IIS Interview Questions

If you're looking for IIS Interview Questions and Answers for Experienced or Freshers, you are at the right place. There are a lot of opportunities from many reputed companies in the world. IIS (Internet Information Services) is a web offering from Microsoft.

So, You still have the opportunity to move ahead in your career in IIS. MindMajix offers Advanced IIS Interview Questions 2023 that help you in cracking your interview & acquire a dream career as IIS professional in the job market.

We discuss the most frequently asked IIS interview questions in this article. Based on

• Freshers
• Experienced
• FAQs

Top 10 Frequently Asked IIS Interview Questions

1. Which are the protocols that IIS supports?
2. What is a virtual directory?
3. What are the log files?
4. What is the Internet Information Service (IIS)?
5. What is the purpose of App pool recycling in IIS?
6. What is the functionality of HTTP?SYS?
7. What purpose does IIS Metabase serve in IIS?
8. What does Componentization mean in IIS?
9. What are the advantages of Componentization?
10. What is an Application Host config in IIS?

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IIS Interview Questions For Freshers

1. Which are the protocols that IIS supports?

The protocols that IIS supports include HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, SMTP, etc.

2. What are the new features in IIS 8.5?

The new features in IIS 8.5 include enhanced logging capabilities and dynamic site activation.

3. What is a virtual directory?

It is the name of a directory, which is mapped to a physical directory in a local server.

4. What are the log files?

Log files record different actions on a server, which includes the date, time, IP address, and volume of transmitted data.

5. What is the purpose of the Application Pool in IIS?

Application Pool separates applications from each other and simplifies the management. It defines a group of settings for the worker processes, which carry out request processing for all the applications in a pool.

6. What are Kernel Mode and User Mode in IIS?

The Kernel Mode and User Mode are the two main layers of IIS architecture.

7. What is the Internet Information Service (IIS)?

IIS (Internet Information Service) is a web server from Microsoft, which is used to host websites and web applications on the web. It is the most used HTTP server in the world, which runs on Windows.

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8. What is the DefaultAppPool in IIS?

It is the name of the default application pool in IIS.

9. How can you host a site on IIS?

We can host a site on IIS in two ways- by using folder web sharing or by creating a virtual directory.

10. What are the WWW Publishing Service (W3SVC) and Windows Activation Process (WAP)?

These two are the main components of SVCHost.exe.

IIS Interview Questions For Experienced

11. What is the purpose of App pool recycling in IIS?

The purpose of App pool recycling is to free up the memory, which is consumed by the applications in an app pool.

12. With which tool, you can debug IIS remotely?

We can debug IIS remotely using the mavsmon.exe process, which belongs to MS Visual Studio 2005.

13. What are the functionalities of ISAPI filters in IIS?

Some of the functionalities of ISAPI filters include modifying and enhancing the functionality of IIS, filtering the requests to find the one, which is to be processed, and authenticating and encryption the input or output data.

14. What are the functions that a protocol listener serves in IIS?

A protocol typically serves the below three functions:

• Receiving protocol-specific requests from the client
• Sending the requests to the client for processing
• Sending the responses back  to requestors

15. HTTP.SYS is the subsection of which mode?

HTTP.SYS is the subsection of the Kernel Mode.

16. What is the functionality of HTTP.SYS?

HTTP.SYS, which is a protocol listener, receives the client requests, sends them to IIS for processing, and finally returns the responses to the client.

17. Which are the subsections of User mode?

The subsections of User mode are Web Admin Service, Virtual Directory, and Application Pool.

18. What is IUSR_MachineName in IIS?

It is the default user name given to an anonymous user when login into IIS.

19. What purpose does IIS Metabase serve in IIS?

IIS Metabase serves the purpose of maintaining the settings and configuration data.

20. What are the different native modules of IIS?

The native modules of IIS include - HTTP modules, Security modules, Content modules, Compression modules, Caching modules, Logging, and Diagnostic modules, and Managed support modules. All these modules are available with the full installation of IIS 7 and later.

IIS FAQS

21. What are the benefits of modular architecture in IIS7?

Some of the benefits of modular architecture include Componentization, Extensibility, and ASP.NET Integration.

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22. What does Componentization mean in IIS?

Componentization meant the availability of web server features as standalone components. You can easily add, remove, or replace a component.

23. What extra care has to be taken while installing a native module?

You need to install only the native modules that come from a trusted source. This is because any resource in the server worker process has unrestricted access to the native modules.

24. What are the advantages of AppCmd in IIS7?

The advantages of AppCmd are – it provides server control without the need for graphical administration tools. Besides, it enables us to automate server management quickly. Also, we don’t need to write any code.

25. How do you make and restore backups of global server configurations in IIS?

Using AppCmd, we can make and restore backups of global server configurations in IIS.

26. How do you ensure content security in IIS?

We can ensure content security by using ACL (Access Control List).  It provides allowing or denies permissions to the required identities. 

27. What does a typical shared hosting environment consist of in IIS?

The typically shared hosting environment consists of the following:

• Front-end servers – to route requests to their content locations
• Back-end web servers – to store and index the content
• Web management services – to enable the customers to publish and manage content speedily

28. What happens if the kernel-mode cache is turned off?

The impact may not be noticeable if the load is 100 requests per second. However, if it is around 1000 requests per second, the kernel caching will certainly be missed. Ultimately, it all depends on the server load.

29. What are the advantages of Componentization?

The advantages of Componentization include:

• Reduction on the amount of memory the server uses
• Performance improvement
• Increased server security with the removal of all unused server features

30. What is an Application Host. config in IIS?

It is the root file of the configuration system, which consists of the following:

• Applications
• Virtual directories and application pools
• Definitions of all sites
• Global defaults for the webserver settings