What Great .NET Developers Ought To Know (More .NET Interview Questions)

A while back, I posted a list of T Interview Questions. Conventional wisdom was split, with about half the folks saying I was nuts and that it was a list of trivia. The others said basically "Ya, those are good. I'd probably have to look a few up." To me, that's the right response.

Certainly I wasn't trying to boil all of .NET Software Development down to a few simple "trivia" questions. However, I WAS trying to get folks thinking. I believe that really good T (and for that matter, WinForms) is a little [read: lot] more than just draging a control onto a designer and hoping for the best. A good race driver knows his car - what it can do and what it can't.

So, here's another list...a greatly expanded list, for your consumption (with attribution). I wrote this on a plane last week on the way from Boise to Portland. I tried to take into consideration the concerns that my lists contain unreasonable trivia. I tried to make a list that was organized by section. If you've never down T, you obviously won't know all the T section. If you're an indenpendant consultant, you may never come upon some of these concepts. However, ever question here has come up more than once in the last 4 years of my time at Corillian. So, knowing groking these questions may not make you a good or bad developer, but it WILL save you time when problems arise. 

What Great .NET Developers Ought To Know

Everyone who writes code

  • Describe the difference between a Thread and a Process?
  • What is a Windows Service and how does its lifecycle differ from a "standard" EXE?
  • What is the maximum amount of memory any single process on Windows can address? Is this different than the maximum virtual memory for the system? How would this affect a system design?
  • What is the difference between an EXE and a DLL?
  • What is strong-typing versus weak-typing? Which is preferred? Why?
  • Corillian's product is a "Component Container." Name at least 3 component containers that ship now with the Windows Server Family.
  • What is a PID? How is it useful when troubleshooting a system?
  • How many processes can listen on a single TCP/IP port?
  • What is the GAC? What problem does it solve?

Mid-Level .NET Developer

  • Describe the difference between Interface-oriented, Object-oriented and Aspect-oriented programming.
  • Describe what an Interface is and how it’s different from a Class.
  • What is Reflection?
  • What is the difference between XML Web Services using ASMX and .NET Remoting using SOAP?
  • Are the type system represented by XmlSchema and the CLS isomorphic?
  • Conceptually, what is the difference between early-binding and late-binding?
  • Is using Assembly.Load a static reference or dynamic reference?
  • When would using Assembly.LoadFrom or Assembly.LoadFile be appropriate?
  • What is an Asssembly Qualified Name? Is it a filename? How is it different?
  • Is this valid? Assembly.Load("foo.dll");
  • How is a strongly-named assembly different from one that isn’t strongly-named?
  • Can DateTimes be null?
  • What is the JIT? What is NGEN? What are limitations and benefits of each?
  • How does the generational garbage collector in the .NET CLR manage object lifetime? What is non-deterministic finalization?
  • What is the difference between Finalize() and Dispose()?
  • How is the using() pattern useful? What is IDisposable? How does it support deterministic finalization?
  • What does this useful command line do? tasklist /m "mscor*"
  • What is the difference between in-proc and out-of-proc?
  • What technology enables out-of-proc communication in .NET?
  • When you’re running a component within T, what process is it running within on Windows XP? Windows 2000? Windows 2003?

Senior Developers/Architects

  • What’s wrong with a line like this? DateTime.Parse(myString);
  • What are PDBs? Where must they be located for debugging to work?
  • What is cyclomatic complexity and why is it important?
  • Write a standard lock() plus “double check” to create a critical section around a variable access.
  • What is FullTrust? Do GAC’ed assemblies have FullTrust?
  • What benefit does your code receive if you decorate it with attributes demanding specific Security permissions?
  • What does this do? gacutil /l | find /i "Corillian"
  • What does this do? sn -t foo.dll
  • What ports must be open for DCOM over a firewall? What is the purpose of Port 135?
  • Contrast OOP and SOA. What are tenets of each?
  • How does the XmlSerializer work? What ACL permissions does a process using it require?
  • Why is catch(Exception) almost always a bad idea?
  • What is the difference between Debug.Write and Trace.Write? When should each be used?
  • What is the difference between a Debug and Release build? Is there a significant speed difference? Why or why not?
  • Does JITting occur per-assembly or per-method? How does this affect the working set?
  • Contrast the use of an abstract base class against an interface?
  • What is the difference between a.Equals(b) and a == b?
  • In the context of a comparison, what is object identity versus object equivalence?
  • How would one do a deep copy in .NET?
  • Explain current thinking around IClonable.
  • What is boxing?
  • Is string a value type or a reference type?
  • What is the significance of the "PropertySpecified" pattern used by the XmlSerializer? What problem does it attempt to solve?
  • Why are out parameters a bad idea in .NET? Are they?
  • Can attributes be placed on specific parameters to a method? Why is this useful?

C# Component Developers

  • Juxtapose the use of override with new. What is shadowing?
  • Explain the use of virtual, sealed, override, and abstract.
  • Explain the importance and use of each component of this string: Foo.Bar, Version=2.0.205.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=593777ae2d274679d
  • Explain the differences between public, protected, private and internal.
  • What benefit do you get from using a Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)?
  • By what mechanism does NUnit know what methods to test?
  • What is the difference between: catch(Exception e){throw e;} and catch(Exception e){throw;}
  • What is the difference between typeof(foo) and myFoo.GetType()?
  • Explain what’s happening in the first constructor: public class c{ public c(string a) : this() {;}; public c() {;} } How is this construct useful?
  • What is this? Can this be used within a static method?

T (UI) Developers

  • Describe how a browser-based Form POST becomes a Server-Side event like Button1_OnClick.
  • What is a PostBack?
  • What is ViewState? How is it encoded? Is it encrypted? Who uses ViewState?
  • What is the <machinekey> element and what two T technologies is it used for?
  • What three Session State providers are available in T 1.1? What are the pros and cons of each?
  • What is Web Gardening? How would using it affect a design?
  • Given one T application, how many application objects does it have on a single proc box? A dual? A dual with Web Gardening enabled? How would this affect a design?
  • Are threads reused in T between reqeusts? Does every HttpRequest get its own thread? Should you use Thread Local storage with T?
  • Is the [ThreadStatic] attribute useful in T? Are there side effects? Good or bad?
  • Give an example of how using an HttpHandler could simplify an existing design that serves Check Images from an .aspx page.
  • What kinds of events can an HttpModule subscribe to? What influence can they have on an implementation? What can be done without recompiling the T Application?
  • Describe ways to present an arbitrary endpoint (URL) and route requests to that endpoint to T.
  • Explain how cookies work. Give an example of Cookie abuse.
  • Explain the importance of HttpRequest.ValidateInput()?
  • What kind of data is passed via HTTP Headers?
  • Juxtapose the HTTP verbs GET and POST. What is HEAD?
  • Name and describe at least a half dozen HTTP Status Codes and what they express to the requesting client.
  • How does if-not-modified-since work? How can it be programmatically implemented with T?
    Explain <@OutputCache%> and the usage of VaryByParam, VaryByHeader.
  • How does VaryByCustom work?
  • How would one implement T HTML output caching, caching outgoing versions of pages generated via all values of q= except where q=5 (as in http://localhost/page.aspx?q=5)?

Developers using XML

  • What is the purpose of XML Namespaces?
  • When is the DOM appropriate for use? When is it not? Are there size limitations?
  • What is the WS-I Basic Profile and why is it important?
  • Write a small XML document that uses a default namespace and a qualified (prefixed) namespace. Include elements from both namespace.
  • What is the one fundamental difference between Elements and Attributes?
  • What is the difference between Well-Formed XML and Valid XML?
  • How would you validate XML using .NET?
  • Why is this almost always a bad idea? When is it a good idea? myXmlDocument.SelectNodes("//mynode");
  • Describe the difference between pull-style parsers (XmlReader) and eventing-readers (Sax)
  • What is the difference between XPathDocument and XmlDocument? Describe situations where one should be used over the other.
  • What is the difference between an XML "Fragment" and an XML "Document."
  • What does it meant to say “the canonical” form of XML?
  • Why is the XML InfoSet specification different from the Xml DOM? What does the InfoSet attempt to solve?
  • Contrast DTDs versus XSDs. What are their similarities and differences? Which is preferred and why?
  • Does System.Xml support DTDs? How?
  • Can any XML Schema be represented as an object graph? Vice versa?

.NET牛人应该知道些什么

前些日子我发了一份T面试题 清单. 有一些访客比较保守,觉得我是没事找事,里面都是些很琐碎的问题。剩下的人则说“蛮不错的,我得去看一看其中的一些问题” 我更喜欢后者的回复,我觉得后者才是正确的态度。

当然我并不想把.NET软件开发概括为一些简单的小问题,我只是想让大家多思考。我相信一个真正优秀的T(及WinForm)开发人员应该不仅仅会拖放控件到设计器中,也应该掌握更多的东西。一个优秀的赛车比赛选手很了解他自己的坐驾,他知道哪些可以做?哪些不能做?

所以我准备了另外一份清单——一份扩展的清单,供你使用。这是我上个星期在从博伊西去波特兰的路上写在一块板上的,并且我也考虑到了那些觉得我的清单过于琐碎的意见,试图把这个清单按节管理。如果你从来没有深入T,你肯定不会知道所有T问题的答案。如果你是一个独立顾问,你可能从来没有遇到过这些概念。但在我呆在科林斯的这4年中,这些问题我都遇到过。因此,是否全面理解这些问题也许与你是不是一个优秀的开发者没有关系,但在遇到问题时它的确可以帮你节省不少时间。 

.NET牛人应该知道些什么?

任何一个使用.NET的人

  • 描述线程与进程的区别? (进程就是一个独立的运行的程序,线程是依附于进程的,具体概念还真不清楚。)
  • 什么是Windows服务,它的生命周期与标准的EXE程序有什么不同 (Windows服务是没有运行界面的由Windows服务管理程序进行统一管理的程序,Windows服务一般随操作系统一起运行而不需要人为的启动运行。标准EXE程序运行后一般是提供了交互界面的,而且一般是人为启动而不是随操作系统的启动而启动。)
  • Windows上的单个进程所能访问的最大内存量是多少?它与系统的最大虚拟内存一样吗?这对于系统设计有什么影响? (32位OS中单个进程能访问2G的内存,如果启动了3GB开关的话就可以访问3G内存,如果使用了AWE的话可以访问更多的内存。与最大虚拟内存不一样吧,系统设计中,对于32位系统,OS操作2G内存,另外2G内存给程序使用,最大内存量决定了某些程序比如SQL Server的性能。)
  • EXE和DLL之间的区别是什么? (EXE是可以执行的程序,DLL是动态链接库,是用于被EXE或其他DLL调用的,用于提供程序接口)
  • 什么是强类型,什么是弱类型?哪种更好些?为什么? (明确定义了数据类型的就叫强类型,未明确类型或类型可以变化的叫弱类型。没有什么更好的说法,各有优点。强类型意义明确,发生错误的几率更低,弱类型更灵活。)
  • PID是什么?在做系统的故障排除时如何使用它? (PID就是进程标识的意思,是进程运行时的一个标识,用于唯一的表示该进程,排除故障时就是根据PID来确认发生故障的进程的。)
  • 单个TCP/IP端口上能够侦听多少个进程? (应该是一个吧。)
  • 什么是GAC?它解决了什么问题? (全局程序集缓存,在整个操作系统中缓存一些程序集,其他引用该程序集的程序就不需要将这些程序集拷贝到EXE运行的目录了。)

中级.NET开发人员

  • 阐述面向接口、面向对象、面向方面编程的区别 (面向接口就是在定义API时使用接口类型而不是类,面向对象就是将数据和方法封装成类,通过类的方式进行编程,面向方面就完全不知道了)
  • 什么是Interface?它与Class有什么区别? (接口就是定义了需要实现的属性和方法。Class是有具体的实现的,而接口只是一个定义,Class只能单继承,而一个类缺可以实现多个接口。)
  • 什么是反射? (具体定义不清楚,我只知道通过反射可以获得一个程序集中的命名空间、类、属性、方法等,当然还有Attribute)
  • 使用ASMX的XML Web服务与使用SOAP的.NET Remoting的区别? (Web服务是应用与Internet的RPC,而Remoting是局域网的,我只知道这么点)
  • 类型系统是由XMLSchema表示的吗?CLS是XMLSchema表示的吗? (不懂)
  • 从概念上阐述前期绑定(early-binding)和后期绑定(late-binding)的区别? (不知道这里的前期绑定和后期绑定是什么)
  • 调用Assembly.Load算静态引用还是动态引用? (静态)
  • 何时使用Assembly.LoadFrom?何时使用Assembly.LoadFile? (都是载入一个文件,不知道有什么区别,只有看MSDN了,估计是一个只能Load同一文件夹中的文件,而另一个可以Load其他文件夹下的文件。)
  • 什么叫Assembly Qualified Name?它是一个文件名吗?它有什么不同? (不懂)
  • Assembly.Load("foo.dll"); 这句话是否正确? (没有错吧,难道必须使用绝对路径?)
  • 做强签名的assembly与不做强签名的assembly有什么不同? (强签名后不可被修改运行,不做强签名就可以被反编译修改,然后重新编译运行。)
  • DateTime是否可以为null? (不可)
  • 什么叫JIT?什么是NGEN?它们分别有什么限制和好处? (不知道)
  • .NET CLR中一代的垃圾收集器是如何管理对象的生命周期的?什么叫非确定性终结? (一个对象实例没有被任何地方引用时就称为垃圾,当内存不够是GC就会将该对象实例占用的空间清理出来。)
  • Finalize()和Dispose()之间的区别? (不知道)
  • using() 语法有用吗?什么是IDisposable?它是如何实现确定性终结的。 (using()语法可以在使用对象后自动立即清除在其中使用的对象,是相当有用的。IDisposable是Dispose方法的接口。)
  • tasklist /m "mscor*" 这句命令是干嘛的? (完全不懂)
  • in-proc和out-of-proc的区别 (不明白问题是什么意思)
  • .NET里的哪一项技术能够实现out-of-proc通讯? (不懂)
  • 当你在T中运行一个组件时,它在Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 2003上分别跑在哪个进程里面? (win2000:没有接触过,xp:忘记了,win2003:w3wp.exe)

高级开发人员/架构师

  • DateTime.Parse(myString); 这行代码有什么问题? (可能会抛出异常)
  • PDB是什么东西? 在调试中它应该放在哪里? (调试文件,PDB文件和对应的EXE,DLL文件在同一个文件夹)
  • 什么叫圈复杂度(cyclomatic complexity)?为什么它很重要? (圈复杂度就是代码中条件语句和循环语句出现的次数,他说明了函数的复杂性,低比较好。)
  • 写一个标准的lock(),在访问变量的前后创建临界区,要有"双重检查", (lock(this.TextBox1){this.TextBox1.Text="test";}双重检查不会)
  • 什么叫FullTrust?放入GAC的assembly是否是FullTrust的? (不懂)
  • 代码加上需要安全权限的特性有什么好处? (……)
  • gacutil /l | find /i "Corillian" 这句命令的作用是什么? (……)
  • sn -t foo.dll 这句命令是干嘛的? (算该程序集的公钥还是密钥哦)
  • DCOM需要防火墙打开哪些端口?端口135是干嘛用的? (得百度一下,不知道)
  • 对比OOP和SOA,它们的目的分别是什么? (OOP面向对象编程,是一种编程思想和方式,以对象为基础,SOA面向服务的架构,将API封装为服务(比如Web服务),然后针对这些暴露出的服务进行编程。)
  • XmlSerializer是如何工作的?使用这个类的进程需要什么ACL权限? (不知道)
  • 为什么不提倡catch(Exception)? (Catch的时候应该捕捉具体的Exception类型,而不是通用的Exception)
  • Debug.Write和Trace.Write有什么不同?何时应该使用哪一个? (没有用过Trace.Write,所以不知道有何不同)
  • Debug Build和Release Build的区别,是否会有明显的速度变化?请说明理由。 (Debug模式下会将很多调试信息添加到程序中,而Release模式下不会有,速度有一定变化,单不明显。)
  • JIT是以assembly为单位发生还是以方法为单位发生?这对于工作区有何影响? (不知道)
  • 对比抽象基类和接口的使用 (抽象基类定了的是抽象方法和一下实现方法,接口只提供定义,不提供任何实现)
  • a.Equals(b)和a == b一样吗? (不一样,Equals还要求类型一样,而==只要求值一样)
  • 在对象比较中,对象一致和对象相等分别是指什么? (对象一致包括对象的类型和对象的值都相同,而对象相等是指值相等)
  • 在.NET中如何实现深拷贝(deep copy)? (.net只提供了浅拷贝的方法,深拷贝只有自己编程了)
  • 请解释一下IClonable (实现object Clone()方法的接口)
  • 什么叫装箱? (将对象转换为基对象)
  • string是值类型还是引用类型? (都是)
  • XmlSerializer使用的针对属性的模式有什么好处?解决了什么问题? (不知道)
  • 为什么不应该在.NET中使用out参数?它究竟好不好? (应该使用对象来传值,使用out是不是很好的)
  • 特性能够放到某个方法的参数上?如果可以,这有什么用? (可以啊,用处忘记了,得翻MSDN了)

C# 组件开发人员

  • 什么时候使用override?什么时候使用new? 什么叫shadowing? (重写父类的方法的时候用override以实现多态,如果父类中的方法不是virtual的也不是abstract的才使用new,shadowing不懂)
  • 解释virtual、sealed、override和abstract的区别 (virtual申明虚方法的关键字,说明该方法可以被重写,sealed说明该类不可被继承,override重写基类的方法,abstract申明抽象类和抽象方法的关键字,抽象方法不提供实现,由子类实现,抽象类不可实例化。)
  • Foo.Bar, Version=2.0.205.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=593777ae2d274679d 解释这个字符串每个部分的重要性和作用 (程序集的名字、版本、Culture不知道,公钥,这些用于GAC中申明一个唯一的程序集)
  • 解释public、protected、private和internal的区别(public可被内外访问,protected只能被内部和之类访问,private只能内部访问,internal只能在该程序集中被访问)
  • 使用Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)有什么好处? (不懂)
  • NUnit是通过什么机制获知需要测试哪些方法的? (反射,为测试方法加了Attribute)
  • catch(Exception e){throw e;}和catch(Exception e){throw;}的区别(将发生的异常对象抛出,另一个只是抛出异常,并没有抛出原异常对象)
  • typeof(foo)和myFoo.GetType()的区别? (typeof(foo)不会出现异常,myFoo.GetType()可能会因为myFoo为null而产生异常)
  • public class c{ public c(string a) : this() {;}; public c() {;} } 解释第一个构造函数中发生了什么? 这个构造函数有什么用? (第一个构造函数调用了第二个构造函数,这个构造函数构造了一个c对象的实例。)
  • this是干嘛用的?能够用在static方法中? (this表示该实例内,不能用于static中)

T (UI)开发人员(基本不会,就不答了)

  • 阐述一个基于浏览器的Form POST如何变成一个服务器端的事件,如Button1_OnClick。
  • 什么是PostBack?
  • 什么是ViewState? 它是否被编码过? 是否被加密过?谁会使用ViewState?
  • <machinekey>元素是干嘛用的?它用于哪两项T技术?
  • 说出T 1.1中的3种Session State提供程序以及它们的优缺点?
  • 什么叫Web Gardening? 在设计中如何使用它?
  • 假设有一个T应用程序,那么单独一个进程中允许多少应用程序对象?那两个进程呢?启用了Web Gardening的2个进程呢?这对设计有何影响?
  • T会重用多个请求之间的线程吗?是否每个HttpRequest都有自己的线程?你是否应该用T的Thread Local存储?
  • [ThreadStatic]属性在T中有用吗?它有没有副作用?是好是坏?
  • 如何使用HttpHandler简化现有的为.aspx页面提供验证图片的设计
  • HttpModule订阅的是什么类型的事件? 这对于实现有何影响?如果不打算重新编译应用程序,应该怎么做?
  • 说出表示任意一个终端(URL)的方式,以及T中把请求路由到那个终点的方式
  • 解释cookie的工作原理。给出一个滥用Cookie的例子。
  • 解释HttpRequest.ValidateInput()的重要性?
  • 哪些数据是通过HTTP Header传递的?
  • 对比HTTP动词GET和POST? 什么是HEAD?
  • 说出至少6个HTTP状态码以及它们的含义
  • if-not-modified-since的工作原理是什么? 用T如何实现它?
  • 解释 <@OutputCache%>和如何使用VaryByParam、VaryByHeader.
  • VaryByCustom是如何工作的?
  • 如何通过q=? (除了q=5)来实现T HTML输出缓冲和缓冲过期(比如http://localhost/page.aspx?q=5)?

XML开发人员(我基本上不会,就不回答了)

  • XML命名空间的作用?
  • 何时适合使用DOM?何时不适合?有没有尺度限制?
  • 什么是WS-I基本配置?它重要在哪里?
  • 写一个小XML文档,其中使用的是默认的命名空间,以及一个合法的(前缀)命名空间,其中要有分别属性这两个命名空间的元素
  • 元素和特性的基本区别在哪里?
  • 格式完好的XML和有效的XML有什么区别?
  • .NET中如何验证XML?
  • myXmlDocument.SelectNodes("//mynode"); 为什么这句代码不好?什么时候它是好的?
  • 拉式解析(XmlReader)与事件读取器(Sax)的区别
  • XPathDocument和XmlDocument的区别? 在何种情况下应该用哪一个?
  • “XML片断”与“XML文档”有什么区别
  • 什么叫格式规范的XML?
  • XML InfoSet规范与Xml DOM有什么不同? InfoSet是要解决什么问题?
  • 比较DTD和XSD,它们的相似点与区别分别是什么?哪个更好些?为什么?
  • System.Xml支持DTD吗?如果支持,如何使用?
  • XML Schema能够表示为对象图?对象图能够表示为XML Schema?