INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1) Define operating system?

An operating system acts as interface between user and computer.
It also controls Hardware
i.e. to work with applications, we need an operating system to interact with hardware.

2) What is the purpose of North bridge and south bridge?

A North bridge is a high speed hub that links CPU to RAM and graphics card. South
bridge is low speed hub that connects rest of the peripherals to CPU(ethernet, USB,
audio devices).

3) Difference between BIOS and CMOS?

BIOS is a program that actually startup a computer. It is responsible to manage
peripherals that need to be started and also responsible for boot device priority (i.e.
which disk has the OS). Where as CMOS is a battery in your mother board that helps
BOIS to store settings, date and time.

4) What is port?
A port is a communication channel at server side that allows client request to a particular
service.
ex: HTTP – 80, SSH-22 etc.,

5) Types of Operating systems, explain about anyone OS?

* Real Time
* Single User Single Tasking OS. Ex: Ms-DOS
* Single User Multi Tasking OS. Ex: Windows 7/8/10
* Multi User Multi Tasking OS. Ex: Linux, Unix
* Network OS. Ex: Windows server NT/2000/2003/2008/20016 etc.,
Windows is one of the most widely used operating system that can be installed on
mobiles, desktops and laptops. This comes in different editions like pro,entrp,student
etc.,
6) Difference between OS and application?
An OS establishes communication between user and computer, where as an Application
is installed on top of OS and that is used to perform a specific task by user.
(or)
An OS is a platform where users can access or use applications. Applications are
software used to perform specific tasks.

7) Explain boot process?

The moment when we switch on a PC till the login screen appears, the background
process executed is called boot process. A boot process involve in many things like
checking hardware functionality using POST, enabling/disabling hardware based
on settings done in BIOS and loading the OS into RAM.

8) What is hardware address and where it resides?

A hardware address also known as MAC(media access control) address is a physical
identity assigned by device manufacturer. It resides at data link layer.

9) What is ARP and its purpose?

ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol used for discovering data link address i.e.
MAC address associated with Internet layer addresses like IPV4 or IPV6.

10) Define IP Address?

An IP address is a unique numeric ID assigned to each device in the network, so that
they can communicate each other over the network.

11) What is difference between IpV4 and IpV6?

IpV4 IpV6
It’s a 32 bit IP address system It’s a 128 bit IP address system
It has subnet mask, hence divided into Its has no subnet mask, hence no classes
classes
We use only numeric values We use hexadecimal values (alpa
numeric)
Divided into 4 octals (4*8=32bit) Divided into 8*16 = 128bit

12) How will you check if my system is not connecting to internet even if network cable ,
network card drivers and IP configuration is correctly configured? What could be the
problem?
-- May be gateway / DNS IP’s are not set
-- May be issue with internet service provider(ISP)
-- Gateway router is not reachable

13) Command to check the network continuity? / How to check communication between 2
computers
 Command: PING IPAddress/Hostname
Ex: ping 192.168.1.100 (or) ping dbserver.example.com
14) Command to check the MAC id of network card?
Ipconfig /all (In Linux/Unix – ifconfig)

15) My network is facing flapping or disconnections in it how you identify?

 Make sure that device drivers are updated
 Check network cables
 Check speed of network device and cables - based on requirement change
speed and duplex settings if required.

16) What is the principle of ethernet connection?

It describes how network devices can transmit data so that other devices in a same
network can recognize, receive and process the data.

17) What is difference between switch and Hub?

Hub Switch (It’s a smart hub)

Hub Works on Physical Layer (Layer 1) Switch works in Data link layer (layer 2)
Hub broadcasts data to all devices Switch sends data to specific device
(point-to-point)
Hub communicates in half duplex model Switch communicates in full duplex model
Hub cannot filter the packets Switch can filter the packets
Hub will have 4 ports Switch will have 24 to 28 ports

18) What is full duplex and half duplex communication?

Full duplex allows bi-directional data transmission at same time, where as half duplex
allows only in one direction at a time.
19) How the router identifies the destination device when connected in network?
A router identifies devices connected in network with the help of IP address and Mac
addresses of that device.
20) How many types of routing to be configured on router?
a. Static routing – adding routes manually by adding routing tables.
b. Dynamic routing – automatic routes added in router
c. Default routing – data from one router is transmitted to all routers

21) What is the difference between router and gateway?

Router is a device/PC that establishes connection between two networks. i.e. its helps in
receiving or forwarding data packets to other networks.
Gateway is IP Address of router that helps us to connect to nodes in another network.
22) Define VPN ?
A Virtual Private Network extends private network across public networks and enables
users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing
devices were directly connected to the private network.
For example Virtual Private Network allows users to connect to office network from
different locations.
23) Explain DHCP workflow process?
DHCP allocates Dynamic IP Addresses to all requested hosts.
DHCP work on DORA (Discover, Offer, Request, Acknowledge) process.
A. All hosts sends a "Discovery" request to discover if any host is looking for IP address
or if any host is providing any IP
B. The DHCP servers will "Offer" the IP address to the requests clients
C. The client machine chooses the best lease then "Requests" that lease from the
corresponding DHCP server.
D. All hosts acknowledge if they received the IP provided by server
(or)
A. When we switch on a host, it sends Discovery Packets (broadcast message) looking
for an appropriate DHCP to provide an IP Address.
B. DHCP Server in the network will reserve an IP address to the host and Send OFFER
packets to the host
C. Now the host PC will REQUEST DHCP server to provide that IP Address
D. Server will ACKNOWLEDGE with appropriate details and lease duration.

24) When I connected to system in network, system got IP Address 169.225.x.x what is it
mean, how you resolve the issue?
It is called APIPA (Automatic Private IP Address), which is assigned to a host by itself if
DHCP is not reachable and at the same time no static IP is set to the host.
We can resolve it by
 enabling DHCP in the network
 by adding static IP.
 If DHCP is working fine in the network, we should clear APIPA using
below commands:
ipconfig /release – This will set existing settings to ZERO
Ipconfig /renew – This will get IP from appropriate DHCP server

25) Command to find the path of packet reaching the destination.

Syn: tracert ip/hostname
ex: tracert 17.18.19.20
tracert mail.hcl.com

26) Difference between loopback address and self address?

A loopback address is a special ip address of a device, that is used to check/connect to
network services with in the same device(Ex: 127.0.0.1/8).
APIPA is called self address. (169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254)
27) What is the purpose of firewall in network?
Firewall is responsible to control incoming requests and outgoing requests on a network.
i.e. it allows only authorized requests to access data.
Firewall is used to block or allow access intended for particular IP address of a device
(or) devices on specific network.
28) What are different types of storages?
 DAS
 ABS (RAID)
 NBS (SAN, NAS)

29) What is disc mirroring?

In data storage, disk mirroring is the replication of one disk into another hard disks in real
time to ensure continuous availability.
30) Explain disc strip set with parity?
Disc Stripping is a process of storing packets of data into multiple disks. Where as parity
is a redundancy check that ensures full protection of data without maintaining a full set
of duplicate data.It is implemented in RAID 5

31) What is the advantage and disadvantage of RAID 10?

32) What is the difference between backup and storage?

Saving data in a specific device is called storage and can be accessed with a mouse
click, where as copying important data to another location is called backup required
when our storage area crashes.

33) Difference between differential backup / Incremental Backup and full backup?
If I take backup of the complete data, its called full backup. If I take backup of only
remaining data that is added after the last full backup, its called incremental backup.

34) What is ITIL ? main aim of ITIL process?

35) Explain with example of change management process?
36) Explain difference between helpdesk and service desk process?
37) Explain what is meant by SLA and OLA ?
38) Explain priority of trouble tickets and their importance?
39) What is incident management process?
40) What is event management process, explain?
41) What is configuration management process and access management process?

42) What is meant by BSOD ? how will you rectify the issue?
 BSOD - Blue Screen of Death, arises when there is any issue with hardware devices or
its drivers. We can rectify this issue by updating hardware drivers / replace the hardware
if problem arises even after updating the drivers.

43) What is domain and active directory?

A Domain is a group of computers that are managed by a server. Active Directory is a
service on server that enables Domain Based Networks. It is responsible for managing
users, computers, other devices with in a network.

44) what is PDC and BDC in windows NT domain?

PDC – Primary Domain Controller
BDC – Backup Domain Controller

45) What are FSMO roles in active directory architecture?

FSMO: Flexible Single Master Operation: Microsoft split the responsibilities of a DC into
5 separate roles that together make a full AD system.
1. Schema Master - one per forest
2. Domain Naming Master - one per forest
3. Relative ID (RID) Master - one per Domain
4. Primary Domain Controller(PDC) Emulator - one per Domain
5. Infrastructure Master - one per Domain

Schema Master: This role manages the read-write of your AD schema. Ad schema
defines all the attributes like employee ID, Phone number, email id, login id, manager
etc.,

Domain Naming Master: The Domain Naming Master makes sure that you don’t create a
second domain(tree) in the same forest with the same name as another. It is the master
of your domain names.

RID Master: Assigns blocks of Security Identifiers (SID) to different DC's and they can be
used for newly created objects.

PDC Emulator: This is a Authoritative DC in the domain. This is responsible for

managing authentication requests, password changes, and managing GPO's. i.e.
administrative tasks of a AD.

Infrastructure Master: When an object in one domain is referenced by another object in

the domain, that
represents the reference by SID/GUID. The Infrastructure Master role is the DC
responsible for updating objects SID and distinguish names in a cross-domain object
reference.
46) Difference between public IP and Private IP?
Private IP address of a system is the IP address which is used to communicate within the
same network. Public IP address of a system is the IP address which is used to
communicate from outside the network.

47) What is subnet mask and subnet?

Subnet Mask: It divides an IP address into network portion and host portion.
Subnet (subnetting): It’s a process of dividing the complete network into sub-networks.
48) What is CIDR notation in IP Address schema?
Classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) is a set of Internet protocol (IP) standards that is
used to create unique identifiers for networks and individual devices

49) What are the IP Address classes? (Class A/B/C/D/E)

50) What is NAT and PAT? Where we will use?

NAT – Network Address Translation – Translates private IP’s to public IP’s
PAT – Port Address Translation - Translates private IP’s to public IP’s via given port
number

51) How many types VPN are there? Explain?

VPN – used to connect to office network from anywhere
52) What is VM ware?
VM ware is used to implement Virtualization technology, It allows multiple operating
systems to be installed on top a single PC.

53) What is straight cable and cross cable and where we use these?
54) What is topology?
55) Why we need networking?
56) What is difference between 32bit and 64 bit OS?
A 32BIT OS can process only 232 bytes of data transactions at a time i.e. upto 4 GB,
where as a 64BIT OS can process upto 264 bytes of data transactions.