Tuesday, May 3, 2011

.NET TECHNICAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANSWERES


 Asp .Net Technical Interview Questions and Answers

How many languages .NET is supporting now?
When .NET was introduced it came with several languages. VB.NET, C#, COBOL and Perl, etc. 44 languages are supported.
How is .NET able to support multiple languages? 
A language should comply with the Common Language Runtime standard to become a .NET language. In .NET, code is compiled to Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL for short). This is called as Managed Code. This Managed code is run in .NET environment. So after compilation to this IL the language is not a barrier. A code can call or use a function written in another language.

How ASP .NET different from ASP? 
Scripting is separated from the HTML, Code is compiled as a DLL, these DLLs can be executed on the server.

What is smart navigation? 
The cursor position is maintained when the page gets refreshed due to the server side validation and the page gets refreshed.

What is view state? 
The web is stateless. But in ASP.NET, the state of a page is maintained in the in the page itself automatically. How? The values are encrypted and saved in hidden controls. this is done automatically by the ASP.NET. This can be switched off / on for a single control

How do you validate the controls in an ASP .NET page? 
Using special validation controls that are meant for this. We have Range Validator, Email Validator. 

Can the validation be done in the server side? Or this can be done only in the Client side? 
Client side is done by default. Server side validation is also possible. We can switch off the client side and server side can be done.

How to manage pagination in a page? 
Using pagination option in DataGrid control. We have to set the number of records for a page, then it takes care of pagination by itself.

What is ADO .NET and what is difference between ADO and ADO.NET? 
ADO.NET is stateless mechanism. I can treat the ADO.Net as a separate in-memory database where in I can use relationships between the tables and select insert and updates to the database. I can update the actual database as a batch.

Explain the differences between Server-side and Client-side code?
Server side scripting means that all the script will be executed by the server and interpreted as needed. ASP doesn’t have some of the functionality like sockets, uploading, etc. For these you have to make a custom components usually in VB or VC++. Client side scripting means that the script will be executed immediately in the browser such as form field validation, clock, email validation, etc. Client side scripting is usually done in VBScript or JavaScript. Download time, browser compatibility, and visible code - since JavaScript and VBScript code is included in the HTML page, then anyone can see the code by viewing the page source. Also a possible security hazards for the client computer.
What type of code (server or client) is found in a Code-Behind class? 
C# 

Should validation (did the user enter a real date) occur server-side or client-side? Why? 
Client-side validation because there is no need to request a server side date when you could obtain a date from the client machine.

What does the "EnableViewState" property do? Why would I want it on or off? 
Enable ViewState turns on the automatic state management feature that enables server controls to re-populate their values on a round trip without requiring you to write any code. This feature is not free however, since the state of a control is passed to and from the server in a hidden form field. You should be aware of when ViewState is helping you and when it is not. For example, if you are binding a control to data on every round trip (as in the datagrid example in tip #4), then you do not need the control to maintain it’s view state, since you will wipe out any re-populated data in any case. ViewState is enabled for all server controls by default. To disable it, set the EnableViewState property of the control to false.

What is the difference between Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect? 
Why would I choose one over the other? Server.Transfer() : client is shown as it is on the requesting page only, but the all the content is of the requested page. Data can be persist across the pages using Context.Item collection, which is one of the best way to transfer data from one page to another keeping the page state alive. Response.Dedirect() :client know the physical location (page name and query string as well). Context.Items loses the persistence when navigate to destination page. In earlier versions of IIS, if we wanted to send a user to a new Web page, the only option we had was Response.Redirect. While this method does accomplish our goal, it has several important drawbacks. The biggest problem is that this method causes each page to be treated as a separate transaction. Besides making it difficult to maintain your transactional integrity, Response.Redirect introduces some additional headaches. First, it prevents good encapsulation of code. Second, you lose access to all of the properties in the Request object. Sure, there are workarounds, but they’re difficult. Finally, Response.Redirect necessitates a round trip to the client, which, on high-volume sites, causes scalability problems. As you might suspect, Server.Transfer fixes all of these problems. It does this by performing the transfer on the server without requiring a roundtrip to the client.

Can you give an example of when it would be appropriate to use a web service as opposed to a non-serviced .NET component? 
When to Use Web Services:
* Communicating through a Firewall When building a distributed application with 100s/1000s of users spread over multiple locations, there is always the problem of communicating between client and server because of firewalls and proxy servers. Exposing your middle tier components as Web Services and invoking the directly from a Windows UI is a very valid option.

* Application Integration When integrating applications written in various languages and running on disparate systems. Or even applications running on the same platform that have been written by separate vendors.

* Business-to-Business Integration This is an enabler for B2B integration which allows one to expose vital business processes to authorized supplier and customers. An example would be exposing electronic ordering and invoicing, allowing customers to send you purchase orders and suppliers to send you invoices electronically.

* Software Reuse This takes place at multiple levels. Code Reuse at the Source code level or binary component-based reuse. The limiting factor here is that you can reuse the code but not the data behind it. Webservice overcome this limitation. A scenario could be when you are building an app that aggregates the functionality of several other Applications. Each of these functions could be performed by individual apps, but there is value in perhaps combining the multiple apps to present a unified view in a Portal or Intranet.

* When not to use Web Services: Single machine Applications When the apps are running on the same machine and need to communicate with each other use a native API. You also have the options of using component technologies such as COM or .NET Components as there is very little overhead.

* Homogeneous Applications on a LAN If you have Win32 or Winforms apps that want to communicate to their server counterpart. It is much more efficient to use DCOM in the case of Win32 apps and .NET Remoting in the case of .NET Apps.

Can you explain the difference between an ADO.NET Dataset and an ADO Recordset?
In ADO, the in-memory representation of data is the RecordSet. In ADO.NET, it is the dataset. There are important differences between them.

* A RecordSet looks like a single table. If a recordset is to contain data from multiple database tables, it must use a JOIN query, which assembles the data from the various database tables into a single result table. In contrast, a dataset is a collection of one or more tables. The tables within a dataset are called data tables; specifically, they are DataTable objects. If a dataset contains data from multiple database tables, it will typically contain multiple DataTable objects. That is, each DataTable object typically corresponds to a single database table or view. In this way, a dataset can mimic the structure of the underlying database. A dataset usually also contains relationships. A relationship within a dataset is analogous to a foreign-key relationship in a database —that is, it associates rows of the tables with each other. For example, if a dataset contains a table about investors and another table about each investor’s stock purchases, it could also contain a relationship connecting each row of the investor table with the corresponding rows of the purchase table. Because the dataset can hold multiple, separate tables and maintain information about relationships between them, it can hold much richer data structures than a recordset, including self-relating tables and tables with many-to-many relationships.

* In ADO you scan sequentially through the rows of the recordset using the ADO MoveNext method. In ADO.NET, rows are represented as collections, so you can loop through a table as you would through any collection, or access particular rows via ordinal or primary key index. DataRelation objects maintain information about master and detail records and provide a method that allows you to get records related to the one you are working with. For example, starting from the row of the Investor table for "Nate Sun," you can navigate to the set of rows of the Purchase table describing his purchases. A cursor is a database element that controls record navigation, the ability to update data, and the visibility of changes made to the database by other users. ADO.NET does not have an inherent cursor object, but instead includes data classes that provide the functionality of a traditional cursor. For example, the functionality of a forward-only, read-only cursor is available in the ADO.NET DataReader object. For more information about cursor functionality, see Data Access Technologies.

* Minimized Open Connections: In ADO.NET you open connections only long enough to perform a database operation, such as a Select or Update. You can read rows into a dataset and then work with them without staying connected to the data source. In ADO the recordset can provide disconnected access, but ADO is designed primarily for connected access. There is one significant difference between disconnected processing in ADO and ADO.NET. In ADO you communicate with the database by making calls to an OLE DB provider. In ADO.NET you communicate with the database through a data adapter (an OleDbDataAdapter, SqlDataAdapter, OdbcDataAdapter, or OracleDataAdapter object), which makes calls to an OLE DB provider or the APIs provided by the underlying data source. The important difference is that in ADO.NET the data adapter allows you to control how the changes to the dataset are transmitted to the database — by optimizing for performance, performing data validation checks, or adding any other extra processing. Data adapters, data connections, data commands, and data readers are the components that make up a .NET Framework data provider. Microsoft and third-party providers can make available other .NET Framework data providers that can be integrated into Visual Studio.

* Sharing Data Between Applications. Transmitting an ADO.NET dataset between applications is much easier than transmitting an ADO disconnected recordset. To transmit an ADO disconnected recordset from one component to another, you use COM marshalling. To transmit data in ADO.NET, you use a dataset, which can transmit an XML stream.

* Richer data types.COM marshalling provides a limited set of data types — those defined by the COM standard. Because the transmission of datasets in ADO.NET is based on an XML format, there is no restriction on data types. Thus, the components sharing the dataset can use whatever rich set of data types they would ordinarily use.

* Performance. Transmitting a large ADO recordset or a large ADO.NET dataset can consume network resources; as the amount of data grows, the stress placed on the network also rises. Both ADO and ADO.NET let you minimize which data is transmitted. But ADO.NET offers another performance advantage, in that ADO.NET does not require data-type conversions. ADO, which requires COM marshalling to transmit records sets among components, does require that ADO data types be converted to COM data types.

* Penetrating Firewalls.A firewall can interfere with two components trying to transmit disconnected ADO recordsets. Remember, firewalls are typically configured to allow HTML text to pass, but to prevent system-level requests (such as COM marshalling) from passing.

Can you give an example of what might be best suited to place in the Application_Start and Session_Start subroutines?
The Application_Start event is guaranteed to occur only once throughout the lifetime of the application. It’s a good place to initialize global variables. For example, you might want to retrieve a list of products from a database table and place the list in application state or the Cache object. SessionStateModule exposes both Session_Start and Session_End events. 

If I’m developing an application that must accomodate multiple security levels though secure login and my ASP.NET web appplication is spanned across three web-servers (using round-robbin load balancing) what would be the best approach to maintain login-in state for the users? 

What are ASP.NET Web Forms? How is this technology different than what is available though ASP?
Web Forms are the heart and soul of ASP.NET. Web Forms are the User Interface (UI) elements that give your Web applications their look and feel. Web Forms are similar to Windows Forms in that they provide properties, methods, and events for the controls that are placed onto them. However, these UI elements render themselves in the appropriate markup language required by the request, e.g. HTML. If you use Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, you will also get the familiar drag-and-drop interface used to create your UI for your Web application. 
How does VB.NET/C# achieve polymorphism? 
By using Abstract classes/functions.

Can you explain what inheritance is and an example of when you might use it? 
Inheritance is a fundamental feature of an object oriented system and it is simply the ability to inherit data and functionality from a parent object. Rather than developing new objects from scratch, new code can be based on the work of other programmers, adding only new features that are needed. 

How would you implement inheritance using VB.NET/C#? 
When we set out to implement a class using inheritance, we must first start with an existing class from which we will derive our new subclass. This existing class, or base class, may be part of the .NET system class library framework, it may be part of some other application or .NET assembly, or we may create it as part of our existing application. Once we have a base class, we can then implement one or more subclasses based on that base class. Each of our subclasses will automatically have all of the methods, properties, and events of that base class ? including the implementation behind each method, property, and event. Our subclass can add new methods, properties, and events of its own - extending the original interface with new functionality. Additionally, a subclass can replace the methods and properties of the base class with its own new implementation - effectively overriding the original behavior and replacing it with new behaviors. Essentially inheritance is a way of merging functionality from an existing class into our new subclass. Inheritance also defines rules for how these methods, properties, and events can be merged.

What's an assembly? 
Assemblies are the building blocks of .NET Framework applications; they form the fundamental unit of deployment, version control, reuse, activation scoping, and security permissions. An assembly is a collection of types and resources that are built to work together and form a logical unit of functionality. An assembly provides the common language runtime with the information it needs to be aware of type implementations. To the runtime, a type does not exist outside the context of an assembly.

Describe the difference between inline and code behind - which is best in a loosely coupled solution? 
ASP.NET supports two modes of page development: Page logic code that is written inside <script runat=server> blocks within an .aspx file and dynamically compiled the first time the page is requested on the server. Page logic code that is written within an external class that is compiled prior to deployment on a server and linked "behind" the .aspx file at run time.

Explain what a diffgram is, and a good use for one? 
A DiffGram is an XML format that is used to identify current and original versions of data elements. The DataSet uses the DiffGram format to load and persist its contents, and to serialize its contents for transport across a network connection. When a DataSet is written as a DiffGram, it populates the DiffGram with all the necessary information to accurately recreate the contents, though not the schema, of the DataSet, including column values from both the Original and Current row versions, row error information, and row order.

Where would you use an iHTTPModule, and what are the limitations of anyapproach you might take in implementing one? 
One of ASP.NET’s most useful features is the extensibility of the HTTP pipeline, the path that data takes between client and server. You can use them to extend your ASP.NET applications by adding pre- and post-processing to each HTTP request coming into your application. For example, if you wanted custom authentication facilities for your application, the best technique would be to intercept the request when it comes in and process the request in a custom HTTP module.

In what order do the events of an ASPX page execute. As a developer is it important to understand these events? 
Every Page object (which your .aspx page is) has nine events, most of which you will not have to worry about in your day to day dealings with ASP.NET. The three that you will deal with the most are: Page_Init, Page_Load, Page_PreRender.

Which method do you invoke on the DataAdapter control to load your generated dataset with data? 
System.Data.Common.DataAdapter.Fill(System.Data.DataSet); 
If my DataAdapter is sqlDataAdapter and my DataSet is dsUsers then it is called this way: 
sqlDataAdapter.Fill(dsUsers);

Which template must you provide, in order to display data in a Repeater control? 
ItemTemplate 

How can you provide an alternating color scheme in a Repeater control? 
AlternatingItemTemplate Like the ItemTemplate element, but rendered for every other row (alternating items) in the Repeater control. You can specify a different appearance for the AlternatingItemTemplate element by setting its style properties. 

What property must you set, and what method must you call in your code, in order to bind the data from some data source to the Repeater control? 
You must set the DataMember property which Gets or sets the specific table in the DataSource to bind to the control and the DataBind method to bind data from a source to a server control. This method is commonly used after retrieving a data set through a database query.

What base class do all Web Forms inherit from? 
System.Web.UI.Page

What method do you use to explicitly kill a user’s session? 
The Abandon method destroys all the objects stored in a Session object and releases their resources.
If you do not call the Abandon method explicitly, the server destroys these objects when the session times out. 
Syntax: Session.Abandon 

How do you turn off cookies for one page in your site? 
Use the Cookie.Discard Property which Gets or sets the discard flag set by the server. When true, this property instructs the client application not to save the Cookie on the user’s hard disk when a session ends.

Which two properties are on every validation control? 
ControlToValidate & ErrorMessage properties

How do you create a permanent cookie? 
Setting the Expires property to MinValue means that the Cookie never expires.

Which method do you use to redirect the user to another page without performing a round trip to the client? 
Server.transfer()

What is the transport protocol you use to call a Web service?
Answer1:
SOAP. Transport Protocols: It is essential for the acceptance of Web Services that they are based on established Internet infrastructure. This in fact imposes the usage of of the HTTP, SMTP and FTP protocols based on the TCP/IP family of transports. Messaging Protocol: The format of messages exchanged between Web Services clients and Web Services should be vendor neutral and should not carry details about the technology used to implement the service. Also, the message format should allow for extensions and different bindings to specific transport protocols. SOAP and ebXML Transport are specifications which fulfill these requirements. We expect that the W3C XML Protocol Working Group defines a successor standard. 

Answer2:
SOAP is not the transport protocol. SOAP is the data encapsulation protocol that is used but the transport protocol is fairly unlimited. Generally HTTP is the most common transport protocol used though you could conceivanly use things like SMTP or any others. SOAP is not dependant on any single transport protocol or OS, it is a syntactical and logical definition, not a transport protocol.

True or False: A Web service can only be written in .NET.? 
False.

What does WSDL stand for? 
Web Services Description Language

Where on the Internet would you look for Web services? 
UDDI repositaries like uddi.microsoft.com, IBM UDDI node, UDDI Registries in Google Directory, enthusiast sites like XMethods.net. 

What tags do you need to add within the asp:datagrid tags to bind columns manually? 
Column tag and an ASP:databound tag.

How is a property designated as read-only? 
In VB.NET:
Public ReadOnly Property PropertyName As ReturnType
Get ‘Your Property Implementation goes in here
End Get
End Property

in C#
public returntype PropertyName
{
get{
//property implementation goes here
}
// Do not write the set implementation
}

Which control would you use if you needed to make sure the values in two different controls matched? 
Use the CompareValidator control to compare the values of 2 different controls.

True or False: To test a Web service you must create a windows application or Web application to consume this service? 
False.

How many classes can a single .NET DLL contain?
Unlimited.

Describe session handling in a webfarm, how does it work and what are the limits? 
Set the sessionState mode in the web.config file to “StateServer”.
StateServer mode uses an out-of-process Windows NT Server to store state information.
It solves the session state loss problem in InProc mode.
Allows a webfarm to store session on a central server.
It provides a Single point of failure at the State Server.

Follow these simple steps:
- In a web farm, make sure you have the same in all your web servers.
- Also, make sure your objects are serializable.
- For session state to be maintained across different web servers in the web farm, the Application Path of the website in the IIS Metabase should be identical in all the web servers in the web farm.
 
What are the disadvantages of viewstate/what are the benefits? 
Answer1:
Disadvantage of viewstate is that additional data is sent to the browser. The benefits are that you do not have to manually manage refreshing the page fields after a submit, (when re-displaying the same page). 

Answer2:
Automatic view-state management is a feature of server controls that enables them to repopulate their property values on a round trip (without you having to write any code). This feature does impact performance, however, since a server control’s view state is passed to and from the server in a hidden form field. You should be aware of when view state helps you and when it hinders your page’s performance.

What tags do you need to add within the asp:datagrid tags to bind columns manually? 
Answer1:
Set AutoGenerateColumns Property to false on the datagrid tag 

Answer2:
tag and either or tags (with appropriate attributes of course)

What is State Management in .Net and how many ways are there to maintain a state in .Net? What is view state? 
Web pages are recreated each time the page is posted to the server. In traditional Web programming, this would ordinarily mean that all information associated with the page and the controls on the page would be lost with each round trip.
To overcome this inherent limitation of traditional Web programming, the ASP.NET page framework includes various options to help you preserve changes — that is, for managing state. The page framework includes a facility called view state that automatically preserves property values of the page and all the controls on it between round trips.
However, you will probably also have application-specific values that you want to preserve. To do so, you can use one of the state management options.
Client-Based State Management Options:
View State
Hidden Form Fields
Cookies
Query Strings
Server-Based State Management Options
Application State
Session State

Database Support

What tag do you use to add a hyperlink column to the DataGrid? 
Depends on who’s definition of hyperlink your using. Manually a std html anchor tag (a) will work or you can use the micro-magical tag

What is the standard you use to wrap up a call to a Web service? 
Several possible answers depending on your interpretation of the quesiton, but I think you were aiming for SOAP (with the caveat that this is MS’s version of SOAP) 

What is the difference between boxing and unboxing ? 
Boxing allows us to convert value types to reference types. Basically, the runtime creates a temporary reference-type box for the object on heap.
Eg:
int i=20;
object o=i; 

Describe the difference between a Thread and a Process? 
Answer1:
Thread - is used to execute more than one program at a time. 
process - executes single program 

Answer2:
A thread is a path of execution that run on CPU, a proccess is a collection of threads that share the same virtual memory. A process have at least one thread of execution, and a thread always run in a process context. 

Answer3:
The operating system creates a process for the purpose of running a program. Each process executes a single program. Processes own resources allocated by the operating system. Resources include memory, file handles, sockets, device handles, and windows. Processes do not share address spaces or file resources except through explicit methods such as inheriting file handles or shared memory segments, or mapping the same file in a shared way. 
Threads allow a program to do multiple things concurrently. At least one thread exists within each process. If multiple threads can exist within a process, then they share the same memory and file resources. 

Answer4:
Thread is a light weight process, which is initialized itself by a process. Light weigt processes does not loads resources required by it itself, these are loaded by its parent process which has generated it.

What is a Windows Service and how does its lifecycle differ from a “standard” EXE? 
Windows Service applications are long-running applications that are ideal for use in server environments. The applications do not have a user interface or produce any visual output; it is instead used by other programs or the system to perform operations. Any user messages are typically written to the Windows Event Log. Services can be automatically started when the computer is booted. This makes services ideal for use on a server or whenever you need long-running functionality that does not interfere with other users who are working on the same computer. They do not require a logged in user in order to execute and can run under the context of any user including the system. Windows Services are controlled through the Service Control Manager where they can be stopped, paused, and started as needed.

What is the difference between an EXE and a DLL?
An EXE can run independently, whereas DLL will run within an EXE. DLL is an in-process file and EXE is an out-process file
What is strong-typing versus weak-typing? Which is preferred? Why? 
Strong type is checking the types of variables as soon as possible, usually at compile time. While weak typing is delaying checking the types of the system as late as possible, usually to run-time. Which is preferred depends on what you want. For scripts & quick stuff you’ll usually want weak typing, because you want to write as much less code as possible. In big programs, strong typing can reduce errors at compile time. 

What are PDBs? Where must they be located for debugging to work? 
Answer1:
To debug precompiled components such as business objects and code-behind modules, you need to generate debug symbols. To do this, compile the components with the debug flags by using either Visual Studio .NET or a command line compiler such as Csc.exe (for Microsoft Visual C# .NET) or Vbc.exe (for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET). 

Using Visual Studio .NET 
1. Open the ASP.NET Web Application project in Visual Studio .NET. 
2. Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer and click Properties. 
3. In the Properties dialog box, click the Configuration Properties folder. 
4. In the left pane, select Build. 
5. Set Generate Debugging Information to true. 
6. Close the Properties dialog box. 
7. Right-click the project and click Build to compile the project and generate symbols (.pdb files). 

Answer2:
A program database (PDB) file holds debugging and project state information that allows incremental linking of a Debug configuration of your program. 
The linker creates project.PDB, which contains debug information for the project’s EXE file. The project.PDB contains full debug information, including function prototypes, not just the type information found in VCx0.PDB. Both PDB files allow incremental updates. 
They should be located at bin\Debug directory

What is cyclomatic complexity and why is it important? 
Cyclomatic complexity is a computer science metric (measurement) developed by Thomas McCabe used to generally measure the complexity of a program. It directly measures the number of linearly independent paths through a program’s source code. 

The concept, although not the method, is somewhat similar to that of general text complexity measured by the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test. 

Cyclomatic complexity is computed using a graph that describes the control flow of the program. The nodes of the graph correspond to the commands of a program. A directed edge connects two nodes, if the second command might be executed immediately after the first command. By definition, 

CC = E - N + P 

where 
CC = cyclomatic complexity 
E = the number of edges of the graph 
N = the number of nodes of the graph 
P = the number of connected components.

What is FullTrust? Do GAC’ed assemblies have FullTrust? 
Your code is allowed to do anything in the framework, meaning that all (.Net) permissions are granted. The GAC has FullTrust because it’s on the local HD, and that has FullTrust by default, you can change that using caspol

What does this do? gacutil /l | find /i “about” 
Answer1:
This command is used to install strong typed assembly in GAC 

Answer2:
gacutil.exe is used to install strong typed assembly in GAC. gacutil.exe /l is used to lists the contents of the global assembly cache. |(pipe) symbol is used to filter the output with another command. find /i “about” is to find the text “about” on gacutil output. If any lines contains the text “about” then that line will get displayed on console window.

Contrast OOP and SOA. What are tenets of each 
Service Oriented Architecture. In SOA you create an abstract layer that your applications use to access various “services” and can aggregate the services. These services could be databases, web services, message queues or other sources. The Service Layer provides a way to access these services that the applications do not need to know how the access is done. For example, to get a full customer record, I might need to get data from a SGL Server database, a web service and a message queue. The Service layer hides this from the calling application. All the application knows is that it asked for a full customer record. It doesn’t know what system or systems it came from or how it was retrieved.

How does the XmlSerializer work? What ACL permissions does a process using it require? 
XmlSerializer requires write permission to the system’s TEMP directory.

Why is catch(Exception) almost always a bad idea? 
Well, if at that point you know that an error has occurred, then why not write the proper code to handle that error instead of passing a new Exception object to the catch block? Throwing your own exceptions signifies some design flaws in the project.

What is the difference between Debug. Write and Trace. Write? When should each be used? 
Answer1:
The Debug. Write call won’t be compiled when the DEBUG symbol is not defined (when doing a release build). Trace. Write calls will be compiled. Debug. Write is for information you want only in debug builds, Trace. Write is for when you want it in release build as well. And in any case, you should use something like log4net because that is both faster and better 

Answer2:
Debug. Write & Trace. write - both works in Debug mode, while in Release Mode,Trace.write only will work .Try changing the Active Config property of Solution in Property page nd find the difference. Debug.write is used while debugging a project and Trace.write is used in Released version of Applications. 

What is the difference between a Debug and Release build? Is there a significant speed difference? Why or why not? 
Debug build contain debug symbols and can be debugged while release build doesn’t contain debug symbols, doesn’t have [Conational(”DEBUG”)] methods calls compiled, can’t be debugged (easily, that is), less checking, etc. There should be a speed difference, because of disabling debug methods, reducing code size etc but that is not a guarantee (at least not a significant one)

Contrast the use of an abstract base class against an interface? 
Answer1:
In the interface all methods must be abstract, in the abstract class some methods can be concrete. In the interface no accessibility modifiers are allowed, which is ok in abstract classes 

Answer2:
Whether to Choose VB.NET/C#.
Both the languages are using same classes and namespaces. Once it compile and generates MSIL, there is no meaning of which language it was written. If you are Java/C++ programmer better to choose C# for same coding style otherwise you can choose VB.net.

What is the difference between a.Equals(b) and a == b?
Answer1:
a=b is used for assigning the values (rather then comparison) and a==b is for comparison. 

Answer2:
a == b is used to compare the references of two objects 
a.Equals(b) is used to compare two objects 

Answer3:
A equals b -> copies contents of b to a
a == b -> checks if a is equal to b 

Answer4:
Equals method compares both type and value of the variable, while == compares value. 
int a = 0;
bool b = 0

if(a.Equals(b)) 

Answer5:
a.Equals(b) checks whether the Type of a is equal to b or not! Put it in another way,
Dim a As Integer = 1
Dim b As Single = 1

a.Equals(b) returns false. The Equals method returns a boolean value. 
a == b is a simple assignment statement. 

Answer6:
a.equals(b) will check whether the “b” has same type as “a” has and also has the same data as “a” has. 
a==b will do the same thing. 
if you have done this in c++ under “operator overloading” than you guys must be aware of this sytaxts. they are doing the same thing there is only sytaxtical difference. 
let me explain it in different manner.
a==b : means compare “b” with “a”. always left hand side expression evaluated first so here in this case “a” (considered an object) will call the overloaded operator “=” which defines “Equals(object)” method in it’s class. thus, ultimately a.equals(b) goanna called. 
so the answer is: both will perform the same task. they are different by syntaxt 

Answer7:
Difference b/w a==b,a.Equals(b)
a.Equals(b):
The default implementation of Equals supports reference equality only, but derived classes can override this method to support value equality. 

For reference types, equality is defined as object equality; that is, whether the references refer to the same object. For value types, equality is defined as bitwise equality
== :
For predefined value types, the equality operator (==) returns true if the values of its operands are equal, false otherwise. For reference types other than string, == returns true if its two operands refer to the same object. For the string type, == compares the values of the strings.

How would one do a deep copy in .NET? 
Answer1:
System.Array.CopyTo() - Deep copies an Array 

Answer2:
How would one do a deep copy in .NET?
The First Approach.
1.Create a new instance.
2.Copy the properties from source instance to newly created instance.
[Use reflection if you want to write a common method to achive this]

The Second Approach.
1. Serialize the object and deserialize the output.
: Use binary serialization if you want private variables to be copied.
: Use xml Serialization if you dont want private variable to be copied.

What is boxing? 
Boxing is an implicit conversion of a value type to the type object 
int i = 123; // A value type 
Object box = i // Boxing 
Unboxing is an explicit conversion from the type object to a value type 
int i = 123; // A value type object box = i; // Boxing 
int j = (int)box; // Unboxing 

Is string a value type or a reference type? 
Answer1:
String is Reference Type.
Value type - bool, byte, chat, decimal, double, enum , float, int, long, sbyte, short,strut, uint, ulong, ushort
Value types are stored in the Stack
Reference type - class, delegate, interface, object, string
Reference types are stored in the Heap


Answer2:
Yes String is reference type. C# gives two types of variable reference and value type. string and object are reference type.

How does the lifecycle of Windows services differ from Standard EXE? 
Windows services lifecycle is managed by “Service Control Manager” which is responsible for starting and stopping the service and the applications do not have a user interface or produce any visual output, but “Standard executable” doesn’t require Control Manager and is directly related to the visual output

What’s wrong with a line like this? DateTime.Parse(myString) 
the result returned by this function is not assigned to anything, should be something like varx = DateTime.Parse(myString)

NET is Compile Time OR RunTime Environment? 
.Net’s framework has CLS,CTS and CLR.CTS checks declartion of types at the time when u write code and CLS defines some rules and restrictions.and CLR comile everything at runtime with following benefits: Vastly simplified development Seamless integration of code written in various languages Evidence-based security with code identity Assembly-based deployment that eliminates DLL Hell Side-by-side versioning of reusable components Code reuse through implementation inheritance Automatic object lifetime management Self describing objects

Describe the role of inetinfo.exe, aspnet_isapi.dll andaspnet_wp.exe in the page loading process. 
inetinfo.exe is theMicrosoft IIS server running, handling ASP.NET requests among other things.When an ASP.NET request is received (usually a file with .aspx extension),the ISAPI filter aspnet_isapi.dll takes care of it by passing the request tothe actual worker process aspnet_wp.exe.

What’s the difference between Response.Write() andResponse.Output.Write()? 
The latter one allows you to write formattedoutput.

What methods are fired during the page load? 
Init() - when the pageis
instantiated, Load() - when the page is loaded into server memory,PreRender()
- the brief moment before the page is displayed to the user asHTML, Unload()
- when page finishes loading. 

Where does the Web page belong in the .NET Framework class hierarchy? 
System.Web.UI.Page

Where do you store the information about the user’s locale? 
System.Web.UI.Page.Culture

What’s the difference between Codebehind="MyCode.aspx.cs" andSrc="MyCode.aspx.cs"? 
CodeBehind is relevant to Visual Studio.NET only. 

What’s a bubbled event? 
When you have a complex control,  like DataGrid, writing an event processing routine for each object (cell, button, row, etc.) is quite tedious. The controls can bubble up their event handlers, allowing the main DataGrid event handler to take care of its constituents. 

Suppose you want a certain ASP.NET function executed on MouseOver overa certain button. Where do you add an event handler? 
It’s the Attributesproperty,
the Add function inside that property. So

btnSubmit.Attributes.Add("onMouseOver","someClientCode();") 

A simple”Javascript:ClientCode();” in the button control of the .aspx page will attach the handler (javascript function)to the onmouseover event.

What data type does the RangeValidator control support? 
Integer,String and Date.


DOT NET INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR FREHSERS


.Net Interview Questions and Answers

What is .NET?
.NET is essentially a framework for software development. It is similar in nature to any other software development framework (J2EE etc) in that it provides a set of runtime containers/capabilities, and a rich set of pre-built functionality in the form of class libraries and APIs 
The .NET Framework is an environment for building, deploying, and running Web Services and other applications. It consists of three main parts: the Common Language Runtime, the Framework classes, and ASP.NET.

How many languages .NET is supporting now? 
When .NET was introduced it came with several languages. VB.NET, C#, COBOL and Perl, etc. The site DotNetLanguages.Net says 44 languages are supported.

How is .NET able to support multiple languages? 
A language should comply with the Common Language Runtime standard to become a .NET language. In .NET, code is compiled to Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL for short). This is called as Managed Code. This Managed code is run in .NET environment. So after compilation to this IL the language is not a barrier. A code can call or use a function written in another language.

How ASP .NET different from ASP? 
Scripting is separated from the HTML, Code is compiled as a DLL, these DLLs can be executed on the server.

What is smart navigation? 
The cursor position is maintained when the page gets refreshed due to the server side validation and the page gets refreshed.

What is view state? 
The web is stateless. But in ASP.NET, the state of a page is maintained in the in the page itself automatically. How? The values are encrypted and saved in hidden controls. this is done automatically by the ASP.NET. This can be switched off / on for a single control

How do you validate the controls in an ASP .NET page? 
Using special validation controls that are meant for this. We have Range Validator, Email Validator.

Can the validation be done in the server side? Or this can be done only in the Client side?
Client side is done by default. Server side validation is also possible. We can switch off the client side and server side can be done.
How to manage pagination in a page? 
Using pagination option in DataGrid control. We have to set the number of records for a page, then it takes care of pagination by itself.

What is ADO .NET and what is difference between ADO and ADO.NET? 
ADO.NET is stateless mechanism. I can treat the ADO.Net as a separate in-memory database where in I can use relationships between the tables and select insert and updates to the database. I can update the actual database as a batch.

Observations between VB.NET and VC#.NET? 
Choosing a programming language depends on your language experience and the scope of the application you are building. While small applications are often created using only one language, it is not uncommon to develop large applications using multiple languages. 

For example, if you are extending an application with existing XML Web services, you might use a scripting language with little or no programming effort. For client-server applications, you would probably choose the single language you are most comfortable with for the entire application. For new enterprise applications, where large teams of developers create components and services for deployment across multiple remote sites, the best choice might be to use several languages depending on developer skills and long-term maintenance expectations. 

The .NET Platform programming languages - including Visual Basic .NET, Visual C#, and Visual C++ with managed extensions, and many other programming languages from various vendors - use .NET Framework services and features through a common set of unified classes. The .NET unified classes provide a consistent method of accessing the platform's functionality. If you learn to use the class library, you will find that all tasks follow the same uniform architecture. You no longer need to learn and master different API architectures to write your applications. 

In most situations, you can effectively use all of the Microsoft programming languages. Nevertheless, each programming language has its relative strengths and you will want to understand the features unique to each language. The following sections will help you choose the right programming language for your application. 

Visual Basic .NET
Visual Basic .NET is the next generation of the Visual Basic language from Microsoft. With Visual Basic you can build .NET applications, including Web services and ASP.NET Web applications, quickly and easily. Applications made with Visual Basic are built on the services of the common language runtime and take advantage of the .NET Framework. 

Visual Basic has many new and improved features such as inheritance, interfaces, and overloading that make it a powerful object-oriented programming language. Other new language features include free threading and structured exception handling. Visual Basic fully integrates the .NET Framework and the common language runtime, which together provide language interoperability, garbage collection, enhanced security, and improved versioning support. A Visual Basic support single inheritance and creates Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) as input to native code compilers. 

Visual Basic is comparatively easy to learn and use, and Visual Basic has become the programming language of choice for hundreds of thousands of developers over the past decade. An understanding of Visual Basic can be leveraged in a variety of ways, such as writing macros in Visual Studio and providing programmability in applications such as Microsoft Excel, Access, and Word. 

Visual Basic provides prototypes of some common project types, including:
• Windows Application.
• Class Library.
• Windows Control Library.
• ASP.NET Web Application.
• ASP.NET Web Service.
• Web Control Library.
• Console Application.
• Windows Service.
• Windows Service.
Visual C# .NET


Visual C# (pronounced C sharp) is designed to be a fast and easy way to create .NET applications, including Web services and ASP.NET Web applications. Applications written in Visual C# are built on the services of the common language runtime and take full advantage of the .NET Framework. 

C# is a simple, elegant, type-safe, object-oriented language recently developed by Microsoft for building a wide range of applications. Anyone familiar with C and similar languages will find few problems in adapting to C#. C# is designed to bring rapid development to the C++ programmer without sacrificing the power and control that are a hallmark of C and C++. Because of this heritage, C# has a high degree of fidelity with C and C++, and developers familiar with these languages can quickly become productive in C#. C# provides intrinsic code trust mechanisms for a high level of security, garbage collection, and type safety. C# supports single inheritance and creates Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) as input to native code compilers. 

C# is fully integrated with the .NET Framework and the common language runtime, which together provide language interoperability, garbage collection, enhanced security, and improved versioning support. C# simplifies and modernizes some of the more complex aspects of C and C++, notably namespaces, classes, enumerations, overloading, and structured exception handling. C# also eliminates C and C++ features such as macros, multiple inheritance, and virtual base classes. For current C++ developers, C# provides a powerful, high-productivity language alternative. 

Visual C# provides prototypes of some common project types, including:
• Windows Application.
• Class Library.
• Windows Control Library.
• ASP.NET Web Application.
• ASP.NET Web Service.
• Web Control Library.
• Console Application.
• Windows Service.

Advantages of migrating to VB.NET ?
Visual Basic .NET has many new and improved language features — such as inheritance, interfaces, and overloading that make it a powerful object-oriented programming language. As a Visual Basic developer, you can now create multithreaded, scalable applications using explicit multithreading. Other new language features in Visual Basic .NET include structured exception handling, custom attributes, and common language specification (CLS) compliance. 

The CLS is a set of rules that standardizes such things as data types and how objects are exposed and interoperate. Visual Basic .NET adds several features that take advantage of the CLS. Any CLS-compliant language can use the classes, objects, and components you create in Visual Basic .NET. And you, as a Visual Basic user, can access classes, components, and objects from other CLS-compliant programming languages without worrying about language-specific differences such as data types. 

CLS features used by Visual Basic .NET programs include assemblies, namespaces, and attributes. 

These are the new features to be stated briefly:
Inheritance
Visual Basic .NET supports inheritance by allowing you to define classes that serve as the basis for derived classes. Derived classes inherit and can extend the properties and methods of the base class. They can also override inherited methods with new implementations. All classes created with Visual Basic .NET are inheritable by default. Because the forms you design are really classes, you can use inheritance to define new forms based on existing ones. 

Exception Handling
Visual Basic .NET supports structured exception handling, using an enhanced version of the Try...Catch...Finally syntax supported by other languages such as C++. 

Structured exception handling combines a modern control structure (similar to Select Case or While) with exceptions, protected blocks of code, and filters. Structured exception handling makes it easy to create and maintain programs with robust, comprehensive error handlers. 

Overloading
Overloading is the ability to define properties, methods, or procedures that have the same name but use different data types. Overloaded procedures allow you to provide as many implementations as necessary to handle different kinds of data, while giving the appearance of a single, versatile procedure. Overriding Properties and Methods The Overrides keyword allows derived objects to override characteristics inherited from parent objects. Overridden members have the same arguments as the members inherited from the base class, but different implementations. A member's new implementation can call the original implementation in the parent class by preceding the member name with MyBase. 

Constructors and Destructors
Constructors are procedures that control initialization of new instances of a class. Conversely, destructors are methods that free system resources when a class leaves scope or is set to Nothing. Visual Basic .NET supports constructors and destructors using the Sub New and Sub Finalize procedures. 

Data Types
Visual Basic .NET introduces three new data types. The Char data type is an unsigned 16-bit quantity used to store Unicode characters. It is equivalent to the .NET Framework System. Char data type. The Short data type, a signed 16-bit integer, was named Integer in earlier versions of Visual Basic. The Decimal data type is a 96-bit signed integer scaled by a variable power of 10. In earlier versions of Visual Basic, it was available only within a Variant. 

Interfaces
Interfaces describe the properties and methods of classes, but unlike classes, do not provide implementations. The Interface statement allows you to declare interfaces, while the Implements statement lets you write code that puts the items described in the interface into practice. 

Delegates
Delegates objects that can call the methods of objects on your behalf are sometimes described as type-safe, object-oriented function pointers. You can use delegates to let procedures specify an event handler method that runs when an event occurs. You can also use delegates with multithreaded applications. For details, see Delegates and the AddressOf Operator. 

Shared Members
Shared members are properties, procedures, and fields that are shared by all instances of a class. Shared data members are useful when multiple objects need to use information that is common to all. Shared class methods can be used without first creating an object from a class. 

References
References allow you to use objects defined in other assemblies. In Visual Basic .NET, references point to assemblies instead of type libraries. For details, see References and the Imports Statement. Namespaces prevent naming conflicts by organizing classes, interfaces, and methods into hierarchies. 

Assemblies
Assemblies replace and extend the capabilities of type libraries by, describing all the required files for a particular component or application. An assembly can contain one or more namespaces. 

Attributes
Attributes enable you to provide additional information about program elements. For example, you can use an attribute to specify which methods in a class should be exposed when the class is used as a XML Web service.

Multithreading
Visual Basic .NET allows you to write applications that can perform multiple tasks independently. A task that has the potential of holding up other tasks can execute on a separate thread, a process known as multithreading. By causing complicated tasks to run on threads that are separate from your user interface, multithreading makes your applications more responsive to user input.
Using ActiveX Control in .Net 
ActiveX control is a special type of COM component that supports a User Interface. Using ActiveX Control in your .Net Project is even easier than using COM component. They are bundled usually in .ocx files. Again a proxy assembly is made by .Net utility AxImp.exe (which we will see shortly) which your application (or client) uses as if it is a .Net control or assembly. 

Making Proxy Assembly For ActiveX Control: First, a proxy assembly is made using AxImp.exe (acronym for ActiveX Import) by writing following command on Command Prompt: 

C:> AxImp C:MyProjectsMyControl.ocx
This command will make two dlls, e.g., in case of above command 

MyControl.dll
AxMyControl.dll
The first file MyControl.dll is a .Net assembly proxy, which allows you to reference the ActiveX as if it were non-graphical object. 

The second file AxMyControl.dll is the Windows Control, which allows u to use the graphical aspects of activex control and use it in the Windows Form Project. 

Adding Reference of ActiveX Proxy Assembly in your Project Settings: To add a reference of ActiveX Proxy Assembly in our Project, do this: 

o Select Project A Add Reference (Select Add Reference from Project Menu).
o This will show you a dialog box, select .Net tab from the top of window.
o Click Browse button on the top right of window.
o Select the dll file for your ActiveX Proxy Assembly (which is MyControl.dll) and click OK o Your selected component is now shown in the ‘Selected Component’ List Box. Click OK again Some More On Using COM or ActiveX in .Net


.Net only provides wrapper class or proxy assembly (Runtime Callable Wrapper or RCW) for COM or activeX control. In the background, it is actually delegating the tasks to the original COM, so it does not convert your COM/activeX but just imports them. 

A good thing about .Net is that when it imports a component, it also imports the components that are publically referenced by that component. So, if your component, say MyDataAcsess.dll references ADODB.dll then .Net will automatically import that COM component too! 

The Visual Studio.NET does surprise you in a great deal when u see that it is applying its intellisense (showing methods, classes, interfaces, properties when placing dot) even on your imported COM components!!!! Isn’t it a magic or what? 

When accessing thru RCW, .Net client has no knowledge that it is using COM component, it is presented just as another C# assembly. 

U can also import COM component thru command prompt (for reference see Professional C# by Wrox) 

U can also use your .Net components in COM, i.e., export your .net components (for reference see Professional C# by Wrox)

What is Machine.config? 
Machine configuration file: The machine.config file contains settings that apply to the entire computer. This file is located in the %runtime install path%Config directory. There is only one machine.config file on a computer. The Machine.Config file found in the "CONFIG" subfolder of your .NET Framework install directory (c:WINNTMicrosoft.NETFramework{Version Number} CONFIG on Windows 2000 installations). The machine.config, which can be found in the directory $WINDIR$Microsoft.NETFrameworkv1.0.3705CONFIG, is an XML-formatted configuration file that specifies configuration options for the machine. This file contains, among many other XML elements, a browser Caps element. Inside this element are a number of other elements that specify parse rules for the various User-Agents, and what properties each of these parsing supports. 

For example, to determine what platform is used, a filter element is used that specifies how to set the platform property based on what platform name is found in the User-Agent string. Specifically, the machine.config file contains: 

platform=Win95
platform=Win98
platform=WinNT
...


That is, if in the User-Agent string the string "Windows 95" or "Win95" is found, the platform property is set to Win95. There are a number of filter elements in the browserCaps element in the machine.config file that define the various properties for various User-Agent strings. 

Hence, when using the Request.Browser property to determine a user's browser features, the user's agent string is matched up to particular properties in the machine.config file. The ability for being able to detect a user's browser's capabilities, then, is based upon the honesty in the browser's sent User-Agent string. For example, Opera can be easily configured to send a User-Agent string that makes it appear as if it's IE 5.5. In this case from the Web server's perspective (and, hence, from your ASP.NET Web page's perspective), the user is visiting using IE 5.5, even though, in actuality, he is using Opera.

What is Web.config? 
In classic ASP all Web site related information was stored in the metadata of IIS. This had the disadvantage that remote Web developers couldn't easily make Web-site configuration changes. For example, if you want to add a custom 404 error page, a setting needs to be made through the IIS admin tool, and you're Web host will likely charge you a flat fee to do this for you. With ASP.NET, however, these settings are moved into an XML-formatted text file (Web.config) that resides in the Web site's root directory. Through Web.config you can specify settings like custom 404 error pages, authentication and authorization settings for the Web sitempilation options for the ASP.NET Web pages, if tracing should be enabled, etc.
The Web.config file is an XML-formatted file. At the root level is the tag. Inside this tag you can add a number of other tags, the most common and useful one being the system.web tag, where you will specify most of the Web site configuration parameters. However, to specify application-wide settings you use the tag. 

For example, if we wanted to add a database connection string parameter we could have a Web.config file like so.

What is the difference between ADO and ADO.NET? 
ADO uses Recordsets and cursors to access and modify data. Because of its inherent design, Recordset can impact performance on the server side by tying up valuable resources. In addition, COM marshalling - an expensive data conversion process - is needed to transmit a Recordset. ADO.NET addresses three important needs that ADO doesn't address: 

1. Providing a comprehensive disconnected data-access model, which is crucial to the Web environment
2. Providing tight integration with XML, and
3. Providing seamless integration with the .NET Framework (e.g., compatibility with the base class library's type system). From an ADO.NET implementation perspective, the Recordset object in ADO is eliminated in the .NET architecture. In its place, ADO.NET has several dedicated objects led by the DataSet object and including the DataAdapter, and DataReader objects to perform specific tasks. In addition, ADO.NET DataSets operate in disconnected state whereas the ADO RecordSet objects operated in a fully connected state.

In ADO, the in-memory representation of data is the RecordSet. In ADO.NET, it is the dataset. A RecordSet looks like a single table. If a RecordSet is to contain data from multiple database tables, it must use a JOIN query, which assembles the data from the various database tables into a single result table. In contrast, a dataset is a collection of one or more tables. The tables within a dataset are called data tables; specifically, they are DataTable objects. If a dataset contains data from multiple database tables, it will typically contain multiple DataTable objects. That is, each DataTable object typically corresponds to a single database table or view. In this way, a dataset can mimic the structure of the underlying database. 

In ADO you scan sequentially through the rows of the RecordSet using the ADO MoveNext method. In ADO.NET, rows are represented as collections, so you can loop through a table as you would through any collection, or access particular rows via ordinal or primary key index. A cursor is a database element that controls record navigation, the ability to update data, and the visibility of changes made to the database by other users. ADO.NET does not have an inherent cursor object, but instead includes data classes that provide the functionality of a traditional cursor. For example, the functionality of a forward-only, read-only cursor is available in the ADO.NET DataReader object. 

There is one significant difference between disconnected processing in ADO and ADO.NET. In ADO you communicate with the database by making calls to an OLE DB provider. In ADO.NET you communicate with the database through a data adapter (an OleDbDataAdapter, SqlDataAdapter, OdbcDataAdapter, or OracleDataAdapter object), which makes calls to an OLE DB provider or the APIs provided by the underlying data source.

Now VB.NET is object-oriented language. The following are some of the differences: 

Data Type Changes 

The .NET platform provides Common Type System to all the supported languages. This means that all the languages must support the same data types as enforced by common language runtime. This eliminates data type incompatibilities between various languages. For example on the 32-bit Windows platform, the integer data type takes 4 bytes in languages like C++ whereas in VB it takes 2 bytes. Following are the main changes related to data types in VB.NET: 

. Under .NET the integer data type in VB.NET is also 4 bytes in size.
. VB.NET has no currency data type. Instead it provides decimal as a replacement.
. VB.NET introduces a new data type called Char. The char data type takes 2 bytes and can store Unicode characters.
. VB.NET do not have Variant data type. To achieve a result similar to variant type you can use Object data type. (Since every thing in .NET including primitive data types is an object, a variable of object type can point to any data type).
. In VB.NET there is no concept of fixed length strings.
. In VB6 we used the Type keyword to declare our user-defined structures. VB.NET introduces the structure keyword for the same purpose.
Declaring Variables
Consider this simple example in VB6:
Dim x,y as integer


In this example VB6 will consider x as variant and y as integer, which is somewhat odd behavior. VB.NET corrects this problem, creating both x and y as integers. 

Furthermore, VB.NET allows you to assign initial values to the variables in the declaration statement itself: 
br> Dim str1 as string = Hello 

VB.NET also introduces Read-Only variables. Unlike constants Read-Only variables can be declared without initialization but once you assign a value to it, it cannot be changes. 

Initialization here
Dim readonly x as integer
In later code
X=100
Now x can’t be changed
X=200 *********** Error **********
Property Syntax
In VB.NET, we anymore don't have separate declarations for Get and Set/Let. Now, everything is done in a single property declaration. This can be better explained by the following example.
Public [ReadOnly | WriteOnly] Property PropertyName as Datatype
Get
Return m_var
End Get
Set
M_var = value
End Set
End Property
Example:
Private _message as String
Public Property Message As String
Get
Return _message
End Get
Set
_message = Value
End Set
End Property

ByVal is the default - This is a crucial difference betwen VB 6.0 and VB.NET, where the default in VB 6.0 was by reference. But objects are still passed by reference. 

Invoking Subroutines In previous versions of VB, only functions required the use of parentheses around the parameter list. But in VB.NET all function or subroutine calls require parentheses around the parameter list. This also applies, even though the parameter list is empty. 

User-Defined Types - VB.NET does away with the keyword Type and replaces it with the keyword Structure
Public Structure Student
Dim strName as String
Dim strAge as Short
End Structure
Procedures and Functions

In VB6 all the procedure parameters are passed by reference (ByRef) by default. In VB.NET they are passed by value (ByVal) by default. Parantheses are required for calling procedures and functions whether they accept any parameters or not. In VB6 functions returned values using syntax like: FuntionName = return_value. In VB.NET you can use the Return keyword (Return return_value) to return values or you can continue to use the older syntax, which is still valid. 

Scoping VB.NET now supports block-level scoping of variables. If your programs declare all of the variables at the beginning of the function or subroutine, this will not be a problem. However, the following VB 6.0 will cause an issue while upgrading to VB .NET 

Do While objRs.Eof
Dim J as Integer
J=0
If objRs("flag")="Y" then
J=1
End If
objRs.MoveNext
Wend
If J Then
Msgbox "Flag is Y"
End If

In the above example the variable J will become out of scope just after the loop, since J was declared inside the While loop. 

Exception Handling 

The most wanted feature in earlier versions of VB was its error handling mechanism. The older versions relied on error handlers such as "On Error GoTo and On Error Resume Next. VB.NET provides us with a more stuructured approach. The new block structure allows us to track the exact error at the right time. The new error handling mechanism is refered to as Try...Throw...Catch...Finally. The following example will explain this new feature. 

Sub myOpenFile()
Try
Open "myFile" For Output As #1
Write #1, myOutput
Catch
Kill "myFile"
Finally
Close #1
End try
End Sub

The keyword SET is gone - Since everything in VB.NET is an object. So the keyword SET is not at all used to differentiate between a simple variable assignment and an object assignment. So, if you have the following statement in VB 6.0 

Set ObjConn = Nothing
Should be replaced as
ObjConn = Nothing.
Constructor and Destructor

The constructor procedure is one of the many new object-oriented features of VB.NET. The constructor in VB.NET replaces the Class_Initialize in VB 6.0. All occurance of Class_Initialize in previous versions of VB should now be placed in a class constructor. In VB.NET, a constructor is added to a class by adding a procedure called New. We can also create a class destructor, which is equivalent to Class_Terminate event in VB 6.0, by adding a sub-procedure called Finalize to our class. Usage of Return In VB.NET, we can use the keyword return to return a value from any function. In previous versions, we used to assign the value back with the help of the function name itself. The following example explains this: 

Public Function Sum (intNum1 as Integer, intNum2 as Integer) as Integer
Dim intSum as Integer
intSum = intNum1 + intNum2
Return intSum
End Function
Static Methods

VB.NET now allows you to create static methods in your classes. Static methods are methods that can be called without requiring the developer to create instance of the class. For example, if you had a class named Foo with the non-static method NonStatic() and the static method Static(), you could call the Static() method like so: 

Foo.Static()

However, non-static methods require than an instance of the class be created, like so: 

Create an instance of the Foo class
Dim objFoo as New Foo()
Execute the NonStatic() method
ObjFoo.NonStatic()

To create a static method in a VB.NET, simply prefix the method definition with the keyword Shared.

What is a Strong Name? 
A strong name consists of the assembly's identity its simple text name, version number, and culture information (if provided) plus a public key and a digital signature. It is generated from an assembly file (the file that contains the assembly manifest, which in turn contains the names and hashes of all the files that make up the assembly), using the corresponding private key. Assemblies with the same strong name are expected to be identical. 

Strong names guarantee name uniqueness by relying on unique key pairs. No one can generate the same assembly name that you can, because an assembly generated with one private key has a different name than an assembly generated with another private key. 

When you reference a strong-named assembly, you expect to get certain benefits, such as versioning and naming protection. If the strong-named assembly then references an assembly with a simple name, which does not have these benefits, you lose the benefits you would derive from using a strong-named assembly and revert to DLL conflicts. Therefore, strong-named assemblies can only reference other strong-named assemblies. 

There are two ways to sign an assembly with a strong name: 

1. Using the Assembly Linker (Al.exe) provided by the .NET Framework SDK.
2. Using assembly attributes to insert the strong name information in your code. You can use either the AssemblyKeyFileAttribute or the AssemblyKeyNameAttribute, depending on where the key file to be used is located. 


To create and sign an assembly with a strong name using the Assembly Linker, at the command prompt, type the following command:
al /out: /keyfile: 

In this command, assembly name is the name of the assembly to sign with a strong name, module name is the name of the code module used to create the assembly, and file name is the name of the container or file that contains the key pair. 

The following example signs the assembly MyAssembly.dll with a strong name using the key file sgKey.snk.

al /out:MyAssembly.dll MyModule.netmodule /keyfile:sgKey.snk 

To sign an assembly with a strong name using attributes 

In a code module, add the AssemblyKeyFileAttribute or the AssemblyKeyNameAttribute, specifying the name of the file or container that contains the key pair to use when signing the assembly with a strong name. The following code example uses the AssemblyKeyFileAttribute with a key file called sgKey.snk. 

[Visual Basic] 
[C#] 
[assembly:AssemblyKeyFileAttribute(@"....sgKey.snk")]
What is a Manifest?
An assembly manifest contains all the metadata needed to specify the assembly's version requirements and security identity, and all metadata needed to define the scope of the assembly and resolve references to resources and classes. The assembly manifest can be stored in either a PE (Portable Executable) file (an .exe or .dll) with Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) code or in a standalone PE (Portable Executable) file that contains only assembly manifest information. The following table shows the information contained in the assembly manifest. The first four items the assembly name, version number, culture, and strong name information make up the assembly's identity. 

Assembly name: A text string specifying the assembly's name. 

Version number: A major and minor version number, and a revision and build number. The common language runtime uses these numbers to enforce version policy. 

Culture: Information on the culture or language the assembly supports. This information should be used only to designate an assembly as a satellite assembly containing culture- or language-specific information. (An assembly with culture information is automatically assumed to be a satellite assembly.) Strong name information: The public key from the publisher if the assembly has been given a strong name. List of all files in the assembly: 

A hash of each file contained in the assembly and a file name. Note that all files that make up the assembly must be in the same directory as the file containing the assembly manifest. 

Type reference information: Information used by the runtime to map a type reference to the file that contains its declaration and implementation. This is used for types that are exported from the assembly. 

Information on referenced assemblies: A list of other assemblies that are statically referenced by the assembly. Each reference includes the dependent assembly's name, assembly metadata (version, culture, operating system, and so on), and public key, if the assembly is strong named.

Creating a Key Pair? 
You can create a key pair using the Strong Name tool (Sn.exe). Key pair files usually have an .snk extension. To create a key pair At the command prompt, type the following command: 

sn k 

In this command, file name is the name of the output file containing the key pair. The following example creates a key pair called sgKey.snk. 

sn -k sgKey.snk

What is the difference between "using System.Data;" and directly adding the reference from "Add References Dialog Box"? 
When u compile a program using command line, u add the references using /r switch. When you compile a program using Visual Studio, it adds those references to our assembly, which are added using "Add Reference" dialog box. While "using" statement facilitates us to use classes without using their fully qualified names. 

For example: if u have added a reference to "System.Data.SqlClient" using "Add Reference" dialog box then u can use SqlConnection class like this: 

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection 

But if u add a "using System.Data.SqlClient" statement at the start of ur code then u can directly use SqlConnection class.
On the other hand if u add a reference using "using System.Data.SqlClient" statement, but don't add it using "Add Reference" dialog box, Visual Studio will give error message while we compile the program.

What is GAC? 
The global assembly cache 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. Assemblies deployed in the global assembly cache must have a strong name. When an assembly is added to the global assembly cache, integrity checks are performed on all files that make up the assembly. The cache performs these integrity checks to ensure that an assembly has not been tampered with, for example, when a file has changed but the manifest does not reflect the change. Use a developer tool called the Global Assembly Cache tool (Gacutil.exe), provided by the .NET Framework SDK or Use Windows Explorer to drag assemblies into the cache. To install a strong-named assembly into the global assembly cache At the command prompt, type the following command: 

gacutil I 

In this command, assembly name is the name of the assembly to install in the global assembly cache.

What is a Metadata? 
Metadata is information about a PE. In COM, metadata is communicated through non-standardized type libraries. 

In .NET, this data is contained in the header portion of a COFF-compliant PE and follows certain guidelines; 
it contains information such as the assembly’s name, version, language (spoken, not computera.k.a., culture), what external types are referenced, what internal types are exposed, methods, properties, classes, and much more. 

The CLR uses metadata for a number of specific purposes. Security is managed through a public key in the PE’s header. 

Information about classes, modules, and so forth allows the CLR to know in advance what structures are necessary. The class loader component of the CLR uses metadata to locate specific classes within assemblies, either locally or across networks. 

Just-in-time (JIT) compilers use the metadata to turn IL into executable code. 

Other programs take advantage of metadata as well. 

A common example is placing a Microsoft Word document on a Windows 2000 desktop. If the document file has completed comments, author, title, or other Properties metadata, the text is displayed as a tool tip when a user hovers the mouse over the document on the desktop. You can use the Ildasm.exe utility to view the metadata in a PE. Literally, this tool is an IL disassembler.

What is managed code and managed data? 
Managed code is code that is written to target the services of the Common Language Runtime. 
In order to target these services, the code must provide a minimum level of information (metadata) to the runtime. 
All C#, Visual Basic .NET, and JScript .NET code is managed by default. 
Visual Studio .NET C++ code is not managed by default, but the compiler can produce managed code by specifying a command-line switch (/CLR). 
Closely related to managed code is managed data--data that is allocated and de- allocated by the Common Language Runtime's garbage collector. C#, Visual Basic, and JScript .NET data is managed by default. 
C# data can, however, be marked as unmanaged through the use of special keywords. 
Visual Studio .NET C++ data is unmanaged by default (even when using the /CLR switch), but when using Managed Extensions for C++, a class can be marked as managed using the __gc keyword. As the name suggests, this means that the memory for instances of the class is managed by the garbage collector. 
In addition, the class becomes a full participating member of the .NET Framework community, with the benefits and restrictions that it brings. An example of a benefit is proper interoperability with classes written in other languages (for example, a managed C++ class can inherit from a Visual Basic class). 
An example of a restriction is that a managed class can only inherit from one base class.

What is .NET / .NET Framework? 
It is a Framework in which Windows applications may be developed and run. The Microsoft .NET Framework is a platform for building, deploying, and running Web Services and applications. It provides a highly productive, standards-based, multi-language environment for integrating existing investments with next-generation applications and services as well as the agility to solve the challenges of deployment and operation of Internet-scale applications. The .NET Framework consists of three main parts: the common language runtime, a hierarchical set of unified class libraries, and a componentized version of Active Server Pages called ASP.NET. The .NET Framework provides a new programming model and rich set of classes designed to simplify application development for Windows, the Web, and mobile devices. It provides full support for XML Web services, contains robust security features, and delivers new levels of programming power. The .NET Framework is used by all Microsoft languages including Visual C#, Visual J#, and Visual C++.

What is Reflection? 
It extends the benefits of metadata by allowing developers to inspect and use it at runtime. For example, dynamically determine all the classes contained in a given assembly and invoke their methods. Reflection provides objects that encapsulate assemblies, modules, and types. You can use reflection to dynamically create an instance of a type, bind the type to an existing object, or get the type from an existing object. You can then invoke the type's methods or access its fields and properties. Namespace: System.Reflection

What is "Common Type System" (CTS)? 
CTS defines all of the basic types that can be used in the .NET Framework and the operations performed on those type.
All this time we have been talking about language interoperability, and .NET Class Framework. None of this is possible without all the language sharing the same data types. What this means is that an int should mean the same in VB, VC++, C# and all other .NET compliant languages. This is achieved through introduction of Common Type System (CTS).

What is "Common Language Specification" (CLS)? 
CLS is the collection of the rules and constraints that every language (that seeks to achieve .NET compatibility) must follow. It is a subsection of CTS and it specifies how it shares and extends one another libraries.

What is "Common Language Runtime" (CLR)? 
CLR is .NET equivalent of Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It is the runtime that converts a MSIL code into the host machine language code, which is then executed appropriately. The CLR is the execution engine for .NET Framework applications. It provides a number of services, including: 

- Code management (loading and execution)
- Application memory isolation
- Verification of type safety
- Conversion of IL to native code.
- Access to metadata (enhanced type information)
- Managing memory for managed objects
- Enforcement of code access security
- Exception handling, including cross-language exceptions
- Interoperation between managed code, COM objects, and pre-existing DLL's (unmanaged code and data)
- Automation of object layout
- Support for developer services (profiling, debugging, and so on).

What are Attributes?
Attributes are declarative tags in code that insert additional metadata into an assembly. There exist two types of attributes in the .NET Framework: Predefined attributes such as AssemblyVersion, which already exist and are accessed through the Runtime Classes; and custom attributes, which you write yourself by extending the System.Attribute class.
What are the Types of Assemblies? 
Assemblies are of two types:
1. Private Assemblies
2. Shared Assemblies
Private Assemblies: The assembly is intended only for one application. The files of that assembly must be placed in the same folder as the application or in a sub folder. No other application will be able to make a call to this assembly. The advantage of having a private assembly is that, it makes naming the assembly very easy, since the developer need not worry about name clashes with other assemblies. As long as the assembly has a unique name within the concerned application, there won't be any problems.
Shared Assemblies: If the assembly is to be made into a Shared Assembly, then the naming conventions are very strict since it has to be unique across the entire system. The naming conventions should also take care of newer versions of the component being shipped. These are accomplished by giving the assembly a Shared Name. Then the assembly is placed in the global assembly cache, which is a folder in the file system reserved for shared assemblies.

What is an Intermediate language? 
Assemblies are made up of IL code modules and the metadata that describes them. Although programs may be compiled via an IDE or the command line, in fact, they are simply translated into IL, not machine code. The actual machine code is not generated until the function that requires it is called. This is the just-in-time, or JIT, compilation feature of .NET. JIT compilation happens at runtime for a variety of reasons, one of the most ambitious being Microsoft's desire for cross-platform .NET adoption. If a CLR is built for another operating system (UNIX or Mac), the same assemblies will run in addition to the Microsoft platforms. The hope is that .NET assemblies are write-once-run-anywhere applications. This is a .NET feature that works behind-the-scenes, ensuring that developers are not limited to writing applications for one single line of products. No one has demonstrated whether or not this promise will ever truly materialize. 

CTS/CLS 

The MSIL Instruction Set Specification is included with the .NET SDK, along with the IL Assembly Language Programmers Reference. If a developer wants to write custom .NET programming languages, these are the necessary specifications and syntax. The CTS and CLS define the types and syntaxes that every .NET language needs to embrace. An application may not expose these features, but it must consider them when communicating through IL.

ASP.NET Authentication Providers and IIS Security 

ASP.NET implements authentication using authentication providers, which are code modules that verify credentials and implement other security functionality such as cookie generation. ASP.NET supports the following three authentication providers: 

Forms Authentication: Using this provider causes unauthenticated requests to be redirected to a specified HTML form using client side redirection. The user can then supply logon credentials, and post the form back to the server. If the application authenticates the request (using application-specific logic), ASP.NET issues a cookie that contains the credentials or a key for reacquiring the client identity. Subsequent requests are issued with the cookie in the request headers, which means that subsequent authentications are unnecessary. 

Passport Authentication: This is a centralized authentication service provided by Microsoft that offers a single logon facility and membership services for participating sites. ASP.NET, in conjunction with the Microsoft® Passport software development kit (SDK), provides similar functionality as Forms Authentication to Passport users. 

Windows Authentication: This provider utilizes the authentication capabilities of IIS. After IIS completes its authentication, ASP.NET uses the authenticated identity's token to authorize access. 

To enable a specified authentication provider for an ASP.NET application, you must create an entry in the application's configuration file as follows:
// web.config file

What is the difference between ASP and ASP.NET? 
ASP is interpreted. ASP.NET Compiled event base programming.
Control events for text button can be handled at client javascript only. Since we have server controls events can handle at server side.
More error handling. 

ASP .NET has better language support, a large set of new controls and XML based components, and better user authentication. 

ASP .NET provides increased performance by running compiled code. 

ASP .NET code is not fully backward compatible with ASP. 

ASP .NET also contains a new set of object oriented input controls, like programmable list boxes, validation controls. A new data grid control supports sorting, data paging, and everything you expect from a dataset control. The first request for an ASP.NET page on the server will compile the ASP .NET code and keep a cached copy in memory. The result of this is greatly increased performance. 

ASP .NET is not fully compatible with earlier versions of ASP, so most of the old ASP code will need some changes to run under ASP .NET. To overcome this problem, 

ASP .NET uses a new file extension ".aspx". This will make ASP .NET applications able to run side by side with standard ASP applications on the same server.

Using COM Component in .Net ?
As most of you know that .Net does not encourage the development of COM components and provides a different solution to making reusable components through Assemblies. But, there are a lot of COM components present which our .Net application might need to use. Fortunately, .Net provides an extremely simple approach to achieve this. This is achieved by using ‘Wrapper Classes’ and ‘Proxy Components’. .Net wraps the COM component into .Net assembly technically called ‘Runtime Callable Wrapper’ or RCW. Then u can call and use your COM component just as a .Net (or C#, if u are using C#) Assembly.

What is an assembly? 
An assembly is the primary building block of a .NET Framework application. It is a collection of functionality that is built, versioned, and deployed as a single implementation unit (as one or more files). All managed types and resources are marked either as accessible only within their implementation unit, or as accessible by code outside that unit. .NET Assembly contains all the metadata about the modules, types, and other elements it contains in the form of a manifest. The CLR loves assemblies because differing programming languages are just perfect for creating certain kinds of applications. For example, COBOL stands for Common Business-Oriented Language because it’s tailor-made for creating business apps. However, it’s not much good for creating drafting programs. Regardless of what language you used to create your modules, they can all work together within one Portable Executable Assembly. There’s a hierarchy to the structure of .NET code. That hierarchy is Assembly - > Module -> Type -> Method." Assemblies can be static or dynamic. Static assemblies can include .NET Framework types (interfaces and classes), as well as resources for the assembly (bitmaps, JPEG files, resource files, and so on). Static assemblies are stored on disk in portable executable (PE) files. You can also use the .NET Framework to create dynamic assemblies, which are run directly from memory and are not saved to disk before execution. You can save dynamic assemblies to disk after they have executed.

What is a Web Service? 
A web service is a software component that exposes itself through the open communication channels of the Internet. Applications running on remote machines, on potentially different platforms, can access these components in a language and platform-independent manner. A Web Service is a group of functions, packaged together for use in a common framework throughout a network.

webFarm Vs webGardens 
A web farm is a multi-server scenario. So we may have a server in each state of US. If the load on one server is in excess then the other servers step in to bear the brunt.
How they bear it is based on various models.
1. RoundRobin. (All servers share load equally)
2. NLB (economical)
3. HLB (expensive but can scale up to 8192 servers)
4. Hybrid (of 2 and 3).
5. CLB (Component load balancer).
A web garden is a multi-processor setup. i.e., a single server (not like the multi server above).
How to implement webfarms in .Net:
Go to web.config and Here for mode = you have 4 options.
a) Say mode=inproc (non web farm but fast when you have very few customers).
b) Say mode=StateServer (for webfarm)
c) Say mode=SqlServer (for webfarm)
Whether to use option b or c depends on situation. StateServer is faster but SqlServer is more reliable and used for mission critical applications.
How to use webgardens in .Net:
Go to web.config and Change the false to true. You have one more attribute that is related to webgarden in the same tag called cpuMask.

What is the difference between a namespace and assembly name?
A namespace is a logical naming scheme for types in which a simple type name, such as MyType, is preceded with a dot-separated hierarchical name. Such a naming scheme is completely under control of the developer. For example, types MyCompany.FileAccess.A and MyCompany.FileAccess.B might be logically expected to have functionally related to file access. The .NET Framework uses a hierarchical naming scheme for grouping types into logical categories of related functionality, such as the ASP.NET application framework, or remoting functionality. Design tools can make use of namespaces to make it easier for developers to browse and reference types in their code. The concept of a namespace is not related to that of an assembly. A single assembly may contain types whose hierarchical names have different namespace roots, and a logical namespace root may span multiple assemblies. In the .NET Framework, a namespace is a logical design-time naming convenience, whereas an assembly establishes the name scope for types at run time.
What’s a Windows process? 
It’s an application that’s running and had been allocated memory.

What’s typical about a Windows process in regards to memory allocation? 
Each process is allocated its own block of available RAM space, no process can access another process’ code or data. If the process crashes, it dies alone without taking the entire OS or a bunch of other applications down.

Explain what relationship is between a Process, Application Domain, and Application? 
Each process is allocated its own block of available RAM space, no process can access another process’ code or data. If the process crashes, it dies alone without taking the entire OS or a bunch of other applications down. 
A process is an instance of a running application. An application is an executable on the hard drive or network. There can be numerous processes launched of the same application (5 copies of Word running), but 1 process can run just 1 application.

What are possible implementations of distributed applications in .NET? 
.NET Remoting and ASP.NET Web Services. If we talk about the Framework Class Library, noteworthy classes are in System.Runtime.Remoting and System.Web.Services.

What are the consideration in deciding to use .NET Remoting or ASP.NET Web Services? 
Remoting is a more efficient communication exchange when you can control both ends of the application involved in the communication process. Web Services provide an open-protocol-based exchange of information. Web Services are best when you need to communicate with an external organization or another (non-.NET) technology.

What’s a proxy of the server object in .NET Remoting? 
It’s a fake copy of the server object that resides on the client side and behaves as if it was the server. It handles the communication between real server object and the client object. This process is also known as marshaling.

What are remotable objects in .NET Remoting? 
Remotable objects are the objects that can be marshaled across the application domains. You can marshal by value, where a deep copy of the object is created and then passed to the receiver. You can also marshal by reference, where just a reference to an existing object is passed.

What are channels in .NET Remoting? 
Channels represent the objects that transfer the other serialized objects from one application domain to another and from one computer to another, as well as one process to another on the same box. A channel must exist before an object can be transferred. 

What security measures exist for .NET Remoting in System.Runtime.Remoting? 
None. Security should be taken care of at the application level. Cryptography and other security techniques can be applied at application or server level.

What is a formatter? 
A formatter is an object that is responsible for encoding and serializing data into messages on one end, and deserializing and decoding messages into data on the other end.

Choosing between HTTP and TCP for protocols and Binary and SOAP for formatters, what are the trade-offs? 
Binary over TCP is the most effiecient, SOAP over HTTP is the most interoperable.

What’s SingleCall activation mode used for? 
If the server object is instantiated for responding to just one single request, the request should be made in SingleCall mode.

What’s Singleton activation mode? 
A single object is instantiated regardless of the number of clients accessing it. Lifetime of this object is determined by lifetime lease.

How do you define the lease of the object? 
By implementing ILease interface when writing the class code.

Can you configure a .NET Remoting object via XML file? 
Yes, via machine.config and application level .config file (or web.config in ASP.NET). Application-level XML settings take precedence over machine.config.

How can you automatically generate interface for the remotable object in .NET with Microsoft tools? 
Use the Soapsuds tool.

What is Delegation? 
A delegate acts like a strongly type function pointer. Delegates can invoke the methods that they reference without making explicit calls to those methods.
Delegate is an entity that is entrusted with the task of representation, assign or passing on information. In code sense, it means a Delegate is entrusted with a Method to report information back to it when a certain task (which the Method expects) is accomplished outside the Method's class.

What is "Microsoft Intermediate Language" (MSIL)?
A .NET programming language (C#, VB.NET, J# etc.) does not compile into executable code; instead it compiles into an intermediate code called Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL). As a programmer one need not worry about the syntax of MSIL - since our source code in automatically converted to MSIL. The MSIL code is then send to the CLR (Common Language Runtime) that converts the code to machine language, which is, then run on the host machine. MSIL is similar to Java Byte code. MSIL is the CPU-independent instruction set into which .NET Framework programs are compiled. It contains instructions for loading, storing, initializing, and calling methods on objects. Combined with metadata and the common type system, MSIL allows for true cross- language integration Prior to execution, MSIL is converted to machine code. It is not interpreted.
Differences between Datagrid, Datalist and Repeater? 
1. Datagrid has paging while Datalist doesnt.
2. Datalist has a property called repeat. Direction = vertical/horizontal. (This is of great help in designing layouts). This is not there in Datagrid.
3. A repeater is used when more intimate control over html generation is required.
4. When only checkboxes/radiobuttons are repeatedly served then a checkboxlist or radiobuttonlist are used as they involve fewer overheads than a Datagrid.
The Repeater repeats a chunk of HTML you write, it has the least functionality of the three. DataList is the next step up from a Repeater; accept you have very little control over the HTML that the control renders. DataList is the first of the three controls that allow you Repeat-Columns horizontally or vertically. Finally, the DataGrid is the motherload. However, instead of working on a row-by-row basis, you’re working on a column-by-column basis. DataGrid caters to sorting and has basic paging for your disposal. Again you have little contro, over the HTML. NOTE: DataList and DataGrid both render as HTML tables by default. Out of the 3 controls, I use the Repeater the most due to its flexibility w/ HTML. Creating a Pagination scheme isn't that hard, so I rarely if ever use a DataGrid.
Occasionally I like using a DataList because it allows me to easily list out my records in rows of three for instance.

I am constantly writing the drawing procedures with System.Drawing.Graphics, but having to use the try and dispose blocks is too time-consuming with Graphics objects. Can I automate this? 
Yes, the code

System.Drawing.Graphics canvas = new System.Drawing.Graphics();
try
{
//some code
}
finally
canvas.Dispose();

is functionally equivalent to

using (System.Drawing.Graphics canvas = new System.Drawing.Graphics())
{
//some code
} //canvas.Dispose() gets called automatically

How do you trigger the Paint event in System.Drawing? 
Invalidate the current form, the OS will take care of repainting. The Update method forces the repaint.

With these events, why wouldn’t Microsoft combine Invalidate and Paint, so that you wouldn’t have to tell it to repaint, and then to force it to repaint? 
Painting is the slowest thing the OS does, so usually telling it to repaint, but not forcing it allows for the process to take place in the background.

How can you assign an RGB color to a System.Drawing.Color object? 
Call the static method FromArgb of this class and pass it the RGB values.

What class does Icon derive from? Isn’t it just a Bitmap with a wrapper name around it? 
No, Icon lives in System.Drawing namespace. It’s not a Bitmap by default, and is treated separately by .NET. However, you can use ToBitmap method to get a valid Bitmap object from a valid Icon object.

Before in my VB app I would just load the icons from DLL. How can I load the icons provided by .NET dynamically? 
By using System.Drawing.SystemIcons class, for example System.Drawing.SystemIcons.Warning produces an Icon with a warning sign in it. 

When displaying fonts, what’s the difference between pixels, points and ems? 
A pixel is the lowest-resolution dot the computer monitor supports. Its size depends on user’s settings and monitor size. A point is always 1/72 of an inch. An em is the number of pixels that it takes to display the letter M.

What is the difference between VB 6 and VB.NET? 
Answer1
VB

1,Object-based Language
2,Doesnot support Threading
3,Not powerful Exception handling mechanism
4,Doesnot having support for the console based applications
5,Cannot use more than one version of com objects in vb application called DLL error
6,Doesnot support for the Disconnected data source. 

VB.Net

1,Object-oriented Language
2,supports Threading
3,powerful Exception handling mechanism
4,having support for the console based applications
5,More than one version of dll is supported
6,supports the Disconnected data source by using Dataset class 

Answer2
VB:
1. Object-based language
2. Does not support inheritance
3. ADO.Net does not give support for disconnected data architecture
4. No interoperability function
5. No support for threading

VB.Net
1. Object-Oriented Programming lanugage
2. ADO.Net gives support for disconnected data architecture
3. It provides interoperability
4. It uses managed code
5. supports threading
6. provides access to third-party controls like COM, DCOM


Answer2
1.The concept of the complete flow of execution of a program from start to finish: Visual Basic hides this aspect of programs from you, so that the only elements of a Visual Basic program you code are the event handlers and any methods in class modules. C# makes the complete program available to you as source code. The reason for this has to do with the fact that C# can be seen, philosophically, as next-generation C++. The roots of C++ go back to the 1960s and predate windowed user interfaces and sophisticated operating systems. C++ evolved as a low-level, closeto- the-machine, all-purpose language. To write GUI applications with C++ meant that you had to invoke the system calls to create and interact with the windowed forms. C# has been designed to build on this tradition while simplifying and modernizing C++, to combine the low-level performance benefits of C++ with the ease of coding in Visual Basic. Visual Basic, on the other hand, is designed specifically for rapid application development of Windows GUI applications. For this reason, in Visual Basic all the GUI boilerplate code is hidden, and all the Visual Basic programmer implements are the event handlers. In C# on the other hand, this boilerplate code is exposed as part of your source code.
2. Classes and inheritance: C# is a genuine object-oriented language, unlike Visual Basic, requiring all code to be a part of a class. It also includes extensive support for implementation inheritance. Indeed, most well-designed C# programs will be very much designed around this form of inheritance, which is completely absent in Visual Basic.

What are the authentication methods in .NET?
There are 4 types of authentications.
1.WINDOWS AUTHENTICATION
2.FORMS AUTHENTICATION
3.PASSPORT AUTHENTICATION
4.NONE/CUSTOM AUTHENTICATION

The authentication option for the ASP.NET application is specified by using the tag in the Web.config file, as shown below: 
other authentication options 
1. WINDOWS AUTHENTICATION Schemes
I. Integrated Windows authentication
II. Basic and basic with SSL authentication
III. Digest authentication
IV. Client Certificate authentication

2. FORMS AUTHENTICATION
You, as a Web application developer, are supposed to develop the Web page and authenticate the user by checking the provided user ID and password against some user database 

3.PASSPORT AUTHENTICATION
A centralized service provided by Microsoft, offers a single logon point for clients. Unauthenticated users are redirected to the Passport site 

4 NONE/CUSTOM AUTHENTICATION:
If we don’t want ASP.NET to perform any authentication, we can set the authentication mode to “none”. The reason behind this decision could be: We don’t want to authenticate our users, and our Web site is open for all to use. We want to provide our own custom authentication

What is Serialization in .NET? 
Anwer1
The serialization is the process of converting the objects into stream of bytes.
they or used for transport the objects(via remoting) and persist objects(via files and databases) 

Answer2
When developing smaller applications that do not have a database (or other formal storage mechanism) or data that doesn’t need to be stored in a database (such as the state of a web application), you often still would like to save the data for later retrieval. There are many ways to do this, but many of them are subject to a lot of extra code (work) and extra time spent debugging. With .NET, there is now an easy way to add this functionality to your code with only a few lines of easily tested code. This easy way is called serialization. 

Serialization is the process of storing an object, including all of its public and private fields, to a stream. Deserialization is the opposite – restoring an object’s field values from a stream. The stream is generally in the form of a FileStream, but does not have to be. It could be a memory stream or any other object that is of type IO.Stream. The format can be anything from XML to binary to SOAP. 

What’s the use of System.Diagnostics.Process class? 
By using System.Diagnostics.Process class, we can provide access to the files which are presented in the local and remote system. 
Example: System.Diagnostics.Process(”c:\mlaks\example.txt”) — local file
System.Diagnostics.Process(”http://www.mlaks.com\example.txt”) — remote file

What are the authentication methods in .NET?
Abstract class: This class has abstract methods (no body). This class cannot be instantiated. One needs to provide the implementation of the methods by overriding them in the derived class. No Multiple Inheritance. 
Interfaces: Interface class contains all abstract methods which are public by default. All of these methods must be implemented in the derived class. One can inherit from from more than one interface thus provides for Multiple Inheritance.

re-clarification of object based: 
VB6 DOES support polymorphism and interface inheritance. It also supports the “Implements” keyword. What is not supported in vb6 is implementation inheritance. 
Also, from above, vb6 DOES “provides access to third-party controls like COM, DCOM ” That is not anything new in .NET.

How to achieve Polymorphism in VB.Net? 
We can achieve polymarphism in .Net i.e Compile time polymarphism and Runtime polymarphism. Compiletime Polymarphism achieved by method overloading. Runtime polymarphism achieved by Early Binding or Late Binding. Provide the function pointer to the object at compile time called as Early Binding.
provide the function pointer to the object at runtime called as Late Binding
class emp having the method display()
class dept having the method display()

create objects as in the main function
// Early binding
dim obj as new emp
dim ob as new dept

obj.display()-to call the display method of emp class
ob.display-to call the display method of the dept class
// Late binding

create object in the main class as
object obj
obj=new emp
obj.display()-to call the display of emp class
obj=new dept
obj.display()-to call the display of dept class

Difference between Class And Interface 
Class is logical representation of object. It is collection of data and related sub procedures with defination.
Interface is also a class containg methods which is not having any definations.
Class does not support multiple inheritance. But interface can support.

What doesu mean by .NET framework? 
The .NET Framework is an environment for building, deploying, and running Web Services and other applications. It consists of three main parts: the Common Language Runtime, the Framework classes, and ASP.NET

What is assembly? 
It is a single deployable unit that contains all the information abt the implimentation of classes , stuctures and interfaces

What is namespaces? 
It is a logical group of related classes and interfaces and that can be used byany language targeting the .net framework.

.NET framework programming interview questions 

.NET framework overview

1. Has own class libraries. System is the main namespace and all other namespaces are subsets of this.
2. It has CLR(Common language runtime, Common type system, common language specification)
3. All the types are part of CTS and Object is the base class for all the types.
4. If a language said to be .net complaint, it should be compatible with CTS and CLS.
5. All the code compiled into an intermediate language by the .Net language compiler, which is nothing but an assembly.
6. During runtime, JIT of CLR picks the IL code and converts into PE machine code and from there it processes the request.
7. CTS, CLS, CLR
8. Garbage Collection
9. Dispose, finalize, suppress finalize, Idispose interface
10. Assemblies, Namespace: Assembly is a collection of class/namespaces. An assembly contains Manifest, Metadata, Resource files, IL code
11. Com interoperability, adding references, web references
12. Database connectivity and providers


Application Domain
1. Class modifiers: public, private, friend, protected, protected friend, mustinherit, NotInheritable
2. Method modifiers: public, private
3. Overridable
4. Shadows
5. Overloadable
6. Overrides
7. Overloads
8. Set/Get Property
9. IIF
10. Inheritance
11. Polymorphism
12. Delegates
13. Events
14. Reflection
15. Boxing
16. UnBoxing


ASP.Net
1. Web Controls: Data grid (templates, sorting, paging, bound columns, unbound columns, data binding), Data list, repeater controls
2. HTML Controls
3. Code behind pages, system.web.ui.page base class
4. Web.config: App settings, identity (impersonate), authentication (windows, forms, anonymous, passport), authorization
5. Databind.eval
6. Trace, Debug
7. Output cache
8. Session management
9. Application, Session
10. Global.asax httpapplication
11. User controls, custom controls, custom rendered controls (postback event, postdatachanged event) usercontrol is the base class
12. Directives


ADO.Net
1. Command object (ExecuteNonquery, ExecuteReader, ExecuteXMLReader, ExecuteScalar)
2. DataAdapter object (Fill)
3. Dataset (collection of tables)
4. CommandBuiler object
5. Transaction Object
6. Isolation levels