CICS Interview Questions Part 3

CICS Interview Questions gathered from Job Interviews. 

Mainframe professionals are invited to share the answers in the comment section.

1. Which is the command that you will use to dump the main storage areas related to a task?
2. When an XCTL is done, does the tranid change?
3. Explain what is transient data in CICS?
4. Describe the primary function of the Processing Program Table (PPT)?
5. What is the general Command format of CICS?
6. Explain what is the effect of including the TRANSID in the EXEC CICS RETURN command?
7. Differentiate between LINK and XCTL ?
8. Explain what is the common systems area (CSA)?
9. What is the CICS supplied transaction which performs syntax checking of a CICS command?
10. What is the use of temporary storage in CICS?
11. Explain what is interval control and what are some of the CICS commands associated with it?
12. What is the command CEDF used for in CICS?
13. Which transient data queue support ATI in CICS?
14. What is an AEY9 abend in CICS?
15. What sort of information can be obtained from the EIBRCODE ?
16. What do the keywords MAPONLY and DATAONLY mean?
17. Explain what are the three possible ways available for a program to position the cursor on the screen?
18. What are the main databases that CICS can access ?
19. What are different system tables used in CICS?
20. Explain what are the macros used to define the following: MAP MAPSET FIELD?
21. If no exception handling is provided in the CICS program, what will happen?
22. How to establish dynamic cursor position on a map?
23. How do you terminate an already issued DELAY command?
24. How do you fire a batch job from a CICS transaction?
25. How can you prevent more than one user from accessing the same Transient Data Queue ?
26. Please explain the term Function Request Shipping?
27. What is the difference between TSQ and TDQ in CICS?
28. Can you simply check if length = 0 for checking if a field was modified ?
29. By which CICS defined field can you determine the position of the cursor on the map?
30. Which type of TDQ is read destructive in CICS?
31. Which is the command used for terminating a browse operation?
32. When there are 2 records with the same key specified in a DELETE operation what will happen ?
33. Explain what is trigger level in the context of TDQs?
34. Explain in brief what is the primary objective of CICS ?
35. What is the MASSINSERT option?
36. What do you mean by the EIB (execute interface block)?
37. Explain what is the common work area (CWA)?
38. What is the COMAERA (communication area) in CICS?
39. What is the ABEND command and when would you use it?
40. Explain what is Journal Recovery and Dynamic Transaction Backout?
41. What information do you get when an EXEC CICS STARTCODE is issued?
42. What do the terms locality of reference and working set mean?
43. What are the three BMS options in CICS?
44. What are the DB2 steps required to migrate a CICS DB2 program from source code to load module?
45. Explain what are different ways of initiating transaction in CICS ?
46. The EIB field which gives the last CICS command executed is
47. Name three ways the Modified Data Tag can be set on ?
48. How to get the sign-on user-id from an application program ?
49. Describe how do you use extended attributes?
50. How do you get data from a task that began with a START command?
51. How can you start a CICS transaction other than by keying the Transaction ID at the terminal ?
52. Explain the term Transaction routing?
53. Can you use DYNAMIC calls in CICS?
54. Can a program change protected field in CICS?
55. Why doesn't CICS use the COBOL Open and Close statements?

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