40 questions with answers for candidates with Freshers — 30 easy, 10 medium.
What interviewers expect: freshers
Fresher interviews focus on fundamentals: C# basics, OOP pillars, interfaces versus abstract classes, collections, simple LINQ, SQL joins and queries such as second highest salary, and basic ASP.NET Core concepts like middleware and dependency injection. Expect one or two coding problems, questions on your final-year project and HR questions about learning ability and teamwork.
This set is weighted towards ASP.NET Core Web API (8), Angular and React Front End (6), OOP in C# (6), C# Fundamentals (5).
C# and OOP basics SQL queries and joins ASP.NET Core basics Project explanation
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01
What is the difference between throw and throw ex inside a catch block?
throw rethrows the current exception and preserves the original stack trace, so logs show where the error really started. throw ex resets the stack trace to the catch block, hiding the real source. Always use throw when rethrowing. If you need more context, wrap it: throw new OrderException("Payment failed", ex), which keeps the original as InnerException. Also avoid catching Exception unless you log and rethrow.
02
An API creates a new HttpClient inside a using block for every outgoing call, and under load you see socket exhaustion errors. How do you fix it?
Disposing HttpClient does not immediately free the underlying socket; connections stay in TIME_WAIT, so thousands of short-lived clients exhaust ports. A single static client fixes that but misses DNS changes. The recommended fix is IHttpClientFactory: register builder.Services.AddHttpClient<PaymentClient>() and inject the typed client. The factory pools and rotates handlers, and you can add resilience with Microsoft.Extensions.Http.Resilience for retries and timeouts.
03
Show how to bind configuration from appsettings.json using the Options pattern.
// appsettings.json
// "Smtp": { "Host": "smtp.example.com", "Port": 587 }
public class SmtpOptions
{
public string Host { get; set; } = "";
public int Port { get; set; }
}
builder.Services.Configure<SmtpOptions>(builder.Configuration.GetSection("Smtp"));
public class EmailService(IOptions<SmtpOptions> options)
{
private readonly SmtpOptions _smtp = options.Value;
}
appsettings.{Environment}.json and environment variables override base values. Use IOptionsMonitor to pick up changes without restart.
Every HTTP request passes through a chain of middleware components configured in Program.cs. Each component can inspect or modify the request, call the next one, and then work on the response on the way back. Order matters: exception handling first, then HTTPS redirection, static files, routing, CORS, authentication, authorization and finally endpoints. For example, putting UseAuthorization before UseAuthentication means users never appear logged in.
Interpolation {{ value }} shows component data in the template. Property binding [src]="imageUrl" sets an element or child property. Event binding (click)="save()" calls a component method on a DOM event. Two-way binding [(ngModel)]="name" combines property and event binding so the input and the field stay in sync. The first two flow from component to view, event binding flows from view to component.
06
What are the four pillars of object-oriented programming?
Encapsulation hides internal state behind methods and properties. Abstraction exposes only what the caller needs, using abstract classes and interfaces. Inheritance lets a class reuse and extend another class. Polymorphism lets one interface have many implementations, so code calls Pay() without knowing whether it is a card or UPI payment. Together they make code easier to change, test and reuse.
07
You are designing a type to hold a 2D point used millions of times in a calculation. Struct or class?
A struct is a good fit because the point is small, logically a single value and created in huge numbers. Structs avoid heap allocation and GC pressure when stored in arrays or locals. Make it a readonly struct so it is immutable and avoids defensive copies. Choose a class instead if the type is large, needs inheritance, or is frequently boxed through interfaces, since copying and boxing remove the benefit.
08
What is the difference between an abstract class and an interface in C#?
An abstract class can have fields, constructors, implemented and abstract members, and a class can inherit only one. An interface defines a contract; a class can implement many. Since C# 8, interfaces can have default method implementations but still no instance fields. Use an abstract class for shared state and base behaviour among closely related types, and interfaces for capabilities like IComparable or for dependency injection.
09
Write a query to find duplicate email addresses and delete the extra rows, keeping the lowest Id.
-- find duplicates
SELECT Email, COUNT(*) AS Cnt
FROM Users
GROUP BY Email
HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;
-- delete duplicates, keep lowest Id
WITH d AS (
SELECT Id, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY Email ORDER BY Id) AS rn
FROM Users
)
DELETE FROM d WHERE rn > 1;
After cleanup, add a unique index on Email to stop duplicates returning.
The virtual DOM is a lightweight JavaScript copy of the UI tree. When state changes, React renders a new virtual tree, compares it with the previous one in a process called reconciliation, and applies only the minimal changes to the real DOM, which is slow to update. Keys on list items help React match elements correctly. This lets developers write UI declaratively without manually updating DOM nodes.
11
How do you keep up with new .NET and EF Core releases?
Microsoft ships a major .NET version every November, so I plan for it. I read the official What's New pages and the .NET blog, watch .NET Conf sessions, and try new features in a small side project before suggesting them at work. For example, when ExecuteUpdate arrived, I tested it on a sample and then proposed replacing a slow loop in our cleanup job, which cut its runtime significantly.
12
Explain the transient, scoped and singleton service lifetimes.
Transient services are created every time they are requested, suitable for lightweight stateless helpers. Scoped services are created once per HTTP request and shared within it; DbContext is registered as scoped. Singleton services are created once for the whole application lifetime, suitable for caches and configuration. Choose based on state: anything holding per-request data must not be singleton, and singletons must be thread-safe.
13
Why should we hire you as a .NET full stack developer?
I can contribute on both sides of a feature: I have built ASP.NET Core APIs with EF Core and SQL Server, and front ends in Angular and React, and deployed them myself. I write clean, tested code and I am comfortable reading logs and execution plans when things break. I learn quickly, ask questions early and take ownership, so you can give me a module and trust that it will be completed properly.
14
What is the difference between authentication and authorization in ASP.NET Core?
Authentication answers who you are: middleware reads a cookie or JWT, validates it and builds a ClaimsPrincipal for HttpContext.User. Authorization answers what you may do: it checks that user against rules such as [Authorize(Roles = "Admin")] or a policy like requiring an Employee claim with a certain department. A missing or invalid identity gives 401 Unauthorized, while a valid user without permission gets 403 Forbidden.
15
What is the difference between CPU-bound and I/O-bound work, and how do you handle each in .NET?
CPU-bound work keeps the processor busy, like encryption, image processing or heavy calculations; speed it up with parallelism using Parallel.For, PLINQ or Task.Run in desktop apps. I/O-bound work spends most time waiting on databases, files or networks; handle it with async/await so threads are released while waiting. Choosing wrongly wastes resources, such as using Parallel.ForEach for HTTP calls or Task.Run around database queries.
16
What is the difference between a static class and a singleton?
A static class cannot be instantiated, cannot implement interfaces and is initialised by the runtime; it suits stateless helpers like Math. A singleton is a normal class with exactly one instance, so it can implement interfaces, be passed as a parameter and be mocked in tests. In ASP.NET Core, you rarely write a singleton by hand; you register the class with AddSingleton and let the DI container manage its lifetime.
17
Angular or React with ASP.NET Core: how do you choose?
Angular is a complete framework with routing, forms, HTTP, dependency injection and TypeScript built in, which suits large enterprise apps and teams that want strong conventions. React is a UI library with a large ecosystem, giving more freedom to pick routing and state tools, and is popular in product startups. Both work equally well with an ASP.NET Core API. Choose based on team skills, project size and the company's existing stack.
18
Demonstrate a race condition on a counter and fix it.
int count = 0;
Parallel.For(0, 100_000, _ => count++);
Console.WriteLine(count); // often less than 100000
int safe = 0;
Parallel.For(0, 100_000, _ => Interlocked.Increment(ref safe));
Console.WriteLine(safe); // always 100000
count++ is a read, add and write, so two threads can read the same value and lose an update. Interlocked performs the increment atomically without a full lock.
19
A teammate created a deep inheritance chain Employee > Manager > SeniorManager > RegionalHead to add features. What would you suggest?
Deep hierarchies are fragile: a change in a base class ripples into every child, and behaviours that do not fit the tree get duplicated. I would suggest composition over inheritance. Keep a single Employee entity and give it composed parts such as a Role, an ApprovalPolicy and a list of Permissions, injected as interfaces. New behaviour then means a new policy class, not a new subclass, which is easier to test.
20
An admin page renders 20,000 rows in a table and the browser freezes. How do you fix it?
Do not send or render everything at once. Add server-side paging, sorting and filtering in the ASP.NET Core API so the page loads perhaps 50 rows at a time. If users truly need to scroll a long list, use virtual scrolling, such as Angular CDK virtual scroll or TanStack Virtual in React, so only visible rows exist in the DOM. Also use trackBy or keys, and debounce search inputs.
21
Your Angular app on localhost:4200 gets a CORS error when calling the ASP.NET Core API on localhost:5001. How do you fix it?
The browser blocks the call because the origins differ and the API sends no CORS headers. In the API, register a policy with AddCors allowing http://localhost:4200, the needed methods and headers, and call app.UseCors before UseAuthorization. Alternatively, use the Angular dev server proxy (proxy.conf.json) to forward /api calls, so the browser sees the same origin. In production, configure the real front-end domain, not AllowAnyOrigin.
A partial class splits one class definition across multiple files, and the compiler merges them. It is used heavily with generated code: designers, EF Core scaffolding and source generators write one part while you write the other, so regeneration does not erase your code. Partial methods declare a signature in one part and an optional implementation in another; since C# 9 they can have return types and access modifiers if implemented.
23
Which commands do you use to create and apply EF Core migrations?
dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef
# create a migration from model changes
dotnet ef migrations add AddOrderStatus
# apply pending migrations to the database
dotnet ef database update
# undo the last unapplied migration
dotnet ef migrations remove
# generate an idempotent SQL script for production
dotnet ef migrations script --idempotent -o deploy.sql
In Visual Studio the Package Manager Console equivalents are Add-Migration and Update-Database.
HashSet<T> stores unique values with O(1) average lookup, add and remove. Use it when you need fast membership checks, such as checking if an email already exists in a batch of 1 lakh records, or to remove duplicates. It also supports set operations like UnionWith, IntersectWith and ExceptWith. It does not keep insertion order or allow index access; use SortedSet<T> if you need sorted unique values.
LINQ, Language Integrated Query, lets you query collections, databases, XML and other sources with the same C# syntax using methods like Where, Select, OrderBy and GroupBy. Queries are type-checked at compile time and read close to the intent, for example orders.Where(o => o.Total > 500).OrderBy(o => o.Date). With EF Core, the same LINQ expression is translated into SQL, so you rarely write raw SQL strings.
Value types such as int, double, bool, enums and structs hold their data directly, and assigning one copies the value. Reference types such as classes, arrays, strings and delegates hold a reference to an object on the managed heap, so assigning copies only the reference. Changing a copied struct does not affect the original, but changing an object through a copied reference changes what both variables see.
27
What is the difference between DELETE, TRUNCATE and DROP?
DELETE removes rows one by one, supports WHERE, fires triggers and is fully logged, so it is slower on big tables. TRUNCATE removes all rows by deallocating pages, is minimally logged, resets identity values and cannot have WHERE; it fails if foreign keys reference the table. DROP removes the whole table including structure, indexes and permissions. In SQL Server, both DELETE and TRUNCATE can be rolled back inside a transaction.
28
Show attribute routing for a products controller with route constraints.
[ApiController]
[Route("api/[controller]")]
public class ProductsController(IProductService service) : ControllerBase
{
[HttpGet]
public async Task<IActionResult> GetAll() => Ok(await service.GetAllAsync());
[HttpGet("{id:int}")]
public async Task<IActionResult> Get(int id)
{
var p = await service.GetAsync(id);
return p is null ? NotFound() : Ok(p);
}
[HttpPost]
public async Task<IActionResult> Create(ProductDto dto)
{
var created = await service.CreateAsync(dto);
return CreatedAtAction(nameof(Get), new { id = created.Id }, created);
}
}
INNER JOIN returns rows that match in both tables. LEFT JOIN returns all rows from the left table plus matches from the right, with NULLs where there is no match. RIGHT JOIN is the mirror. FULL OUTER JOIN returns all rows from both sides. CROSS JOIN returns every combination. A self join joins a table to itself, such as employees to their managers. LEFT JOIN with WHERE right.Id IS NULL finds unmatched rows.
WHERE filters individual rows before grouping and cannot use aggregate functions. HAVING filters groups after GROUP BY and can use aggregates like COUNT or SUM. For example, WHERE City = 'Pune' keeps only Pune rows, then GROUP BY DepartmentId HAVING COUNT(*) > 10 keeps departments with more than 10 such employees. Put non-aggregate conditions in WHERE so fewer rows are grouped, which is faster.
31
A dashboard API calls three independent services one after another, each taking about 1 second. How can you make it faster?
Because the calls do not depend on each other, start all three tasks first without awaiting, then await Task.WhenAll. Total time becomes roughly the slowest call, about 1 second instead of 3. Add a timeout and handle failure of one service gracefully, for example showing partial data. If the same data is requested often, also add caching so most requests skip the calls entirely.
32
What is CORS and how do you enable it in ASP.NET Core?
Browsers block JavaScript from calling an API on a different origin (scheme, host or port) unless the server allows it via CORS headers. If an Angular app on localhost:4200 calls an API on localhost:5001, you add a policy with builder.Services.AddCors, allowing that origin with WithOrigins, plus required methods and headers, and call app.UseCors before authorization. Avoid AllowAnyOrigin in production, especially with credentials.
33
When would you choose an array, a List<T> or a LinkedList<T>?
An array has a fixed size and fastest index access, good when the count is known. List<T> wraps a resizable array, with O(1) index access and amortised O(1) add at the end, and is the default choice for most code. LinkedList<T> gives O(1) insert and remove at a known node but O(n) access by index and poor cache locality, so it is rarely the better option in practice.
Any() stops as soon as it finds one element, so it is O(1) for most sources, and in EF Core it translates to an efficient SQL EXISTS. Count() may need to walk the entire sequence or run COUNT(*) on the table, which is wasteful just to check for existence. For List<T> or arrays, the Count or Length property is also fine because it is stored, but Any() expresses the intent clearly.
35
When should you use StringBuilder instead of string?
Strings in C# are immutable, so every concatenation creates a new string object and copies the old content. In a loop that appends thousands of times, this creates heavy allocations. StringBuilder keeps a resizable internal buffer and appends in place, so it is much faster for repeated changes. For two or three concatenations or interpolation in a single statement, a normal string is simpler and fine.
36
Describe an API you designed end to end and the decisions you made.
In my last project (Situation) we needed a leave-management API for 3,000 employees. My task was the full design. I modelled resources like /employees/{id}/leaves, used DTOs separate from EF entities, JWT with role policies for managers, FluentValidation, ProblemDetails errors and paging on every list. I documented it in OpenAPI and agreed the contract with the Angular team first. Result: front and back ends were built in parallel and launched on time.
37
Write an extension method that checks whether a string is a valid Indian mobile number.
public static class StringExtensions
{
public static bool IsIndianMobile(this string? value) =>
value is not null &&
System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(value, @"^[6-9]\d{9}$");
}
// usage
bool ok = "9876543210".IsIndianMobile();
Extension methods are static methods in a static class whose first parameter uses this, so they appear like instance methods.
38
You need to remove inactive users from a List<User> while looping through it with foreach, and you get an InvalidOperationException. How do you fix it?
foreach does not allow modifying the collection it is enumerating, so the enumerator throws. The simplest fix is users.RemoveAll(u => !u.IsActive), which is efficient and clear. Alternatives are looping backwards with a for loop and RemoveAt, or building a new filtered list with Where and ToList. For a dictionary, collect keys to remove first, then remove them after the loop.
39
What is the difference between compile-time and runtime polymorphism?
Compile-time, or static, polymorphism is resolved by the compiler, mainly through method overloading and operator overloading, and through generics. Runtime, or dynamic, polymorphism is resolved when the program runs, through virtual methods and interfaces: a Shape reference may call Circle.Area or Square.Area depending on the actual object. Runtime polymorphism is what makes plugin designs and dependency injection possible.
40
Tell me about a time you worked under a tight deadline.
During my internship (Situation) a client demo was moved two days earlier, and the reports page was not ready. My task was to deliver the SQL queries and API for it. I listed must-have reports with my mentor, wrote and tested the three critical queries first, and postponed exports. I stayed in touch with the UI developer every few hours. Result: the demo went well, and we added the remaining features the next week.
Frequently asked questions
What is asked in .NET Full Stack interviews for Freshers?
Fresher interviews focus on fundamentals: C# basics, OOP pillars, interfaces versus abstract classes, collections, simple LINQ, SQL joins and queries such as second highest salary, and basic ASP.NET Core concepts like middleware and dependency injection. Expect one or two coding problems, questions on your final-year project and HR questions about learning ability and teamwork.
How many questions should I practise before a .NET Full Stack interview?
Work through all 40 questions here, then the company-wise sets for the employers you are targeting. Quality matters more than count: be able to explain why each answer is right.
Which topics matter most for Freshers?
Focus first on C# and OOP basics, SQL queries and joins, ASP.NET Core basics, Project explanation.