Software Dev Exam

OOP model for inheritance

A hierarchical tree structure where a parent class has more general methods and attributes, and child classes leverage that code, overriding it if needed .

Essential features of OOP inheritance

Hierarchical organization, code reusability, and method overriding/overloading (unless static); it enables both polymorphism and data encapsulation .

What OOP enables

Decomposing a software problem into numerous entities (classes) and building methods and data into them.

5 phases in the SDLC

1. Requirement collection and analysis, 2. Design, 3. Implementation, 4. Testing, and 5. Evolution (Installation/Deployment and Maintenance) .

Key values of Agile Manifesto

1. Individuals and interaction over process/tools, 2. Working software over documentation, 3. Customer collaboration over contracts, 4. Responding to change over following a plan .

Disadvantages of Waterfall model

Higher risk for complex projects, inability to accept requirement changes during development, and high costs to go back to the design phase .

Abstract class vs. Interface class

An abstract class defines basic functionality and forces subclasses to implement remaining details; an interface defines a set of operations that specify a class's responsibility.

Coding standard principles

Maintaining readability and simplicity to reduce the 60%-80% of lifetime costs that go toward software maintenance.

Good programming practices

Keep methods short (1-25 lines), ensure a method does only "one" job, avoid hardcoding numbers (use constants), and always close database connections in a finally block.

When Agile should be used

When frequent changes are required, project requirements contain ambiguities (like R&D), or the project is complex and long-term .

4 basic SQL DDL commands

CREATE, ALTER, TRUNCATE, and DROP .

4 basic SQL DML commands

SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE .

Purpose of database connection

Acts as a communication channel between the client and the SQL server.

When database column aliases are useful

Renaming a column heading for readability, specifically for programmatic data extraction or when performing calculations .

SQL Inner vs. Outer Join

An Inner Join returns only rows matching the join condition; an Outer Join returns matching rows plus unmatched rows from the left, right, or both tables .

Common software product liability claims

1. Manufacturing defects, 2. Design defects, 3. Failure to warn, and 4. Aftermarket defects .

Ethical tradeoffs in software

Balancing project schedules and costs against quality; pressure to meet deadlines can lead to bugs, security vulnerabilities, or cutting corners on testing .