COBOL Interview Questions Collection

Collection of Mainframe COBOL Interview Questions expected in a Mainframe Interview. 

Professionals are invited to share the answers.

1. Explain the guidelines that should be followed to write a structured COBOL program?
2. Explain what is the difference between a DYNAMIC and STATIC call in COBOL ?
3. Explain in detail what is the point of the REPLACING option of a copy statement ?
4. What is the default value(s) for an INITIALIZE and what keyword allows for an override of the default ?
5. In a COBOL II PERFORM statement, when is the conditional tested, before or after the perform execution.
6. Under what conditions a scope terminator mandatory in COBOL ?
7. Explain in brief what is LENGTH in COBOL II ?
8. Explain in detail what is the difference between a binary search and a sequential search?What are the pertinent COBOL ?
9. What is AMODE(24), AMODE(31), RMODE(24) and RMODE(ANY) (applicable to only MVSESA Enterprise Server) ?
10. In an EVALUTE statement is the order of the WHEN clauses significant ?
11. Explain in detail call by context by comparing it to other calls ?
12. What was removed from COBOL in the COBOL II implementation ?
13. What is the importance of ‘above the line’ and ‘below the line’ in COBOL?
14. What COBOL construct is the COBOL II EVALUATE meant to replace ?
15. Explain the difference between NEXT SENTENCE and CONTINUE ?
16. What is an in line PERFORM?
17. How can you submit a job from COBOL programs ?
18. Explain in detail what is a bind?
19. How do you set a return code to the JCL from a COBOL program ?
20. What is SSRANGE and NOSSRANGE in COBOL?
21. Explain how do you define a sort file in JCL that runs the COBOL program ?
22. What is binary search. Explain in detail how it helps in a search ?
23. What is the Importance of GLOBAL clause According to new standards of COBOL ?
24. Difference between next and continue clause ?
25. What is the difference between external and global variables ?
26. How is sign stored in a comp-3 field in COBOL?
27. How is sign stored in Packed Decimal fields and Zoned Decimal fields  in COBOL?
28. What do you do to resolve SOC-7 error in COBOL?
29. Can I redefine an X(100) field with a field of X(200) ?
30. What is the difference between CONTINUE & NEXT SENTENCE ?
31. When would you use in-line perform in COBOL?
32. Explain what happens when we move a comp-3 field to an edited in COBOL?
33. How many bytes does a S9(7) COMP-3 field occupy ?
34. What are the differences between COBOL and COBOL II ?
35. Can you call an OS VS COBOL program from a VS COBOL II program?
36. What are the steps you go through while creating a COBOL program executable ?
37. What are the differences between OS VS COBOL and VS COBOL II ?
38. What is a scope terminator? Can you provide some examples ?
39. What should be the sorting order for SEARCH ALL in COBOL?
40. What is the difference between SEARCH and SEARCH ALL ?
41. How do you come out of an EVALUATE statement in a COBOL program?
42. Explain in detail what is the use of EVALUATE statement  in COBOL?
43. What is the difference between performing a SECTION and a PARAGRAPH ?
44. How do you define a sort file in JCL that runs the COBOL program ?
45. How do you sort in a COBOL program Give sort file definition, sort statement syntax and meaning ?
46. What is an explicit scope terminator ?
47. Explain the difference between index and subscript in COBOL?
48. What does the IS NUMERIC clause establish in COBOL?
49. Explain in detail what are the different data types available in COBOL ?
50. Can you tell me what are the divisions in a COBOL program ?

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