CRM 2011 – Common CRM interview questions but what do they tell you?

Yesterday MS CRM interview questions and CRM 2011 interview questions where the two top searches for people finding their way onto my blog, although they were only 8 searches.  Interview featured in 5 different search terms.

So that’s 13 searches out of 557 different search terms for yesterday.

It got me thinking about interview questions, what would I ask people and is it important for CRM developer/consultants to know the answer.  There is always a debate on the benefits of people knowing syntax of programming languages etc, do you really need to have this knowledge with google there to help you?

Amusing I once went for an interview and the person said when they Google interview questions or information about CRM they kept coming to my blog.  So it was quite amusing when they asked me what the difference was between a workflow and a plugin for my brain to go blank and not really know the answer.

I searched google for CRM 2011 interview questions.  I found a book on CRM 4 interview questions, it’s seem a bit of a small area to base a whole book on, especially if you put a CRM version to it.  Have a look here if you are interested.

I found two forums where CRM MVP’s and experienced users put forward some suggestions, the forums are here and here

The forums did supply quite a few links

http://mscrminterviewquestions.blogspot.com/

http://www.slideshare.net/warsha.agarwal/interview-questions-for-microsoft-dynamics-crm

http://rahulsalunkhe.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/ms-crm-interview-questions/

http://questionspoint.com/Microsoft-CRM-Interview-Questions-and-Answers_44.pdf

http://www.questionspoint.com/interview-questions/Microsoft-CRM/44.aspx

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/crm/thread/1e644a77-fa0f-4bdf-b5e8-bebd65e8d7bf/

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-questions-about-the-direction-of-crm-an-interview-with-jon-cline/426

although not my blog post CRM 2011 – common interview questions

one user

Israel Pradeep Gujjarlapudi

supplied some very interesting questions

1. Difference between PlugIn vs Workflow (Asynchronous vs Synchronous)

2. What are basic security permissions at domain level (priv reporting group, privUser group, SQL Reporting group… total 5 groups availble google it.)

3. for plugin deployment, Difference between GAC, DataBase, Disk deployments.

4. Difference between CRM webservice Vs CRM.SDKProxy namespaces.

5. Calling Dynamic Entities (knowledge on Moniker, INputParameters, OutPutParameters, and MetaServices.)

6. Difference between GUID and Key, Lookup and String

7. Knowledge on Java Script and SOAP webservices, most important how to call XmlHttpRequest. (Bold questions are high priority quesitons, you will get answers in google. if not ask me.)

8. how many max number of tabs available in MS CRM Entity Form (officially max 8 tabs, unofficially we can do plenty(Its not recommended by Microsoft CRM))

Although when I read them they are based on CRM 4 but I still wondered if knowing how many tabs you can add is actually very useful and would it really count against hiring someone if they didn’t know it was 8.

The user KSDev19 supplied some really excellent questions because there were not just about technical knowledge but can be answered if you had done CRM development.

KSDev19

1. explain in details about the event execution pipeline.

2. when do we register a plugin in child pipeline. give examples

3. What are images. Why are they used.

4. What is early binding and late binding. How is it used in CRM

5.How do you debug a plugin

7. What is PrinciplalObjectAccess table why is it used.

8. What is the use of stringmap table.

9.How do you set a recurrening activity in CRM

10. when can infinite loop occur in a plugin. How do you avoid infinite loops in plugin code.

11. How do you avoid sql deadlock.

12. How many types of relationships are available in crm

13. What is the difference when the ownership is user vs organizaion for a custom entity.

14. what are filtered views?

15. if you delete a record from UI, what happens in database. can you bring the record back?

16 what is deletion service? can you change its schedule

Although they are still a bit technical, although it does depend on what role you are hiring for.

All the questions were not really focused on CRM 2011 but I would like question which you could see the though process of the person as well as their technical knowledge.  So after questioning the questions, I quickly wrote some of my own.

1.  How is Linq used in CRM 2011

2.  How would you automatically create cases from

3.  Can you call a plugin using Javascript

4.  What new features were included in Rollup 5

5.  In what circumstances are dialogs useful

6.  What limitations does the sandbox have on plugins in the cloud.

7.  How do you configure Sharepoint to work with CRM 2011.

8.  When would you use a pre validation plugin and when would you use a post validation plugin

9.  Why use images with plugins.

10.  How would you Autonumber functionality to CRM.

11.  Explain how solutions work, managed and unmanaged.

8.  How do you debug a plugin

9.  How do you debug Javascript

10.  What does the CRM asynchronous service do