ITSM Interview Questions & Answers – Full Guide (Part 1 + Part 2 + Part 3)

PART 1 – BASIC ITSM QUESTIONS

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1. What is ITSM?

         ITSM means IT Service Management. It manages IT services in a structured way.

2. What is an Incident?

        An unplanned interruption to a service. Example: Wi-Fi down.

3. What is a Problem?

       Root cause behind one or more incidents.

4. Incident vs Problem?

         Incident = fix quickly.   

        Problem = find root cause.

5. What is Change Request?

        Request to change something in IT like server upgrade.

6. Types of Changes:

        Standard, Normal, Emergency.

7. What is a Service Request?

       User request like laptop, software install, new email ID.

8. What is CMDB?

        Configuration Management Database storing IT assets and relationships.

9. What is a CI?

        Any asset: laptop, server, router.

10. What is SLA?

       Service Level Agreement – expected resolution time.

11. What is Priority?

       Impact + Urgency.

12. Assignment Groups:

       Teams who work on tickets like Network team.

13. Catalog Item:

      Service items like laptop request.

14. Knowledge Base:

      Articles showing solutions.

15. CAB:

      Change Advisory Board for change approvals.

16. Common Incident States:

      New, In Progress, On Hold, Resolved, Closed.

17. Common Change States:

      New, Assess, Authorize, Implement, Review, Close.

18. What is ITIL?

      Framework of ITSM best practices.

19. RCA:

      Root Cause Analysis.

20. Major Incident:

     High-impact incident affecting many users.

PART 2 – ADVANCED ITSM QUESTIONS

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1. SLA Breach:

          When incident not fixed in SLA time.

2. On-Hold vs Pending:

        On-Hold = internal wait

         Pending = vendor wait.

3. Service Mapping:

        Shows app–server–database connections.

4. Discovery:

        Automatically finds devices & updates CMDB.

5. Escalation:

         Send ticket to higher team or manager.

6. Change Collision:

         Two changes affecting same CI.

7. CMDB Reconciliation:

         Keeps correct data when multiple sources update CMDB. 

8. Impact:

        How many users affected.

9. Urgency:

        How fast issue needs fix.

10. Release:

       Group of changes deployed together.

11. Templates:

        Fill common fields automatically.

12. Outage:

      Record of planned/unplanned downtime.

13. Known Error:

       Problem found but no permanent fix yet.

14. Request Workflow:

        Request → Approval → Fulfillment → Close

15. Event Management:

        Creates incidents automatically from alerts.

16. Service Desk:

       First-contact team for incidents.

17. Service Offering:

      Sub-service under business service.

18. CAB Approval:

       Approves high-risk changes.

19. Business Service:

        Services used by employees: HR system, Email.

20. Major Problem Review:

     Meeting after major issue to avoid repeat.

PART 3 – EXPERT ITSM QUESTIONS

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1. What is Change Risk Assessment?

         Evaluating risk before approving a change.

2. What is Change Blackout Window?

         Time when no changes are allowed (ex: year-end closing).

3. What is CI Class?

         Category of CI like Server, Database, Application.

4. What is Relationship in CMDB?

         How two CIs are connected (Runs on, Depends on).

5. What is Operational Level Agreement (OLA)?

          Agreement between internal teams to support SLA.

6. What is Underpinning Contract (UC)?

         Agreement with vendors supporting SLAs.

7. What is Problem Trend Analysis?

         Finding repeated issues using data patterns.

8. What is Proactive Problem Management?

         Fixing issues before they happen.

9. What is Data Certification?

         Regular verification of CMDB data accuracy.

10. What is an Emergency Change?

        High-risk but immediate change for urgent issues. 

11. What is the difference between Change and Release?

      Change = single update.     Release = group of changes.

12. What is Service Portfolio?

       Complete list of services provided by IT.

13. What is Service Reporting?

        Weekly/monthly ticket performance reports.

14. What is BSM (Business Service Management)?

       Visual map showing business services and CI dependencies.

15. What is Impact Analysis in Change Management?

         Checking which CIs and services will be affected.

16. What are Change Models?

        Predefined steps for different change types.

17. What is Incident Categorization?

        Classifying incidents using Category/Sub-category for reporting.

18. What is MTTR?

        Mean Time To Resolve – average time to resolve incidents.

19. What is MTBF?

       Mean Time Between Failures – time between two outages.

20. What is Service Continuity?

      Process ensuring business operations continue during disaster.