COBOL Interview Questions

Greetings..!!

Thank you for visiting the Coding Tag and this blog too.. COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages but still, it is widely used by many sectors.

Thus, career growth is also emerging. But at the same time, you might be thinking about where to start the preparation for getting a job in this field.

Right? Then you can take your first step toward your COBOL interview preparation as I have collected an exclusive list of the latest and top 15 Cobol Interview Questions that you can read for getting insights.

Let's get started with the first question..!!

1) What do you understand by COBOL?

COBOL stands for Common Business-Oriented Language and it is one of the oldest programming languages that explain primary domains in the business and administrative system of the organizations.

COBOL is widely used in transaction process jobs.

2) How many sections can be found in data vision?

There are mainly six sections available in data vision, they are:

3) What is redefines clause?

The Redefines clause in COBOL is responsible for explaining storage containing multiple data descriptions.

4) Name the different types of Data present in COBOL?

Different Datatypes present in COBOL are:

• Alpha-numeric (X)
• Alphabetic (A)
• Numeric (9)

5) What is the use of the Rename clause in COBOL?

The Rename clause in COBOL allows us to provide an alternate name after the recollection of the data items. This clause does not redefine the occurs clause items.

6) What do you understand by declarative? Also, mention its usage in COBOL?

Declarative provides several special-purpose sections that are executed at the time of occurrence of an exception-condition.

These declarative sections begin with a USE statement that examines the section function along with the required action to be taken at the exception conditions.

7) What are the types of declarative used in COBOL?

There are majorly three types of declarative that are used in COBOL, they are

Exception = Used at the times of error happen during the file handling

Debugging = responsible for debugging the lines having "D" code

Label = indicates a beginning

8) Differentiate between the static and dynamic call in COBOL?

Static calls in COBOL are the calls that are made to other subprograms linked with the main program at compile time. This is available on compile-time with "NODYNAM".

Whereas, dynamic calls in COBOL are the calls that refer to calls connected with the programs by using an individual object code from the main program.

9) Which method is used to open a file for writing?

We can use OUTPUT, EXTEND to open a file for writing in COBOL. Extend also allows us to attach the records in the file and are inserted at the end.

10) What do you understand by a subroutine in the mainframe?

Subroutine in mainframe is a program that can be compiled independently but unable to execute the compiled program independently.

This subroutine in mainframe is further categorized into two parts, they are

• Internal subroutines - such as Perform statements
• External subroutines - such as CALL verb

11) Name the four divisions of a COBOL program?

The four divisions of a COBOL program are as follows:

• Environment
• Identification
• Procedure
• Data

12) To terminate an execution in COBOL, which command is used?

To terminate an execution in the last statement in COBOL, we can either end the statement with the command STOP RUN, used for calling programs or we can use the EXIT PROGRAM, used for called programs.

13) What is passing by reference and passing by content?

Passing by reference occurs when the program date is parted by the subprograms and processes the data items to the calling program storage. But it does not perform with a copy of the data.

Passing by content takes place in the case of calling programs when only forwards the content of the literal. And also it cannot bring changes to the value once modified.

14) What are the points to be considered while writing a structured COBOL Program?

There are certain points that are to be considered such as:

• Use of scope terminators for nesting
• For constructing cases, use "evaluate" statement
• For writing "do" constructions, we need to use inline perform statement
• Test before and test after should be taken into consideration for do-while construction

15) What do you understand by Binary Search?

A binary search is also called as a half-interval search. It is basically an algorithm that is used for locating a particular value in computer science inside an array.

For this, the array is supposed to be either in ascending or in descending order.

Conclusion:

Well, that's all for today's blog. I hope these questions are helpful. Please let me know about the same by commenting below.

Meet you again..!!