Top 7 Questions for Windows System Administrators to Ask at Interviews
Windows system administrators are part of the IT department and are in charge of setting up, maintaining, and making sure all the computers in a company, especially multi-user computers like servers, work well.
Most of the time, the person in this role is in charge of buying, installing, and updating the hardware and software on the company’s computers. You can expect to be asked a lot of questions for a job like this, so it’s important to practice your answers ahead of time.
This article goes over some of the most likely questions you’ll be asked at an interview to become a Windows system administrator and how to answer them.
Here are some sample answers to 7 interview questions about Windows Server.
During an interview for a job as a Windows system administrator, you might be asked both traditional interview questions and technical questions that are meant to test your skills. Most of the time, these questions are meant to find out how interested you are in the company and the job, what your soft skills are, and what you might be like to work with. Here are some questions you might be asked at your interview:
1. Where did you learn about technology?
Systems administrators often come from different places and have different levels of experience and certifications. Because of this, businesses are looking for the best Windows system administrator for their needs. Even though the interviewers should have seen your resume and know a little bit about your background, this question gives them a chance to find out more.
This is a great chance for you to tell people about:
- Skills that match what is asked for in the job description
- Certain qualifications
- A reason for any skills or resume gaps.
Example: “I got my Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science five years ago, and since then I’ve earned my CompTIA certification. I mostly set up servers and PCs at my current job, but I’m also known on my team for being able to find machines that aren’t working right quickly. I really like helping customers and using software like Microsoft Office Suite.
2. What are three things a good systems administrator needs to have?
Think about your skills and what you know about your field right now. You can show who you are as an employee and how professional you are in your field by answering this question. Make a list of things that make you different from other candidates.
“I’m a good systems administrator because I work hard to do every task well, I think carefully about every process decision I make, and I communicate well with others to make sure our work is accurate and efficient.”
3. How do you operate under pressure?
Being a Windows systems administrator has its own stresses, just like any other job. When an employer asks this, they are trying to figure out if you will be able to do your job when things get busy or something goes wrong. Before your interview, think about how you’ve dealt with stress in the past. Use these ideas about yourself to answer this question in a clear and helpful way.
“When they’re under pressure, most people feel scared, but I’ve always tried to see it as motivation. When I have a lot to do, the stress makes me work faster so I can get things done and reach my goals. Even when things go wrong and the team is under a lot of pressure to make up for a mistake or a lack of communication, I always remember to keep a level head, take care of tasks one at a time, and work to overcome the pressure as a whole.
4. Define IntelliMirror and explain how it works.
If you want to be a Windows system administrator, you will be asked a lot of questions about what you know about the field, not just about how honest you are as an employee. Make sure you’re ready by going over how the system works again. One possible answer to this question is:
“IntelliMirror helps people keep the settings, programs, and files on their desktops in sync. It helps people who move around a lot between workstations and people who work offline the most.
5.What are some of the functions of Flexible Single Master Operations?
Even though this question may seem easy, you can use it to show how much you know about this topic. When you answer this question, you should talk about what forests do.
“FSMOs serve as Schema Master, Domain Naming Master, Infrastructure Master, RID Master, and PDC, among other things.” Each forest has its own way of doing these two things.
6.What do GPOs stand for?
This is a common question at job interviews for Windows server jobs. Group Policy Objects, or GPOs, are the settings that control how user accounts and computer accounts work. They help set up security options, install software, set up policies and maintenance options based on the registry, set up script options, and set up folder redirection options.
When you answer this question at an interview, be sure to say that there are two kinds of group policy objects:
- Group Policy objects that aren’t local are only available in an Active Directory environment and are stored on a domain controller.
- Plan for a group in your area Objects: saved on computers in each person’s home
Example: “Group Project Objects decide how users can work on their computers and accounts. It can be stored on a domain controller or on a single computer, making it either nonlocal or local.
7.An HTTP monitor tells you when a website is down, and you can connect to the port using telnet. How do you make it better?
Good technical skills are important for any job as a Windows system administrator. At least a few of the questions are likely to test your hard skills. This question touches on a number of things that a systems administrator needs to know.
If you want to answer this question, you should:
- Find out what’s going wrong.
- Prove that you can solve problems.
- Show that you want to know what went wrong and how to fix it so it doesn’t happen again.
If the website works, I would try to figure out what’s wrong with the monitor. It could be something like flapping or a sign that the system is too busy. I would find out what the problem was so I could try to stop it from happening again.”
