As an IT company operating in Westchester County NY and in the tri state area, we often need to hire computer technicians for the role of help desk. During the interview process, we ask technical questions to assess the knowledge of the candidates and try to evaluate a response that makes most of the sense for us. In the IT world usually one question can have multiple answers, because an IT problem can be solved in different ways.

A large number of users in Westchester and in the US face daily issues with their computers.  These issues affect productivity so companies want to
ensure that their IT systems run smoothly that’s why they need desktop support and help desk professionals.

1- WHY DO YOU WANT TO WORK AS DESKTOP SUPPORT SPECIALIST?

A good answer would be I loved filming computer problems since I was a child I remember opening my childhood computer and toys to look at what’s going on inside them and I tried to understand how they worked I think desktop support provides me an opportunity to refine my problem-solving skills in the area of IT.

2- PROVIDE AN EXAMPLE OF A TICKET THAT YOU SOLVED AND THE STEPS YOU TOOK TO SOLVE IT.

This is a very common question in desktop support and helpdesk interviews. Try to be genuine and give a real-life example of the ticket you’ve resolved atany point in your career the interviewer wants to know your problem-solving approach and your communication skills. If you’ve never solved an IT ticket before you can familiarize yourself with a few common computer problems and their solutions before going into the interview you can use one of these solutions before going into the interview. For example, try to describe how you helped turned on a computer tha won’t boot up, how you troubleshooted screens that had no piocture even if the pc was turned on, etc etc.

3- WHAT IS ACTIVE DIRECTORY?

Active directory is a service by Microsoft that is used to manage, organize and run networks Active Directory makes it easier for system administrators to find and use information related to all the users and objects in a network. An example would be using Active Directory to assign new policies to a specific group of users, restricting access to a printer for a specific user or removing users from a network Active Directory consists of different objects like forests domains contacts group sites and printers.

4- WHAT IS BLUE SCREEN OF DEAT AND HOW YOU FIX IT?

The blue screen of death is a critical error that occurs when operating systems cannot function and it crashes mostly. BSOD problems are related to Hardware kernel or drivers. BSOD errors often show an error code or stop code which we can use to find out the cause of the problem. To solve this
problem I will first restart the computer; if the computer restarts successfully I will update all drivers; if the problem persists I will disconnect all unnecessary hardware. To rule out the external causes I will also boot the computer in safe mode to see if the problem occurs in this basic state as well other fixes I can try include checking the hard disk for bad sectors.

5- A USER COMPLAINS THAT THE SYSTEM IS VERY SLOW. WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO FIX IT?

The reason behind a slow computer is usually a lack of sufficient memory. I will start by removing temporary files from the Windows folder; I will also with the users permission delete any unused files and programs that are taking up significant space on the hard disk. I will also run hard drive defragmentation tools to optimize space on the hard disk. If the user is facing slow performance while using the Internet I will delete a cache from the browser as a last resort I’ll explore the possibility of upgrading the hard disk to SSD in Ram or installing a more powerful processor as a ultimate resource.

6- WHAT WOULD A COMPUTER TECH SUPPORT  DO IF A USER HAS HARD TIME PRINTING?

I will open the add printer wizard in Windows and select the required printer from the list of available printers. I will use the admin network wireless or Bluetooth printer option if we are operating in a networked environment. I will also install and update printer drivers if necessary if the user’s computer normally fails to detect their network printer I will enable network discovery and file and printer sharing options in the network and sharing
center in Windows control control panel.

7- WHAT IS A LOGICAL DRIVE?

A logical drive is a virtual storage unit that exists on a physical hard drive but acts as an independent storage drive. The purpose of a logical drive is to optimize storage performance by making contiguous storage units allowing them to interact optimally without intervening with irrelevant or unrelated physical units. Logical drives add abstraction and storage making it easier for the operating system to read from memory.

8- HOW DOES A VPN WORK?

A VPN tunnels a private network over a public network with extra encryption to connect users to the private networks resources.
A VPN masks the original IP address identity and location of the originator of a web request providing more security to a user who tries to access resources from a public open network.

9- WHAT HAPPENS BEHIND THE SCENES WHEN A USER TYPES GOOGLE.COM

When a user enters Google.com and presses enter, the browser checks the cache of the browser operating system router and ISP for the DNS record to find the corresponding IP address of WWW typed in. If the IP address of Google is not found in these caches, the ISPs DNS server will initiate a request to other DNS servers on the internet to find the IP address of google.com. When my browser receives the appropriate IP address it establishes a connection usually a TCP connection once the connection is established the data transfer process will start and the browser will send a request asking for the google.com web page.

10- HOW DOES A ROUTER WORK?

It should be part of the day to day work life of an IT consultant to know basics about routers. Work routers manage the flow of data to multiple connected network devices. If a packet has to go from network A to Network D, the router connecting the network any devices will first identify the best possible path for the packet to get to network D or the closest network to the final destination; it does this by using a routing table to determine the best path based on the number of hops to the destination. In simple words a router sends IP packets to other networks using the best possible path which it identifies using routing tables.