general .net interview questions

What is garbage collection?

Garbage collection is the process of managing the allocation and release of memory in your applications.

A garbage collector performs periodic checks on the managed heap to identify objects that are no longer required by the program and removes them from memory.

What are generations and how are they used by the garbage collector?

Generations are the division of objects on the managed heap used by the garbage collector. This mechanism allows the garbage collector to perform highly optimized garbage collection. The unreachable objects are placed in generation 0, the reachable objects are placed in generation 1, and the objects that survive the collection process are promoted to higher generations.

What is globalization?

Globalization is the process of customizing applications that support multiple cultures and regions.

What is localization?

Localization is the process of customizing applications that support a given culture and regions.

 What’s the difference between an interface and abstract class?

In an interface class, all methods are abstract - there is no implementation. In an abstract class some methods can be concrete. In an interface class, no accessibility modifiers are allowed. An abstract class may have accessibility modifiers.

How’s method overriding different from overloading?

When overriding, you change the method behavior for a derived class. Overloading simply involves having a method with the same name within the class.

What is CLR?

The .NET Framework provides a runtime environment called the Common Language Runtime or CLR. The CLR can be compared to the Java Virtual Machine or JVM in Java. CLR handles the execution of code and provides useful services for the implementation of the program. In addition to executing code, CLR provides services such as memory management, thread management, security management, code verification, compilation, and other system services. It enforces rules that in turn provide a robust and secure execution environment for .NET applications.

What is managed code?

The .NET Framework provides a run-time environment called the Common Language Runtime, which manages the execution of code and provides services that make the development process easier. Compilers and tools expose the runtime's functionality and enable you to write code that benefits from this managed execution environment. The code that runs within the common language runtime is called managed code.

What is JIT?

JIT is a compiler that converts MSIL to native code. The native code consists of hardware specific instructions that can be executed by the CPU.

Rather than converting the entire MSIL (in a portable executable[PE]file) to native code, the JIT converts the MSIL as it is needed during execution. This converted native code is stored so that it is accessible for subsequent calls.

What is an application domain?

Application domain is the boundary within which an application runs. A process can contain multiple application domains. Application domains provide an isolated environment to applications that is similar to the isolation provided by processes. An application running inside one application domain cannot directly access the code running inside another application domain. To access the code running in another application domain, an application needs to use a proxy.

What is an assembly?

An assembly is a collection of one or more .exe or dll’s. An assembly is the fundamental unit for application development and deployment in the .NET Framework. An assembly contains a collection of types and resources that are built to work together and form a logical unit of functionality. An assembly provides the CLR with the information it needs to be aware of type implementations.

What are the contents of assembly?

A static assembly can consist of four elements:

·         Assembly manifest - Contains the assembly metadata. An assembly manifest contains the information about the identity and version of the assembly. It also contains the information required to resolve references to types and resources.

·         Type metadata - Binary information that describes a program.

·         Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) code.

·         A set of resources.

What are the different types of assembly?

Assemblies can also be private or shared. A private assembly is installed in the installation directory of an application and is accessible to that application only. On the other hand, a shared assembly is shared by multiple applications. A shared assembly has a strong name and is installed in the GAC.

We also have satellite assemblies that are often used to deploy language-specific resources for an application.

What is a strong name?

You need to assign a strong name to an assembly to place it in the GAC and make it globally accessible. A strong name consists of a name that consists of an assembly's identity (text name, version number, and culture information), a public key and a digital signature generated over the assembly.  The .NET Framework provides a tool called the Strong Name Tool (Sn.exe), which allows verification and key pair and signature generation.

What is GAC? What are the steps to create an assembly and add it to the GAC?

The global assembly cache (GAC) is a machine-wide code cache that stores assemblies specifically designated to be shared by several applications on the computer. You should share assemblies by installing them into the global assembly cache only when you need to.

Steps

- Create a strong name using sn.exe tool eg: sn -k mykey.snk

- in AssemblyInfo.cs, add the strong name eg: [assembly: AssemblyKeyFile("mykey.snk")]

- recompile project, and then install it to GAC in two ways :

·         drag & drop it to assembly folder (C:\WINDOWS\assembly OR C:\WINNT\assembly) (shfusion.dll tool)

·         gacutil -i abc.dll

What is the difference between const and static readonly?

 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/csharpfaq/archive/2004/12/03/274791.aspx

 The difference is that the value of a static readonly field is set at run time, and can thus be modified by the containing class, whereas the value of a const field is set to a compile time constant.

In the static readonly case, the containing class is allowed to modify it only

•in the variable declaration (through a variable initializer)

•in the static constructor (instance constructors, if it's not static)

static readonly is typically used if the type of the field is not allowed in a const declaration, or when the value is not known at compile time.

Instance readonly fields are also allowed. 

Remember that for reference types, in both cases (static and instance) the readonly modifier only prevents you from assigning a new reference to the field.  It specifically does not make immutable the object pointed to by the reference.