Pega Interview Questions and Answers

Pega expertise is significant in dropping cost and improving business reason. Pega career paths are separated into two major categories, one of them is technological, and the other is business. Below we have listed the top 100 Pega interview questions & answers for fresher and experienced candidates to clear the job interview. 

1.What are the Developer Tools in Pega?

Ans:

Pega Express and Designer Studio.

2.What are the Debugging tools available in Pega?

Ans:

Tracer, Clipboard, SMA, and PLA.

3.What is DataPage and what is its scope?

Ans:

It is a single page or page list that allows the storage of data which is needed    by the system to populate work item properties that are needed for the circulation. Thread, a collection of Pages Requestor, is associated with multiple requestors.

4.Name different types of requestors?

Ans:

• Browser requestor – Starts with letter ‘H’
• Application requester – Starts with the letter ‘A
• Batch requestor – Starts with letter ‘B’
• Portal requestor – Starts with the letter ‘P’.

5.What is Portal and where it will be configured?

Ans:

It is an Interface that shows up for the client (Developer/End User) and entry can be arranged in Access Group. Ex: Developer entry, chief gateway, client entryway, administrator entrance.

6.Where assignments will be stored in the Pega rules database?

Ans:

Work List connected assignments are stored in pc_assign_worklist. Workbasket connected assignments are stored in pc_assign_workbasket.

7.How to import rules using Pzinskey?

Ans:

Open the law, from that, choose the pzinskey; go to prdbutil and using the pzinskey sell oversees the regulation Import that zips file where you want.

8.How to connect to different Pega applications?

Ans:

Using HTTP, JMS, SOAP, MQ.

9.Name the various types of declarative rules present?

Ans:

The various types are:

• Declare Expressions
• Declare Constraints
•  Declare On change
•  Declare trigger
•  Declare Index.

10.Define paging in a list view?

Ans:

To split the ListView into diverse pages and set the numeral of records to be displayed on a page.

11.Define SLA and what are the terms associated with it?

Ans:

Service level can describe the timeline to procedure work object by executing activities. Goal, Deadline and Passed limit are the terms linked with it.

12.What the advantages and limitations are of declare page?

Ans:

The main benefit of the Declare pages is, It prevents the different DB hits, Suppose is their numerous requestors in that lump whenever first user login into the request then load action will be enthusiastic and generate a declare page and then hindered the data in that page. These requestors can on that bump show this maintain the page and use the information on that page. The Disadvantages are it’s interpreted only to the requestors, and cannot add the supplementary data and can’t remove the precise data.

13.What is difference between Edit validate and Edit Input rules?

Ans:

Edit Validate: Use edit validate rule to validate the property value using java code. Edit validate rules can be used property-validate, Rule-Obj-Validate and Property rules.Edit Input: Edit input rules converts user entered data into required format. For example is the user enters date MM/DD/YYYY format, edit input rule coverts this date into DD-MMM-YYYY (required format). Again we need to write java code for this transformation.

14.Where work objects will be stored?

Ans:

Work Objects are stored in pc_work table by default. however if you want to store the work objects in a user created table, follow the below mentioned steps.

Create a schema similar to pc_work table. (The best thing is to copy the pc_work schema and modify the table name and constraints name if any)

Change the class group mapping (Data-Admin-DB-Table) to the newly created table

15.If I have 3 different work objects in my application, how to store them in three different tables?

Ans:

Open/Create the Data-Admin-DB-Table instance for each class and mention the table name. By doing this the individual work objects will be stored in the new table you mentioned in the Data-Admin-DB-Table instance. This is a best practice if there too many object instances for each class.

16.What is StepStatusGood, StepStatusFail rules?

Ans:

StepStatusGood is a when condition defined in @baseclass, this when rule checks whether the value of pxMethodStatus property is “Good”.

StepStatusFail is a when condition defined in @baseclass, this when rule checks whether the value of pxMethodStatus property is “Fail”.

17.Difference between activity and utility?

Ans:

An activity is an instance of the Rule-Obj-Activity rule type. An activity is the fundamental sequential processing unit of the Process Commander system.The shape in a Visio flow diagram, references an activity that updates a work object, but does not require user interaction and input. 

Your system includes standard activities for utility tasks, and you can create additional ones.Each utility task references an activity with an Activity Type of Utility ss from utility shape we can call activity but vise versa not possible.

18.Difference between obj-open and obj-open-by-handled

Ans:

Obj-Open : we will get multiple records from table based on the criteria from the specified class. Or Opens an instance of a given class

OBJ-open-handle: here we have have to pass the pzInskey as a instance handle, this mehod will open only one record at time or Open object by handle to the pzInsKey value. The handle of an instance is a unique key, in an internal format, assembled by the system that identifies an instance in the PegaRULES database. It may differ from the visible key generally used to identify instances. (Every instance has a unique handle, but more than one instance may share the same visible key.) For rule instances, the handle includes system-generated identifying values (including the create date and time) that make it unique.

Use the Obj-Open-By-Handle method only if you can determine the unique handle that permanently identifies which instance to open. Otherwise, use the Obj-Open method.

19.Can we start a flow using activity and what is that method which is to be used?

Ans:

Yes, Flow-New method is used to start a new flow.

20.Can we resolve an work object using activity?

Ans:

By using call generate ID and Call Add work to resolve the work object.

21.Can we use Rdb-Save along with commit, if yes then why? if not yes then why?

Ans:

Yes, commit is used to save the data permanent in the DB.

22.What is skimming explain?

Ans:

It collect the highest version of the every rule in the ruleset and copies them into new major version of that ruleset on the same system.

EX:

If we are skimming loan appl:05-06-07, the only options like 06-01-01 and 07-01-01, but we can not skim to 05-07-08 and so on.

23.What is Access Group and Access roles and difference between them?

Ans:

• Access groups make a set of RuleSet versions available to requestors.
• Use an access role name to convey permissions (capabilities) to a user or a group of users. Access roles can be referenced
• in requestor instances, Operator ID instances, in access group instances, in activities, and in queries.

24.What is Covers folder and object and differences among them?

Ans:

• Cover is work object that is parent to one or more related work objects.
• One work party is present in the cover work object and also present in the covered work objects associated with the covers.
• Folder is work object in concrete class that inherits from the work-Folder-class.
• A folder object holds a collection of one or more other work objects providing access for reporting.

25.What is Backward chaining and forward chaining?

Ans:

Forward Chaining: It provides the automatic calculations of the property value by executing the declarative rule, when any one of the input property values is changed.

EX:

If the Area property depends on the Length and Width property, then forward chaining causes the Area property to be recomputed each time either. Length/Width value changes.

Backward Chaining: It provides the automatic calculations of a property value by executing the declarative rule, when a value is needed for property rather than whenever inputs change.

EX:

If the Area property depends on the Length and Width property, then backward chaining causes the Area property recomputed each time the Area property is required.

26.What is Agent?

Ans:

Agents are internal background process operating on the server to run an activities. Agents are asynchronous and independent. They also perform system tasks such as sending email notifications and synchronizing caches across nodes. Activities they call run individually on their own scheduled and one activity doesn’t have to finish another activity.

27.What is difference between RDB,OBJ methods?

Ans:

• Obj method can be used to fetch the data from Blob columns but RDB methods can only help to fetch the data from exposed columns
• RDB methods are faster than OBJ methods in terms of response time
• Normally we use OBJ methods for pega tables and RDB methods to fetch the data from external database

28.when will we go for may start and authenticate?

Ans:

If calling an activity from any other activity may start check box is optional.if the activity getting called for the form submission then may start in need to be checked.

29.What is the use of Primary page?

Ans:

The primary page is nothing but a clipboard page. Primary page is nothing but a step page in activity. it refers in . to display the property..

30.Why do you need class group?

Ans:

We need to add one or more class groups to create the work pools in which user associated in the access group to create the work objects.

31.Differentiate constraint vs validation.?

Ans:

Constraint is a declarative rule which gets called automatically whenever invalid value entered by the user and show the error message according to ur logic, unlike constraint validation is not a declarative rule ad u need to call it from say flow actions/activity etc…it’s also used for validation.

32.what is use of guardrails?

Ans:

Guardrails guide  how to code any application in best way using pega.

33.What are the Certifications available for Developers in Pega?

Ans:

• CSA – Certified System Architect Basic level of certification. This one is for entry-level for the developer.
• CSSA – Certified Senior System Architect Expert. This helps in judging, building, leading the team with good technical aspects
• LSA – Lead System Architect Leader of development. This one helps in becoming someone thorough with every functionality.

34.What is reports and why it is used for?

Ans:

It is a standard in Pega, where it primarily utilized by administrators to audit and confirm the information and furthermore to imagine the general advancement. Summary and list view is the prominent perspectives in Pega.

35.What are the different types of layouts available?

Ans:

Column layout, grid layout, portal layout, dynamic layout.

36.Different between Abstract and Concrete Class?

Ans:

• Abstract – It’s made to help the meaning of guideline including different classes, it can’t be instantiated and end with ‘- ‘ 
• Concrete – It can have the examples that are stored in the database.

37.What are the different layers in architecture?

Ans:

Generalised Application Layer, Enterprise Shared Product Layer, PRPC Shared Product, Organisational & specialized application layer.

38.What are the types of Inheritance?

Ans:

• Directed Inheritance – It allows the client to determine a parent class (must not be identified with the name of the class) 
• Pattern Inheritance – It searches dependent on the patter characterized in a class structure.

39.Explain about Work Object ID?

Ans:

A work object ID is the permanent, external identifier of a work object.If we don’t specify a prefix (on the Details tab of the application rule), the Work-.GenerateID activity uses W- as the prefix and no suffix. The Work-Cover-.GenerateID activity uses C- as the default prefix. Conventionally, the F- prefix is used to identify folder work objects.

40.Where we determine the prefix and suffix of of the Work Object ID?

Ans:

The prefix and suffix are determined by a model rule pyDefault for the work type or the class corresponding to the class group. The model is referenced on the Process tab of the flow rule that creates the work object.

41.How to call one activity from another activity:

Ans:

They are two types:

• Call: If we call one activity to another activity by using call, it will execute the called activity and return back to calling activity then execute the remaining steps in a calling activity.
• Branch: If we call one activity to another activity by using Branch, it will execute the called activity and calling activity then it will not execute the remaining steps after branch.

42.Difference between file listener and connect file?

Ans:

File listener used to import data from a file. Connect file defines the name and location of an output file created by your application.

43.What is local action?

Ans:

When action is finished work object returns to same assignment.

44.What is WSDL file?

Ans:

It is web services description language. It is written in XML format.

45.Difference between Decision Table and Decision Tree:

Ans:

Decision Table:

• The logic Implemented in Decision Table is if, else if condition.
•  In Decision Table, if first condition is true, it will not check the remaining conditions/if first condition is false , then only it will check next condition.
•  For simply logics, we can go for Decision table.
  

Decision Tree:

•  The logic implemented in Decision Tree is if, if condition’s.
•  In a Decision Tree, if first condition is true or false, it will check the al condition’s and it will return results.
•  For simple logics, we can go for Decision Tree.

46.What is a harness in Pega?

Ans:

Harnesses in Pega is used to define the look and processing of user forms in any application that is necessary for the creation of work items and the processing of assignments.

47.What is case management in Pega?

Ans:

Case Management in Pega allows an organization to quickly model and take care of multifarious case logic, without writing any programming codes.

48.What is PRPC in Pega?

Ans:

PRPC or PegaRULES Process Commander is a core component of the Pega software product created by Pegasystems Inc (PEGA).

49.What is an assignment in Pega?

Ans:

An assignment in Pega is a break in the flow and it denotes the need for an external system or a person to act on a work object so that the flow can resume.

50.What is ruleset in Pega?

Ans:

A RuleSet in Pega is a collection of rules of business that defines an instance. The ruleset is an essential subset of PegaRULES that is necessary to reference instances in the database.

51.How do we fetch the data from two different tables without using two different tables?

Ans:

• Write a database View. 
• In this view logically combine the Two different tables.
• Create class for this logically combined Table.
• Write the List View. 
• Applies to class is class of the Combined table. 
• So we can refer the properties of both the tables in list view.

52.Explain the operation of Activity-End method?

Ans:

Use the Activity-End method to cause the system to End the current activity and all calling activities.

Ex:

If Alpha calls Beta, which calls Gamma, which calls Delta, which performs the Activity-End method, all four activities are ended.

53.Explain about Exit-Activity method?

Ans:

The Exit-Activity method ends the current activity and returns control to the calling activity.

54.Explain about Page-Copy method?

Ans:

Page-Copy method is used to copy the contents of a source clipboard page to a new or previously created destination clipboard page. The source page is not altered.

After this method completes, the destination page contains properties copied from the source page, and can contain additional properties from a model.

55.Explain about Page-New method?

Ans:

The Page-New method is used to create a page on the clipboard. The new page may be a top-level page or an embedded page.

We can identify a model to initialize the newly created page. The model can set values for one or more properties.

56.Explain about Page-Remove method?

Ans:

Page-Remove method is used to delete one or more pages from the clipboard. The contents of the database are not affected.

57.Explain about Page-Set-Messages method?

Ans:

Use the Page-Set-Messages method to add a message to a clipboard page. Like a message associated with a property, a message associated with a page normally prevents the page from being saved into the database.

58.Explain about Property-Set-Message?

Ans:

Property-Set-Message method is used to associate a text message with a property or a step page. The system reads the appropriate property and adds the message to the page. We can provide the entire literal text of the message, or reference a message rule key that in turn contains message text. (Rule-Message rule type).

59.Explain about Property-Map-DecisionTable method?

Ans:

Use the Property-Map-DecisionTable method to evaluate a decision table rule and save the result as the value of a property.

60.Explain about Property-Map-DecisionTree method?

Ans:

The Property-Map-DecisionTree method is used to evaluate a decision tree rule (Rule-Declare-DecisionTree rule type) and store the result as the value of a property.

61.Explain about Property-Map-Value?

Ans:

• The Property-Map-Value method evaluates a one-dimensional map value (Rule-Obj-MapValue rule type) defined in the parameter. The method sets the result as a value for a Single Value property.
• The related method Property-Map-ValuePair works similarly for two-dimensional map values.

62.Explain about Property-Remove method?

Ans:

Property-Remove method is used to delete a property or properties and its associated value from the step page or another specified page. This does not affect the property rule.

63.Explain about Property-Set method?

Ans:

Property-Set method is used to set the value of one or more specified properties.

64.Explain about Show-HTML method?

Ans:

The Show-HTML method is used to cause the activity to process an HTML rule and send the resulting HTML to a user for display by Internet Explorer. This may involve the interpretation of JSP tags (or the older directives), which can access the clipboard to obtain property values, or can insert other HTML rules, and so on.

65.Explain about Show-Page method?

Ans:

The Show-Page method is used to send an XML representation of the step page to a user’s Internet Explorer browser session, as an aid to debugging.

66.What are the types of Validation?

Ans:

• Client-side Validation
• Server-side Validation
• Constraints Create Validate Rule
• Edit Validate and Validate

67.What is cover and covered objects?

Ans:

Cover is Work Object that is parent to one or more work objects. The covered work object are Children in Parent-Child relationship.one work party is present in the cover work object that is also present in the covered WO associated with the covers.

68. What are px, py and pz keys?

Ans:

px and Pz are read-only keys in Pega which are created while processing ex: pxObjClass, pxCreateDateTime, pzInsKey, pxRequestor py is editable key ex: pyid, pyWorkBasket.

69.What is Locking in Pega and describe it types?

Ans:

Locking is acquiring control over a work object before proceeding to perform any action on it and to ensure only a single user to perform actions on a work object at a time. Default Locking: Only one user can work on the work object at a time. Optimistic Locking: This is an enhanced feature introduced in Pega 7, where multiple operators work on the same object at a time.

70.Which are the possible ways to Handle Errors in Connect – Soap rule?

Ans:

• Using Faults tab in Connect – Soap rule
• Using Error handle flow in Connect – Soap rule Service Tab
• Transition Step

71.How tracer can be utilized for a Remote requestor in Pega?

Ans:

By making use of Remote Tracer Functionality available in tracer and hence tracing the different requestor sessions available

72.Name some of the Pega OOTB Activities that are generally used?

Ans:

• Notify, 
• NotifyAll, 
• New, 
• Work-.AddCovered, 
• AddCoveredWork, 
• Work-.Addwork, 
• Work-. Add, 
• NewCovered, 
• ToCreateOperator, 
• ToWorkBasket, 
• ToWorklist, 
• Work-.NewDefaults, 
• Assign- .NewDefaults, 
• CorrNew, NewDefaults.

73.What are Services and Connectors in Pega?

Ans:

Service: It’s a kind of response given to an incoming request.

Connector: It’s kind of approaching the other system for the response by giving the necessary request inputs (MQ, SQL, JAVA, JSM, HTTP, JCA, EJB, DOTNET, SOAP are the implementation types available)

74.How Parse – XML is different from XML-Stream?

Ans:

In Connect –Soap Configuration,

XML Stream is used to convert the mapped property values into XML format as requested.

Parse-XML is used to convert the XML format of the response from an external system into property values to be mapped to the clipboard.

75.Define Section and mention where can it be referenced?

Ans:

It is a portion/area of a standard work object form that is placed in a harness form. We can embed a section inside a section, also we can insert a harness inside a section using Tab layout form Section can be referred to in Paragraph rules, Flow Action rules, Other Sections, and Harness rules.

76.What is Validation and describe its types?

Ans:

Validation is a kind of verification method in Pega to validate the fields and its associated values Client-Side Validation: It’s like field and property-level validation and user get Warning/Errors before submitting the form Server Side Validation: It validates the input fields after submitting the user form to the server

77.What are Declarative rules and mention various types of it?

Ans:

It populates the outcome by declarative processing

• Declare Expression: Evaluates the expression to get the outcome
• Declare OnChange: Computes the property value on change of specific property values
• Declare Trigger: It process automatically by running activity when an instance of a particular class are created/updated/deleted in DB
• Declare Index: It improves search and reporting access for properties.
• Declare Constraint: It imposes validation for a property when it is altered.
• Forward Chaining: It modifies the target property value based on the associated property value change
• Backward Chaining: It makes use of the property-seek-value method to find the missing properties by using Goal seek technique

78.What is KeyStore in Pega?

Ans:

It is a file that holds security certificates that supports outbound email security and web service security.

79.How can we map the class to a DB Table in Pega?

Ans:

By making use of DB Table Class Mapping Wizard

80.What actually happens when locking a work object in Pega?

Ans:

• Control initiates an entry in the pr_sys_locks table
• Finally pxLockHandle holds the lock object (i.e., pxLockHandle = pxObjClass + Lock key array) Note: When different requestor tries to obtain a lock on same object, then insert query fails and throws error.

81.Describe Duplicate Case Search in Pega?

Ans:

It’s a functionality to find out the duplicate cases in Pega by using the inbuilt features. Smart Shape to be used – Duplicate Search Rule to be modified – Case Match (To define Must match and Weigh match conditions) and pyDefaultCaseMatch.

82.Consider This Scenario: I Need To Generate A List View Report Of All The Work Objects Created On A Particular Date And Then I Need To Include This List View In A Section. How This Can Be Done?

Ans:

Select .pxCreateDateTime ( an exposed property ) under criteria and give the value you are looking for.

To include it in a section, check the embedded check box and customize the HTML of the section. In that we need to access the list view in a JSP tag or In section Property is DisplayAs ListView.

83.Message Is Set To The Property And The Checked In The Clipboard Also , The Messages Got Set Successfully. But The Message Is Not Displayed Beside The Field In The Screen. Why?

Ans:

If the property has a html property, the tag <pega:include name =”Messages”/> tag must be included.

84.How to create a work object in Pega?

Ans:

The steps to create work objects in Pega are-

• Add a button such as a section or a header.
• Expand the cell property within the button and click on the action tab.
• To the button, add an action set.
• Add focus class as well as flow name to the button.
• Catch the present work object ID with “Param.prevRecordkey”.
• Using “Obj-Open-By-Handle”, open the case
• Using Page-Copy, copy the data from pagers.

85.What is work-pool in Pega?

Ans:

A working pool in Pega is a collection of the work objects, both open and resolved, as well as the work- classes that a user is able to enter in an application, determined by the system from a list of class groups.

86.Describe the Access group in Pega?

Ans:

An access group in Pega is an example of Data-Admin-Operator-AccessGroup class that creates a set of RuleSet for the requestors. The developer defines access groups and assigns them to different users.

87.In Pega 8.1 what are the new components added for application development?

Ans:

From app dev point of view, couple of new features added in 8.1. We can use role-based workspaces. Developers now have the capability to review complete project highlights on a single page. Effective management of reusable component

88.What do you mean by work-space or studio?

Ans:

It is an environment that provides specific tools and features

89.What are the various workspace supported in the latest release?

Ans:

There are four types

• App Studio
• Dev Studio
• Admin Studio
• Prediction Studio

90.A system admin complained that he is not able to access the admin studio? What could be the potential reason?

Ans:

To access Admin Studio, one should have the following Privileges

SysAdmin4

PegaRULES:SysOpsAdministrator

PegaRULES:SysOpsObserver

91.Like we used to switch portal, similarly, is there any way to switch studio as such?

Ans:

Yes. In the header of the workspace, we need to click the Switch Studio menu.

92.How can you show the relevant record?

Ans:

We can show it by right clicking the relevant record management tab for a specific class in the App Explorer.

93.What is Prediction studio?

Ans:

It is the studio thru which one can build machine-learning models for adaptive, predictive, and text analytics.

94.How to trace SLA in Pega?

Ans:

The steps to trace SLA in Pega are:

• Terminate the agent.
• Delay it.
• Initiate the agent.
• Delay it again.
• In the requestors, select the delayed requestor and click on the tracer.
• Send this case to a particular assignment containing the SLA within 60 seconds.

95.How To Expose Aggregate Property?

Ans:

  Declare Index rule is a better approach:

• Create a concrete class derived from the Index- base class.
• Create Single Value properties in the new class to hold values of the embedded values.
• Create a Declare Index rule with the appropriate embedded Page Context value that copies the embedded values into a new Index- instance.
• Save the Declare Index rule. It executes immediately, adding and deleting instances of the new class.
• Expose database columns corresponding to the Index- class.
• Reference the Index- properties in the list view rule.

96.Explain About The Page-copy Method?

Ans:

The page-copy method is used to copy the contents of a source clipboard page to a new or previously created destination clipboard page. The source page is not altered. After this method completes, the destination page contains properties copied from the source page and can contain additional properties from a model.

These are some of the popular questions that are asked in Pega  interviews. Always be prepared to answer all types of questions — technical skills, interpersonal, leadership or methodology. If you are someone who has recently started your career in this field, you can always get certified to understand the industry-related terminology, skills and methodologies.