MCSE and System Administrator Job Interview Questions

by Daniel Petri - January 8, 2009

Part 1 – Networking

In today's dynamic IT world many people might find themselves in a position where they are now looking to get a new or better job than they had up to that point in time. Getting your foot into the door is hard enough, and for that you need a well-written CV, not to mention the ability to make a good first impression on the potential phone conversation you might get. However, getting the foot in the door is just the first step of actually getting the job. In most cases you should now expect to be interviewed by an experienced IT Professional, perhaps even the same one that you're going to replace, or the one you're going to work under.
Most technical interviews will be related to the job-specific tasks you're supposed to apply for, therefore not all technical interviews are alike. However, applying for a Microsoft-related IT position has some benefits, as most of the information can be found on the Internet (not to mention this website). Needless to say, you should NOT apply for a job you're not qualified to perform, but as we all know, this recommendation is hardly ever followed by people who sometimes falsify their so-called experience and pretend to have knowledge they do not actually have. Here is where the interviewer's role comes into place, and where true knowledge can be placed apart from various wannabes or fakers.
Here is part 1 of Daniel Petri's (long and thorough) MCSE/IT Pro/System Administrator job interview questions sample. Note that this is only a sample of what I might ask a potential candidate, however I think that I've covered most of the basic and non-basic issues. Answering this list in a satisfactory way will give you a pretty good chance to impress your potential interviewer, especially if that person really knows a thing or two about these issues.
This article is in fact targeted at both the interviewer (who needs a pool of valid questions they can ask) and to the candidate (who wants a pool of sample questions they can prepare for). Needless to say, both MUST know what they're talking about. Having an interviewer that knows nothing about the questions they ask should be punishable by law! :)
I did not prepare a passing score chart for my interview questions, as I feel that it is the responsibility of the interviewer to get the "right" feel from the candidate. Passing with a hard coded score of 70% does not qualify you, it's the general feeling I get from asking the questions, looking at the candidate's ability to answer them and the way he or she copes with questions that they cannot answer.
Also, although I consider these questions as a thorough verbal test for the candidate's knowledge, in most cases, when he or she passes this phase, I will also ask them to perform an actual hands-on lab based on my written exercises. I might also include these in a future part of this session.
I have deliberately left out the answers to these questions. I want YOU to research them and take the time to actually learn these topics, if you don't know them already.
Another question that came up from some readers was whether I was not afraid to disclose these questions publicly, as some candidates reading this site will quickly copy the questions and use them to get prepared in advance for the interview. My answer to that is THAT IS EXACTLY THE POINT! I want the candidate to know what they're here for, and the more prepared they are, the better their knowledge is. The "cheating" candidate that will only learn the answers by heart (like "Paper MCSEs" do today) will have no chance of passing my hands-on exam anyway.
Most sub topics start off with relatively easy questions where the candidate is supposed to demonstrate their knowledge on that topic. A few sentences will be enough to show their (lack of) knowledge on the topic.
I know some of these questions might make you feel like I am digging in too deep. Well, although this might be true for some questions, I always proceed with the interview in a dynamic way, which means I will add more questions on a topic or reduce the level of questions based on the candidate's ability to answer previous questions. Much like ADAPTIVE TESTING that was used in some past Microsoft exams. For example, when asking a candidate about DNS he demonstrated very limited knowledge of the basic meaning of the service and what it was used for. There was no point in trying to ask him about Round Robin, knowing that since he did not know what SRV Records were, what was an AD Integrated Zone, what were Zone Transfers and so on, he will probably not know the answers to the more advanced questions. Oh, and in case you wanted to ask – he was not accepted for that specific job…
In part 1 of this article series I will cover Microsoft Networking issues. As always, your comments and feedbacks are more than welcome. Use the "Feedback" form to send them in. If you're using this interview question sample in your own environment please drop me a line telling me how it works for you. Also, placing a link to my site and giving me credit for my work is expected.

Technical Interview Questions – Networking

• What is an IP address?
• What is a subnet mask?
• What is ARP?
• What is ARP Cache Poisoning?
• What is the ANDing process?
• What is a default gateway? What happens if I don't have one?
• Can a workstation computer be configured to browse the Internet and yet NOT have a default gateway?
• What is a subnet?
• What is APIPA?
• What is an RFC? Name a few if possible (not necessarily the numbers, just the ideas behind them)
• What is RFC 1918?
• What is CIDR?
• You have the following Network ID: 192.115.103.64/27. What is the IP range for your network?
• You have the following Network ID: 131.112.0.0. You need at least 500 hosts per network. How many networks can you create? What subnet mask will you use?
• You need to view at network traffic. What will you use? Name a few tools
• How do I know the path that a packet takes to the destination?
• What does the ping 192.168.0.1 -l 1000 -n 100 command do?
• What is DHCP? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using it?
• Describe the steps taken by the client and DHCP server in order to obtain an IP address.
• What is the DHCPNACK and when do I get one? Name 2 scenarios.
• What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients?
• Describe the process of installing a DHCP server in an AD infrastructure.
• What is DHCPINFORM?
• Describe the integration between DHCP and DNS.
• What options in DHCP do you regularly use for an MS network?
• What are User Classes and Vendor Classes in DHCP?
• How do I configure a client machine to use a specific User Class?
• What is the BOOTP protocol used for, where might you find it in Windows network infrastructure?
• DNS zones – describe the differences between the 4 types.
• DNS record types – describe the most important ones.
• Describe the process of working with an external domain name
• Describe the importance of DNS to AD.
• Describe a few methods of finding an MX record for a remote domain on the Internet.
• What does "Disable Recursion" in DNS mean?
• What could cause the Forwarders and Root Hints to be grayed out?
• What is a "Single Label domain name" and what sort of issues can it cause?
• What is the "in-addr.arpa" zone used for?
• What are the requirements from DNS to support AD?
• How do you manually create SRV records in DNS?
• Name 3 benefits of using AD-integrated zones.
• What are the benefits of using Windows 2003 DNS when using AD-integrated zones?
• You installed a new AD domain and the new (and first) DC has not registered its SRV records in DNS. Name a few possible causes.
• What are the benefits and scenarios of using Stub zones?
• What are the benefits and scenarios of using Conditional Forwarding?
• What are the differences between Windows Clustering, Network Load Balancing and Round Robin, and scenarios for each use?
• How do I work with the Host name cache on a client computer?
• How do I clear the DNS cache on the DNS server?
• What is the 224.0.1.24 address used for?
• What is WINS and when do we use it?
• Can you have a Microsoft-based network without any WINS server on it? What are the "considerations" regarding not using WINS?
• Describe the differences between WINS push and pull replications.
• What is the difference between tombstoning a WINS record and simply deleting it?
• Name the NetBIOS names you might expect from a Windows 2003 DC that is registered in WINS.
• Describe the role of the routing table on a host and on a router.
• What are routing protocols? Why do we need them? Name a few.
• What are router interfaces? What types can they be?
• In Windows 2003 routing, what are the interface filters?
• What is NAT?
• What is the real difference between NAT and PAT?
• How do you configure NAT on Windows 2003?
• How do you allow inbound traffic for specific hosts on Windows 2003 NAT?
• What is VPN? What types of VPN does Windows 2000 and beyond work with natively?
• What is IAS? In what scenarios do we use it?
• What's the difference between Mixed mode and Native mode in AD when dealing with RRAS?
• What is the "RAS and IAS" group in AD?
• What are Conditions and Profile in RRAS Policies?
• What types or authentication can a Windows 2003 based RRAS work with?
• How does SSL work?
• How does IPSec work?
• How do I deploy IPSec for a large number of computers?
• What types of authentication can IPSec use?
• What is PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) in IPSec?
• How do I monitor IPSec?
• Looking at IPSec-encrypted traffic with a sniffer. What packet types do I see?
• What can you do with NETSH?
• How do I look at the open ports on my machine?


Part 2 – Active Directory

Technical Interview Questions – Active Directory
• What is Active Directory?
• What is LDAP?
• Can you connect Active Directory to other 3rd-party Directory Services? Name a few options.
• Where is the AD database held? What other folders are related to AD?
• What is the SYSVOL folder?
• Name the AD NCs and replication issues for each NC
• What are application partitions? When do I use them
• How do you create a new application partition
• How do you view replication properties for AD partitions and DCs?
• What is the Global Catalog?
• How do you view all the GCs in the forest?
• Why not make all DCs in a large forest as GCs?
• Trying to look at the Schema, how can I do that?
• What are the Support Tools? Why do I need them?
• What is LDP? What is REPLMON? What is ADSIEDIT? What is NETDOM? What is REPADMIN?
• What are sites? What are they used for?
• What's the difference between a site link's schedule and interval?
• What is the KCC?
• What is the ISTG? Who has that role by default?
• What are the requirements for installing AD on a new server?
• What can you do to promote a server to DC if you're in a remote location with slow WAN link?
• How can you forcibly remove AD from a server, and what do you do later? • Can I get user passwords from the AD database?
• What tool would I use to try to grab security related packets from the wire?
• Name some OU design considerations.
• What is tombstone lifetime attribute?
• What do you do to install a new Windows 2003 DC in a Windows 2000 AD?
• What do you do to install a new Windows 2003 R2 DC in a Windows 2003 AD?
• How would you find all users that have not logged on since last month?
• What are the DS* commands?
• What's the difference between LDIFDE and CSVDE? Usage considerations?
• What are the FSMO roles? Who has them by default? What happens when each one fails?
• What FSMO placement considerations do you know of?
• I want to look at the RID allocation table for a DC. What do I do?
• What's the difference between transferring a FSMO role and seizing one? Which one should you NOT seize? Why?
• How do you configure a "stand-by operation master" for any of the roles?
• How do you backup AD?
• How do you restore AD?
• How do you change the DS Restore admin password?
• Why can't you restore a DC that was backed up 4 months ago?
• What are GPOs?
• What is the order in which GPOs are applied?
• Name a few benefits of using GPMC.
• What are the GPC and the GPT? Where can I find them?
• What are GPO links? What special things can I do to them?
• What can I do to prevent inheritance from above?
• How can I override blocking of inheritance?
• How can you determine what GPO was and was not applied for a user? Name a few ways to do that.
• A user claims he did not receive a GPO, yet his user and computer accounts are in the right OU, and everyone else there gets the GPO. What will you look for?
• Name a few differences in Vista GPOs
• Name some GPO settings in the computer and user parts.
• What are administrative templates?
• What's the difference between software publishing and assigning?
• Can I deploy non-MSI software with GPO?
• You want to standardize the desktop environments (wallpaper, My Documents, Start menu, printers etc.) on the computers in one department. How would you do that?

Part 3 – Exchange

Technical Interview Questions – Exchange 2003
• Tell me a bit about the capabilities of Exchange Server.
• What are the different Exchange 2003 versions?
• What's the main differences between Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000/2003?
• What are the major network infrastructure for installing Exchange 2003?
• What is the latest Exchange 2003 Service Pack? Name a few changes in functionality in that SP.
• What are the disk considerations when installing Exchange (RAID types, locations and so on).
• You got a new HP DL380 (2U) server, dual Xeon, 4GB of RAM, 7 SAS disks, 64-bit. What do you do next to install Exchange 2003? (you have AD in place)
• Why not install Exchange on the same machine as a DC?
• Are there any other installation considerations?
• How would you prepare the AD Schema in advance before installing Exchange?
• What type or permissions do you need in order to install the first Exchange server in a forest? In a domain?
• How would you verify that the schema was in fact updated?
• What type of memory optimization changes could you do for Exchange 2003?
• How would you check your Exchange configuration settings to see if they're right?
• What are the Exchange management tools? How and where can you install them?
• What types of permissions are configurable for Exchange?
• How can you grant access for an administrator to access all mailboxes on a specific server?
• What is the Send As permission?
• What other management tools are used to manage and control Exchange 2003? Name the tools you'd use.
• What are Exchange Recipient types? Name 5.
• You created a mailbox for a user, yet the mailbox does not appear in ESM. Why?
• You wanted to change mailbox access permissions for a mailbox, yet you see the SELF permission alone on the permissions list. Why?
• What are Query Based Distribution groups?
• What type of groups would you use when configuring distribution groups in a multiple domain forest?
• Name a few configuration options for Exchange recipients.
• What's the difference between Exchange 2003 Std. and Ent. editions when related to storage options and size?
• Name a few configuration options related to mailbox stores.
• What are System Public Folders? Where would you find them?
• How would you plan and configure Public Folder redundancy?
• How can you immediately stop PF replication?
• How can you prevent PF referral across slow WAN links?
• What types of PF management tools might you use?
• What are the differences between administrative permissions and client permissions in PF?
• How can you configure PF replication from the command prompt in Exchange 2003?
• What are the message hygiene options you can use natively in Exchange 2003?
• What are the configuration options in IMF?
• What are virtual servers? When would you use more than one?
• Name some of the SMTP Virtual Server configuration options.
• What is a Mail Relay? Name a few known mail relay software or hardware options.
• What is a Smart Host? Where would you configure it?
• What are Routing Groups? When would you use them?
• What are the types of Connectors you can use in Exchange?
• What is the cost option in Exchange connectors?
• What is the Link State Table? How would you view it?
• How would you configure mail transfer security between 2 routing groups?
• What is the Routing Group Master? Who holds that role?
• Explain the configuration steps required to allow Exchange 2003 to send and receive email from the Internet (consider a one-site multiple server scenario).
• What is DS2MB?
• What is Forms Based Authentication?
• How would you configure OWA's settings on an Exchange server?
• What is DSACCESS?
• What are Recipient Policies?
• How would you work with multiple recipient policies?
• What is the "issue" with trying to remove email addresses added by recipient policies? How would you fix that?
• What is the RUS?
• When would you need to manually create additional RUS?
• What are Address Lists?
• How would you modify the filter properties of one of the default address lists?
• How can you create multiple GALs and allow the users to only see the one related to them?
• What is a Front End server? In what scenarios would you use one?
• What type of authentication is used on the front end servers?
• When would you use NLB?
• How would you achieve incoming mail redundancy?
• What are the 4 types of Exchange backups?
• What is the Dial-Tone server scenario?
• When would you use offline backup?
• How do you re-install Exchange on a server that has crashed but with AD intact?
• What is the dumpster?
• What are the e00xxxxx.log files?
• What is the e00.chk file?
• What is circular logging? When would you use it?
• What's the difference between online and offline defrag?
• How would you know if it is time to perform an offline defrag of your Exchange stores?
• How would you plan for, and perform the offline defrag?
• What is the eseutil command?
• What is the isinteg command?
• How would you monitor Exchange's services and performance? Name 2 or 3 options.
• Name all the client connection options in Exchange 2003.
• What is Direct Push? What are the requirements to run it?
• How would you remote wipe a PPC?
• What are the issues with connecting Outlook from a remote computer to your mailbox?
• How would you solve those issues? Name 2 or 3 methods
• What is RPC over HTTP? What are the requirements to run it?
• What is Cached Mode in OL2003/2007?
• What are the benefits and "issues" when using cached mode? How would you tackle those issues?
• What is S/MIME? What are the usage scenarios for S/MIME?
• What are the IPSec usage scenarios for Exchange 2003?
• How do you enable SSL on OWA?
• What are the considerations for obtaining a digital certificate for SSL on Exchange?
• Name a few 3rd-party CAs.
• What do you need to consider when using a client-type AV software on an Exchange server?
• What are the different clustering options in Exchange 2003? Which one would you choose and why.

PC Hardware

• What is FSB?
• What are Vcore and Vi/o?
• On what type of socket can you install a Pentium 4 CPU?
• What is SMP?
• Which Intel and AMD processors support SMP?
• How do LGA sockets differ from PGA and SEC?
• What is the difference between Pentium 4 and Pentium Core 2 Duo? Explain the new technology.
• How does IRQ priority works?
• What technology enables you to upgrade your computer's BIOS by simply using a software?
• What happens if you dissemble the battery located on the Mother-Board?
• How do L1, L2, and L3 work?
• How should we install RAM on a Dual-Channel Motherboard?
• What is the advantage of serial over parallel bus?
• Is USB using serial or parallel bus? What about Firewire?
• How much power is supplied to each USB port?
• When should you change your bus-powered USB hub to a self-powered USB hub?
• What is a UPS?
• What is the difference between standby and online UPS?
• What is LBA (in Hard-Disks)?
• How many Hard Disks can you install on an E-IDE controller?
• Can you configure two hard disks to use the Master setting on the same PC?
• What is the difference between Narrow-SCSI and Wide-SCSI?
• What is SAS?
• What are the three main reasons for using RAID?
• Is RAID 0 considered to be a redundant Solution? Why?
• How many disks can be used for RAID 1?
• How RAID 5 works?
• What is the smallest number of disks required for RAID5?
• What other types of RAID do you know?
• What are the six steps for laser printing?
• What is the difference between PCI-EX x1 and PCI-EX x16?

Microsoft-based Operating Systems
• What is the difference between a workgroup and a domain?
• What are the major advantages of working in a domain model?
• What types of operating system installation methods do you know?
• What is an answer file?
• How would you create an answer file for Windows XP? How would you create one for Windows Vista?
• How do you perform an unattended installation on Windows XP?
• What is Sysprep?
• How do you use Sysprep?
• What is the major difference between Newsid and Sysprep?
• What is the function of the pagefile.sys file?
• What is the function of the hiberfil.sys file?
• What is the Registry?
• How can you edit the Registry? Name at least 3 ways of doing that.
• What should you do if you receive a message stating: "The following file is missing or corrupt: 'WINDOWS'SYSTEM32'CONFIG'SYSTEM"?
• How would you repair an unsuccessful driver update?
• When should you use each of the fallowing tools: System Restore, LKGC and Recovery Console?
• How do you set different print priority for different users?
• How can you reset user's passwords if you don't know his current password?
• What's the difference between changing a user's password and resetting it?
• You want to grant a user the right to perform backups – should you add him to the administrators group?
• What is MMC?
• What is gpedit.msc?
• How would you use the MMC to manage other servers on your network?
• You set a local policy for your Stand-alone XP Professional – would the local policy effects the administrators group?
• What new in the Windows Vista Local Policy?
• What is the difference between User Privileges and User Permissions?
• What is Safe Mode?
• Which logs can be found in Event Viewer?
• What is msconfig? On which OS can it be found?
• Can you upgrade XP Home Edition to Server 2003?
• Which permission will you grant a user for a folder he need to be able to create and delete files in, if you do not want him to be able to change permissions for the folder?
• What is the difference between clearing the "allow" permission and checking the "deny"?
Networking
• What is a NIC?
• What is a MAC Address?
• When would you use a crosslink cable?
• What are the main advantages and disadvantages of Fiber-Optic-based networks?
• What is the difference between a Hub and a Switch?
• On which OSI layer can a router be found?
• What is CSMA/CD?
• What is multicast?
• What is Broadcast?
• What is the difference between TCP and UDP?
• Describe some of the settings that are added by TCP and by UDP to the packet's header.
• What are TCP Ports? Name a few.
• What is a TCP Session?
• What three elements make up a socket?
• What will happen if you leave the default gateway information empty while manually configuring TCP/IP?
• What will happen if you execute the following command: "arp –d *"?
• What is ICMP?
• When would you use the ping command with the "-t" switch?
• What command-line tool would help you discover for which port numbers your computer is listening?
• What is APIPA? How would you recognize it?
• What is a Cyclic Redundancy Check?
• What would you type in at a command prompt to view the IP settings for the computer that you are sitting at?
• What command would you type in at a command prompt to view the IP address of the remote computer?
• What is the W Value for class B?
• What is the Net ID of an IP Address of 18.9.25.3 with Subnet Mask of 255.0.0.0?
• What is CIDR?
• What is 255.255.255.255 used for?
• What is the maximum number of hosts for a Class B Network?
• What is the (default) class type of 195.152.12.1?
• What is the subnet mask for 10.0.10.1/17?
• What is the result when changing from a subnet mask of 255.255.224.0 to a subnet mask of 255.255.240.0?
• How can you access a shared folder from a remote computer? Name at least 3 methods.