77 Interview Questions
Brain_Power
Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 163
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TheCudder
Member Posts: 147 ■■■□□□□□□□
That's a pretty good list & one I would recommend going over and knowing the answers to if you're applying for jobs. A few I received for a Sr. Desktop / Jr System admin position yesterday were:
1) What is the difference between a switch & a router?
2) What are environment variables in Windows?
3) What is LDAP?
4) What port does _____ use?
5) What are the prerequisites for running Active Directory on a server?
6) If you run into an issue where several network printers are not printing, where would you look to resolve the issue?
For the most part you'll find that most tech's will know the terms and the technology, but some times (in my case at least) you'll find your self unable to explain or give an actual definition for the some question.
Sadly. I ran into this issue with questions 1 & 2 (kind of embarassing) --- i know, basic questions and I think it's going to count me out. I know where to view & change environment variables, but in my 6 years of end user support, I've never dealt with them. Of course i have an answer and a way of explaining these now.B.S. Information Technology Management | CompTIA A+ | CompTIA Security+ | Graduate Certificate in Information Assurance (In Progress) -
Roguetadhg
Member Posts: 2,489 ■■■■■■■■□□
Yeah, those HR questions tend to be the ones I see a lot when I was looking for a job. Gotta get through HR to get to the Tech questions
In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
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ptilsen
Member Posts: 2,835 ■■■■■■■■■■
There are some good ones in there, but some are very dated. The article was written in 2008, so that's no big surprise.
Some of them are a bit too specific. That's fine for a certification, but I think excessive, even inappropriate for an interview. For example, "What is the maximum amount of databases that can be hosted on Exchange 2003 Enterprise?" is total minutia. If you're hiring for an enterprise Exchange administrator (only job is Exchange), then your questions will be more detailed than that anyway. I like most of the AD questions for any sysadmin role involving Windows (even if the job is only Exchange, for example), though again, they need to be updated.
Overall, I think it's good to have a collection of these for tech interviews. We have our own set in-house, but they could use some updating. -
techinthewoods
Member Posts: 96 ■■□□□□□□□□
Site must be broken.... I couldn't find the answers there.
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LinuxRacr
Member Posts: 653 ■■■■□□□□□□
The thing I always find interesting is that there are always a multitude of questions that you may not be able to answer, no matter how much experience you have in a particular area because you may have a limited range of knowledge due to the limited scope of prior jobs. It is possible to be a UNIX system admin, and never have worked with NIS because it wasn't needed in the organization. I've seen it. Sites like this are good because they give you an idea of questions to expect, so that you can go properly prepare.My WGU B.S. IT - Security Progress : Transferred In|Remaining|In Progress|Completed
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matt333
Member Posts: 276 ■■■■□□□□□□
60.[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] What are your greatest weaknesses?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Wuts your response??[/FONT]
Studying: Automating Everything, network API's, Python etc..Certifications: CCNP, CCDP, JNCIP-DC, JNCIS-DevOps, JNCIS-ENT, JNCIS-SP -
TheCudder
Member Posts: 147 ■■■□□□□□□□
60. What are your greatest weaknesses?
Wuts your response??
I received that question during the interview for my current job. Not sure if it's the preferred answer, but I replied with something similar to "spending more time than I should working to resolve an issue". I'm not sure I would say that with a more senior position as that may make your time management skills seem poor.B.S. Information Technology Management | CompTIA A+ | CompTIA Security+ | Graduate Certificate in Information Assurance (In Progress) -
ptilsen
Member Posts: 2,835 ■■■■■■■■■■
I received that question during the interview for my current job. Not sure if it's the preferred answer, but I replied with something similar to "spending more time than I should working to resolve an issue". I'm not sure I would say that with a more senior position as that may make your time management skills seem poor.
There would be a better way to phrase it. IMO that does indicate poor time management, which can be a big problem. I might say, "Sometimes I'm too persistent in my troubleshooting efforts, so I'm trying to be conscious of the best way to solve the business problem instead of focusing on the technical problem." It says more or less the same thing, but you hedge it with a positive quality while still providing a legitimate answer to the question (as opposed to "I work to hard", "I'm a perfectionist", or "I care too much").
Another tactic is to take a weakness that is legitimate but probably not a deal-breaker. For example, your answer might be good for a salaried (exempt) DST. Since they aren't paying you by the hour, persistence in resolving issues probably means you just work more than they might expect. Alternatively, if the person interviewing is an escalation point, they might appreciate that you don't push every problem you can't solve onto them.
