The problem with technical interviews is you never know if you should bring your lucky keyboard—
Or marker.
Not to mention the C# interview questions you’ll be asked are hardly predictable.
The good news?
We reached out to several C# experts to share their insights, and tell us what C# coding questions they like to ask to aspiring C# developers.
So, keep calm and read on.
This article will show you:
- 20+ top C# interview questions.
- Answers to help you ace the C# interview questions.
- Advice from experienced developers, researchers, and C# experts.
- How to answer C# coding questions so they’ll call you back.
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Technical questions aren’t the only ones you’ll be asked during your interview. Learn how to nail all your interview questions from our guide: Common Job Interview Questions & Answers
1
C# .NET Interview Questions
It’s no secret—
C# technical interviews usually consist of several stages.
Most of the time they start with C# phone interview questions.
The questions asked over the phone will be general coding questions, and because of the medium, focus on the more theoretical aspects of C#.
Marie Lamonde from DashThis says that potencial employees of her company are likely to be asked the following questions:
1. Do you have any C# experience?
If not, we fall back to non-programming-language-oriented software development questions. Or questions for any other language known by the candidate. For an interview, we are looking for answers that will help us spot a great software developer. And a great software developer is not one who knows every answer Google can give you in seconds, but one who can make good design decision at the right time.
2. What are your tips to write great C# code?
The great answers start with: Like (almost) any other language... Detailed answers circle around those: Simple and simpler, short, read like prose, do what it should, comes with great automated unit tests, use C# features to enhanced readability, etc. As a candidate, you should prepare by reading/practising about Clean Code and Clean Architecture. Practice Test-Driven development until you drop, and pair programming with people with that expertise.
In fact—
Websites such as interviewing.io have been specifically created to help coders hone their skills before the actual interview takes place.
3. Which C# features do you like most and why?
We're looking to grasp what the candidate really knows about the language and even more how the candidate applies this language to design/write great software. Candidates should prepare by asking themselves every day how to improve their code/design with the language features.
In other words—
You can only become a great coder (and ace your C# interview questions along the way) if coding is something you’re truly passionate about.
4. Which C# structure would you use/do to get the fastest large objects manipulation and when/why would you care?
We want to know if the candidate knows some performance tricks, and when he should care about this performance. Premature optimization is mostly a waste of time and a source of complex solutions. Candidate should learn the C# language performance tricks and really learn the ups and downs of every one of them.
It stands to logic—
The basic C# interview questions to expect in the initial screening stage won’t really require you to do coding. You’re likely to be asked about your past experience, problems you encountered, solutions you arrived at, or business contexts in which you’ve had a chance to apply your C# coding skills, etc.
Moving on to on-site C# interview questions.
The good news?
Most companies allow you to show off your coding ability in a programming language of your choice. If you’re comfortable with C#, ask for C# coding questions.
The bad news?
You never know what to expect.
You will have heard the story of Max Howell, creator of Homebrew, being rejected by Google for not being able to invert a binary tree.
We reached out to several C# experts to pick their brains on what questions they like to challenge candidates with and why.
Dzmitry Valadziankou, Lead .NET Developer at ScienceSoft, has shared his experience on interviewing C# developers.
5. What will be the output of the following code snippet?
interfaceINamed
{
string Name { get;set; }
}
T[] q =new T[100];//where T some type
INamed named = q[10];
named.Name ="bob";
Console.WriteLine(q[10].Name ??"empty");
Console.ReadKey();
The output of the code depends on the type of T—whether it’s the Value type or the Ref type. For the Ref type, the answer will be runtime NullRefenceException, for the Value type — null. Going further, the developer may also explain why this output is expected, cover the difference of the Value type and the Ref type as well as boxing/unboxing concepts. For extra credit, I ask them about the location of the Ref type and the Value type arrays (whether it’s stack or heap) and the speed of array element access.
6. List<T> - what is the efficiency of Add method, RemoveAt method: Add – O(1)amortize, RemoveAt – O(n)
Surprisingly, many candidates don’t know about data structures efficiency at all. Also, as the name of the class is misleading, it’s often mistaken for a LinkedList. So, if a candidate knows that this is the implementation of a dynamic array, they not just blindly use it but also look what is under the hood.
8. What is the difference between interface and abstract class?
Prior to C# 8, the abstract class could have implementation while interfaces couldn’t. In C# 8, the interface can have default implementation (saying this, a candidate shows that they are up to date). Then, I can proceed and ask what they’ll prefer when designing a class library that will be used by millions of developers and why. The answer should be that the abstract class is better as it allows adding a new method without introducing a breaking change.
The next set of questions comes from Somdip Dey, embedded A.I. Scientist at the University of Essex, UK. Here’s what he had to say:
8. Can you write the FizzBuzz program in C# now?
The question related to FizzBuzz seems relatively easy for some seasoned programmers but the point of asking this during an interview isn’t just to test the candidate’s coding ability. It also tests whether or not the candidate is knowledgeable about using Dictionaries and/or tuples in C#, which could drastically shorten the lines of code written in the program.
9. What are interfaces and abstract classes? And what are the differences between them? Can you give me an example?
The question about interfaces and abstract classes tests the candidate’s understanding of the object oriented paradigm. Plus, the examples are to prove whether or not they can implement interfaces and abstract classes in C#.
10. What is LINQ in C#? Have you used it in your previous programs? Give me an example.
The LINQ question tests the candidate’s competence in one of the most practically used APIs provided in .NET platform to query and retrieve data from different sources since data is center of all application workflow. I was asked about C# interfaces and abstract classes so many times during my numerous interviews with different companies that I practically wrote an article to demystify the concept.
Finally—
Christine Orchard from Codementor sent us some of the most common C# interview questions that has been identified in a piece wrote for the Codementor community:
11. What makes your code really object-oriented?
12. What are the fundamental principles of OO programming?
13. What is the this Pointer?
14. What is the OO fundamental idea using C# that allows a data structure to perform operations on its own data?
15. What is Dynamic Dispatch?
16. Why do we still see so much non-OO code written in C# today?
17. How does OO simplify development?
18. How can we use the core concepts of OO in order to make this code easy to maintain and yet still flexible enough to cope with possibly ever-changing requirements?
19. How to avoid the NULL trap?
20. How to move to a State-related Codebase?
21. What is a state-related codebase?
If you don’t how to answer these C# advanced interview questions, check out the original article by Ed Freitas.
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3
What Does This All Mean?
It means one thing:
If you’re serious about your C# developer career:
You’ve got a lot to learn. And then some more.
Technical interviews are the stuff legends. Some say they’ve got nothing to do with real life, and while such radical statements are arguable, one thing is certain—
They’re notoriously hard and difficult to prepare for.
For example, your C# interview questions could just as well include questions about the entire tech stack C# is part of: .NET questions, ASP.NET questions, or Entity Framework.
In fact, the Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019 shows that programming languages are often tested with other technologies in their environment.
Plus—
There’s a whole thriving community of software engineers centered around helping coding newbies test their skills before the actual technical interview takes place. Check out:
To name only a few.
More than that: some companies, such as Palantir for example, publish their own guides on how to prepare for a technical interview. Google offers guidelines, too.
Remember—
Code as much as you can. If you run out of ideas for apps, visit HackerRank or TopCoder to just keep coding.
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Key Takeaways
Here’s a quick recap of all you need to know about C# interview questions:
- C# interview questions are only a part of the entire technical interview.
- Expect to be asked basic C# interview questions at the early stages of the recruitment process.
- Your C# coding interview questions will become harder during the on-site interview.
- You may be asked to write code live with other programmers on a shared screen, or with a marker on a whiteboard, and “think aloud.”
- The best way to prepare yourself for C# interview questions is to:
- practice a lot (preferably with other, more experienced developers)
- keep challenging yourself
- be an active member of developer communities
- gain a broad understanding of the entire technological environment, rather than learn how to answer a number of specific questions.
Did you like the article? Do you have your own list of C# programming interview questions? Maybe you’d like to share some C# interview questions and answers? Give us a shout out in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you!
