ServiceNow Admin Interview Questions and Answers

According to the latest studies, the demand for the ServiceNow tool is rapidly expanding, and it holds a market share of roughly 0.7 percent. As a result, you have numerous opportunities to advance in your ServiceNow Admin career. This blog will introduce you to frequently asked ServiceNow Admin Interview Questions 2023 with detailed solutions. The questions have been divided into two sections for easy navigation.

We have categorized ServiceNow Amin Interview Questions into 2 levels they are:

• Freshers
• Experienced

Frequently Asked ServiceNow Admin Interview Questions

1. What is an ‘Application’ in ServiceNow?
2. What do you mean by Coalesce?
3. What is LDAP Integration?
4. What is a GlideRecord?
5. What does the Client Transaction Timings plugin do?
6. What is HTML Sanitizer?
7. What types of searches are available in ServiceNow?
8. What is Performance Analytics in ServiceNow?
9. Define a client script
10. What is change management in ServiceNow?

ServiceNow Admin Interview Questions For Freshers

If you’re a fresher, you may expect the following ServiceNow admin interview questions in your interview.

1. What is the Service Now Tool?

ServiceNow is a cloud-based firm that offers specialized management software (SaaS). The company specializes in IT services management (ITSM), IT operations management (ITOM), and IT business management (ITBM) and offers several apps and plugins to help users manage projects, teams, and client interactions. ServiceNow is simple to integrate with other tools. 

2. What are the roles and responsibilities of the ServiceNow Administrator?

Below listed are some of the roles and responsibilities of the ServiceNow Administrator:

• Create, design, configure, and enhance custom apps and assist the software's end users. 
• Address various service requests that customers submit to businesses. 
• Customers' requests must be followed up on and resolved.

If you want to enrich your career and become a professional in ServiceNow, then enroll in "ServiceNow Admin Training". This course will help you to achieve excellence in this domain.

3. What is an ‘Application’ in ServiceNow?

Applications in ServiceNow represent packaged solutions for delivering services and managing corporate processes. Simply put, it is a collection of modules that provide information on those modules. The Incident application, for example, will provide information on the Incident Management process.

4. What do you mean by CMDB baseline?

CMDB stands for Configuration Management Database, and the primary purpose of a CMDB baseline is to control and comprehend any modifications made to a configuration item (CI). 

You can make a baseline in the CMDB, which is a snapshot of your configuration elements. You can monitor the modifications done to that configuration item since the last baseline. Multiple baselines can be constructed, and the system keeps account of the changes made to each one.

5. What do you mean by Coalesce?

The Coalesce option in ServiceNow allows updating existing target table records when transforming import data. The coalesce option on a field map lets you define whether the selected Target field should be used to coalesce when import set records are modified. When the field map Coalesce checkbox is selected,  the import set row is changed, and the instance searches the target table for an existing record with the same Target field value as the import set row Source field.

6. What is the full form of CMDB, and what does it do?

Configuration Management Database is the abbreviation for CMDB. In ServiceNow, it stores all the data of technical services. For information technology installations, it serves as a data warehouse. CMDB stores information about IT assets and descriptive relationships between them.

7. Which searching technique is used to search a text or record in ServiceNow?

All text searches in ServiceNow are performed by Zing (a text indexing and search engine).

8. What is LDAP Integration?

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is a cross-platform authentication protocol for directory services. Administrators can utilize the LDAP directory to automate administrative operations by establishing users, assigning them roles, and speeding the user login process. 

The system may access user data from your existing LDAP server with an LDAP integration. A single sign-on approach usually includes an LDAP integration as well. The integration employs the LDAP service account credentials to retrieve the LDAP servers when transforming import data; you distinguished user name (DN).

Related Article: ServiceNow Integration

9. What are UI policies?

UI policies control specific process flows for tasks and change information on a form in real-time.

For example, UI policies can make a form's number field read-only, the short description field obligatory, and other fields hidden. Basic UI policies do not require scripting; however, the Run scripts option should be used for more elaborate operations.

10. What is a Data Policy?

In ServiceNow, Data policies allow you to enforce data by making fields necessary or read-only. Data policies are similar to user interface policies. But UI policies only be applied to data entered on a form using a standard browser, whereas data policies can be applied to any data submitted into the system, including data imported via import sets or web services and mobile user interface.

For example, assume you're setting up a web service that lets people from outside the platform update problems in your ServiceNow instance. These problems are not subject to the UI policies on the problem form because they are not changed through the instance UI.

11. In ServiceNow, what are the dictionary overrides?

ServiceNow dictionary overrides allow you to define a field on an extended table differently from the parent table field.

A dictionary override, for example, can change the default value on the Incident [incident] table for a field on the Task [task] table without impacting the default value on Task [task] or Change [change]. 

Administrators have control over the following aspects of a field:

• Reference qualifiers
• Dictionary attributes
• Default values
• Calculations
• Field dependencies
• Default column display values
• The mandatory and read-only status.

12. What do you mean by impersonating a user, and How is it useful?

Users with admin or imposter roles can temporarily assume the identity of another authenticated user for testing purposes. Knowing another user's password is not required for impersonation. The admin user can precisely view what the impersonated user can see and do when impersonating another user. This functionality is helpful for testing. Instead of logging out of your session and logging back in with the user credentials, you can mimic that user and test.

13. What is ACL?

Access control lists (ACL) rules limit data access by directing users to meet a set of criteria before interacting with it.

Components of ACL

The following are the components for all access control list rules:

• Securing the object and operation
• The access rights required to use the object

The target to which access must be restricted is the object. Each object has a type and a name that distinguishes it from other tables, fields, or records.

14. What is a view?

In ServiceNow, views are the items displayed when a user opens a form or a list. You can change the view by default for both lists and records. 

Also, when the system displays a state or list, it usually only shows a subset of the fields in the underlying table.

15. What is a Business Rule?

In ServiceNow, when a record is displayed, inserted, modified, or deleted, or when a table is queried, a server-side script runs inside, known as a business rule. You can use business rules to automate operations like updating form field values when certain circumstances are fulfilled or creating email notifications and script actions. Scripts used by business rules perform actions on database records. Client scripts and UI actions, for example, are two further scripting options offered on the platform.

16. What do you mean by Metrics in ServiceNow?

A metric can track how long an audited field holds a specific value. For instance, it follows how long an incident is assigned to an individual or how long an incident is in the state Active.

17. What is a BSM Map?

BSM map (Business Service Management Map) is a crucial ServiceNow feature that allows users to see a visual representation of the ServiceNow CMDB and the Business Services and CIs that make up those services. BSM Map Actions in ServiceNow will enable you to display extra information about (and take action on) the CIs depicted on the map.

Also, Check ServiceNow Architecture

18. What is a GlideRecord?

A GlideRecord is a single-table object that contains records. Instead of creating SQL queries, it is used to conduct database operations. The GlideRecord class allows a script to connect with the ServiceNow database. A database query is the starting point for GlideRecord interactions. The general strategy is as follows:

• For the table of interest, create a GlideRecord object.
• Create a query condition (s).
• Carry out the query.
• Script logic should be applied to the records returned by the GlideRecord object.

Here’s is how strategy looks in Pseudocode:

// 1. Create an object to store rows from a table
var myObj = new GlideRecord('table_name');

// 2. Build query
myObj.addQuery('field_name','operator','value');
myObj.addQuery('field_name','operator','value');

// 3. Execute query 
myObj.query();

// 4. Process returned records
while(myObj.next()){
  //Logic you want to execute.  
  //Use myObj.field_name to reference record fields
}

19. What is an import set?

In ServiceNow, import sets allow you to import data from multiple sources and then map that data to tables. Import set serves as a staging area for newly imported records.

20. What is a transform Map?

A transform map is a field map collection that identifies the relationships between fields in an import set and fields in a ServiceNow table, such as Incident [incident] or User [sys user]. You can reuse a transform map to map data from another import set to the same table after you've created it. An administrator can use the Transform Maps module to select destinations for imported data from any table. 

To describe the connection between source fields on an import set table and destination fields on any table, transform mapping can be as simple as a drag-and-drop procedure. Use transform mapping to map source and destination fields automatically.

ServiceNow Admin Interview Questions For Experienced

The following ServiceNow Admin interview Questions are intended for Pseudocode advanced-level users.

21. What do you mean by foreign record insert?

When an import modifies a table that isn't the target for that import, it's called a foreign record insert. This occurs when a table's reference field is updated. When you edit a value for the caller on an incident, the import updates the sys user table.

22. What does the Client Transaction Timings plugin do?

The Client Transaction Timings plugin complements the system logs by adding information on the duration of transactions between the client and the server. By looking at where time is being spent and how time was spent throughout a transaction, you can pinpoint the source of performance difficulties.

The Response Time Indicator Response Time Indicator must be enabled for this plugin to operate, and it collects data from the following browsers:

• Firefox
• Internet Explorer 
• Chrome

23. What is an Inactivity monitor?

If a task stays inactive for a specific time, an event is triggered for the task record known as the Inactivity monitor. 

24. What is domain separation?

In ServiceNow, domain separation allows you to divide instances into different domains logically. It enables other ServiceNow systems within a single model, letting the representative handle numerous enterprises.

Check out What is ServiceNow Workflow

Domain separation is advantageous for those: 

• Who wants to separate the business processes and users for numerous organizations within a single system?
• Who wants to keep data separately across different corporate entities?
• Who desire some global graphical techniques and reports to be preserved.

25. What is HTML Sanitizer?

The HTML Sanitizer is a tool that cleans up HTML markup in HTML fields, removes unwanted code, and protects against security threats, including cross-site scripting. The HTML sanitizer is enabled for all instances. 

The HTML sanitizer works by looking for markup that you always want to keep in the built-in inclusion list. Administrators can edit the built-in inclusion list using the HTMLSanitizerConfig script included by the sanitizer. To eliminate HTML markup, items can also be put on the exclusion list. The exclusion list's contents take precedence over the inclusion list's contents.

26. What is the significance of the cascade variable checkbox in the order guide?

Values submitted for variables in the first-order form are transmitted to the equivalent variables in the ordered catalog items using cascading. A variable on the initial order form, for example, encourages the buyer to provide a delivery address. If cascade is enabled, the value of this variable is used to populate delivery location fields on all ordered goods; select a checkbox when constructing the order guide to help cascade allow cascading. 

Then, on the catalog items, establish variables that correspond to the names of the order guide variables. The variables on the ordered goods inherit the values of the identically named variables in the order guide when a customer places an order.

27. What are Gauges?

A gauge can be seen on the ServiceNow homepage and can display real-time information on the status of records in ServiceNow tables. A report can be used to create a gauge. It can be placed on either the homepage or a content page. If gauges were relocated from an earlier instance in an updated set or an older installed plugin, they might be present in your sample. Admins can use platform functionality to generate meters at the table level. Other users can't create gauges because of an ACL on the sys gauge table.

28. What is a record producer?

A record producer is a catalog item that allows end-users to create task-based records from the service catalog, such as incident records.

Instead of utilizing the standard task-based form to create records, use record producers to deliver a better end-user experience. A record producer has a similar appearance and feels to a catalog item. 

Instead of a requested item, the record creator creates a task record, such as an incident. You can create a record producer for tables and database views in the same scope as the record producer. You can also develop a table record producer that allows apps from different areas to make records.

29. What types of searches are available in ServiceNow?

To conduct text searches, Zing provides a variety of search interfaces and search operators.

Search Interface	Description
Global text search	From a single search field, find records in several tables.
Lists	Search for entries in a list by going to a specific field, searching all areas, or searching a particular column.
knowledge base	Find articles in the knowledge base.
Navigation filter	Filter the objects in the application navigator using the navigation filter.
UI pages	Create a custom user interface page to search for records in a table.
Live feed	Filter, search, and sort messages in the live feed.

30. What happens when you mark a default update set as complete?

For any application scope, only one update set can be the default. Set the Default set field to true to make an update and set the default setting. When you set Default set = true, you get the following results:

• The update set becomes the scope's default update set.
• For all other update sets with the same scope, the system sets Default set = false. This ensures that each area has only one default update set.

31. What is a Reference Qualifier?

Reference qualifiers allow filter creation to limit the returned data for a reference field. A reference field contains a link (reference) to a field on another table, allowing the form containing the reference field to access the records/fields in the referred table.

For instance, the Incident table's Assigned to field refers to the User [sys user] table. If the reference lookup includes all users from the User table reference qualifier as defined in the previous example, all values for the referenced field appear by default in the reference lookup and can be accessed directly through the reference field.

32. What is Performance Analytics in ServiceNow?

ServiceNow Performance Analytics is an in-platform process optimization tool that allows you to construct management dashboards, report on KPIs and metrics, and answer critical business questions to help you improve service quality while lowering costs.

33. What is a Scorecard?

A scorecard is a tool for evaluating a team member's or a business process performance. It's a graph that shows how far you've come over time. A scorecard is a type of indication. The first step is to determine the presentation you'd like to track. Targets, breakdowns (scores by group), averages, and time series can all be added to scorecards to improve them.

34. What do you mean by application navigator and how to modify service catalog items?

The application navigator, often known as the left navigation bar, gives users rapid access to all programs and the modules they include, allowing them to discover information and services quickly.

In Instance, an application is a collection of modules (or pages) that provide linked information and functionality. The Incident application, for example, has modules for creating and viewing incidents. Modules for configuring servers, databases, and networks are available in the Configuration Management application.

35. Give some practical examples for the ServiceNow Integration Tool?

The following are some examples of how to use the service now integration tool in practice:

• Replace spreadsheets using the service now integration tool and email them to collaborative workspaces.
• Assists in the automation of all business processes in your company.
• Users can easily create any form of modern work environment with the help of the service now integration tool.
• Aids in the enhancement, automation, and structure of simplified service delivery.

36. Name the essential products of Service now?

Service Now provides a variety of  products, including:

• Application for business management
• Management of customized services
• Application for HR management and IT service automation.

Related Article: What is ServiceNow Ticketing Tool

37. Define a client script?

When client-based events occur, such as when a form loads, after form submission, or when a field changes value, client scripts allow the system to run JavaScript on the client (web browser).

While the user completes the form, use client scripts to configure the format, form fields, and field values. Client scripts can be used to:

• Fields might be hidden or exposed
• Fields can be read-only or writable.
• Depending on the user's job, make fields optional or obligatory.
• set one field's value based on the values in other areas
• found on a user's role, change the selections in a choice list
• Messages are displayed based on the value of a field.

38. How can you cancel a form submission through a client script?

It's pretty easy to prevent client-side form submission. All you have to do is build up an 'onSubmit' client script and have it return 'false.'

39. What are the key features of the ServiceNow Administrator tool?

The Service Now integration tool comes with the following significant features:

• Integration is currently available through the service.
• Integrated interfaces are supported.
• Provides a technological partnership initiative.
• It performs the role of a middleware provider.
• With the Service Now tool, you can also create custom integrations.

40. What is change management in ServiceNow?

ServiceNow change management provides a systematic method to manage the whole life cycle of the changes implemented. It also allows valuable modifications to be performed with the least amount of disruption to IT systems.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read the above article. We hope you found our ServiceNow Interview Questions helpful. Due to the rapid growth of ServiceNow, you can anticipate more jobs in the future, and by going through these questions, you can grab a high-paying job quickly.