Interviewers FAQ's

SC Ganes:

1. Count all hidden files in current directory and subfolders?

bash

find . -type f -name ".*" | wc -l

 

2.I want to check MIN,MAX and AVG salary by department ?

 

SELECT department,

       MIN(salary) AS min_salary,

       MAX(salary) AS max_salary,

       AVG(salary) AS avg_salary

FROM employees

GROUP BY department;

 

3.What is ITIL

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is the world’s most widely used framework for IT Service Management (ITSM). It provides a set of best practices, processes, and guidelines to help organizations design, deliver, manage, and continually improve IT services so they align with business needs.

 

4.What is incident cycle

 

Triggered>Ack>>verified>categorized/prioritized >investigate>RCA>documents.

 

 Acknowledge > Verify>Assess >Investigate>Identify>Engage>Coordinate>Fix>Validate>communicate>document >preventive

 

5.What is Incident ?

In ITIL and IT Service Management, an incident is defined as any unplanned interruption to an IT service, or a reduction in the quality of that service.

An incident is something that disrupts normal operations — it could be a system crash, a failed transaction, a network outage, or even slow application performance.

 

6. write a query to get the duplicate values from the table

 

SELECT *

FROM Employee

WHERE Empname IN (

  SELECT Empnane

  FROM Employee

  GROUP BY Empname

  HAVING COUNT(*) > 1

);

 

 

 

WITH Duplicates AS

 

(

SELECT id, empname,

ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY empname order by id desc) as rnk

 

FROM employee

)

 

DELETE FROM employee

WHERE id IN

(

SELECT id

FROM Duplicates

WHERE rnk >1

)

 

 

Total orders who belongs to USA and their total spending

 

 

SELECT

c.cid,

c.cname,

c.city

COALESCE(SUM(o.amt),0) as Total_spending

FROM

Customer c

LEFT JOIN Orders o

ON

o.cid =c.cid

WHERE CITY = 'USA'

Group by c.city, c.cid ,c.cname

ORDER BY Total_spending desc;

 

 

7.more than one duplicate record

SELECT column_name, COUNT(*) AS count

FROM table_name

GROUP BY column_name

HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;

8. Compare b/w windows and Unix system
9. VMWare checks
10. What approach you follow When resolve an issue on your own, I follow a structured approach that ensures I don’t miss critical details and can reach a sustainable solution. Here’s the general framework I use:
• Identify the root cause
• Break the problem into smaller parts
• Apply a fix step by step
• Test thoroughly
• Document and prevent recurrence
11. What is Encryption
• Definition: Encryption scrambles data so it looks random and unreadable without the correct key.
• Purpose: Ensures confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation of information.
• Result
• is the process of transforming readable data (plaintext) into an unreadable format (ciphertext) using mathematical algorithms and keys, so that only authorized parties can access the original information. It’s one of the cornerstones of cybersecurity.

 

12. What are the command used
13. How to check connectivity b/w two systems
14. How do you check performance issue

Load → CPU → Memory → Disk → Network → Processes → Logs

 

top -b -n1 | head -n 5 && free -m && iostat -xz 1 1

🔎 What it does:

• top -b -n1 | head -n 5 → Shows system load and top CPU usage summary.
• free -m → Displays memory usage in MB.
• iostat -xz 1 1 → Gives disk I/O utilization stats.

👉 Run this single command, and you’ll immediately see CPU, memory, and disk health in one shot.

 

 

15.What is enterprise 

Its a production

 

16.How the DNS flow

 

Browser → OS Cache → Hosts File → Recursive Resolver

        → Root Servers → TLD Servers → Authoritative Servers

        → IP Address → Browser connects to Google

 

17.Root and intermediate certificate

Root CA (trusted in OS/browser)

   ↓ signs

Intermediate CA

   ↓ signs

Server Certificate (google.com)

 

• Root certificates = ultimate trust anchors.
• Intermediate certificates = middle layer that links root to server.
• Server certificates = what websites present to prove their identity.
• Private Key: Never changes unless you regenerate it. Keep it secure.
• Intermediate Certificates: Always install the full chain (root + intermediate + server cert).
• Automation: Tools like Let’s Encrypt + Certbot can auto‑renew certificates every 90 days.
• Monitoring: Set alerts for expiry (e.g., 30 days before) to avoid outages.

 

18.Binary and canary Aspect	Canary Deployment	Binary Deployment
Focus	Rollout strategy (who gets updates first)	Packaging strategy (how code is delivered)
Risk Management	Limits exposure to small group	Ensures consistency across environments
Rollout Style	Gradual, monitored rollout	One binary deployed everywhere
Example	New feature to 5% users first	Deploying same .jar file to all server

• Canary = gradual rollout to reduce risk.
• Binary = consistent deployment of compiled executables.

 

19.Archive older than 7”, I’ll assume you mean archiving files/logs/data older than 7 days

 

find /path/to/logs -type f -mtime +7

 

find /path/to/logs -type f -mtime +7 -exec tar -rvf archive.tar {} \;

 

find /path/to/logs -type f -mtime +7 -exec mv {} /path/to/archive/ \;

 

0 2 * * * /home/user/archive_logs.sh automation

 

 

Identify files → Filter older than 7 days → Compress/Move → Automate

 

20.Kubernetes  vs OpenShift

• Kubernetes is unopinionated: it gives you primitives (pods, deployments, services) and expects you to build your own ecosystem (CI/CD, monitoring, logging).
• OpenShift is opinionated: it ships with a curated set of enterprise features, making it easier to run production workloads without stitching together multiple tools.
• Analogy: Kubernetes is like a DIY kit; OpenShift is the finished product with warranty and support

 

What is SLA, SLO and SLI ?

 

• SLI = The speedometer (actual measurement).
• SLO = Your target speed (e.g., drive at 60 km/h).
• SLA = The law/contract (e.g., speed limit is 80 km/h, fines if you exceed).

👉 In short:

SLI = What you measure.

SLO = What you aim for.

SLI → Measurement (e.g., uptime 99.96%)

SLO → Target (e.g., uptime ≥ 99.95%)

SLA → Contract (e.g., uptime ≥ 99.9% or penalties apply)

 

SLA = What you promise to customers.

 

Mphasis

 

1. What is the soft link and hard link
2. What is the difference between Kubernetes and OpenShift
3. Have you done automation

 

1. Write a query second highest salary
2. Write a query to find the all employee  in each department
3. SPL queries to check the error frequent in 4 hours from last 7 days
4. What is diff monitoring and observability
5. What incident and problem
6. What are the tools used for scheduling and if the Control_M job failed what is your action
7. I want to check particular pid based the process
8. Awk and what is the use
9. How many joins required for 4 tables data retrieve
10. Delete and truncate
11. What is the use of Geneos
12. How frequent used monitoring tools and what are there

 

Here’s how you can design a Splunk dashboard that tracks the three conditions you mentioned:

1. Threshold > 85% (e.g., CPU, Memory, or Disk usage)
2. Database connection failures
3. Feeds not delivered

🔧 Splunk Queries for Each Panel

1. Threshold > 85%

 

SPL:

index=infra_logs sourcetype=system_metrics metric_name IN ("cpu_usage","memory_usage","disk_usage")

| eval threshold_exceeded=if(value>85,"Yes","No")

| stats count BY host, metric_name, threshold_exceeded

| where threshold_exceeded="Yes"

👉 This panel highlights servers crossing the 85% threshold.

2. Database Connection Failed

 

SPL:

index=db_logs sourcetype=db_errors "connection failed"

| stats count BY db_name, host

👉 Shows how many times each database connection failed.

3. Feeds Not Delivered

SPL:

index=app_event sourcetype=feed_logs status="FAILED" OR status="NOT_DELIVERED"

| stats count BY feed_name, host

👉 Displays failed feed deliveries grouped by feed name.

 

What are the commands used in Unix?

File Operations

 

pwd               # Current directory

ls -lrt           # List files by time

cd                # Change directory

mkdir             # Create directory

rm -rf            # Remove directory/files

cp                # Copy files

mv                # Move files

View Logs

cat filename

less filename

more filename

head -20 file.log

tail -100 file.log

tail -f application.log

Search Logs

grep ERROR app.log

grep -i exception app.log

grep -rn "ORA-" .

find / -name "*.log"

find . -mtime -1

Process Management

 

ps -ef

ps -ef | grep java

top

kill PID

kill -9 PID

Disk Space

 

df -h

du -sh *

du -sh logs

Memory & CPU

 

free -m

vmstat

iostat

sar

uptime

Network

 

ping hostname

nslookup hostname

telnet host port

nc -zv host port

netstat -tulpn

ss -tulpn

Permissions

 

chmod 755 file

chown user:group file

Compression

 

tar -cvf backup.tar folder

tar -xvf backup.tar

gzip file

gunzip file.gz

Services

 

systemctl status service

systemctl restart service

journalctl -u service

 

How do work with multiple p1 tickets

How to  prioritize the critical tickets

What are the tools used? Monitoring

Have do you work with SLA

 

2. How do you work with multiple P1 tickets?

Interview Answer

"When multiple P1 incidents occur simultaneously, I first assess the business impact of each incident.

I identify:

• Which application is completely down.
• Number of users affected.
• Financial or regulatory impact.
• Whether batch processing is impacted.
• SLA breach risk.

If needed, I inform the Incident Manager and request additional bridge calls.

I take ownership of the most business-critical incident while coordinating other P1s with team members. I ensure stakeholders receive timely updates every 15–30 minutes and document all actions in ServiceNow.

My objective is to restore service as quickly as possible while maintaining clear communication."

 

3. How do you prioritize critical tickets?

Priority Matrix

Priority	Example	Action
P1	Production outage	Immediate action
P2	Major functionality affected	Within SLA
P3	Minor issue	Business hours
P4	Service request	Planned

If multiple P1s exist

Prioritize based on:

1. Production down
2. Customer impact
3. Financial impact
4. Regulatory impact
5. Number of users affected
6. SLA expiry
7. Executive escalation

Example:

If SimCorp is down and Client Reporting has a report delay, I prioritize SimCorp because trading has stopped and business impact is higher.

 

4. What monitoring tools have you used?

Mention only tools you've actually worked with.

Infrastructure Monitoring

• Geneos
• Grafana
• Dynatrace
• Azure Monitor

Log Monitoring

• Splunk

Batch Monitoring

• Control-M
• Cockpit

Database

• SQL Developer
• Oracle

Cloud

• Azure Portal

 

Interview Answer

"I use Geneos for infrastructure and application health monitoring, Grafana and Dynatrace for performance metrics, Splunk for log analysis, and Control-M/Cockpit for monitoring batch jobs. I also use SQL Developer for database validation and Azure Portal to monitor application resources."

 

5. How do you work with SLA?

Interview Answer

"SLA stands for Service Level Agreement. It defines the expected response and resolution times for incidents.

As an L2 Production Support Engineer, I ensure incidents are acknowledged and worked on within SLA timelines.

For example:

• P1: Immediate response, continuous work until service is restored.
• P2: Response within defined SLA, usually within 15–30 minutes.
• P3/P4: Addressed during business hours based on priority.

To meet SLAs, I:

• Continuously monitor queues.
• Acknowledge tickets immediately.
• Start troubleshooting without delay.
• Escalate early if vendor or L3 support is required.
• Provide regular updates to stakeholders.
• Document all actions in ServiceNow.

This approach helps prevent SLA breaches and ensures transparent communication."

 

Strong Interview Response (1-minute summary)

"In my current role, I use Unix commands daily for log analysis, process management, disk and memory checks, and service validation. I monitor applications using Geneos, Grafana, Dynatrace, Splunk, and Control-M. When multiple P1 incidents occur, I prioritize them based on business impact, customer impact, financial risk, and SLA commitments. I coordinate with the Incident Manager, L3 teams, and infrastructure teams while keeping stakeholders informed with regular updates. My focus is always to restore services quickly, meet SLA targets, and perform RCA to prevent recurrence."

This style of answer aligns well with L2 Production Support interviews at companies such as TCS, Infosys, Capgemini, Tech Mahindra, Accenture, Cognizant, and HCLTech.

 

JPM chage

 

1. What MFT and what does it in your prospective
2. How do you manage the critical failure
3. What is difference between FTPS vs SFTP and brief about it
4. What is the tool your using for MFT and elaborate
5. Do you to how do we setup new customer in MFT on Linux environment
6. How do you connect SFTP in Linux
7. What is PGP and where it comes
8. What is difference key based access and key authentication
9. What is the more secure protocol and why ?
10. And if we tell multiple  port /renewal FTPS , few questions raised
11. What is public key and private key?
12. What are the fields/requirements to setup the client?
13. What is cluster your using for MFT?

 

Scenario based

How do you quote the based on my request

 

1. Request is you should be contact with  Bank and setup the new account  /client in secure with using PGP encryption
2. What are requirement need from bank and how do you quote this  ?
3. What will be the keys used for encryption between them bank and you ?
4. What is the view of MFT  and where do you stand on that ?
5. What can be built to improve the process if you get this ?

 

Infosys

 

 

1. What is stiky bit
2. How do you do if you're not able to create a file with in folder
3. What is your approach for GitHub
4. If master branch code was wrong how do you know and what you will do ?
5. What is AIX
6. How do you act if critical incident came
7. How to find  slow queries
8.  if data duplicate received How to find the duplicate?
9. Which platform your working

 

1. What is Sticky Bit in Unix/Linux?

Answer:

Sticky bit is a special permission mainly used on directories like /tmp.

When sticky bit is enabled, users can create files in the directory, but they can delete or rename only their own files, even if they have write permission on the directory.

 

chmod +t /shared

Check:

 

ls -ld /shared

You may see:

 

drwxrwxrwt

The t at the end indicates the sticky bit.

Interview example:

/tmp is a common example. Multiple users can create files there, but one user cannot delete another user's files.

 

2. If you are not able to create a file inside a folder, what will you check?

I would troubleshoot it step by step:

 

pwd

ls -ld /folder

whoami

id

Then check:

1. Directory permissions

 

ls -ld /folder

Need w and x permission to create files.

2. Ownership

 

ls -ld /folder

Check whether my user/group owns the directory or has appropriate group access.

3. Disk space

 

df -h

4. Inode availability

 

df -i

5. Read-only filesystem

 

mount | grep /folder

or

 

touch /folder/test.txt

6. ACL

 

getfacl /folder

Interview answer:

I first check directory permissions, ownership and my user/group membership. Then I check filesystem space, inode utilization, read-only mount and ACLs. Based on the error, I involve the Unix or infrastructure team if permission changes are required.

 

3. What is your approach for GitHub?

For production support, I would follow a controlled Git workflow:

 

Clone/Pull

   ↓

Create Feature/Fix Branch

   ↓

Make Changes

   ↓

Commit

   ↓

Push

   ↓

Pull Request

   ↓

Code Review

   ↓

CI/CD Validation

   ↓

Merge

   ↓

Deployment

Typical commands:

 

git clone <repo>

git checkout main

git pull

git checkout -b fix/incident-12345

git status

git add .

git commit -m "Fix incident 12345"

git push origin fix/incident-12345

Then create a Pull Request, get review/approval and allow CI/CD checks before merging.

Important: I would not directly modify the production/main branch unless the organization's emergency process specifically allows it.

 

4. If the master/main branch code was wrong, how do you know and what will you do?

First, I would identify what changed and when.

 

git log --oneline

git log --stat

git show <commit-id>

git diff <commit1> <commit2>

I would also check the CI/CD pipeline and deployment history.

Approach:

• Identify the bad commit/change.
• Check the impact.
• Check whether production is affected.
• If production is impacted, follow the incident/change-management process.
• Roll back or revert the bad change if appropriate.
• Validate the application.
• Create a PR for the corrective change.
• Perform RCA and document preventive actions.

For a safe rollback:

 

git revert <commit-id>

Then push the revert through the normal PR/review process.

Interview point:

I prefer git revert for a shared branch because it creates a new commit that reverses the problematic change rather than rewriting shared history.

 

5. What is AIX?

AIX stands for Advanced Interactive eXecutive.

It is IBM's Unix operating system, primarily used on IBM Power systems.

It is different from Linux/RHEL.

Common AIX commands include:

ls

ps -ef

df -g

du -sk

topas

vmstat

iostat

errpt

lsdev

lspv

One important difference:

 

df -g

is commonly used for filesystem information in AIX, while on Linux we commonly use:

 

df -h

Interview answer:

AIX is IBM's proprietary Unix operating system, commonly running on IBM Power servers. I have Unix/Linux production-support experience, and the troubleshooting concepts such as process, filesystem, CPU, memory and network checks are similar, although the commands can differ.

 

6. What will you do when a critical incident comes?

For a P1/Critical incident, my approach is:

1. Acknowledge immediately

Understand:

• What is impacted?
• Which application?
• How many users?
• When did it start?
• Business impact?

2. Start the bridge/war room

Bring required teams:

• Application
• Unix/Linux
• DBA
• Network
• Cloud
• Middleware
• Vendor/L3

3. Perform quick health checks

 

uptime

top

free -m

df -h

ps -ef

Check application health, database connectivity, network connectivity and monitoring dashboards.

4. Analyze logs

Use:

 

grep

tail -f

and tools such as Splunk, Dynatrace, Grafana/Geneos.

5. Restore service first

Depending on the RCA:

• Restart failed service
• Clear disk space
• Restart pods
• Reprocess failed batch
• Fail over
• Apply approved workaround
• Execute emergency change if required

6. Validate

Confirm:

• Application is available
• Transactions work
• Database connectivity works
• Batch processing resumes
• Users/business confirm recovery

7. Communication

Provide regular updates to stakeholders.

8. RCA

After restoration, identify root cause and preventive action.

 

7. How do you find slow queries?

If it is an Oracle database, I would first identify the slow SQL.

For example:

 

SELECT sql_id,

       elapsed_time/1000000 AS elapsed_seconds,

       executions,

       sql_text

FROM v$sql

ORDER BY elapsed_time DESC

FETCH FIRST 10 ROWS ONLY;

Then investigate the SQL execution plan:

 

SELECT *

FROM TABLE(DBMS_XPLAN.DISPLAY_CURSOR('SQL_ID'));

I would check:

• Execution plan
• Full table scans
• Missing/inefficient indexes
• High CPU
• High I/O
• Blocking/locking
• Statistics
• Number of rows processed
• Database wait events

I would coordinate with the DBA before making production database changes.

 

8. If duplicate data is received, how do you find duplicates?

Suppose we have:

 

TRADES

and TRADE_ID should be unique.

 

SELECT trade_id, COUNT(*)

FROM trades

GROUP BY trade_id

HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;

This identifies duplicate TRADE_IDs.

If duplicate means a combination of fields, for example:

 

SELECT client_id, trade_date, instrument_id, COUNT(*)

FROM trades

GROUP BY client_id, trade_date, instrument_id

HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;

Then I would investigate:

1. Was the upstream feed sent twice?
2. Was the batch/job reprocessed?
3. Did the application retry the transaction?
4. Was there an ETL issue?
5. Was there a missing unique constraint?
6. Is the duplicate actually valid business data?

Important: I would not directly delete duplicate production records without business confirmation, backup/rollback consideration and an approved change.

 

9. Which platform are you working on?

 

I primarily work on a hybrid environment consisting of Azure cloud and on-premises infrastructure. On the application side, I support banking applications such as SimCorp and related services. My production-support activities include Unix/Linux, SQL/Oracle, Control-M batch scheduling, SFTP/MFT, monitoring tools such as Splunk, Dynatrace, Geneos and Grafana, and Azure infrastructure. I also work with on-premises servers and their connectivity with cloud environments.

⭐ 30-second version to memorize

I work in a hybrid banking environment with Azure cloud and on-premises infrastructure. I provide L2 production support for critical applications, handling Unix/Linux, Oracle SQL, Control-M batches, SFTP/MFT, monitoring through Splunk, Dynatrace, Geneos and Grafana, along with incident, problem and change management. For critical incidents, my priority is to understand business impact, engage the right resolver teams, restore service quickly, validate the application and then complete RCA and preventive actions.

 

 

 

BNP Paribas

 

1st Round

 

1. Tell me introduce yourself
2. As you mentioned what type regulatory reporting you deal with like EMIR ,stock exchange
3. Do you have idea about derivatives
4. What is end to process of trades
5. How do you automate the operational task
6. Write a script end to end for any type of automation
7. Unix shell script for >85 threshold
8. How to run the script and schedule?
9. What are the commands used in Linux and Unix
10. Waq find the duplicate record in sql
11. Waq use Dense_ rank find out the second highest salary
12. What is the difference between dense rank and rank
13. What is clustered index and non clustered index
14. What are the joins
15. Tell me about which you handled the p1 recently
16. Will you be comfortable to attend F2F in person

2nd Round

 

1. Tell me about yourself /start your intro
2. What you have done in the project
3. NAV calculation , what do you do in that ?
4. How do you validate if the trade came ?
5. How do you handled the if Application down  no values in Geneos as well ?
6. What you will do if batch job failed?
7. What is the trade life cycle?
8. What is issue  approach ?
9. 10 files out of 4 files received and processed , what you will do ?
10. What is DR and what is your doing in DR?
11. Can you tell how to execute the script ?
12. If database not reachable what you will do ?
13. If the process is slow what you will do ?
14. How do you compete yourself in 5 years  ?
15. How do your proof yourself? 
16. What is your action if your revive major incident it impact to  business and no one is available?
17. Can you write shell script to run the script every day and Mon to Fri having data and Saturday and Sunday without data it should run? No crontab used
18. Select * from A,B ? What is the o/p
19. Table A having 5 records and B having 10 what is the output?
20. What do you score yourself about SQL?

 

Persistent

 

1. How about Linux and windows?
2. How do you troubleshoot Linux environment when an issue occur?
3. How do you act when CPU 100% on Linux?
4. What is CPU usage and average load?
5. How do you act when Memory reached almost full and DISK?
6. Have you worked on YAML scrip on pods ?
7. Have you done RCA for code level?
8. What about joins and give an example for all joins
9. What is index and how  many types and explain it
10. What are the functions and procedures
11. Have you written plsql /sql queries?
12. Write a query to get empname and max salary département wise with DENSE_RANK and without?
13. If production job failed how do you troubleshoot?
14. Usually the query will take 2 min but today  its take more time and its still running , how do you troubleshoot?

 

Accurate:

 

1. Tell me about yourself , and roles and responsibilities and projects handled?
2. What about Ticketing and how do you handle it?
3. How do you approach for critical incidents?
4. What is your approach if file system full?
5. Write a query to find out the duplicate?
6. Waq to remove duplicate with keep one records?
7. Waq to use DENSE_RANK to find out the duplicate and delete them ?
8. Find out the top three  customers data?
9. What are the joins and explain it brief?
10. Union and Primary key difference?
11. Waq to find the customers who is having Highest orders  ?