C# interview questions

General Questions

1.Does C# support multiple-inheritance? No. But you can use Interfaces. 2.Where is a protected class-level variable available? It is available to any sub-class derived from base class 3.Are private class-level variables inherited? Yes, but they are not accessible. 4.Describe the accessibility modifier protected internal. It is available to classes that are within the same assembly and derived from the specified base class. 6.Which class is at the top of .NET class hierarchy? System.Object. 7.What does the term immutable mean? The data value may not be changed. Note: The variable value may be changed, but the original immutable data value was discarded and a new data value was created in memory. 8.Whats the difference between System.String and System.Text.StringBuilder classes? System.String is immutable. System.StringBuilder was designed with the purpose of having a mutable string where a variety of operations can be performed. 9.Whats the advantage of using System.Text.StringBuilder over System.String? StringBuilder is more efficient in cases where there is a large amount of string manipulation. Strings are immutable, so each time a string is changed, a new instance in memory is created. 10.Can you store multiple data types in System.Array? No. 11.Whats the difference between the System.Array.CopyTo() and System.Array.Clone()? The Clone() method returns a new array (a shallow copy) object containing all the elements in the original array. The CopyTo() method copies the elements into another existing array. Both perform a shallow copy. A shallow copy means the contents (each array element) contains

references to the same object as the elements in the original array. A deep copy (which neither of these methods performs) would create a new instance of each element's object, resulting in a different, yet identacle object. 12.How can you sort the elements of the array in descending order? By calling Sort() and then Reverse() methods. 13.Whats the .NET collection class that allows an element to be accessed using a unique key? HashTable. 14.What class is underneath the SortedList class? A sorted HashTable. 15.Will the finally block get executed if an exception has not occurred? Yes. 16.Whats the C# syntax to catch any possible exception? A catch block that catches the exception of type System.Exception. You can also omit the parameter data type in this case and just write catch {}. 17.Can multiple catch blocks be executed for a single try statement? No. Once the proper catch block processed, control is transferred to the finally block . 18.Explain the three services model commonly know as a three-tier application? Presentation (UI), Business (logic and underlying code) and Data (from storage or other sources).

Class Questions

1.What is the syntax to inherit from a class in C#? Place a colon and then the name of the base class. Example: class MyNewClass : MyBaseClass 2.Can you prevent your class from being inherited by another class? Yes. The keyword sealed will prevent the class from being inherited. 3.Can you allow a class to be inherited, but prevent the method from being over-ridden? Yes. Just leave the class public and make the method sealed. 4.Whats an abstract class? A class that cannot be instantiated. An abstract class is a class that must be inherited and have the methods overridden. An abstract class is essentially a blueprint for a class without any implementation.

5.When do you absolutely have to declare a class as abstract? 1. When the class itself is inherited from an abstract class, but not all base abstract methods have been overridden. 2. When at least one of the methods in the class is abstract.

6.What is an interface class? Interfaces, like classes, define a set of properties, methods, and events. But unlike classes, interfaces do not provide implementation. They are implemented by classes, and defined as separate entities from classes. 7.Why cant you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside the interface? They all must be public, and are therefore public by default. 8.Can you inherit multiple interfaces? Yes. .NET does support multiple interfaces. 9.What happens if you inherit multiple interfaces and they have conflicting method names? Its up to you to implement the method inside your own class, so implementation is left entirely up to you. This might cause a problem on a higher-level scale if similarly named methods from different interfaces expect different data, but as far as compiler cares youre okay. 10. Whats the difference between an interface and abstract class? In an interface class, all methods are abstract - there is no implementation. In an abstract class some methods can be concrete. In an interface class, no accessibility modifiers are allowed. An abstract class may have accessibility modifiers. 11. What is the difference between a Struct and a Class? Structs are value-type variables and are thus saved on the stack, additional overhead but faster retrieval. Another difference is that structs cannot inherit.

Method and Property Questions

1. Whats the implicit name of the parameter that gets passed into the set method/property of a class? Value. The data type of the value parameter is defined by whatever data type the property is declared . 2. What does the keyword virtual declare for a method or property? The method or property can be overridden. 3. How is method overriding different from method overloading?

When overriding a method, you change the behavior of the method for the derived class. Overloading a method simply involves having another method with the same name within the class. 4. Can you declare an override method to be static if the original method is not static? No. The signature of the virtual method must remain the same. (Note: Only the keyword virtual is changed to keyword override) 5. What are the different ways a method can be overloaded? Different parameter data types, different number of parameters, different order of parameters. 6. If a base class has a number of overloaded constructors, and an inheriting class has a number of overloaded constructors; can you enforce a call from an inherited constructor to a specific base constructor? Yes, just place a colon, and then keyword base (parameter list to invoke the appropriate constructor) in the overloaded constructor definition inside the inherited class.

Events and Delegates

1. Whats a delegate? A delegate object encapsulates a reference to a method. 2. Whats a multicast delegate? A delegate that has multiple handlers assigned to it. Each assigned handler (method) is called. 3. Whats the implicit name of the parameter that gets passed into the class set method? Value, and its datatype depends on whatever variable were changing. 4. How do you inherit from a class in C#? Place a colon and then the name of the base class. 5. Does C# support multiple inheritance? No, use interfaces instead. 6. When you inherit a protected class-level variable, who is it available to? Classes in the same namespace. 7. Are private class-level variables inherited? Yes, but they are not accessible, so looking at it you can honestly say that they are not inherited. 8. Describe the accessibility modifier protected internal.? Its available to derived classes and classes within the same Assembly (and naturally from the base class its declared in).

9. C# provides a default constructor for me. I write a constructor that takes a string as a parameter, but want to keep the no parameter one. How many constructors should I write? Two. Once you write at least one constructor, C# cancels the freebie constructor, and now you have to write one yourself, even if theres no implementation in it. 10. Whats the top .NET class that everything is derived from? System.Object. 11. Hows method overriding different from overloading? When overriding, you change the method behavior for a derived class. Overloading simply involves having a method with the same name within the class. 12. What does the keyword virtual mean in the method definition? The method can be over-ridden. 13. Can you declare the override method static while the original method is non-static? No, you cant, the signature of the virtual method must remain the same, only the keyword virtual is changed to keyword override. 14. Can you override private virtual methods? No, moreover, you cannot access private methods in inherited classes, have to be protected in the base class to allow any sort of access. 15. Can you prevent your class from being inherited and becoming a base class for some other classes? Yes, thats what keyword sealed in the class definition is for. The developer trying to derive from your class will get a message: cannot inherit from Sealed class WhateverBaseClassName. Its the same concept as final class in Java. 16. Can you allow class to be inherited, but prevent the method from being over-ridden? Yes, just leave the class public and make the method sealed. 17. Whats an abstract class? A class that cannot be instantiated. A concept in C++ known as pure virtual method. A class that must be inherited and have the methods over-ridden. Essentially, its a blueprint for a class without any implementation. 18. When do you absolutely have to declare a class as abstract (as opposed to free-willed educated choice or decision based on UML diagram)? When at least one of the methods in the class is abstract. When the class itself is inherited from an abstract class, but not all base abstract methods have been over-ridden. 19. Whats an interface class? Its an abstract class with public abstract methods all of which must be implemented in the inherited classes.

20. Why cant you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside the interface? They all must be public. Therefore, to prevent you from getting the false impression that you have any freedom of choice, you are not allowed to specify any accessibility, its public by default. 21. Can you inherit multiple interfaces? Yes, why not. 22. And if they have conflicting method names? Its up to you to implement the method inside your own class, so implementation is left entirely up to you. This might cause a problem on a higher-level scale if similarly named methods from different interfaces expect different data, but as far as compiler cares youre okay. 23. Whats the difference between an interface and abstract class? In the interface all methods must be abstract, in the abstract class some methods can be concrete. In the interface no accessibility modifiers are allowed, which is ok in abstract classes. 24. How can you overload a method? Different parameter data types, different number of parameters, different order of parameters. 25. If a base class has a bunch of overloaded constructors, and an inherited class has another bunch of overloaded constructors, can you enforce a call from an inherited constructor to an arbitrary base constructor? Yes, just place a colon, and then keyword base (parameter list to invoke the appropriate constructor) in the overloaded constructor definition inside the inherited class. 26. Whats the difference between System.String and System.StringBuilder classes? System.String is immutable, System.StringBuilder was designed with the purpose of having a mutable string where a variety of operations can be performed. 27. Is it namespace class or class namespace? The .NET class library is organized into namespaces. Each namespace contains a functionally related group of classes so natural namespace comes first.

C# interview questions and answers

By admin | December 7, 2003 1. Whats the implicit name of the parameter that gets passed into the class set method? Value, and its datatype depends on whatever variable were changing. 2. How do you inherit from a class in C#? Place a colon and then the name of the base class. 3. Does C# support multiple inheritance? No, use interfaces instead. 4. When you inherit a protected class-level variable, who is it available to? Classes in the same namespace. 5. Are private class-level variables inherited? Yes, but they are not accessible, so looking at it you can honestly say that they are not inherited. But they are. 6. Describe the accessibility modifier protected internal. Its available to derived classes and classes within the same Assembly (and naturally from the base class its declared in). 7. C# provides a default constructor for me. I write a constructor that takes a string as a parameter, but want to keep the no parameter one. How many constructors should I write? Two. Once you write at least one constructor, C# cancels the freebie constructor, and now you have to write one yourself, even if theres no implementation in it. 8. Whats the top .NET class that everything is derived from? System.Object. 9. Hows method overriding different from overloading? When overriding, you change the method behavior for a derived class. Overloading simply involves having a method with the same name within the class. 10. What does the keyword virtual mean in the method definition? The method can be over-ridden. 11. Can you declare the override method static while the original method is non-static? No, you cant, the signature of the virtual method must remain the same, only the keyword virtual is changed to keyword override. 12. Can you override private virtual methods? No, moreover, you cannot access private methods in inherited classes, have to be protected in the base class to allow any sort of access. 13. Can you prevent your class from being inherited and becoming a base class for some other classes? Yes, thats what keyword sealed in the class definition is for. The developer trying to derive from your class will get a message: cannot inherit from Sealed class WhateverBaseClassName. Its the same concept as final class in Java. 14. Can you allow class to be inherited, but prevent the method from being overridden? Yes, just leave the class public and make the method sealed. 15. Whats an abstract class? A class that cannot be instantiated. A concept in C++ known as pure virtual method. A class that must be inherited and have the methods over-ridden. Essentially, its a blueprint for a class without any implementation. 16. When do you absolutely have to declare a class as abstract (as opposed to free-willed educated choice or decision based on UML diagram)? When at least one of the methods in the class is abstract. When the class itself is inherited from an abstract class, but not all base abstract methods have been over-ridden.

17. Whats an interface class? Its an abstract class with public abstract methods all of which must be implemented in the inherited classes. 18. Why cant you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside the interface? They all must be public. Therefore, to prevent you from getting the false impression that you have any freedom of choice, you are not allowed to specify any accessibility, its public by default. 19. Can you inherit multiple interfaces? Yes, why not. 20. And if they have conflicting method names? Its up to you to implement the method inside your own class, so implementation is left entirely up to you. This might cause a problem on a higher-level scale if similarly named methods from different interfaces expect different data, but as far as compiler cares youre okay. 21. Whats the difference between an interface and abstract class? In the interface all methods must be abstract, in the abstract class some methods can be concrete. In the interface no accessibility modifiers are allowed, which is ok in abstract classes. 22. How can you overload a method? Different parameter data types, different number of parameters, different order of parameters. 23. If a base class has a bunch of overloaded constructors, and an inherited class has another bunch of overloaded constructors, can you enforce a call from an inherited constructor to an arbitrary base constructor? Yes, just place a colon, and then keyword base (parameter list to invoke the appropriate constructor) in the overloaded constructor definition inside the inherited class. 24. Whats the difference between System.String and System.StringBuilder classes? System.String is immutable, System.StringBuilder was designed with the purpose of having a mutable string where a variety of operations can be performed. 25. Is it namespace class or class namespace? The .NET class library is organized into namespaces. Each namespace contains a functionally related group of classes so natural namespace comes first.

C# and .NET interview questions

By admin | December 7, 2003 1. How big is the datatype int in .NET? 32 bits. 2. How big is the char? 16 bits (Unicode). 3. How do you initiate a string without escaping each backslash? Put an @ sign in front of the double-quoted string. 4. What are valid signatures for the Main function? public static void Main() public static int Main() public static void Main( string[] args ) public static int Main(string[] args ) 5. Does Main() always have to be public? No. 6. How do you initialize a two-dimensional array that you dont know the dimensions of? int [, ] myArray; //declaration myArray= new int [5, 8]; //actual initialization 7. Whats the access level of the visibility type internal? Current assembly. 8. Whats the difference between struct and class in C#? Structs cannot be inherited. Structs are passed by value, not by reference. Struct is stored on the stack, not the heap. 9. Explain encapsulation. The implementation is hidden, the interface is exposed. 10. What data type should you use if you want an 8-bit value thats signed? sbyte. 11. Speaking of Boolean data types, whats different between C# and C/C++? Theres no conversion between 0 and false, as well as any other number and true, like in C/C++. 12. Where are the value-type variables allocated in the computer RAM? Stack. 13. Where do the reference-type variables go in the RAM? The references go on the stack, while the objects themselves go on the heap. However, in reality things are more elaborate. 14. What is the difference between the value-type variables and reference-type variables in terms of garbage collection? The value-type variables are not garbage-collected, they just fall off the stack when they fall out of scope, the reference-type objects are picked up by GC when their references go null. 15. How do you convert a string into an integer in .NET? Int32.Parse(string), Convert.ToInt32() 16. How do you box a primitive data type variable? Initialize an object with its value, pass an object, cast it to an object 17. Why do you need to box a primitive variable? To pass it by reference or apply a method that an object supports, but primitive doesnt. 18. Whats the difference between Java and .NET garbage collectors? Sun left the implementation of a specific garbage collector up to the JRE developer, so their performance varies widely, depending on whose JRE youre using. Microsoft standardized on their garbage collection.

19. How do you enforce garbage collection in .NET? System.GC.Collect(); 20. Can you declare a C++ type destructor in C# like ~MyClass()? Yes, but whats the point, since it will call Finalize(), and Finalize() has no guarantees when the memory will be cleaned up, plus, it introduces additional load on the garbage collector. The only time the finalizer should be implemented, is when youre dealing with unmanaged code. 21. Whats different about namespace declaration when comparing that to package declaration in Java? No semicolon. Package declarations also have to be the first thing within the file, cant be nested, and affect all classes within the file. 22. Whats the difference between const and readonly? You can initialize readonly variables to some runtime values. Lets say your program uses current date and time as one of the values that wont change. This way you declare public readonly string DateT = new DateTime().ToString(). 23. Can you create enumerated data types in C#? Yes. 24. Whats different about switch statements in C# as compared to C++? No fallthroughs allowed. 25. What happens when you encounter a continue statement inside the for loop? The code for the rest of the loop is ignored, the control is transferred back to the beginning of the loop. 26. Is goto statement supported in C#? How about Java? Gotos are supported in C#to the fullest. In Java goto is a reserved keyword that provides absolutely no functionality. 27. Describe the compilation process for .NET code? Source code is compiled and run in the .NET Framework using a two-stage process. First, source code is compiled to Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) code using a .NET Framework-compatible compiler, such as that for Visual Basic .NET or Visual C#. Second, MSIL code is compiled to native code. 28. Name any 2 of the 4 .NET authentification methods. ASP.NET, in conjunction with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), can authenticate user credentials such as names and passwords using any of the following authentication methods: Windows: Basic, digest, or Integrated Windows Authentication (NTLM or Kerberos). Microsoft Passport authentication Forms authentication Client Certificate authentication 29. How do you turn off SessionState in the web.config file? In the system.web section of web.config, you should locate the httpmodule tag and you simply disable session by doing a remove tag with attribute name set to session. <httpModules> <remove name=Session /> </httpModules> 30. What is main difference between Global.asax and Web.Config? ASP.NET uses the global.asax to establish any global objects that your Web application uses. The .asax extension denotes an application file rather than .aspx for a page file. Each ASP.NET

application can contain at most one global.asax file. The file is compiled on the first page hit to your Web application. ASP.NET is also configured so that any attempts to browse to the global.asax page directly are rejected. However, you can specify application-wide settings in the web.config file. The web.config is an XML-formatted text file that resides in the Web sites root directory. Through Web.config you can specify settings like custom 404 error pages, authentication and authorization settings for the Web site, compilation options for the ASP.NET Web pages, if tracing should be enabled, etc.