SNOW Interview Questions

1) What is ServiceNow?

ServiceNow is a cloud-based IT Service Management (ITSM) tool. It provides a single system of

record for:

 IT services
 Operations
 Business management

All aspects of IT Services live in the ServiceNow ecosystem. It gives us a complete view of
services and resources.

2) What is an ‘Application’ in ServiceNow?

Applications in ServiceNow represent packaged solutions for delivering services and managing
business processes. In simple words it is a group of modules which provides information related
to those modules. For example Incident application will provide information related to Incident
Management process.

3) What is full form of CMDB and what is it?

CMDB stands for Configuration Management Database. CMDB is a repository. It acts as a data
warehouse for information technology installations. It holds data related to a collection of IT
assets, and descriptive relationships between such assets.

4) What is LDAP Integration and its use?

LDAP is Light weight Directory Access Protocol. You can use it for user data population and
user authentication. ServiceNow integrates with LDAP directory to streamline the user log in
process and to automate the creation of user and assigning them roles.

5) What do you mean by data lookup and record matching?

Data lookup and record matching feature helps to set a field value based on some condition
instead of writing scripts.

For example:

On Incident forms, the priority lookup rules sample data automatically. Then, set the incident
Priority based on the incident Impact and Urgency values. Data lookup rules allow to specify the
conditions and fields where they want data lookup to occur.
6) What is CMDB Baseline?

CMDB Baselines will help you, understand and control the changes made to a configuration
Item(CI). These Baselines act as a snapshot of a CI.

7) How to enable or disable an application in ServiceNow?

Following steps will help you do the same:

 Navigate to “Application Menus” module

 Open the respective application.
 Set value for active as ‘true’ to enable it or set it to ‘false’ to disable it.

8) What is a view?

View defines the arrangement of fields on a form or a list. For one single form we can define
multiple views according to the user preferences or requirement.

9) What is ACL?

An ACL is access control list that defines what data users can access and how they can access it
in ServiceNow.

10) What do you mean by impersonating a user? How it is useful?

Impersonating a user means giving the administrator access to what the user would have access
to. This includes the same menus and modules. ServiceNow records the administrator activities
when the user impersonates another user. This feature helps in testing. You can impersonate that
user and can test instead of logging out from your session and logging again with the user
credentials.

Intermediate ServiceNow Interview Questions

11) What are dictionary overrides?

Dictionary overrides provide the ability to define a field on an extended table differently from
the field on the parent table. For example, for a field on the Task [task] table, a dictionary
override can change the default value on the Incident [incident] table without affecting the
default value on Task [task] or Change [change].

12) What do you mean by coalesce?

Coalesce is a property of a field that we use in transform map field mapping. Coalescing on a
field (or set of fields) lets you use the field as a unique key. If a match is found using the
coalesce field, the existing record will be updated with the information being imported. If a
match is not found, then a new record will be inserted into the database.
13) What are UI policies?

UI policies dynamically change information on a form and control custom process flows for
tasks. UI policies are alternative to client scripts. You can use UI policies to set mandatory
fields,which are read only and visible on a form. You can also use UI policy for dynamically
changing a field on a form.

14) What is a data policy?

With data policies, you can enforce data consistency by setting mandatory and read-only states
for fields. Data policies are similar to UI policies, but UI policies only apply to data entered on a
form through the standard browser. Data policies can apply rules to all data entered into the
system, including data brought in through email, import sets or web services and data entered
through the mobile UI.

15) What is a client script?

Client script sits on the client side(the browser) and runs on client side only.Following are the
types of client script:

 OnLoad()
 OnSubmit()
 OnChange()
 OncellEdit)

16) How can you cancel a form submission through client script?

In order to cancel a form submission the onSubmit function should return false. Refer the below
mentioned syntax:

function onSubmit() { return false; }

17) What is a business rule?

Business rule is a server side script. It executes each time a record is inserted, updated, deleted,
displayed or queried. The key thing to note while creating a business rule is, when and on what
action it has to be executed. The business can be run or executed for following states

 Display
 Before
 After

18) Can you call a business rule through a client script?

Yes, it is possible to call a business rule through a client script. You can use glide ajax for the
same.
19) What is the Parent table for incident, change and problem? What does it do?

The Task table is the parent table of Incident, Problem & Change. It makes sure any fields, or
configurations defined on the parent table automatically apply to the child tables.

20) What is a record producer?

A catalog item that allows users to create task-based records from the Service Catalog is called
as a record producer. For example, creating a change record or a problem record using record
producer. Record producers provide an alternative way to create records through Service Catalog

21) What is a glide record?

Glide record is a java class. It is used for performing database operations instead of writing SQL
queries.

22) What is import set?

An import set is a tool that imports data from various data sources and, then maps that data into
ServiceNow tables using transform map. It acts as a staging table for records imported.

23) What is transform Map?

A transform map transforms the record imported into ServiceNow import set table to the target
table. It also determines the relationships between fields displaying in an Import Set table and
fields in a target table.

24) What do you mean by foreign record insert?

When an import makes a change to a table that is not the target table for that import, this is when
we say foreign record insert occurs. This happens when updating a reference field on a table.

25) Which searching technique is used to search a text or record in ServiceNow?

Zing is the text indexing and search engine that performs all text searches in ServiceNow.

b) Advanced ServiceNow Interview Question28) What is domain separation?

Domain separation is a way to separate data into logically-defined domains. For example a client
ABC has two businesses and they are using ServiceNow single instance. They do not want users
from one business to see data of other business. Here we can configure domain separation to
isolate the records from both business.

26) What do you mean by Metrics in ServiceNow?

Metrics, record and measure the workflow of individual records. With metrics, customers can
arm their process by providing tangible figures to measure. For example, how long it takes
before a ticket is reassigned.

27) What types of searches are available in ServiceNow?

Following searches will help you find information in ServiceNow:

Lists: Find records in a list;

Global text search: Finds records in multiple tables from a single search field.

Knowledge base: Finds knowledge articles.

Navigation filter: Filters the items in the application navigator.

Search screens: Use a form like interface to search for records in a table. Administrators can
create these custom modules.

28) Which table stores update sets and customization?

Each update set is stored in the Update Set [sys_update_set] table. The customizations that are
associated with the update set, are stored in [sys_update_xml] table.

29) What happens when you mark a default update set as complete?

If the Default update set is marked Complete, the system creates another update set named
Default1 and uses it as the default update set.

30) What is Reference qualifier?

Reference qualifiers restricts the data, that can be selected for a reference field.