ITSM Interview Questions & Answers – Full Guide (Part 1 + Part 2 + Part 3)
PART 1 – BASIC ITSM QUESTIONS
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- What is ITSM?
ITSM means IT Service Management. It manages IT services in a structured way.
- What is an Incident?
An unplanned interruption to a service. Example: Wi-Fi down.
- What is a Problem?
Root cause behind one or more incidents.
- Incident vs Problem?
Incident = fix quickly.
Problem = find root cause.
- What is Change Request?
Request to change something in IT like server upgrade.
- Types of Changes:
Standard, Normal, Emergency.
- What is a Service Request?
User request like laptop, software install, new email ID.
- What is CMDB?
Configuration Management Database storing IT assets and relationships.
- What is a CI?
Any asset: laptop, server, router.
- What is SLA?
Service Level Agreement – expected resolution time.
- What is Priority?
Impact + Urgency.
- Assignment Groups:
Teams who work on tickets like Network team.
- Catalog Item:
Service items like laptop request.
- Knowledge Base:
Articles showing solutions.
- CAB:
Change Advisory Board for change approvals.
- Common Incident States:
New, In Progress, On Hold, Resolved, Closed.
- Common Change States:
New, Assess, Authorize, Implement, Review, Close.
- What is ITIL?
Framework of ITSM best practices.
- RCA:
Root Cause Analysis.
- Major Incident:
High-impact incident affecting many users.
PART 2 – ADVANCED ITSM QUESTIONS
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- SLA Breach:
When incident not fixed in SLA time.
- On-Hold vs Pending:
On-Hold = internal wait
Pending = vendor wait.
- Service Mapping:
Shows app–server–database connections.
- Discovery:
Automatically finds devices & updates CMDB.
- Escalation:
Send ticket to higher team or manager.
- Change Collision:
Two changes affecting same CI.
- CMDB Reconciliation:
Keeps correct data when multiple sources update CMDB.
- Impact:
How many users affected.
- Urgency:
How fast issue needs fix.
- Release:
Group of changes deployed together.
- Templates:
Fill common fields automatically.
- Outage:
Record of planned/unplanned downtime.
- Known Error:
Problem found but no permanent fix yet.
- Request Workflow:
Request → Approval → Fulfillment → Close
- Event Management:
Creates incidents automatically from alerts.
- Service Desk:
First-contact team for incidents.
- Service Offering:
Sub-service under business service.
- CAB Approval:
Approves high-risk changes.
- Business Service:
Services used by employees: HR system, Email.
- Major Problem Review:
Meeting after major issue to avoid repeat.
PART 3 – EXPERT ITSM QUESTIONS
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- What is Change Risk Assessment?
Evaluating risk before approving a change.
- What is Change Blackout Window?
Time when no changes are allowed (ex: year-end closing).
- What is CI Class?
Category of CI like Server, Database, Application.
- What is Relationship in CMDB?
How two CIs are connected (Runs on, Depends on).
- What is Operational Level Agreement (OLA)?
Agreement between internal teams to support SLA.
- What is Underpinning Contract (UC)?
Agreement with vendors supporting SLAs.
- What is Problem Trend Analysis?
Finding repeated issues using data patterns.
- What is Proactive Problem Management?
Fixing issues before they happen.
- What is Data Certification?
Regular verification of CMDB data accuracy.
- What is an Emergency Change?
High-risk but immediate change for urgent issues.
- What is the difference between Change and Release?
Change = single update. Release = group of changes.
- What is Service Portfolio?
Complete list of services provided by IT.
- What is Service Reporting?
Weekly/monthly ticket performance reports.
- What is BSM (Business Service Management)?
Visual map showing business services and CI dependencies.
- What is Impact Analysis in Change Management?
Checking which CIs and services will be affected.
- What are Change Models?
Predefined steps for different change types.
- What is Incident Categorization?
Classifying incidents using Category/Sub-category for reporting.
- What is MTTR?
Mean Time To Resolve – average time to resolve incidents.
- What is MTBF?
Mean Time Between Failures – time between two outages.
- What is Service Continuity?
Process ensuring business operations continue during disaster.