Pega Interview Question and Answers in 2022

Cracking an interview will be simple when you are prepared for it!  Yes, it’s true and let’s discuss the most frequently asked Pega interview questions in the interviews based on important topics.

This post will be discussing important rule types which are asked in the interviews as below

1. Integration
2. Case Designer
3. Report Definition
4. Data Pages
5. Data Transform
6. Declarative Rules

Let’s start the journey with Pega interview questions on Integrations.

1. What is the difference between SOAP and REST protocols?

SOAP and REST are web service protocols used in the integration.

SOAP	REST
It uses XML as the intermediate language for communication.	It uses JSON, XML, HTML, etc, but most of the time it uses JSON because of its readability
It uses Service Interface to expose the functionality to its clients.	It uses Uniform service locators for accessing the components.
SOAP stands for “Simple object access protocol”	REST stands for “Representational state transfer”
SOAP needs more bandwidth	REST needs less bandwidth comparatively with SOAP

2. What are SOAP and its purpose?

SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol used to exchange the services between Requestor and Provider. This uses XML as the intermediate language for communication purposes. SOAP service is more secure as it uses XML.SOAP is independent of Languages and Platforms it works fine with any operating system. SOAP is lightly weighted as it uses XML for its communication purpose.SOAP is recommended by the W3C consortium which is a governing body in the web services space.

3. What is REST and its purpose

Representational state transfer is a Resource-based web service protocol. This is most commonly used because of its lightweight, Simple, highly scalable, and less maintenance. This is most commonly used to create Web application APIs.

REST protocol exposes the APIs in a secured, uniform, and stateless manner to the consumer. There are 4 methods which are below

GET: This is used to get information/records by using the service.

PUT: This is used to update the records by using the service.

POST: This is used to send information/create records by using the service.

DELETE: This is used to delete records by using the service.

4. What is the importance of the Service Page rule when building a service?

Service Package rule is created when Pega applications are providing the Service (Acting like a service provider). There are 3 important functionalities configured on the Service Package rule.

Processing Mode: There are 2 different types of processing modes

• State full: In state-full mode, when we wanted to make use of clipboard data of 1 requestor to other or subsequent requests then we choose state full processing mode.
• Stateless: Here every request will be considered as a fresh request.

1. 1. Access Group: This is used to identify the service rules for the incoming requestor operating the access group.
   2. Authentication: This is used for authentication of incoming requests.

5. What is the Connector rule in Pega when we will be creating it

The connector rule in Pega is created when we wanted to consume the service provided by the other applications.

Eg: If we use SOAP as the protocol then we use the SOAP CONNECT rule and REST CONNECT for restful services.

6. What is the Service rule in Pega and when we will be creating it

The service rule in Pega is created when Pega applications want to provide a service (Service Provider).

Eg: When we use SOAP as the protocol then the SOAP SERVICE rule should be created and the REST SERVICE rule when Rest is used as the protocol.

7. What is State full and Stateless modes

State full: When subsequent requests want to make use of the current requestor infrastructure like Clipboard data etc. then State full should be used.

Stateless: This is used when all the requests are treated as independent requests or fresh requests.

8. How many types of processing modes can be configured on the Service Package rule

There are 2 types of processing modes that can be configured on the Service Package rule i.e. State full and Stateless

9. Difference between stateful and stateless processing modes

State full: When subsequent requests want to make use of the current requestor infrastructure like Clipboard data etc. then State full should be used.

Stateless: This is used when all the requests are treated as independent requests or fresh requests

10. How did you handle authentication for the Service Configured

Authentication is the process of validating incoming requests. There are 3 different types of authentication i.e.

Basic: This is used to verify the incoming request has a valid operator ID and password in the system.

O Auth 2.0: Open authorization is something where authentication is based on other web apps

Custom: Here Service Authentication rule is used for authentication.

11. How did you handle errors in the service configured

Basically connector rule is used to invoke the service which is lying in the remote system.

Let’s see OOTB flow used to handle errors i.e. ConnectionProblem flow which takes care of handling the errors which are not detected in the Activity or DataPage.

The other way is when we invoke the Service from an Activity rule check for the StepStatusFail when the rule for error detection and jump to a corresponding step to handle the errors. We can write a DataTransform rule to handle the errors based on the response code generated by the service

The other way to invoke the connector rule is from the DataPage where we check the errors from pxDataPageHasErrors when rule. If there are any errors we need to handle the errors in the response DataTransform.

12. What is the WSDL file and its importance in SOAP Protocol

WSDL stands for webs service description language which gives the details of the SOAP service.

It has input and output parameters required for the service.

It describes the operations that the service is providing.

It also has the endpoint URL where the service is located Basically WSDL terminology is used for SOAP protocol.

13. What is Endpoints URL and its importance in the SOAP protocol

Endpoint URL is the location where we send our request to invoke the operations

Provided by the Service.

14. Parsing rule available for the SOAP protocol

There are 2 different parsing rules available for SOAP. Basically SOAP work in XML and to convert data from Clipboard structure to XML and vice versa we use parse rules as below

Parse XML: Use to convert XML to Clipboard

XML Stream: Used to convert the Clipboard to XML.

15. How many types of methods are there in the REST service rule

There are 4 different types of methods in REST protocol mentioned below

GET: Used to get the data/records from the service

PUT: Used to update data/records in the service

POST: Write data/records to the service

DELETE: Delete data/records from the service.

16. Rules to be created to provide a Service either in SOAP or    REST?

When we provide a Service, i.e Pega Application is acting as a Service provider.

Service rule should be created additionally below rules Like

Class Structure: Input Class (To create input properties), Output Class(Output properties), Service Class to create the Service rule.

Parse Rules: ParseXML and XMLStream rules for conversion

Service Package: To create Authentication, Access Group

Service Rule: To define the Service

Service Activity: To define the logic.

Interview Questions on Data Pages:

Let’s learn Pega interview questions on Data pages

 

1. What are the advantages of using Data pages

Data pages get the data on demand from the tables and store them in the clipboard for usage in the application.

Data pages are declarative in nature in the sense when we refer the data page system executes the source and creates the data page in the clipboard for usage.

 

2. Why data pages are also called Declarative pages

Data pages are also called as declarative pages because when we refer the data page system executes the source and get data from the source and places it in the clipboard for usage.

3. Explain scopes in a Data page

There are 3 types of scopes as below

Thread: Data page is available only for this thread. E.g.: work object

Requestor: Data page is available for requestor session

Node: This is available for all the operators in the node

 

4. Why Access Group is Mandatory for Node Level Data Pages

In Node level data pages multiple operators will be accessing the data page So to execute the appropriate source Rule-set hierarchy of the operator is required So access groups is required to build the rule-set hierarchy for the operators.

 

5. How many types are Data pages are there? And Explain in details.

There are 3 types of data pages depending upon its usage i.e.

Read only: Data page is used for reading the data

Editable: Data page content is used for reading and editing if required.

Savable: Used to read, update and save it back to the source.

 

6. What are the difference between Parameterised and Keyed Data pages

Keyed Data page	Parameterized Data page
Keyed pages will not hit the DB every time	Here Parameterized, hits the Db for every parameter value that we pass
It maintains a single copy in the clipboard	As these hits multiple times the DB, multiple Data page instances are available
Keyed pages cannot be referenced in UI	These can be directly referenced from UI

 

7. Syntax to call a Parameterised Data pages

D_YourDataPageName[Param1:ParamValue1,Param2:ParamValue2]

8. How Refreshing strategies work

Refresh strategy is used to get the fresh copy from the DB. There are 2 conditions to be satisfied to refresh the data page i.e. refresh condition and data page should be referred.

9. Explain Different sources for DataPages

To source the Data from the Database table we have multiple options as below:

Report definition

Activity

Datatransform

Connector

LookUp

10. Can we have multiple source for a Single Data page

Yes, conditionally (via when rule) we can execute multiple sources for a data page.

11. Explain how the data pages are stored in the Clipboard

All Read only data pages are stored in the “Data pages” category of the clipboard

Editable and Saveable data pages are stored under “User pages “

12. Difference Between Clipboard Pages vs. Datapage

Normal pages are stored in the clipboard are like static means they don’t have any scope, no refresh strategy and etc.

Data pages in the clipboard are fetched on demand from the source and have scope defined, have refresh strategies, and can be referred in the UI.

 

Interview Questions on Report Definition Rules:

Lets understand pega interview questions on report definition rule.

 

1. What is the Instance/ObjClass of a Report definition rule

Rule-Obj-Report-Definition is the instance class of the report definition rule

And report definition comes under Reports category

2. What is the Purpose of Report definition rule

The purpose of report definition rule is to fetch the data from the database.

Data can be represented in pictorial format like charts etc.

Report Definition is also used to generate reports based on the selection criteria.

3. Can we get the Data from the BLOB by using report Definition rule?

Yes, we can get the data from the blob by using report definition rule.

4. Can we apply filters on the BLOB data and retrieve the data

No, we cannot apply filters on blob properties.

5. How many types of joins can be configured in Report Definition rule?

There are 3 types of joins as mentioned below

Inner Join

Left Join or Left outer join

Right Join or Right outer join

6. What is LeftJoin and Explain

Left join is used to get the data from the source table with the target table, the criteria is to fetch the matching records from the source table with the target table.

7. What is Right Join Explain

Right join is used to get the data which matches the target table records matching with the source table records.

8. What is inner join and Explain

Here we get all the common rows from the source and target tables.

9. What are associations and explain

Association is used to mention the join criteria between the classes and reuse it in another report definition rule.

10. What are Sub-Reports and explain

Basically, subreports are called in another report to get the desired results. This is used to get the desired output for complex calculations.

11. How to call a ReportDefinition from an Activity rule

We can call the report definition rule by using pxRetrieveReportData with parameters: report Name, report class. The result will be stored in pyReportContentPage.

Interview Questions on Data Transform

 

1. What is Data Transform rule and explain

Data transform rule is used to manipulate the data.
a. Copy the data from source to destination property
b. Copy data from one page to another page.
c. Adding pages to a Page list property
d. Looping over the pages
e. Sorting pages in the Page list property
f. Call another Data Transform rule.

 

2. How to call an activity from Data transform rule

We can call an activity by using pxCallActivity function.

 

3. How to call a Decision table and Decision tree from Data transform rule.

pxEvaluateDecisionTable and pxEvaluateDecisionTree functions are used to invoke Decision table and Decision tree respectively.

 

4. Difference between append and append-map-to

Append is used to add an empty page to the page list property. Append and Mapto method is used to add data to a page and then add the page to the page list.

 

5. Significance of “Call super class DataTransform” check box

This is used to call Parent class data transform. First Parent call data transform will be executed and then current class data transform rule will be executed.

 

6. How to call Data transform rule from an activity rule

Apply-DataTransform is the method used to call the data transform rule from the activity.

7. Can we call child Data transform from Parent DataTransform rule?

Yes, Apply Datatransform is used to call.

 

8. Why Data Transform rule is preferred over Activity (Property-set method)? Explain?

As activity rules are technical in nature and tough to maintain. So, Data transform rules are preferred over the Activity rules for manipulation of the data.

Interview Questions on Declarative Rules

 

1. How many types of declarative rules are there in Pega?

Below are the declarative rules in pega.

1. Declare Expression
2. Declare OnChange
3. Declare Trigger
4. Declare Index
5. Declare Constraints
6. Declare Pages

 

2. What is difference between Forward Chaining and Backward Chaining?

In terms of Declare expression, If declare expression executed whenever input values changes this technique is called forward-chaining. If Declare expression is evaluated when target property is referenced then this is called as backward chaining.

 

3. What is Declarative Processing in pega?

Declare processing means whenever an event occurs then pega process certain rules in the background. This is called declare processing in Pega

 

4. Declare Index and how to configure?

Declare Index is used to expose or optimize a page property. In simple terms we create a separate table for storing the Page data.

Below steps are used to configure the declare index.

1. Select the property to be exposed/optimized

 

5. What is Declare OnChange and explain how to works

Declare Onchange is created on a Property rule. Whenever the corresponding value of the property changes, Pega triggers an activity rule which is configured.