.NET Interview Questions Part-2

18. 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")]

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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++.

26. 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

27. 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).

28. 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.

29. 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).

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. 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.

38. 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.

39. 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.

40. What’s a Windows process?
It’s an application that’s running and had been allocated memory.

41. 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.

42. 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.

43. 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.

43. 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 informaion. Web Services are best when you need to communicate with an external organization or another (non-.NET) technology.

44. 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.

45. 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.

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. 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.

49. 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.

50. 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.

51. 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.

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

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