction.

What is hybrid inheritance?

Hybrid inheritance is the combination of multilevel inheritance and hierarchical inheritance.

What is casting?

In C++ we create a pointer reference between parent and child classes and form an “is a”
relationship between them, This is known as casting and they are of two types:-

 Upcasting
 Downcasting

How run time polymorphism is achieved?

Run time polymorphism helps resolve the problem of early binding at compile time.
#include <stdio.h>
using namespace std;
// This is Base class
class Base
{
public:
virtual void show()
{
cout << "Showing Base Class" << endl;
}
};
// This is Derived class function
class Derived : public Base
{
public:
// This function is declared in the base class as well
void show()
{
cout << "Showing Derived Class" << endl;
}
};

int main()
{
// pointer reference to base class
Base *base_object;
// creating derived class object
Derived derived_object;
// mapping base object to address of derived class object
base_object = &derived_object;
// since we use pointers so we use -> rather than .
base_object->show();
return 0;
}

What are copy constructors?

These are the special type of constructors which takes an object as an argument and uses it to
copy value of data members of one object to another object.

OOPS Interview Questions for Experienced

Can you explain what Access Modifiers are?

Access modifiers are used to figure out the scope of the method or variables accessible from
other various objects or classes.

Access modifiers can be of five types:

 Private
 Public
 Protected
 Friend
 Protected Friend

What is Abstraction?

Abstraction refers to revealing only the most important information while concealing the details.
Data abstraction refers to exposing only the most important aspects of the data to the outside
world while concealing the implementation information.

In OOPs, class helps us in achieving abstraction.

What are the limitations of inheritance?

  Increases the time and effort required to execute a program as it requires jumping back
and forth between different classes
 The parent class and the child class get tightly coupled
 Any modifications to the program would require changes both in the parent as well as the
child class
 Needs careful implementation else would lead to incorrect results

What is the difference between Abstraction and Encapsulation?

Abstraction Encapsulation
Gives a class a general structure and Creates and defines an object’s permissions and
leaves the implementation to the constraints as well as the variables and methods that
implementers. make up the object.
Encapsulation is accomplished by the use of four
Abstraction is accomplished by the use
different access level modifiers: public, protected, no
of an interface and an abstract class.
modifier and private.

What is the difference between a class and a structure?

Class Structure
Class is a referencing type. Structure is a value type.
CLR allocates memory for its
Memory is allocated on the stack.
instance in heap.
Support Inheritance. Does not support Inheritance.
Variables of a class can be assigned
Structure members cannot have null values.
as null.
Class can contain Structure does not require constructor/destructor and
constructor/destructor members can be initialized automtaically.

What Are Different Types Of Arguments?

A parameter is a variable used during the declaration of the function or subroutine and arguments
are passed to the function, and it should match with the parameter defined.

There are two types of Arguments. They are :

 Call by Value – Value passed will get modified only inside the function, and it returns
the same value whatever it is passed into the function.
 Call by Reference – Value passed will get modified both inside and outside the functions
and it returns the same or different value.

Why Java does not support multiple inheritance?

Java was designed to be a simple language and multiple inheritance introduces complexities like
the diamond problem. Inheriting states or behaviors from two different type of classes is a case
which in reality very rare and it can be achieved easily through an object association.

What are similarities between a class and a structure?

The following are some of the similarities between a class and a structure:

 Access specifiers, such as public, private, and protected, are identically used in structures
and classes to restrict the access of their data and methods outside their body.
 The access level for class members and struct members, including nested classes and
structs, is private by default. Private nested types are not accessible from outside the
containing type.
 Both can have constructors, methods, properties, fields, constants, enumerations, events,
and event handlers.
 Both structures and classes can implement interfaces to use multiple-inheritance in code.
 Both structures and classes can have constructors with parameters. Both structures and
classes can have delegates and events.

Explain Is Java a pure Object Oriented language.

Java is not an entirely pure object-oriented programming language. The following are the
reasons:

 Java supports and uses primitive data types such as int, float, double, char, etc.
 Primitive data types are stored as variables or on the stack instead of the heap.
 In Java, static methods can access static variables without using an object, contrary to
object-oriented concepts.

How many types of inheritance are present?

Encapsulation is a feature of an entity that holds all secret data. The members of that class can
only see the hidden details. Public, Protected, Private are the different levels.

What is Inheritance? Explain the use of Inheritance?

Various types of inheritance are :

 Single Inheritance: Single child class inherits characteristics of the single-parent class.
 Multiple Inheritance: One class inherits features of more than one base class and is not
supported in Java, but the class can implement more than one interface.
 Multilevel Inheritance: A class can inherit from a derived class making it a base class
for a new class, for example, a Child inherits behavior from his father, and the father has
inherited characteristics from his father.
 Hierarchical Inheritance: One class is inherited by multiple subclasses.
 Hybrid Inheritance: This is a combination of single and multiple inheritances.
What is Interface?

In general, an interface is a system that allows two or more unrelated entities to communicate.
According to this definition, remote control is an interface between you and a television set, the
English language is an interface between two people, and the protocol of behavior enforced in
the military is the interface between people of different ranks.

Within the Java programming language, an interface (in the glossary) is a type, just as a class is a
type. Like a class, an interface defines methods. Unlike a class, an interface never implements
methods; instead, classes that implement the interface implement the methods defined by the
interface. A class can implement multiple interfaces.

What are the various types of constructors in C++?

Default Constructor: The default constructor is the constructor which does not take any
argument. It has no parameters.

class A
{
int x;

A()
{
x = 0;
}
}

Parameterized constructor: The constructors that take some arguments are known as
parameterized constructors.

class A
{
int x;

A(int y)
{
x = y;
}
}

Copy constructor: A copy constructor is a member function that initializes an object using
another object of the same class.

class A
{
int x;

A(int y)
{
x = y;
}
 // Copy constructor
A(A a)
{
x = a.x;
}
}