Object-Oriented Programming – .NET Interview Questions and Answers

37. Give a brief description of properties in C# and the advantages that are obtained by using them in programs.

In C#, a property is a way to expose an internal data element of a class in a simple and intuitive manner. In other words, it is a simple extension of data fields. You can create a property by defining an externally available name and then writing the set and get property accessors. The get property accessor is used to return the property value. The set property accessor is used to assign a new value to the property.

38. Explain different types of inheritance.

Inheritance in OOP is of four types:

• Single inheritance – Contains one base class and one derived class
• Hierarchical inheritance – Contains one base class and multiple derived classes of the same base class
• Multilevel inheritance – Contains a class derived from a derived class
• Multiple inheritance – Contains several base classes and a derived class

All .NET languages supports single, hierarchical, and multilevel inheritance. They do not support multiple inheritance because in these languages, a derived class cannot have more than one base class. However, you can implement multiple inheritance in.NET through interfaces.

39. You have defined a destructor in a class that you have developed by using the C# programming language, but the destructor never executed. Why did the destructor not execute?

The runtime environment automatically invokes the destructor of a class to release the resources that are occupied by variables and methods of an object. However, in C#, programmers cannot control the timing for invoking destructors, as Garbage Collector is only responsible for releasing the resources used by an object. Garbage Collector automatically gets information about unreferenced objects from .NET’s runtime environment and then invokes the Finalize() method.

Although, it is not preferable to force Garbage Collector to perform garbage collection and retrieve all inaccessible memory, programmers can use the Collect() method of the Garbage Collector class to forcefully execute Garbage Collector.

40. What is a hashtable?

Hashtable is a data structure that implements the IDictionary interface. It is used to store multiple items and each of these items is associated with a unique string key. Each item can be accessed using the key associated with it. In short, hashtable is an object holding the key-value pairs.

41. Can users define their own exceptions in code?

Yes, customized exceptions can be defined in code by deriving from the System.Exceptionclass.

42. Is it possible to execute two catch blocks?

You are allowed to include more than one catch block in your program; however, it is not possible to execute them in one go. Whenever, an exception occurs in your program, the correct catch block is executed and the control goes to the finally block.

43. What do you mean by data encapsulation?

Data encapsulation is a concept of binding data and code in single unit called object and hiding all the implementation details of a class from the user. It prevents unauthorized access of data and restricts the user to use the necessary data only.

44. What is the difference between procedural and object-oriented programming?

Procedural programming is based upon the modular approach in which the larger programs are broken into procedures. Each procedure is a set of instructions that are executed one after another. On the other hand, OOP is based upon objects. An object consists of various elements, such as methods and variables.

Access modifiers are not used in procedural programming, which implies that the entire data can be accessed freely anywhere in the program. In OOP, you can specify the scope of a particular data by using access modifiers – public, private, internal, protected, andprotected internal.

45. Explain the concept of destructor?

A destructor is a special method for a class and is invoked automatically when an object is finally destroyed. The name of the destructor is also same as that of the class but is followed by a prefix tilde (~).

A destructor is used to free the dynamic allocated memory and release the resources. You can, however, implement a custom method that allows you to control object destruction by calling the destructor.

The main features of a destructor are as follows:

• Destructors do not have any return type
• Similar to constructors, destructors are also always public
• Destructors cannot be overloaded.

46. Can you declare a private class in a namespace?

The classes in a namespace are internal, by default. However, you can explicitly declare them as public only and not as private, protected, or protected internal. The nested classes can be declared as private, protected, or protected internal.

47. A structure in C# can implement one or more interfaces. Is it true or false?

Yes, it is true. Like classes, in C#, structures can implement one or more interfaces.

48. What is a static constructor?

Static constructors are introduced with C# to initialize the static data of a class. CLR calls the static constructor before the first instance is created.

The static constructor has the following features:

• No access specifier is required to define it.
• You cannot pass parameters in static constructor.
• A class can have only one static constructor.
• It can access only static members of the class.
• It is invoked only once, when the program execution begins.

49. What are the different ways a method can be overloaded?

The different ways to overload a method are given as follows:

• By changing the number of parameters used
• By changing the order of parameters
• By using different data types for the parameters

50. Differentiate between an abstract class and an interface.

Abstract Class:

1. A class can extend only one abstract class
2. The members of abstract class can be private as well as protected.
3. Abstract classes should have subclasses
4. Any class can extend an abstract class.
5. Methods in abstract class can be abstract as well as concrete.
6. There can be a constructor for abstract class.
7. The class extending the abstract class may or may not implement any of its method.
8. An abstract class can implement methods.

Interface

1. A class can implement several interfaces
2. An interface can only have public members.
3. Interfaces must have implementations by classes
4. Only an interface can extend another interface.
5. All methods in an interface should be abstract
6. Interface does not have constructor.
7. All methods of interface need to be implemented by a class implementing that interface.
8. Interfaces cannot contain body of any of its method.

51. What are queues and stacks?

Stacks refer to a list in which all items are accessed and processed on the Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) basis. In a stack, elements are inserted (push operation) and deleted (pop operation) from the same end called top.

Queues refer to a list in which insertion and deletion of an item is done on the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis. The items in a queue are inserted from the one end, called the rearend, and are deleted from the other end, called the front end of the queue.

52. Define an event.

Whenever an action takes place in a class, that class provides a notification to other classes or objects that are assigned to perform particular tasks. These notifications are called events. For example, when a button is clicked, the class generates an event called Click. An event can be declared with the help of the event keyword.

53. What are structures?

Structure is a heterogeneous collection of elements referenced by the same name. A structure is declared using the struct keyword. The following is an example that creates a structure to store an employee’s information:

struct emp
{
 fixed int empID[15];
 fixed char name[30];
 fixed char addr[50];
 fixed char dept[15];
 fixed char desig[15];
}

The preceding example defines a structure emp and the members of this structure specify the information of an employee.

54. When do you really need to create an abstract class?

We define abstract classes when we define a template that needs to be followed by all the derived classes.