Core CS Subjects: Topics & Interview Questions
DBMS - Important Topics
1. ER Model
2. Normalization
3. Joins
4. SQL Queries
5. Transactions
6. ACID Properties
7. Indexing
8. Concurrency Control
9. Views
10. Triggers
11. SQL (GROUP BY, HAVING)
12. DELETE vs TRUNCATE
13. B+ Tree
14. OLTP vs OLAP
15. SQL Subqueries
DBMS - Interview Questions
1. What are ACID properties? Why are they important?
2. Explain normalization. What are the drawbacks of over-normalization?
3. What is a deadlock in DBMS? How is it different from deadlock in OS?
4. Write a SQL query to find the second-highest salary in a table.
5. What is the difference between WHERE and HAVING clauses?
6. How does indexing work? When should you avoid indexes?
7. What is a transaction? What happens if a transaction fails mid-way?
8. What are triggers? When would you use them?
9. Compare INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, and FULL OUTER JOIN.
10. What are views? Can you update a view?
11. How does concurrency control work in databases?
12. What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE?
13. How is data consistency ensured in distributed DBs?
14. Explain B+ Tree and its use in DBMS indexing.
15. What is the difference between OLTP and OLAP systems?
Operating Systems (OS) - Important Topics
1. Process vs Thread
2. Scheduling Algorithms (FCFS, RR)
3. Deadlocks
4. Semaphores
5. Virtual Memory
6. Paging
7. Page Fault
8. Context Switching
9. Interrupt Handling
10. IPC
11. User Mode vs Kernel Mode
12. Memory Management
13. Zombie Process
14. System Call vs Library Call
15. Multithreading vs Multiprocessing
Operating Systems (OS) - Interview Questions
1. How does a process differ from a thread? Which is more efficient?
2. What happens when you type a command in the terminal? (Explain system call flow)
3. Explain deadlock. How do operating systems prevent or detect it?
4. What is a semaphore? Implement a producer-consumer problem using it.
5. Describe the scheduling policies in Linux. Which one is used by default?
6. What is the difference between context switching and interrupt handling?
7. Explain virtual memory. How does paging work?
8. What is a page fault? How does the OS handle it?
9. Describe the difference between user mode and kernel mode.
10. How is inter-process communication (IPC) achieved?
11. What is the role of an OS in memory management?
12. Can a process access memory allocated to another process? Why/why not?
13. What is a zombie process and how does it occur?
14. Compare multithreading vs multiprocessing in OS-level implementation.
15. How is a system call different from a library call?
Computer Networks (CN) - Important Topics
1. OSI Model
2. TCP/IP
3. TCP 3-Way Handshake
4. DNS Resolution
5. TCP vs UDP
6. ARP Protocol
7. HTTP vs HTTPS
8. Routing
9. Switching
10. Congestion Control
11. NAT
12. IP Addressing
13. Port Numbers
14. HTTP Methods
15. Packet Switching
Computer Networks (CN) - Interview Questions
1. Explain the TCP 3-way handshake. What if the last ACK is lost?
2. How does DNS resolution work internally when you type www.google.com?
3. Compare TCP and UDP with real-life examples.
4. What is ARP? How does it resolve IP to MAC?
5. Explain the difference between a switch and a router.
6. What happens when you ping an IP address?
7. How does congestion control work in TCP?
8. How does HTTPS work? What is the role of SSL/TLS?
9. What are the different layers of the OSI model? Where does HTTP lie?
10. What is NAT? Why is it needed?
11. What is the role of port numbers in networking?
12. What is packet switching? How is it different from circuit switching?
13. How are lost packets handled in TCP?
14. What are HTTP methods? Explain GET vs POST.
15. What's the difference between IP routing and MAC address forwarding?
OOPs - Important Topics
1. Class vs Object
2. Inheritance
3. Polymorphism
4. Abstraction
5. Encapsulation
6. Overloading vs Overriding
7. Interface vs Abstract Class
8. SOLID Principles
9. Virtual Function
10. Shallow vs Deep Copy
11. Constructor (private)
12. Access Specifiers
13. Object Slicing
14. `this` and `super`
15. Diamond Problem
OOPs - Interview Questions
1. Explain the difference between abstraction and encapsulation.
2. What are the 4 pillars of OOPs? Explain with real-world examples.
3. What is the difference between method overloading and overriding?
4. How is inheritance implemented in Java/C++? What are its types?
5. Can we override a private method? Why or why not?
6. What is the difference between interface and abstract class?
7. What is the Liskov Substitution Principle? (From SOLID)
8. Explain the use of `this` and `super` keywords.
9. What is object slicing? When does it happen?
10. How does polymorphism resolve function calls at runtime?
11. Can a constructor be private? When would you do that?
12. What is multiple inheritance? How does C++ handle ambiguity (diamond problem)?
13. What are access specifiers? How do they affect inheritance?
14. What is the difference between shallow copy and deep copy?
15. How does virtual function work in C++? What is vtable?
