100 .

NET & SQL Interview Questions and Answers

Q1. What are the four pillars of OOP?

A: Encapsulation, Abstraction, Inheritance, Polymorphism.

Q2. Explain Encapsulation.

A: Binding data and methods into a single unit (class).

Q3. What is Abstraction?

A: Showing only essential details while hiding implementation.

Q4. What is Inheritance?

A: Ability of a class to acquire properties of another class.

Q5. What is Polymorphism?

A: Ability of a method to take multiple forms (compile-time, runtime).

Q6. What are SOLID principles?

A: SRP, OCP, LSP, ISP, DIP – guidelines for maintainable software.

Q7. Explain Open/Closed Principle.

A: Classes should be open for extension, closed for modification.

Q8. What is Liskov Substitution Principle?

A: Subtypes should be replaceable for their base types without altering correctness.

Q9. What is Interface Segregation?

A: Clients should not be forced to depend on methods they don’t use.

Q10. What is Dependency Inversion?

A: High-level modules should depend on abstractions, not details.

Q11. What is Singleton Pattern?

A: Ensures a class has only one instance and provides a global access point.

Q12. Explain Factory Pattern.

A: Provides a way to create objects without exposing creation logic.

Q13. Explain Repository Pattern.

A: Abstraction over data layer for cleaner separation of concerns.

Q14. Difference between .NET Framework and .NET Core?

A: .NET Framework is Windows-only, .NET Core is cross-platform.

Q15. What is CLR?

A: Common Language Runtime – manages code execution in .NET.

Q16. What is CTS?

A: Common Type System – defines how types are declared and used.

Q17. What is CLS?

A: Common Language Specification – ensures interoperability among .NET languages.

Q18. What is Garbage Collection?

A: Automatic memory management that reclaims unused objects.

Q19. What is JIT Compiler?

A: Just-In-Time compiler compiles IL code to native code at runtime.

Q20. Explain Delegates.

A: Type-safe function pointers used for callbacks and event handling.

Q21. What are Events?

A: Special delegates used for publisher-subscriber model.

Q22. What is LINQ?

A: Language Integrated Query for querying collections, databases, XML.

Q23. Difference between IEnumerable and IQueryable?

A: IEnumerable executes queries in memory, IQueryable executes at database/server side.

Q24. What are Extension Methods?

A: Static methods that extend existing types without modifying them.

Q25. What are Generics?

A: Allow type safety and code reusability without boxing/unboxing.

Q26. What is Dependency Injection?

A: Providing dependencies from outside the class instead of creating inside.
Q27. Types of Dependency Injection?
A: Constructor, Property, Method Injection.

Q28. What is IoC Container?

A: Framework for managing dependencies (Autofac, Unity, built-in DI in .NET Core).

Q29. What is Entity Framework?

A: ORM that maps database tables to .NET objects.

Q30. Difference between Code First and Database First in EF?

A: Code First starts with classes, Database First starts with schema.

Q31. What is Lazy Loading?

A: Data is loaded on demand when accessed.

Q32. What is Eager Loading?

A: Data is preloaded with main query using Include().

Q33. What is Explicit Loading?

A: Manually loading related entities using Load() method.

Q34. What are EF migrations?

A: Way to evolve database schema along with model changes.

Q35. How do you optimize performance in .NET?

A: Use caching, async/await, minimize boxing, optimize LINQ queries.

Q36. What are Value types vs Reference types?

A: Value types store data directly, Reference types store references.

Q37. Difference between Struct and Class?

A: Struct is value type, lightweight; Class is reference type, supports inheritance.

Q38. What is Boxing and Unboxing?

A: Boxing: converting value type to object; Unboxing: reverse.

Q39. What are Async/Await?

A: Keywords for asynchronous programming with tasks.

Q40. What is Task vs Thread?

A: Task represents async operations, Thread is OS-level execution unit.
Q41. How do you secure APIs?
A: Use HTTPS, JWT, OAuth2, API keys, role-based authorization.

Q42. What is OAuth2?

A: Authorization protocol for delegated access without sharing credentials.

Q43. What is JWT?

A: JSON Web Token used for securely transmitting claims between parties.

Q44. What is CORS?

A: Cross-Origin Resource Sharing – allows APIs to be accessed from different domains.

Q45. What is DevOps?

A: Culture/practice for continuous integration, delivery, and deployment.

Q46. How do you deploy .NET Core app to IIS?

A: Publish → Install Hosting Bundle → Configure IIS site → Point to folder.

Q47. What is CI/CD?

A: Continuous Integration/Delivery – automate builds, tests, and deployments.

Q48. What logging frameworks are used?

A: Serilog, NLog, log4net, Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.

Q49. What is Application Insights?

A: Azure service for monitoring performance, usage, failures.

Q50. How do you handle errors in .NET?

A: Try/catch, global exception handling middleware, logging frameworks.

Q51. What is a Primary Key?

A: A column or set of columns that uniquely identifies a row.

Q52. What is a Foreign Key?

A: A column that creates a relationship between two tables.

Q53. What is a Unique Key?

A: Ensures all values in a column are distinct but allows one NULL.

Q54. What is a Composite Key?

A: A key made up of multiple columns.

Q55. Difference between Stored Procedure and Function?

A: SP can return multiple values, Function must return single value.

Q56. What is Referential Integrity?

A: Maintaining consistency across tables using foreign keys.

Q57. What is a View?

A: Virtual table based on result of SQL query.

Q58. What is an Index?

A: Database object to speed up data retrieval.

Q59. Difference between Clustered and Non-Clustered Index?

A: Clustered defines physical order of data, Non-clustered is separate structure with pointer.

Q60. What are disadvantages of indexes?

A: Extra storage, slower writes (insert/update/delete).

Q61. What are Joins?

A: Combining data from multiple tables based on relationships.

Q62. Explain INNER JOIN.

A: Returns only matching rows from both tables.

Q63. Explain LEFT JOIN.

A: Returns all rows from left table and matching from right.

Q64. Explain RIGHT JOIN.

A: Returns all rows from right table and matching from left.

Q65. Explain FULL OUTER JOIN.

A: Returns all rows from both tables, with NULLs where no match.

Q66. Difference between UNION and UNION ALL?

A: UNION removes duplicates, UNION ALL keeps all records.

Q67. What is a Subquery?

A: Query within another query.
Q68. Difference between Correlated and Non-Correlated Subquery?
A: Correlated depends on outer query, Non-correlated executes independently.

Q69. What is a CTE?

A: Common Table Expression – temporary result set for queries.

Q70. What are Window Functions?

A: Functions like ROW_NUMBER, RANK, PARTITION for analytics.

Q71. How do you optimize SQL queries?

A: Indexes, avoid SELECT *, use EXISTS, analyze execution plan.

Q72. What is Execution Plan?

A: Shows how SQL Server executes a query, helps in tuning.

Q73. Difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE?

A: DELETE removes rows with condition, TRUNCATE removes all rows faster.

Q74. Difference between DROP and TRUNCATE?

A: DROP removes table structure, TRUNCATE removes only data.

Q75. What is Normalization?

A: Process of organizing DB to reduce redundancy.

Q76. Explain 1NF, 2NF, 3NF.

A: 1NF: Atomic values, 2NF: No partial dependency, 3NF: No transitive dependency.

Q77. What is Denormalization?

A: Adding redundancy for faster reads.

Q78. What is ACID property?

A: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability in transactions.

Q79. What is a Transaction?

A: Sequence of operations performed as a single logical unit of work.

Q80. Difference between Commit and Rollback?

A: Commit saves changes, Rollback undoes them.

Q81. What is Deadlock?

A: Two processes waiting for each other’s locks, causing halt.
Q82. How to resolve Deadlocks?
A: Use shorter transactions, consistent locking order, avoid unnecessary locks.

Q83. What is Isolation Level?

A: Defines how transaction integrity is visible to other transactions.

Q84. Difference between Read Committed and Repeatable Read?

A: Read Committed allows non-repeatable reads, Repeatable Read prevents it.

Q85. What is Serializable Isolation?

A: Highest level – prevents phantom reads.

Q86. What are Triggers?

A: Procedures that execute automatically in response to events.

Q87. Difference between AFTER and INSTEAD OF Trigger?

A: AFTER fires after operation, INSTEAD OF replaces it.

Q88. What is a Cursor?

A: Allows row-by-row processing of result sets.

Q89. When to avoid Cursors?

A: When set-based operations can be used, as cursors are slow.

Q90. What are Stored Procedures?

A: Precompiled SQL statements that improve performance and reusability.

Q91. Advantages of Stored Procedures?

A: Better performance, security, reusability, modularity.

Q92. What are Functions?

A: Return a single value, can be used in queries.

Q93. Difference between Scalar and Table-Valued Function?

A: Scalar returns single value, Table-Valued returns table.

Q94. What are Linked Servers?

A: Allow SQL Server to query remote databases.

Q95. What is Database Migration?

A: Process of moving schema/data from one DB to another.

Q96. How do you handle User Access Control?

A: Granting roles, privileges, using GRANT, REVOKE, DENY.

Q97. What is SQL Injection?

A: Attack by injecting malicious SQL code into queries.

Q98. How do you prevent SQL Injection?

A: Use parameterized queries, stored procedures, ORM frameworks.