Good Interview Questions

NOLAJ

Typical interview questions for Systems Administrator.

Interview Questions

• DNS Servers

[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT]Private –
[FONT=&quot]2. [/FONT]Public –

• DNS Records

[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT]A –
[FONT=&quot]2. [/FONT]MX –
[FONT=&quot]3. [/FONT]PTR –

• WINS/DNS

[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT]What is the difference –

• Vista/7 Experience –
• Linux Experience? Which do you prefer? Windows/Linux? Why?
• Net command

[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT]Net Use –
[FONT=&quot]2. [/FONT]Net View – .

• Remote Desktop

[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT]Protocol – RDP:
[FONT=&quot]2. [/FONT]Port -

• How do you add an additional smtp address to a user –

• Name one way to give Send on Behalf of Permissions

• How do you add a mailbox to Outlook –.

• What is the Default Gateway used for? –

• Ports

[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT]25 -
[FONT=&quot]2. [/FONT]110 –
[FONT=&quot]3. [/FONT]UDP 52 / TCP 52 –
[FONT=&quot]4. [/FONT]443 -

• How would you connect two computers together without the use of a switch –

• The two types of permissions on a server

[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT]How do you prefer to secure a share/files on a server

• Server drive config.

[FONT=&quot]1. [/FONT]5 200gb drives in RAID 5 config. What is the usable space? –
[FONT=&quot]2. [/FONT]If I gave you 7 drives for a server how would you configure? –













Pretty fair right?

cyberguypr

I would add APIPA. I find amazing the number of admins who have no idea what APIPA is. I also like to throw scenario type questions: you have a branch office and need to accomplish this and that, how would you approach this? Which technologies/equipment you would use and why?

ccnxjr

I'd say fair.
I don't have much server experience and I could answer 1/2 of 'em easily, as fast as i could finish reading them.
Good stuff for a phone screen.

Forsaken_GA

Well, since this seems to be Windows centric....

I'd throw folks for a loop and ask them what type of host record should be returned for IPV6 queries. That'll tell you how far ahead they're looking to the future.

And I think any interview which asks about DNS, but fails to ask about AD and SRV records is incomplete. If the person cannot tell you how AD uses SRV records, you do not want them administering your domain.

And I'm always a big fan of asking people how if they can describe to me how ARP works. Most folks can't get it entirely correct.

hackman2007

Some additional technical questions (from my interview experience with various companies).

1. How would you explain the role of TCP/IP to a person that had no idea what it was?

2. Give me some examples of commands that every system administrator needs to know (Windows or Linux).


AND, one that I would add but was not asked.

3. Please provide one example of something you would change in a modern operating system (a modern operating system could be any).

nhpr

If this is a sys admin position, you might want to have a few questions about their scripting skills. An admin who can't write a decent script is going to give you many headaches.