L2 Technical interview

Easy | Intermediate |Difficult

Hardware

1. Name two types of memory on a computer.

Possible answers: RAM, SRAM, DRAM, ROM, (Virtual memory, from the software perspective)
2. What is a computer peripheral?
Answer: A peripheral is a device that is used to put information into or get information out of the
computer. There are two different types of peripherals: input devices, which interact with or send data
to the computer (mouse, keyboards, etc.), and output devices, which provide output to the user from
the computer (monitors, printers, etc.).
3. Name five peripherals
Possible answers: Common input peripherals include keyboards, computer mice, graphic tablets,
touchscreens, barcode readers, image scanners, microphones, webcams, game controllers, light pens,
image scanners, and digital cameras. Common output peripherals include computer displays, printers,
projectors, and computer speakers.
4. What is the MAC address?
A media access control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for
communications on the physical network segment. MAC addresses are used as a network address for
most IEEE 802 network technologies, including Ethernet and WiFi. Logically, MAC addresses are used in
the media access control protocol sublayer of the OSI reference model.
5. How does it look like?
Example: 34-E6-D7-80-D8-8F. You can get it from a computer using the command ipconfig /all, after
Physical Address.
6. Beep codes are generated by which of the following?
A. CMOS
B. RTC
C. POST
D. Windows

Answer: C. As the POST (power-on self-test) checks all the components of the computer, it may present
its findings on the screen or in the form of beep codes. The complementary metaloxide semiconductor
(CMOS) stores information such as time and date and BIOS passwords. RTC stands for real-time clock; it
is the device that keeps time on the motherboard. Windows generates all kinds of error codes but not
beep codes. The beep codes come from the POST, which happens before Windows boots.
7. What are they good for?
To identify which device is not working. The Hardware Manual for that specific computer model
specifies what each beep code means.
8. You want to upgrade memory in your computer. Which of the following is user-replaceable
memory in a PC?
A. CMOS
B. BIOS
C. DRAM
D. SRAM
E. ROM
Answer: C. Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) is the modules (or sticks) of memory that you can
install into a motherboard. SDRAM, DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 are all examples of DRAM. The
complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) is a chip that is soldered onto the motherboard that
works in conjunction with the Basic Input/Output System, another chip soldered on to the motherboard.
Static RAM (SRAM) is memory that is nonvolatile (as opposed to DRAM); it is also soldered to the circuit
board. Read-Only Memory (ROM) is usually not serviceable. The BIOS resides on a ROM chip, more
specifically an electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM) chip.
9. Which of the following types of printers uses toner?
A. Impact
B. Laser
C. Inkjet
D. Thermal
Answer: B. The laser printer uses toner. Impact printers use ribbon, inkjet printers use ink cartridges,
and thermal printers use specially coated paper.
10. You need to replace and upgrade the memory card in a smartphone. Which type of memory
does the smartphone most likely use?
Answer: Smartphones typically use Secure Digital (SD) cardsmore to the point, microSD cards.

Operating System

1. What is the main advantage of selecting a 64-bit operating system over a 32-bit operating
system?
Answer: The ability to access more than 4 GB of RAM. If you want to access more than 4 GB of RAM, you
will need a 64-bit operating system. 32-bit OSes are limited to 4 GB of RAM, and in some cases 3.25 GB.
Many computers today, especially custom computers such as virtualization systems and gaming
computers, require more than 4 GB of RAM so a 64-bit operating system is the only choice.
2. What does a yellow exclamation point next to a device in the Device Manager indicate?
Answer: If you see a yellow exclamation point in the Device Manager, this indicates that the device does
not have a proper driver. If the device is disabled, it will have either a down arrow (for Windows 7/Vista)
or a red x (Windows XP). If a driver was not digitally signed, the device might show up in the Unknown
devices category until it is installed properly. If a device has a working driver, then upgrading it will be up
to you, but you wont necessarily be notified of this.
3. What is the command that allows you to open the Windows registry?
Answer: regedit
4. When you open the Windows Registry you can see a tree structure categorized in five basic
hives. Please name one.
Possible answers: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_USERS,
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG.
5. By default Windows 7 Professional and Enterprise has a feature that allows you to restore
system files to a earlier point in time. Do you remember its name?
Answer: System Restore, that helps you restore your computer's system files to an earlier point in time.
Typically, you want to restore your computer to a restore point that was created just before the date
and time when you started noticing problems. The descriptions of the restore points that are created
automatically correspond with the name of an event, such as Windows Update installing an update.
System Restore returns your computer to the state that it was in before the restore point that you
choose.
6. How can you access it?
Answers: From the Start menu right click on Computer, go to Properties, then System Protection and
System Restore / From the Start menu go to the search box, type System Restore, and then, in the list of
results, click System Restore.
7. What is the event viewer and how you can access it?
Answer: Event Viewer is a tool that displays detailed information about significant events (for example,
programs that don't start as expected or updates that are downloaded automatically) on your

computer. Event Viewer can be helpful when troubleshooting problems and errors with Windows and
other programs. The command to open it up is eventvwr.
8. How can you get to know that the precise application takes of lot of CPU and makes the whole
computer very slow.
Answer: By opening and using the task manager.
9. On a terminal server can you log off another user? If so how
Answer: yes, from the task manager Users highlight the user and disconnect / log off.
10. What is Active Directory?
Answer: Active Directory (AD) is a directory service that Microsoft developed for Windows domain
networks and is included in most Windows Server operating systems as a set of processes and services.
An AD domain controller authenticates and authorizes all users and computers in a Windows domain
type networkassigning and enforcing security policies for all computers and installing or updating
software. For example, when a user logs into a computer that is part of a Windows domain, Active
Directory checks the submitted password and determines whether the user is a system administrator or
normal user
11. Name four type of objects that you can search for in AD
Possible Answers: Users, computers, groups, printers, shared folders, Organizational Units, Remote
Installation Servers, Remote Installation Clients
12. In order to perform a network installation of Windows, which of the following must be
supported by the computers network interface card?
A. PXE
B. PCI
C. PCL
D. PnP
Answer: A. Network installations require that the network card be configured for Preboot Execution
Environment (PXE). This allows the network card to boot off of the network, locate a network
installation server, and request that the installation begin. This configuration might be done in the BIOS
of the computer (if the network adapter is integrated to the motherboard), within a special program in
Windows, or one that boots from CD (if the network adapter is an adapter card). Peripheral Component
Interconnect (PCI) is an expansion bus that accepts network adapter cards, sound cards, and so on. PCL
stands for Printer Command Language, developed by HP so a computer can properly communicate with
dot matrix or thermal printers. PnP stands for Plug n Play, a Windows technology that allows devices to
be located and installed automatically.

Generic / Common Software

1. From a software point of view what is an office suite? Please name two currently in use
Answer: An office suite is a collection of bundled productivity software (a software suite)
intended to be used by knowledge workers. The components are generally distributed together,
have a consistent user interface and usually can interact with each other, sometimes in ways
that the operating system would not normally allow.
Desktop suites:
Free: Apache OpenOffice, Calligra Suite, LibreOffice, NeoOffice
Proprietary: MobiSystems OfficeSuite, ThinkFree Office, iWork, Kingsoft Office,
Microsoft Office, SoftMaker Office, WordPerfect Office, ConceptDraw Office
Discontinued: AppleWorks, Corel Home Office, Go-oo, IBM Lotus SmartSuite, IBM Lotus
Symphony, IBM Workplace Managed Client, KOffice, Microsoft Works, OpenOffice.org, Siag
Office, StarOffice/Oracle Open Office
Mobile suites:
Proprietary: Documents To Go, Kingsoft Office, iWork, Microsoft Office Mobile, Polaris
Office, Quickoffice, SoftMaker Office, ThinkFree Mobile
Online suites:
Free: Feng Office CE, Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware
Proprietary: Cloud@Mail.Ru, Google Docs, iWork.com, Office Online, ShareOffice,
ThinkFree Online, Zoho Office Suite
2. Can you name five Microsoft Office 2013 (Professional Plus version) applications?
Possible answers: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, OneNote, Publisher, Lync and
InfoPath.
3. Which of the following Server Operating Systems is not correct?
A: Windows Server 2003
B: Windows Server 2003 R2
C: Windows Server 2005
D: Windows Server 2012
Answer: C
4. Please name 3 different email client applications to be used under MS Windows
Possible answers: Outlook express, Outlook, Lotus Notes, Mozilla Thunderbird, eM Client, Inky,
Claws Mail, Novell,

5. On a client computer a user cant open Outlook: s/he only sees that screen with the logo and
nothing happens. Another colleague can work with that application on the same machine. What
would you do first to troubleshoot this?
Answer: Recreate his/her Outlook profile. Either from the start menu control panel Mail
Show profiles, or renaming the Outlook folder on %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft
6. A user calls in with the following window:

What do you need to do?

Answer: configure Lotus Notes on this computer retrieving a certified ID file and populating the next
windows with the user name and domino server.
7. A user calls you claiming that all MS Word documents on her laptop are displayed with an
Adobe Reader icon and after clicking on the icon Adobe Reader opens but is unable to read the
data. What would you do?
Answer: Change the default application that opens .doc or docx files either by right clicking on one of
those files Open with - browse to MS Word and select the option Always use this program, or from
the Control Panel Default Programs assign that extension to the correct program (MS Word).
8. Regarding the Internet Explorer what is an Add-on? How can you check which ones are
installed? Name one
Answer: Add-ons are apps that Internet Explorer uses to interact with web content like videos and
games. Toolbars and extensions are also types of add-ons. You can manage them from the Internet
Options Programs Manage Add-Ons. Some common add-ons are Adobe Flash, Java, Quicktime, and
Silverlight.

9. What would you do first if an Intranet site prompts for your credentials when browsing with the
Internet Explorer?
Answer: Check if the site has been added to Local Intranet zone in Internet Options.
10. If a user calls you claiming that he cant open pdf files inside the Internet Explorer what would
you check first, taking into account that he uses Adobe Acrobat 9?

Answer: In Adobe Acrobat go to Edit Preferences Internet and uncheck the box Allow fast web view
or uncheck the box that states Display PDF in browser.

Networking

1. Can a device get several IP addresses?

Answer: Yes. Example: a laptop can get one from the Ethernet adapter and another one for the
Wireless Adapter.
2. Which command do you use to check if a server is up and running?
Answer: ping
3. Can you name two switches that can be used with the ping command and its function?
Possible answers:
Switch

Function

-t

Pings the specified host until stopped. To see statistics and continue type ControlBreak. To stop type Control-C.

-a

Resolves addresses to host names.

-n < count >

Sets number of echo requests to send.

-l < size >

Sends packets of a particular size.

-f

Sets the "Don't Fragment" flag in outgoing packets.

-i < TTL >

Specifies a Time To Live for outgoing packets.

-v < TOS >

Specifies type of service.

-r < count >

Records the route for count hops.

-s < count >

Timestamp for count hops.

-j < host-list >

Loose source route along host-list.

-k < host-list >

Strict source route along host-list.

-w

Sets a long wait periods (in milliseconds) for a response.

4. Name one standard protocol for accessing e-mail from a local server.

Possible answers: IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), POP (Post Office Protocol), MAPI
(Messaging Application Programming Interface), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).

5. What are advantages of using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)?
IP addresses can be managed from a central location.
Computers can automatically get new addressing when moved to a different network segment.
Answers: Advantages of using DHCP include: IP addresses can be managed from a central location and
computers can automatically get new addressing when moved to a different network segment (perhaps
one that uses a different DHCP server). Quality of Service (QoS) adjusts the network speed based on the
type of traffic generated. DHCP has nothing to do with the Hosts.txt file; that file contains static entries
of hostname to IP address conversions. Media Access Control addresses are usually not changed on a
network adapter, although they can be masked. MAC filtering maintains a list of MAC addresses that are
allowed to access a network, but once again, this is a different concept from DHCP.
6. Which of the following is a valid IPv4 address for a network host?
A. 127.0.0.1
B. 169.254.0.0/16
C. 172.17.58.254
D. 255.10.15.7
Answer: C. Of the answers listed, 172.17.58.254 is the only valid IPv4 address for a network host. A host
on the network is any computer or network device that uses an IP address to communicate with other
computers or devices (hosts). 172.17.58.254 is a Class B private IP address so it fits the description of a
valid IPv4 address for a network host. 127.0.0.1 is the local loopback address. Every computer using
TCP/IP gets this address; it is used for testing. It cannot be used to communicate with other hosts on the

network. 169.254.0.0/16 means an IP address of 169.254.0.0 with a default subnet mask of 255.255.0.0,
indicating the network number is 169.254. It is not a valid host IP address because it ends in 0.0. The
first IP address of a network is always reserved for the network number; it can not be used by a host.
Otherwise, if the address was, say, 169.254.0.1, the address would work, but because it is an APIPA
address, it would be able to communicate only with other systems using APIPA addresses. 255.10.15.7 is
not valid. That address is within the Class E reserved range. Normal host IP addresses first octet will
either be between 1 and 126, or 128 and 223, but not between 224 and 255.
7. Which of the following IP addresses would you see if a computer is connected to a multifunction
network device and is attempting to obtain an IP address automatically but is not receiving an IP
address from the DHCP server?
A. 172.16.10.10
B. 192.168.0.10
C. 169.254.10.10
D. 192.168.10.10
Answer: C. If the computer fails to obtain an IP address from a DHCP server, Windows will take over and
apply an Automatic Private IP Address (APIPA). This address will be on the 169.254.0.0 network. All of
the other addresses could possibly be obtained from a DHCP server. 172.16.10.10 is a Class B private IP.
192.168.0.10 and 192.168.10.10 are Class C private IP addresses.
8. What is the main difference between a switch and a router?
Answer: A switch interconnects devices on the same network so that they can communicate, whereas a
router interconnects one or more networks. Remember that the switch is in charge of connecting
devices on the LAN. But the router is in charge of connecting the LAN to another LAN, to the Internet, or
to both. Multifunction network devices make matters confusing; they combine the functionality of a
switch, a router, a wireless access point, and a firewall. Physically, the four-port section of the device is
the switch portion and the single port that leads to the Internet is the router portion.

Scenarios