SharePoint Interview Questions and Answers

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is a browser based document collaboration platform given by Microsoft. Actually SharePoint is an application framework as much as it is an application as its own. It is a platform where user can share Data, Collaborate and people can also take this platform and customized platform as per their requirements.

What are some of the tools that can be used when backing up a SharePoint 2010 environment?

      SharePoint farm backup and recovery

      SQL Server

What are content types?

A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type definition (or we can a template) that defines the columns and behavior for an item in a list or a document in a document library. For example, you can create a content type for a leave approval document with a unique set of columns, an event handler, and its own document template and attach it with document library/libraries.

What is the difference between a Site Definition and a Site Template?

Site Definitions are stored on the hard drive of the SharePoint front end servers. They are used by the SharePoint application to generate the sites users can create. Site Templates are created by users as a copy of a site they have configured and modified so that they do not have to recreate lists, libraries, views and columns every time they need a new instance of a site.

What are the types of input forms that can be created for a workflow?

You can create four different types of input forms including

1. An association form

2. An initiation form

3. A modification form

4. A task edit form.

What are the two different products in SharePoint 2010?

SharePoint 2010 has basically two different products namely SharePoint Foundation 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010.

      SharePoint Foundation 2010 is a free version.

      SharePoint Server 2010 is a paid version.

How to create a simple Website in SharePoint 2010?

In order to create a Website in SharePoint 2010, we need to use SharePoint 2010 Central Administration tool. As soon as you click on SharePoint 2010 Central Administration tool it will ask for credential do put your credential and you will directed to the SharePoint 2010 Central Administration screen. Now from the Application Management screen click on Manage web applications, as soon as you click on Manage web applications a new window will open, now from the top most left of the screen click on new menu, again a new window will pop-up of Create New Web Application which enables you to create new web application.

What are features of SharePoint 2010?

Features are:

      Document Collaboration

      Enterprise Search FAST Search

      New Enhance Web Part

      Silver Light web part

      Business Connectivity Services

      Social Media Investments

      Large lists

      Enhanced collaboration features

      Visio Services

      Usage reporting and logging

      Better Network Differencing & SharePoint Offline in SharePoint Workspace

      High Availability/ Disaster Recovery Innovation

      Admin Insights through the Logging & Usage database, and dev dashboard

      Service Applications

      SharePoint Designer Enhancements like portable workflows, and granular delegation

      Sandbox Solutions

Difference between Library vs List ?

Library is used to store the document and Lists are the container of similar items in form of rows and columns. In Library you can create core document like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. But in List You cannot create document, instead of that you can attach document in a particular List.

What are content types?

A content type is a flexible and reusable WSS type definition (or we can a template) that defines the columns and behavior for an item in a list or a document in a document library. For example, you can create a content type for a leave approval document with a unique set of columns, an event handler, and its own document template and attach it with document library/libraries.

What is a Field Control?

Field controls are simple ASP.NET 2.0 server controls that provide the basic field functionality of SharePoint. They provide basic general functionality such as displaying or editing list data as it appears on SharePoint list pages.

How to create links to the mapped network drives?

Creating links to mapped drives in WSS v3 or MOSS 2007 can be done via

The new content type for .lnk files.

What are sites available in  SharePoint?

      Team Site

      Blank Site

      Document Workspace

      Blog

      Group Work Site

      Visio Process Repository

      Basic Meeting Workspace

      Blank Meeting Workspace

      Decision Meeting Workspace

      Social Meeting Workspace

      Multipage Meeting Workspace

      Assets Web Database

      Charitable Contributions Web Database

      Contacts Web Database

      Issues Web Database

      Projects Web Database

      Document Center

      Records Center

      Business Intelligence Center

      My Site Host

      Personalization Site

      Enterprise Search Center

      Basic Search Center

      FAST Search Center

      Enterprise Wiki

      Publishing Portal

      Publishing Site

What is workspace?

A site or workspace is when you want a new place for collaborating on Web pages, lists and document libraries.

What are the types of authentication available for SharePoint 2010 ?

      Claims

      Windows

      Forms-based authentication

What is the User Profile service?

Allows configuring and managing User profile properties, Audiences, Profile synchronization settings, organization browsing and management settings, and My Site settings

What is Performance Point Services?

Allows users to monitor and analyze a business by building dashboards, scorecards, and key performance indicators (KPIs).

What is the difference between Classic mode authentication and Claims-based authentication?

As the name implies, classic authentication supports NT authentication types like Kerberos, NTLM, Basic, Digest, and anonymous. Claims based authentication uses claims identities against a against a trusted identity provider.

What is Visio Services?

Allows users to share and view Microsoft Visio Web drawings. The service also enables data-connected Microsoft Visio 2010 Web drawings to be refreshed and updated from various data sources.

What is Access Services?

Allows users to edit, update, and create linked Microsoft Access 2010 databases that can be viewed and manipulated by using an internet browser, the Access client, or a linked HTML page.

What is Excel Services?

Allows sharing, securing, managing, and using Excel 2010 workbooks in a SharePoint Server Web site or document library. Excel Services consists of the Excel Calculation Services (ECS), Microsoft Excel Web Access (EWA), and Excel Web Services (EWS) components

What is the Secure Store Service (SSS)?

A secure database for storing credentials that are associated with application IDs

What are some useful, OOB features of SharePoint that aid with governance of an environment?

      Site templates – consistent branding, site structure, and layout can be enforce a set of customizations that are applied to a site definition.

      Quotas – limits to the amount of storage a site collection can use.

      Locks - prevent users from either adding content to a site collection or using the site collection.

      Web application permissions and policies – comprehensive security settings that apply to all users and groups for all site collections within a Web application.

      Self-service site creation - enables users to create their own site collections, thus must be incorporated into a governance scheme.

Describe the monitoring features that are baked into SharePoint 2010.

Diagnostic logging captures data about the state of the system, whereas health and usage data collection uses specific timer jobs to perform monitoring tasks, collecting information about:

      Performance Counter Fata

      Event Log Data

      Timer Service Data

      Metrics For Site Collections and Sites

      Search Usage Data

What are cmdlet's?

Windows PowerShell introduces the concept of a cmdlet which are simple build in commands, written in a .net language like C# or VB.

Where is Powershell located in sharePoint ?

On the Start menu, click All Programs -> Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products -> Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

What would you like to see in the next version of SharePoint?

      SPS and STS on same machine

      Tree view of Categories and Folders

      General Discussion Web Part

      Personalization of Dashboards

      Role Customization

      Email to say WHY a document has been rejected for Approval

      More ways to customize the interface

      Backup and restore an individual Workspaces

      Filter for Visio

      Better way to track activity on SPS

How can I make My site public?

By default, all sites are created private.If you want your site to be a public Web site, enable anonymous access for the entire site. Then you can give out your URL to anybody in yourbusiness card, e-mail or any other marketing material. The URL for your Web site will be:http:// yoursitename.wss.bcentral.com Hence, please take special care to name your site.These Web sites are ideal for information and knowledge intensive sites and/or sites where you need to have shared Web workspace.Remember: Under each parent Web site, you can create up to 10 sub-sites each with unique permissions, settings and security rights.

Which is faster a WebPart or a User Control?

A WebPart renders faster than a User Control. A User Control in SharePoint is usually loaded by a webpart which adds an overhead. User Controls however, gives you an Interface to add controls and styles.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the mentioned information then please let me know..

I would be more than HAPPY 2 HELP U as well as RESOLVES UR ISSUES :-)

Interview Questions & Answers

Tell me about yourself?

It is the most often asked question in all interviews. Just give them a short statement prepared in your mind. Limit it to work-related items unless instructed otherwise. Give some details about things you have done and jobs you have held that relate to the position you are interviewing for.

Why did you leave your last job?

Stay positive regardless of the circumstances. Never refer to a major problem with management and never speak ill of supervisors, co- workers or the organization. If you do, you will be the one looking bad. Keep smiling and talk about leaving for a positive reason such as an opportunity, a chance to do something special or other forward- looking reasons.

What experience do you have in this field?

Speak about specifics that relate to the position you are applying for. If you do not have specific experience, get as close as you can

Do you consider yourself successful?

You should always answer yes and briefly explain why. A good explanation is that you have set goals, and you have met some and are on track to achieve the others.

What do you know about this organization?

This question is one reason to do some research on the organization before the interview. Find out where they have been and where they are going. What are the current issues and who are the major players?

What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?

Try to include improvement activities that relate to the job. A wide variety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement. Have some good ones handy to mention.

Are you applying for other jobs?

Be honest but do not spend a lot of time in this area. Keep the focus on this job and what you can do for this organization. Anything else is a distraction.

Why do you want to work for this organization?

This may take some thought and certainly, should be based on the research you have done on the organization. Sincerity is extremely important here and will easily be sensed. Relate it to your long-term career goals.

Do you know anyone who works for us?

Be aware of the policy on relatives working for the organization. This can affect your answer even though they asked about friends not relatives. Be careful to mention a friend only if they are well thought of.

What kind of salary do you need?

A loaded question. A nasty little game that you will probably lose if you answer first. So, do not answer it. Instead, say something like, That’s a tough question. Can you tell me the range for this position? In most cases, the interviewer, taken off guard, will tell you. If not, say that it can depend on the details of the job. Then give a wide range.

Are you a team player?

You are, of course, a team player. Be sure to have examples ready. Specifics that show you often perform for the good of the team rather than for yourself are good evidence of your team attitude. Do not brag; just say it in a matter-of-fact tone. This is a key point.

How long would you expect to work for us if hired?

Specifics here are not good. Something like this should work: I’d like it to be a long time. Or As long as we both feel I’m doing a good job.

Have you ever had to fire anyone? How did you feel about that?

This is serious. Do not make light of it or in any way seem like you like to fire people. At the same time, you will do it when it is the right thing to do. When it comes to the organization versus the individual who has created a harmful situation, you will protect the organization. Remember firing is not the same as layoff or reduction in force.

What is your philosophy towards work?

The interviewer is not looking for a long or flowery dissertation here. Do you have strong feelings that the job gets done? Yes. That’s the type of answer that works best here. Short and positive, showing a benefit to the organization.

Have you ever been asked to leave a position?

If you have not, say no. If you have, be honest, brief and avoid saying negative things about the people or organization involved.

Explain how you would be an asset to this organization.

You should be anxious for this question. It gives you a chance to highlight your best points as they relate to the position being discussed. Give a little advance thought to this relationship.

Why should we hire you?

Point out how your assets meet what the organization needs. Do not mention any other candidates to make a comparison.

Tell me about a suggestion you have made.

Have a good one ready. Be sure and use a suggestion that was accepted and was then considered successful. One related to the type of work applied for is a real plus.

What irritates you about co-workers?

This is a trap question. Think real hard but fail to come up with anything that irritates you. A short statement that you seem to get along with folks is great.

What is your greatest strength?

Numerous answers are good, just stay positive. A few good examples: Your ability to prioritize, Your problem-solving skills, Your ability to work under pressure, Your ability to focus on projects, Your professional expertise, Your leadership skills, Your positive attitude

Tell me about your dream job.

Stay away from a specific job. You cannot win. If you say the job you are contending for is it, you strain credibility. If you say another job is it, you plant the suspicion that you will be dissatisfied with this position if hired. The best is to stay genetic and say something like: A job where I love the work, like the people, can contribute and can’t wait to get to work.

Why do you think you would do well at this job?

Give several reasons and include skills, experience and interest.

What kind of person would you refuse to work with?

Do not be trivial. It would take disloyalty to the organization, violence or lawbreaking to get you to object. Minor objections will label you as a whiner.

What is more important to you: the money or the work?

Money is always important, but the work is the most important. There is no better answer.

What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?

There are numerous good possibilities:

Loyalty, Energy, Positive attitude, Leadership, Team player, Expertise, Initiative, Patience, Hard work, Creativity, Problem solver

Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor.

Biggest trap of all. This is a test to see if you will speak ill of your boss. If you fall for it and tell about a problem with a former boss, you may well below the interview right there. Stay positive and develop a poor memory about any trouble with a supervisor.

What has disappointed you about a job?

Don’t get trivial or negative. Safe areas are few but can include:

Not enough of a challenge. You were laid off in a reduction Company did not win a contract, which would have given you more responsibility.

Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.

You may say that you thrive under certain types of pressure. Give an example that relates to the type of position applied for.

Do your skills match this job or another job more closely?

Probably this one. Do not give fuel to the suspicion that you may want another job more than this one.

What motivates you to do your best on the job?

This is a personal trait that only you can say, but good examples are: Challenge, Achievement, Recognition

How would you know you were successful on this job?

Several ways are good measures:

You set high standards for yourself and meet them. Your outcomes are a success.Your boss tell you that you are successful

Would you be willing to relocate if required?

You should be clear on this with your family prior to the interview if you think there is a chance it may come up. Do not say yes just to get the job if the real answer is no. This can create a lot of problems later on in your career. Be honest at this point and save yourself  future grief.

Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?

This is a straight loyalty and dedication question. Do not worry about the deep ethical and philosophical implications. Just say yes.

Describe your management style.

Try to avoid labels. Some of the more common labels, like progressive, salesman or consensus, can have several meanings or descriptions depending on which management expert you listen to. The situational style is safe, because it says you will manage according to the situation, instead of one size fits all.

What have you learned from mistakes on the job?

Here you have to come up with something or you strain credibility. Make it small, well intentioned mistake with a positive lesson learned. An example would be working too far ahead of colleagues on a project and thus throwing coordination off.

Do you have any blind spots?

Trick question. If you know about blind spots, they are no longer blind spots. Do not reveal any personal areas of concern here. Let them do their own discovery on your bad points. Do not hand it to them.

If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?

Be careful to mention traits that are needed and that you have.

Do you think you are overqualified for this position?

Regardless of your qualifications, state that you are very well qualified for the position

What qualities do you look for in a boss?

Be generic and positive. Safe qualities are knowledgeable, a sense of humor, fair, loyal to subordinates and holder of high standards. All bosses think they have these traits.

Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.

Pick a specific incident. Concentrate on your problem solving technique and not the dispute you settled.

What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?

Be honest. If you are comfortable in different roles, point that out.

Describe your work ethic.

Emphasize benefits to the organization. Things like, determination to get the job done and work hard but enjoy your work are good.

What has been your biggest professional disappointment?

Be sure that you refer to something that was beyond your control. Show acceptance and no negative feelings.

Given the chance, how would you alter your education?

Knowing now what I like the most, I would have used my electives for extra math and psychology classes, since I tend to be well-rounded enough that a variety of classes are unnecessary; my personal reading is diverse enough. I have found that mathematics and psychology are helpful to all career and life paths.

Which part-time job did you enjoy the most and why?

Working for PM Environmental was most enjoyable to me, since I felt like I was significantly contributing to the company, and I enjoyed learning on my own.

Interests:

Some of my interests include dogs, hiking, snow-shoeing, water sports, writing, reading (especially Charles Dickens' novels), skiing, drawing, crafts, and computers.

What are your strengths?

My strongest strength is the ability to teach myself difficult material, regardless of the subject (with the exception of theater and drawing blood from dogs, which I have no talent for). Additionally, I have always excelled verbally and look forward to writing opportunities.

What are your weaknesses?

I tend to try to do too many things, leaving little time for myself. I have worked on balancing myself for the last several months. I am also working on improving my public speaking skills.

Do you or have you in the past experimented with illegal drugs?

No. My only addictions are Tea and Coffee.

Navigation option is missing in Site Settings

In this section- we will concentrate on "Navigation". Navigation is broadly classified into two main categories as:

1. Global Navigation (It’s also called as Top Navigation)

2. Left Navigation   (it’s also called as current navigation)    

Navigation plays a very vital role on the SharePoint site as it manages the above options i.e. Global as well as Left Navigation.

Management of Global and Left navigation makes the site look and Feel user friendly and bit more professional too.

Let’s assume a scenario's (based on previous issues/tickets):

1. You have 15 subsites under the site collection and these subsites occupy the complete global navigation. Now suppose if you need to check some data for the 15th subsite then you need to scroll the task bar towards right first and then click on it, also it will not look good too.--??

2. So many list's, Libraries, subsite links are present in the current navigation and that increases the length of the home page.--??

3. Suppose you have 15 subsites/15 lists/20 Document Libraries and you wants to show only few of them in the left navigation as well as global navigation--??

Scenarios will be many but the thing that is going to achieve all the above mentioned requirements is one n only "Navigation"

The users who are in the learning phase/new to SharePoint now think that where is this option present on the SharePoint site? Valid question guys!! Here we go:

1. Open your SharePoint site

2. site actions

3. site settings

4. Under Look and Feel section

5. Navigation

But now think that you are not getting that option under look and feel..Hmm...Interesting right??

At one point, i am saying that you will get the option by following the above mentioned steps but still the option is missing!! Don’t worry guys, the above mentioned steps are perfectly fine and we are on the same track..

Resolution:

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The reason that the navigation option is missing is due to the fact that your site does not have the publishing functionality enabled.

How to enable this feature so that you will get the navigation option:

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1. Open you SharePoint site

2. Site actions

3. Site settings

3. Site collection administration section (last section on the settings page)

4. Site collection features

5. Enable “Office SharePoint Server Publishing”

You are done. Now you should be able to see the navigation option.

Resolution-2:

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If you don’t want to enable the publishing feature you can use the quick link /_layouts/AreaNavigationSettings.aspx

Append this directly after the url for your site and you’ll be directed to the navigation modification screen.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the mentioned information then please let me know..

I would be more than HAPPY to HELP U as well as RESOLVES UR ISSUES...

webpart dropdown is missing

We all knows that Web Parts are server-side controls that run inside the context of site pages in SharePoint. Whatever the list and libraries that we create and worked on-we can add all of them as webparts on any page as per our project requirements.Ultimately we can playaround with the webparts and display the view to the users as per our requirements, we can replicate the original list/libraries as it is on any page as a webpart. so basically webparts functionality is of vital importane in SharePoint and great to deal with !!

When you go to a document library or list in SharePoint, you see a dropdown in which you can select a different view or create a new view .But sometimes we face the situation that we cannot see a webpart dropdown to change the view settings/create a new view.

This problem is very common in terms of webparts and we generally neglect the problem and resolved it by creating a new view. Now you will ask me a questions that if i dont see a webpart dropdown then how i will create a new view ? You are abolutely correct !!!
But the answer is very simple that we can tweaked the URL and jump of to the 'create view' page.

Coming back to the main problem now:
What are the reasons that the webpart view has been disappeared ?
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• You added a second document library webpart on your page, but this would be quite obvious because you would see two webparts, one with a dropdown and one without it.
• You closed the webpart and added it again, leaving the closed webpart on the page, but hidden. This one is difficult to detect, because you can only see the webpart without the dropdown.

Resolution:
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-Simply delete the second webpart from the page or you leave it on there (but without the dropdown).

OR

-Adding the closed webpart by editing the page.

How to add a closed webpart by editing the page:-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Go to Site Actions and choose Edit Page from the dropdown.

2. Choose Add a Web Part.

3. Add the bottom right of the menu, choose Advanced Web Part gallery and options.

4. A menu will appear on the right side, choose Closed Web Parts.

5. From the menu, under Web Part List, choose the list that you have closed.

6.Two webpart will appear, one with the view and the one without. Just close the webpart of the one without view dropdown in the edit mode.

If you have any queries/questions regarding the mentioned information then please let me know..
I would be more than HAPPY to HELP U as well as RESOLVES UR ISSUES...

save site as template is missing

Resolving sharepoint issues is always a challenge but when we will resolve any issue then we realised that how simple it was !!

As i mentioned in my last post, i am working in SharePoint support right from the beginning and still accept the new challenges as soon as new issues comes to my end.so here we go:

One of my user raised a ticket with us that "he is not getting some option under look and feel"<--title of the ticket.

Contacted user and discussed the issue:He was working on subsite and went to save a subsite as a site template which is present under "Look and Feel"

Infrastructure configuration:

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SharePoint Version: MOSS2007

Client Machine: Windows XP with SP2

Browser: Internet Explorer: 7.0 (IE 7.0)

Troubleshooting did on this issue:

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1. Checked my personal site and user production site in terms of master pages used/any customizations inside the master pages/customizations on Default.aspx

2. compared the number of features (site collection features as well as site features) for user's production site and my personal site

•  Got the clue that the only the difference between my personal site and his site is "Publishing Infrastructre" site collection feature is activated. hmm..intresting !!

Used some sharepoint basics and provided a WORKAROUND:

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Just append _layouts/savetmpl.aspx to your site link and you will get that normal window of "Save the site template"

Now the issue has been resolved as the user confirmed that it is the same thing that he is looking for and told me to close the ticket.

Its always good when the user confirmed to close the ticket and we are satisfied to provide the exact resolution that he was looking for...thats a magic of Support :-) as how we handles a ticket and set user expectations-too GREAT:Right ?

OK-Now the time comes to dig into the issue and find out what exactely the reason behind this.

Analysis Done:

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If you check the “include content” when you save site as template, the site template will Includes all of the design information about the site, such as

• Lists within a site.
• Web Part Pages within a site.
• custom pages within a site.
• Theme or borders applied to a site.
• customizations to the Quick Launch bar.
• Site content (list and document library contents — optional).

Site templates do not include the following items:

----------------------------------------------------------------

• Security settings, such as a list of users or groups with permissions to the site from which the template was created.
• Web Part customizations made through Modify My Web Part instead of Modify Shared Web Part.
• Web discussions from the original site.
• Alerts from the original site.
• Web Part assemblies that were added to the original site.

 and most important-I found this:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2492356

I hope that everything has been answered in the above mentioned information but no restrictions--If you have any queries/questions regarding the mentioned information then please let me know...

I would be more than HAPPY to HELP U as well as RESOLVES UR ISSUES :-) Cheers