ASP.

NET MVC Interview Questions

1) What is MVC (Model View Controller)?
MVC is an architectural pattern which separates the representation
and user interaction. Its divided into three broader sections, Model,
View, and Controller. Below is how each one of them handles the task.

The View is responsible for the look and feel.

Model represents the real world object and provides data to the
View.
The Controller is responsible for taking the end user request and
loading the appropriate Model and View.

Figure: MVC (Model view controller)

2) Explain MVC application life cycle?

There are six broader events which occur in MVC application life cycle
below diagrams summarize it.

Any web application has two main execution steps first understanding
the request and depending on the type of the request sending out
appropriate response. MVC application life cycle is not different it has
two main phases first creating the request object and second sending
our response to the browser.
Creating the request object: -The request object creation has four
major steps. Below is the detail explanation of the same.
Step 1 Fill route: - MVC requests are mapped to route tables which in
turn specify which controller and action to be invoked. So if the request
is the first request the first thing is to fill the route table with routes
collection. This filling of route table happens in the global.asax file.

Step 2 Fetch route: - Depending on the URL sent UrlRoutingModule

searches the route table to create RouteData object which has the
details of which controller and action to invoke.
Step 3 Request context created: - The RouteData object is used to
create the RequestContext object.
Step 4 Controller instance created: - This request object is sent to
MvcHandler instance to create the controller class instance. Once the
controller class object is created it calls the Execute method of the
controller class.
Creating Response object: - This phase has two steps executing the
action and finally sending the response as a result to the view.

3) Is MVC suitable for both Windows and Web applications?

The MVC architecture is suited for a web application than Windows.
For Window applications, MVP, i.e., Model View Presenter is more
applicable. If you are using WPF and Silverlight, MVVM is more suitable
due to bindings.

4) What are the benefits of using MVC?

There are two big benefits of MVC:

Separation of concerns is achieved as we are moving the codebehind to a separate class file. By moving the binding code to a
separate class file we can reuse the code to a great extent.

Automated UI testing is possible because now the behind code

(UI interaction code) has moved to a simple .NET class. This gives
us opportunity to write unit tests and automate manual testing.

5) Is MVC different from a three layered architecture?

MVC is an evolution of a three layered traditional architecture. Many
components of the three layered architecture are part of MVC. So
below is how the mapping goes:
Functionality

Three layered / tiered

architecture
Look and Feel
User interface
UI logic
User interface
Business
logic Middle layer
/validations
Request is first User interface
sent to
Accessing data
Data access layer

Model view controller

architecture
View
Controller
Model
Controller
Data Access Layer

Figure: Three layered architecture

6) What is the latest version of MVC?

When this notes was written, five versions were released of MVC: MVC
1 , MVC 2, MVC 3,MVC 4 and MVC 5. So the latest is MVC 5.

7) What is the difference between each version of MVC?

Below is a detailed table of differences. But during an interview its
difficult to talk about all of them due to time limitation. So I have
highlighted the important differences that you can run through before
the interviewer.
MVC 2
MVC 3
Client-side validation
Razor
Templated
Helpers
Readymade

MVC 4
ASP.NET
Web API

Areas
Asynchronous
Controllers
Html.ValidationSummary
Helper Method
DefaultValueAttribute in
Action-Method
Parameters binding
Binary data with Model
Binders
DataAnnotations
Attributes
Model-Validator
Providers
New
RequireHttpsAttribute
Action Filter
Templated Helpers
Display
Model-Level
Errors

project
templates
HTML
5
enabled
templates
Support for
Multiple
View
Engines,
JavaScript,
and AJAX
Model
Validation
Improvemen
ts

Refreshed
and
modernize
d default
project
templates.
New
mobile
project
template.
Many new
features to
support
mobile
apps
Enhanced
support for
asynchrono
us methods

8) What are HTML helpers in MVC?

HTML helpers help you to render HTML controls in the view. For
instance if you want to display a HTML textbox on the view, below is
the HTML helper code.
@Html.TextBox("LastName")
For checkbox below is the HTML helper code. In this way we have
HTML helper methods for every HTML control that exists.

@Html.CheckBox("Married")

9) What is the difference between HTML.TextBox vs

HTML.TextBoxFor?
Both of them provide the same HTML output, HTML.TextBoxFor is
strongly typed while HTML.TextBox isnt. Below is a simple HTML
code which just creates a simple textbox with CustomerCode as
name.
@Html.TextBox("CustomerCode")
Below is Html.TextBoxFor code which creates HTML textbox using
the property name CustomerCode from object m.
Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.CustomerCode)
In the same way we have for other HTML controls like for checkbox we
have Html.CheckBox and Html.CheckBoxFor.

10) What is routing in MVC?

Routing helps you to define a URL structure and map the URL with the
controller.
For instance lets say we want that when a user types
http://localhost/View/ViewCustomer/, it goes to the Customer
Controller and invokes the DisplayCustomer action. This is defined by
adding an entry in to the routes collection using the maproute
function. Below is the underlined code which shows how the URL
structure and mapping with controller and action is defined.

routes.MapRoute(
"View", // Route name
"View/ViewCustomer/{id}", // URL with parameters
new { controller = "Customer", action = "DisplayCustomer",
id = UrlParameter.Optional }); // Parameter defaults

11) Where is the route mapping code written?

The route mapping code is written in the global.asax file or
RouteConfig.cs file.

12) Can we map multiple URLs to the same action?

Yes, you can, you just need to make two entries with different key
names and specify the same controller and action.

13) How can we navigate from one view to another using a

hyperlink?
By using the ActionLink method as shown in the below code. The
below code will create a simple URL which helps to navigate to the
Home controller and invoke the GotoHome action.
@Html.ActionLink("Home","Go to home")

14) How can we restrict MVC actions to be invoked only by

GET or POST?

We can decorate the MVC action with the HttpGet or HttpPost

attribute to restrict the type of HTTP calls. For instance you can see in
the below code snippet the DisplayCustomer action can only be
invoked by HttpGet. If we try to make HTTP POST on
DisplayCustomer, it will throw an error.
[HttpGet]
public ViewResult DisplayCustomer(int id)
{
Customer objCustomer = Customers[id];
return View("DisplayCustomer",objCustomer);
}

15) How can we pass data from controller to view?

There are three ways: tempdata, viewdata, and viewbag.

16) What is the difference between tempdata, viewdata,

and viewbag?

Figure: Difference between tempdata, viewdata, and viewbag

Temp data - Helps to maintain data when you move from one
controller to another controller or from one action to another
action. In other words when you redirect, tempdata helps to
maintain data between those redirects. It internally uses session
variables.
View data - Helps to maintain data when you move from
controller to view.
View Bag - Its a dynamic wrapper around view data. When you
use Viewbag type, casting is not required. It uses the dynamic
keyword internally.

Figure: dynamic keyword

Session variables - By using session variables we can maintain

data from any entity to any entity.
Hidden fields and HTML controls - Helps to maintain data from
UI to controller only. So you can send data from HTML controls or
hidden fields to the controller using POST or GET HTTP methods.

Below is a summary table which shows the different mechanisms for

persistence.
Maintains data ViewData/ViewBag
between
Controller
to No
Controller
Controller
to Yes
View
View
to No
Controller

TempData Hidden Session

fields
Yes
No
Yes
No

No

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

17) What are partial views in MVC?

Partial view is a reusable view (like a user control) which can be
embedded inside other view. For example lets say all your pages of
your site have a standard structure with left menu, header, and footer
as shown in the image below.

Figure: Partial views in MVC

For every page you would like to reuse the left menu, header, and
footer controls. So you can go and create partial views for each of
these items and then you call that partial view in the main view.

18) How did you create a partial view and consume it?
When you add a view to your project you need to check the Create
partial view check box.

Figure: Create partial view

Once the partial view is created you can then call the partial view in the
main view using the Html.RenderPartial method as shown in the below
code snippet:
<body>
<div>
@{ @Html.RenderPartial("MyView"); }
</div>
</body>

19) How can we do validations in MVC?

One of the easiest ways of doing validation in MVC is by using data
annotations. Data annotations are nothing but attributes which can be

applied on model properties. For example, in the below code snippet

we have a simple Customer class with a property customercode.
This CustomerCode property is tagged with a Required data
annotation attribute. In other words if this model is not provided
customer code, it will not accept it.
public class Customer
{
[Required(ErrorMessage="Customer code is required")]
public string CustomerCode
{
set;
get;
}
}
In order to display the validation error message we need to use the
ValidateMessageFor method which belongs to the Html helper class.
@using (Html.BeginForm("PostCustomer", "Home",
FormMethod.Post))
{
@Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.CustomerCode)
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.CustomerCode)
<input type="submit" value="Submit customer data" />
}
Later in the controller we can check if the model is proper or not by
using the ModelState.IsValid property and accordingly we can take
actions.
public ActionResult PostCustomer(Customer obj)
{

if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
obj.Save();
return View("Thanks");
}
else
{
return View("Customer");
}
}

20) Can we display all errors in one go?

Yes, we can; use the ValidationSummary method from the Html helper
class.
@Html.ValidationSummary()
What are the other data annotation attributes for validation in MVC?
If you want to check string length, you can use StringLength.
[StringLength(160)]
public string FirstName { get; set; }
In case you want to use a regular expression, you can use the
RegularExpression attribute.
[RegularExpression(@"[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Zaz]{2,4}")]public string Email { get; set; }
If you want to check whether the numbers are in range, you can use the
Range attribute.

[Range(10,25)]public int Age { get; set; }

Sometimes you would like to compare the value of one field with
another field, we can use the Compare attribute.
public string Password { get; set; }
[Compare("Password")]
public string ConfirmPass { get; set; }
In case you want to get a particular error message , you can use the
Errors collection.
var ErrMessage = ModelState["Email"].Errors[0].ErrorMessage;
If you have created the model object yourself you can explicitly call
TryUpdateModel in your controller to check if the object is valid or not.
TryUpdateModel(NewCustomer);
In case you want add errors in the controller you can use the
AddModelError function.
ModelState.AddModelError("FirstName", "This is my server-side
error.");

21) How can we enable data annotation validation on client

side?
Reference the necessary jQuery files.
<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery-1.5.1.js")"
type="text/javascript"></script>

<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.js")"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.js")"
type="text/javascript"></script>

22) What is Razor in MVC?

Its a light weight view engine. Till MVC we had only one view type, i.e.,
ASPX. Razor was introduced in MVC 3.

23) Why Razor when we already have ASPX?

Razor is clean, lightweight, and syntaxes are easy as compared to
ASPX. For example, in ASPX to display simple time, we need to write:
<%=DateTime.Now%>
In Razor, its just one line of code:
@DateTime.Now

24) So which is a better fit, Razor or ASPX?

As per Microsoft, Razor is more preferred because its light weight and
has simple syntaxes.

25) How can you do authentication and authorization in

MVC?

You can use Windows or Forms authentication for MVC.

26) How to implement Windows authentication for MVC?

For Windows authentication you need to modify the web.config file and
set the authentication mode to Windows.
<authentication mode="Windows"/>
<authorization>
<deny users="?"/>
</authorization>
Then in the controller or on the action, you can use the Authorize
attribute which specifies which users have access to these controllers
and actions. Below is the code snippet for that. Now only the users
specified in the controller and action can access it.
[Authorize(Users= @"WIN-3LI600MWLQN\Administrator")]
public class StartController : Controller
{
//
// GET: /Start/
[Authorize(Users = @"WIN-3LI600MWLQN\Administrator")]
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View("MyView");
}
}

27) How do you implement Forms authentication in MVC?

Forms authentication is implemented the same way as in ASP.NET.

The first step is to set the authentication mode equal to Forms. The
loginUrl points to a controller here rather than a page.
<authentication mode="Forms">
<forms loginUrl="~/Home/Login" timeout="2880"/>
</authentication>
We also need to create a controller where we will check if the user is
proper or not. If the user is proper we will set the cookie value.
public ActionResult Login()
{
if ((Request.Form["txtUserName"] == "Shiv") &&
(Request.Form["txtPassword"] == "Shiv@123"))
{
FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie("Shiv",true);
return View("About");
}
else
{
return View("Index");
}
}
All the other actions need to be attributed with the Authorize attribute
so that any unauthorized user making a call to these controllers will be
redirected to the controller (in this case the controller is Login) which
will do the authentication.
[Authorize]
PublicActionResult Default()
{
return View();

}
[Authorize]
publicActionResult About()
{
return View();
}

28) How to implement AJAX in MVC?

You can implement AJAX in two ways in MVC:

AJAX libraries
jQuery

Below is a simple sample of how to implement AJAX by using the

AJAX helper library. In the below code you can see we have a simple
form which is created by using the Ajax.BeginForm syntax. This form
calls a controller action called getCustomer. So now the submit action
click will be an asynchronous AJAX call.
<script language="javascript">
function OnSuccess(data1)
{
// Do something here
}
</script>
<div>
<%
var AjaxOpt = new AjaxOptions{OnSuccess="OnSuccess"};
%>
<% using (Ajax.BeginForm("getCustomer","MyAjax",AjaxOpt)) { %>
<input id="txtCustomerCode" type="text" /><br />
<input id="txtCustomerName" type="text" /><br />

<input id="Submit2" type="submit" value="submit"/></div>

<%} %>
In case you want to make AJAX calls on hyperlink clicks, you can use
the Ajax.ActionLink function as shown in the below code.

Figure: Implement AJAX in MVC

So if you want to create an AJAX asynchronous hyperlink by name
GetDate which calls the GetDate function in the controller, below is the
code for that. Once the controller responds, this data is displayed in
the HTML DIV tag named DateDiv.
<span id="DateDiv" />
<%:
Ajax.ActionLink("Get Date","GetDate",
new AjaxOptions {UpdateTargetId = "DateDiv" })
%>
Below is the controller code. You can see how the GetDate function
has a pause of 10 seconds.
public class Default1Controller : Controller
{
public string GetDate()
{

Thread.Sleep(10000);
return DateTime.Now.ToString();
}
}
The second way of making an AJAX call in MVC is by using jQuery. In
the below code you can see we are making an AJAX POST call to a URL
/MyAjax/getCustomer. This is done by using $.post. All this logic is put
into a function called GetData and you can make a call to the GetData
function on a button or a hyperlink click event as you want.
function GetData()
{
var url = "/MyAjax/getCustomer";
$.post(url, function (data)
{
$("#txtCustomerCode").val(data.CustomerCode);
$("#txtCustomerName").val(data.CustomerName);
}
)
}

29) What kind of events can be tracked in AJAX?

Figure: Tracked in AJAX

30) What is the difference between ActionResult and

ViewResult?

ActionResult is an abstract class while ViewResult derives from

the ActionResult class. ActionResult has several derived classes
like ViewResult, JsonResult, FileStreamResult, and so on.
ActionResult can be used to exploit polymorphism and
dynamism. So if you are returning different types of views
dynamically, ActionResult is the best thing. For example in the
below code snippet, you can see we have a simple action called
DynamicView. Depending on the flag (IsHtmlView) it will either
return a ViewResult or JsonResult.

public ActionResult DynamicView()

{
if (IsHtmlView)
return View(); // returns simple ViewResult
else
return Json(); // returns JsonResult view
}

31) What are the different types of results in MVC?

Note: Its difficult to remember all the 11 types. But some important
ones you can remember for the interview are ActionResult,
ViewResult, and JsonResult. Below is a detailed list for your interest:
There 11 kinds of results in MVC, at the top is the ActionResult class
which is a base class that can have 11 subtypes as listed below:
1. ViewResult - Renders a specified view to the response stream

2. PartialViewResult - Renders a specified partial view to the

response stream
3. EmptyResult - An empty response is returned
4. RedirectResult - Performs an HTTP redirection to a specified URL
5. RedirectToRouteResult - Performs an HTTP redirection to a URL
that is determined by the routing engine, based on given route
data
6. JsonResult - Serializes a given ViewData object to JSON format
7. JavaScriptResult - Returns a piece of JavaScript code that can be
executed on the client
8. ContentResult - Writes content to the response stream without
requiring a view
9. FileContentResult - Returns a file to the client
10.
FileStreamResult - Returns a file to the client, which is
provided by a Stream
11.
FilePathResult - Returns a file to the client

32) What are ActionFilters in MVC?

ActionFilters help you to perform logic while an MVC action is
executing or after an MVC action has executed.

Figure: ActionFilters in MVC

Action filters are useful in the following scenarios:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Implement post-processing logic before the action happens.

Cancel a current execution.
Inspect the returned value.
Provide extra data to the action.

You can create action filters by two ways:

Inline action filter.

Creating an ActionFilter attribute.

To create an inline action attribute we need to implement the

IActionFilter interface. The IActionFilter interface has two methods:
OnActionExecuted and OnActionExecuting. We can implement preprocessing logic or cancellation logic in these methods.
public class Default1Controller : Controller , IActionFilter
{
public ActionResult Index(Customer obj)
{
return View(obj);
}
void IActionFilter.OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext
filterContext)
{
Trace.WriteLine("Action Executed");
}
void IActionFilter.OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext
filterContext)
{
Trace.WriteLine("Action is executing");

}
}
The problem with the inline action attribute is that it cannot be reused
across controllers. So we can convert the inline action filter to an action
filter attribute. To create an action filter attribute we need to inherit
from ActionFilterAttribute and implement the IActionFilter interface as
shown in the below code.
public class MyActionAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute , IActionFilter
{
void IActionFilter.OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext
filterContext)
{
Trace.WriteLine("Action Executed");
}
void IActionFilter.OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext
filterContext)
{
Trace.WriteLine("Action executing");
}
}
Later we can decorate the controllers on which we want the action
attribute to execute. You can see in the below code I have decorated
the Default1Controller with the MyActionAttribute class which was
created in the previous code.
[MyActionAttribute]
public class Default1Controller : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index(Customer obj)
{
return View(obj);

}
}

33) Can we create our custom view engine using MVC?

Yes, we can create our own custom view engine in MVC. To create our
own custom view engine we need to follow three steps:
Let say we want to create a custom view engine where in the user can
type a command like <DateTime> and it should display the current
date and time.
Step 1: We need to create a class which implements the IView
interface. In this class we should write the logic of how the view will be
rendered in the render function. Below is a simple code snippet for
that.
public class MyCustomView : IView
{
private string _FolderPath; // Define where our views are stored
public string FolderPath
{
get { return _FolderPath; }
set { _FolderPath = value; }
}
public void Render(ViewContext viewContext, System.IO.TextWriter
writer)
{
// Parsing logic <dateTime>
// read the view file
string strFileData = File.ReadAllText(_FolderPath);

// we need to and replace <datetime> datetime.now value

string strFinal = strFileData.Replace("<DateTime>",
DateTime.Now.ToString());
// this replaced data has to sent for display
writer.Write(strFinal);
}
}
Step 2: We need to create a class which inherits from
VirtualPathProviderViewEngine and in this class we need to provide
the folder path and the extension of the view name. For instance, for
Razor the extension is cshtml; for aspx, the view extension is .aspx,
so in the same way for our custom view, we need to provide an
extension. Below is how the code looks like. You can see the
ViewLocationFormats is set to the Views folder and the extension is
.myview.
public class MyViewEngineProvider : VirtualPathProviderViewEngine
{
// We will create the object of Mycustome view
public MyViewEngineProvider() // constructor
{
// Define the location of the View file
this.ViewLocationFormats
=
new
string[]
{
"~/Views/{1}/{0}.myview",
"~/Views/Shared/{0}.myview" }; //location and extension of our
views
}
protected override IView CreateView(
ControllerContext controllerContext, string viewPath, string
masterPath)
{

var
physicalpath
=
controllerContext.HttpContext.Server.MapPath(viewPath);
MyCustomView obj = new MyCustomView(); // Custom view
engine class
obj.FolderPath = physicalpath; // set the path where the views will
be stored
return obj; // returned this view paresing
// logic so that it can be registered in the view engine collection
}
protected override IView CreatePartialView(ControllerContext
controllerContext, string partialPath)
{
var
physicalpath
=
controllerContext.HttpContext.Server.MapPath(partialPath);
MyCustomView obj = new MyCustomView(); // Custom view
engine class
obj.FolderPath = physicalpath; // set the path where the views will
be stored
return obj;
// returned this view paresing logic
// so that it can be registered in the view engine collection
}
}
Step 3: We need to register the view in the custom view collection. The
best place to register the custom view engine in the ViewEngines
collection is the global.asax file. Below is the code snippet for that.
protected void Application_Start()
{
// Step3 :- register this object in the view engine collection
ViewEngines.Engines.Add(new MyViewEngineProvider());
..

}
Below is a simple output of the custom view written using the
commands defined at the top.

Figure: Custom view engine using MVC

If you invoke this view, you should see the following output:

34) How to send result back in JSON format in MVC

In MVC, we have the JsonResult class by which we can return back data
in JSON format. Below is a simple sample code which returns back a
Customer object in JSON format using JsonResult.
public JsonResult getCustomer()
{
Customer obj = new Customer();
obj.CustomerCode = "1001";
obj.CustomerName = "Shiv";
return Json(obj,JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
Below is the JSON output of the above code if you invoke the action via
the browser.

35) What is WebAPI?

HTTP is the most used protocol. For the past many years, browser was
the most preferred client by which we consumed data exposed over
HTTP. But as years passed by, client variety started spreading out. We
had demand to consume data on HTTP from clients like mobile,
JavaScript, Windows applications, etc.
For satisfying the broad range of clients REST was the proposed
approach. You can read more about REST from the WCF chapter.
WebAPI is the technology by which you can expose data over HTTP
following REST principles.

36) But WCF SOAP also does the same thing, so how does
WebAPI differ?
Size

Protocol
Formats

SOAP
Heavy weight because of
complicated
WSDL
structure.
Independent of protocols.
To parse SOAP message, the
client needs to understand
WSDL
format.
Writing
custom code for parsing
WSDL is a heavy duty task. If
your client is smart enough
to create proxy objects like

WEB API
Light weight, only the necessary
information is transferred.
Only for HTTP protocol
Output of WebAPI are simple string
messages, JSON, simple XML format,
etc. So writing parsing logic for that is
very easy.

how we have in .NET (add

reference) then SOAP is
easier to consume and call.
Principles SOAP
follows
WS-* WebAPI follows REST principles.
specification.
(Please refer to REST in WCF
chapter.)

37) With WCF you can implement REST, so why WebAPI?

WCF was brought into implement SOA, the intention was never to
implement REST. WebAPI is built from scratch and the only goal is to
create HTTP services using REST. Due to the one point focus for
creating REST service, WebAPI is more preferred.

38) How to implement WebAPI in MVC

Below are the steps to implement WebAPI:
Step 1: Create the project using the WebAPI template.

Figure: Implement WebAPI in MVC

Step 2: Once you have created the project you will notice that the
controller now inherits from ApiController and you can now implement
POST, GET, PUT, and DELETE methods of the HTTP protocol.
public class ValuesController : ApiController
{
// GET api/values
public IEnumerable<string> Get()
{
return new string[] { "value1", "value2" };
}
// GET api/values/5
public string Get(int id)
{
return "value";
}
// POST api/values
public void Post([FromBody]string value)
{
}
// PUT api/values/5
public void Put(int id, [FromBody]string value)
{
}
// DELETE api/values/5
public void Delete(int id)
{
}
}
Step 3: If you make an HTTP GET call you should get the below results:

Figure: HTTP

39) How can we detect that an MVC controller is called by

POST or GET?
To detect if the call on the controller is a POST action or a GET action
we can use the Request.HttpMethod property as shown in the below
code snippet.
public ActionResult SomeAction()
{
if (Request.HttpMethod == "POST")
{
return View("SomePage");
}
else
{
return View("SomeOtherPage");
}
}

40) What is bundling and minification in MVC?

Bundling and minification helps us improve request load times of a
page thus increasing performance.

41) How does bundling increase performance?

Web projects always need CSS and script files. Bundling helps us
combine multiple JavaScript and CSS files in to a single entity thus
minimizing multiple requests in to a single request.
For example consider the below web request to a page . This page
consumes two JavaScript files Javascript1.js and Javascript2.js. So when
this is page is requested it makes three request calls:

One for the Index page.

Two requests for the other two JavaScript files: Javascript1.js and
Javascript2.js.

The below scenario can become worse if we have a lot of JavaScript

files resulting in multiple requests, thus decreasing performance. If we
can somehow combine all the JS files into a single bundle and request
them as a single unit that would result in increased performance (see
the next figure which has a single request).

So how do we implement bundling in MVC?

Open BundleConfig.cs from the App_Start folder.

In BundleConfig.cs, add the JS files you want bundle into a single entity
in to the bundles collection. In the below code we are combining all the
javascript JS files which exist in the Scripts folder as a single unit in to
the bundle collection.
bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/Scripts/MyScripts").Include(
"~/Scripts/*.js"));
Below is how your BundleConfig.cs file will look like:
public class BundleConfig
{
public static void RegisterBundles(BundleCollection bundles)
{
bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/Scripts/MyScripts").Include(

"~/Scripts/*.js"));
BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = true;
}
}
Once you have combined your scripts into one single unit we then to
include all the JS files into the view using the below code. The below
code needs to be put in the ASPX or Razor view.
<%= Scripts.Render("~/Scripts/MyScripts") %>
If you now see your page requests you would see that script request is
combined into one request.

42) How can you test bundling in debug mode?

If you are in a debug mode you need to set EnableOptimizations to
true in the bundleconfig.cs file or else you will not see the bundling
effect in the page requests.
BundleTable.EnableOptimizations = true;

43) Explain minification and how to implement it?

Minification reduces the size of script and CSS files by removing blank
spaces , comments etc. For example below is a simple javascript code
with comments.
// This is test
var x = 0;
x = x + 1;
x = x * 2;
After implementing minification the JavaScript code looks like below.
You can see how whitespaces and comments are removed to minimize
file size, thus increasing performance.
var x=0;x=x+1;x=x*2;

44) How do we implement minification?

When you implement bundling, minification is implemented by itself.
In other words the steps to implement bundling and minification are
the same.

45) Explain Areas in MVC?

Areas help you to group functionalities in to independent modules thus
making your project more organized. For example in the below MVC
project we have four controller classes and as time passes by if more
controller classes are added it will be difficult to manage. In bigger

projects you will end up with 100s of controller classes making life hell
for maintenance.

If we can group controller classes in to logical section like Invoicing

and Accounting that would make life easier and thats what Area
are meant to.

You can add an area by right clicking on the MVC solution and clicking
on Area menu as shown in the below figure.

In the below image we have two Areas created Account and

Invoicing and in that I have put the respective controllers. You can
see how the project is looking more organized as compared to the
previous state.

46) Explain the concept of View Model in MVC?

A view model is a simple class which represents data to be displayed on
the view.
For example below is a simple customermodel object with
CustomerName and Amount property.
CustomerViewModel obj = new CustomerViewModel();
obj.Customer.CustomerName = "Shiv";

obj.Customer.Amount = 1000;
But when this Customer model object is displayed on the MVC view it
looks something as shown in the below figure. It has CustomerName
, Amount plus Customer Buying Level fields on the view / screen.
Customer buying Level is a color indicationwhich indicates how
aggressive the customer is buying.
Customer buying level color depends on the value of the Amount
property. If the amount is greater than 2000 then color is red , if
amount is greater than 1500 then color is orange or else the color is
yellow.
In other words Customer buying level is an extra property which is
calculated on the basis of amount.

So the Customer viewmodel class has three properties

TxtCustomerName textbox takes data from CustomerName

property as it is.
TxtAmount textbox takes data from Amount property of
model as it is.
CustomerBuyingLevelColor displays color value depending on
the Amount value.

Customer
Customer ViewModel
Model
CustomerName TxtCustomerName
Amount
TxtAmount

CustomerBuyingLevelColor

47) What kind of logic view model class will have?

As the name says view model this class has the gel code or connection
code which connects the view and the model.
So the view model class can have following kind of logics:

Color transformation logic: - For example you have a Grade

property in model and you would like your UI to display red
color for high level grade, yellow color for low level grade and
green color of ok grade.
Data format transformation logic :-Your model has a property
Status with Married and Unmarried value. In the UI you
would like to display it as a checkbox which is checked if
married and unchecked if unmarried.
Aggregation logic: -You have two differentCustomer and Address
model classes and you have view which displays both Customer
and Address data on one go.
Structure downsizing: - You have Customer model with
customerCode and CustomerName and you want to display
just CustomerName. So you can create a wrapper around
model and expose the necessary properties.
How can we use two ( multiple) models with a single view?
Let us first try to understand what the interviewer is asking.
When we bind a model with a view we use the model dropdown
as shown in the below figure. In the below figure we can only
select one model.

But what if we want to bind Customer as well as Order class

to the view.
For that we need to create a view model which aggregates both
the classes as shown in the below code. And then bind that view
model with the view.
public class CustOrderVM
{
public Customer cust = new Customer();
public Order Ord = new Order();
}
In the view we can refer both the model using the view model as
shown in the below code.
<%= model.cust.Name %>
<%= model.Ord.Number %>
Download an e-learning copy of MVC interview Q&A from the top
of this article for your preparation.

40) What are the new features of MVC2?

ASP.NET MVC 2 was released in March 2010. Its main features are:

Introduction of UI helpers with automatic scaffolding with

customizable templates
Attribute-based model validation on both client and server
Strongly typed HTML helpers
Improved Visual Studio tooling
There were also lots of API enhancements and pro features,
based on feedback from developers building a variety of
applications on ASP.NET MVC 1, such as:
o Support for partitioning large applications into areas
o Asynchronous controllers support
o Support for rendering subsections of a page/site using
Html.RenderAction
o Lots
of new helper functions, utilities, and API
enhancements.

41) What are the new features of MVC3?

ASP.NET MVC 3 shipped just 10 months after MVC 2 in Jan 2011. Some
of the top features in MVC 3 included:

The Razor view engine

Support for .NET 4 Data Annotations

Improved model validation
Greater control and flexibility with support for dependency
resolution and global action filters
Better JavaScript support with unobtrusive JavaScript, jQuery
Validation, and JSON binding
Use of NuGet to deliver software and manage dependencies
throughout the platform

42) What are the new features of MVC4?

Following are the top features of MVC4:

ASP.NET Web API

Enhancements to default project templates
Mobile project template using jQuery Mobile
Display Modes
Task support for Asynchronous Controllers
Bundling and Minification

43) Explain Request lifecycle of an ASP.NET MVC?

Following processes are performed by ASP.NET MVC request:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

App initialization
Routing
Instantiate and execute controller
Locate and invoke controller action
Instantiate and render view

45) What do you mean by Separation of Concerns?

As per Wikipedia, 'the process of breaking a computer program into
distinct features that overlap in functionality as little as possible'. MVC
design pattern aims to separate content from presentation and dataprocessing from content.

46) Where do we see Separation of Concerns in MVC?

Between the data-processing (Model) and the rest of the application.
When we talk about Views and Controllers, their ownership itself
explains separation. The views are just the presentation form of an
application, it does not have to know specifically about the requests
coming from controller. The Model is independent of View and
Controllers, it only holds business entities that can be passed to any
View by the controller as required for exposing them to the end user.
The controller is independent of Views and Models, its sole purpose is
to handle requests and pass it on as per the routes defined and as per
the need of rendering views. Thus our business entities (model),
business logic (controllers) and presentation logic (views) lie in
logical/physical layers independent of each other.

48) What is Unobtrusive JavaScript?

Unobtrusive JavaScript is a general term that conveys a general
philosophy, similar to the term REST (Representational State

Transfer). The high-level description is that unobtrusive JavaScript

doesnt intermix JavaScript code in your page markup. For example,
rather than hooking in via event attributes like onclick and onsubmit,
the unobtrusive JavaScript attaches to elements by their ID or class,
often based on the presence of other attributes (such as HTML5 dataattributes).
Its got semantic meaning, and all of it the tag structure, element
attributes, and so on should have a precise meaning. Strewing
JavaScript gunk across the page to facilitate interaction (Im looking at
you, __doPostBack!) harms the content of the document.

49) What is JSON Binding?

MVC 3 included JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) binding support via
the new JsonValueProviderFactory, enabling the action methods to
accept and model-bind data in JSON format. This is especially useful in
advanced Ajax scenarios like client templates and data binding that
need to post data back to the server.

50) What is Dependency Resolution?

MVC 3 introduced a new concept called a dependency resolver, which
greatly simplified the use of dependency injection in your applications.
This made it easier to decouple application components, making them
more configurable and easier to test.
Support was added for the following scenarios:

Controllers (registering and injecting controller factories,

injecting controllers)
Views (registering and injecting view engines, injecting
dependencies into view pages)
Action filters (locating and injecting filters)
Model binders (registering and injecting)
Model validation providers (registering and injecting)
Model metadata providers (registering and injecting)
Value providers (registering and injecting)

51) What are Display Modes in MVC4?

Display modes use a convention-based approach to allow selecting
different views based on the browser making the request. The default
view engine first looks for views with names ending with .Mobile.cshtml
when the browsers user agent indicates a known mobile device. For
example, if we have a generic view titled Index.cshtml and a mobile
view titled Index.Mobile.cshtml, MVC 4 will automatically use the
mobile view when viewed in a mobile browser.
Additionally, we can register your own custom device modes that will
be based on your own custom criteria all in just one code statement.
For example, to register a WinPhone device mode that would serve
views ending with .WinPhone.cshtml to Windows Phone devices, youd
use the following code in the Application_Start method of your
Global.asax:
DisplayModeProvider.Instance.Modes.Insert(0, new
DefaultDisplayMode("WinPhone")
{
ContextCondition = (context =>
context.GetOverriddenUserAgent().IndexOf

("Windows Phone OS", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) >= 0)

});

52) What is AuthConfig.cs in MVC4?

AuthConfig.cs is used to configure security settings, including sites for
OAuth login.

53) What is BundleConfig.cs in MVC4?

BundleConfig.cs in MVC4 is used to register bundles used by the
bundling and minification system. Several bundles are added by
default, including jQuery, jQueryUI, jQuery validation, Modernizr, and
default CSS references.

54) What is FilterConfig.cs in MVC4?

This is used to register global MVC filters. The only filter registered by
default is the HandleErrorAttribute, but this is a great place to put
other filter registrations.

55) What is RouteConfig.cs in MVC4?

RouteConfig.cs holds the granddaddy of the MVC config statements,
Route configuration.

56) What is WebApiConfig.cs in MVC4?

Used to register Web API routes, as well as set any additional Web API
configuration settings.

57) Whats new in adding controller in MVC4 application?

Previously (in MVC3 and MVC2), the Visual Studio Add Controller
menu item only displayed when we right-clicked on the Controllers
folder. However, the use of the Controllers folder was purely for
organization. (MVC will recognize any class that implements the
IController interface as a Controller, regardless of its location in your
application.) The MVC 4 Visual Studio tooling has been modified to
display the Add Controller menu item for any folder in your MVC
project. This allows us to organize your controllers however you would
like, perhaps separating them into logical groups or separating MVC
and Web API controllers.

58) What are the various types of Application Templates

used to create an MVC application?
The various templates are as follows:
1. The Internet Application template: This contains the beginnings
of an MVC web application enough so that you can run the
application immediately after creating it and see a few pages.
This template also includes some basic account management
functions which run against the ASP.NET Membership.
2. The Intranet Application template: The Intranet Application
template was added as part of the ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools Update.
It is similar to the Internet Application template, but the account

management functions run against Windows accounts rather

than the ASP.NET Membership system.
3. The Basic template: This template is pretty minimal. It still has
the basic folders, CSS, and MVC application infrastructure in
place, but no more. Running an application created using the
Empty template just gives you an error message.
Why use Basic template? The Basic template is intended for
experienced MVC developers who want to set up and configure
things exactly how they want them.
4. The Empty template: The Basic template used to be called the
Empty template, but developers complained that it wasnt quite
empty enough. With MVC 4, the previous Empty template was
renamed Basic, and the new Empty template is about as empty
as we can get. It has the assemblies and basic folder structure in
place, but thats about it.
5. The Mobile Application template: The Mobile Application
template is preconfigured with jQuery Mobile to jump-start
creating a mobile only website. It includes mobile visual themes,
a touch-optimized UI, and support for Ajax navigation.
6. The Web API template: ASP.NET Web API is a framework for
creating HTTP services. The Web API template is similar to the
Internet Application template but is streamlined for Web API
development. For instance, there is no user account management
functionality, as Web API account management is often
significantly different from standard MVC account management.
Web API functionality is also available in the other MVC project
templates, and even in non-MVC project types.

59) What are the default Top level directories created when
adding MVC4 application?

Default Top level Directories are:

DIRECTORY
PURPOSE
/Controllers
To put Controller classes that handle URL requests
/Models
To put classes that represent and manipulate data and
business objects
/Views
To put UI template files that are responsible for rendering
output like HTML.
/Scripts
To put JavaScript library files and scripts (.js)
/Images
To put images used in your site
/Content
To put CSS and other site content, other than scripts
and images
/Filters
To put filter code.
/App_Data
To store data files you want to read/write
/App_Start
To put configuration code for features like Routing,
Bundling, Web API.

60) What is namespace of ASP.NET MVC?

ASP.NET MVC namespaces as well as classes are located in assembly
System.Web.Mvc.
Note: Some of the content has been taken from various books/articles.

61) What is System.Web.Mvc namespace?

This namespace contains classes and interfaces that support the MVC
pattern for ASP.NET Web applications. This namespace includes
classes that represent controllers, controller factories, action results,
views, partial views, and model binders.

62) What is System.Web.Mvc.Ajax namespace?

System.Web.Mvc.Ajax namespace contains classes that supports Ajax
scripting in an ASP.NET MVC application. The namespace includes
support for Ajax scripts and Ajax option settings as well.

63) What is System.Web.Mvc.Async namespace?

System.Web.Mvc.Async namespace contains classes and interfaces
that support asynchronous actions in an ASP.NET MVC application.

64) What is System.Web.Mvc.Html namespace?

System.Web.Mvc.Html namespace contains classes that help render
HTML controls in an MVC application. This namespace includes classes
that support forms, input controls, links, partial views, and validation.

65) What is ViewData, ViewBag and TempData?

MVC provides us ViewData, ViewBag and TempData for passing data
from controller, view and in next requests as well. ViewData and
ViewBag are similar to some extent but TempData performs additional
roles.

66) What are the roles and similarities between ViewData

and ViewBag?

Maintains data when moving from controller to view

Passes data from controller to respective view

Their value becomes null when any redirection occurs, because
their role is to provide a way to communicate between controllers
and views. Its a communication mechanism within the server
call.

67) What are the differences between ViewData and

ViewBag? (taken from a blog)

ViewData is a dictionary of objects that is derived from

ViewDataDictionary class and accessible using strings as keys.
ViewBag is a dynamic property that takes advantage of the new
dynamic features in C# 4.0.
ViewData requires typecasting for complex data type and checks
for null values to avoid error.
ViewBag doesnt require typecasting for complex data type.

NOTE: Although there might not be a technical advantage to choosing

one format over the other, there are some critical differences to be
aware of between the two syntaxes.
One obvious difference is that ViewBag works only when the key being
accessed is a valid C# identifier. For example, if you place a value in
ViewData["KeyWith Spaces"], you cant access that value using
ViewBag because the codewont compile.
Another key issue to be aware of is that dynamic values cannot be
passed in as parameters to extension methods. The C# compiler must
know the real type of every parameter at compile time in order for it to
choose the correct extension method.

If any parameter is dynamic, compilation will fail. For example, this

code will always fail: @Html.TextBox("name", ViewBag.Name). To
work around this, either use ViewData["Name"] or cast the value to a
specific type: (string) ViewBag.Name.

68) What is TempData?

TempData is a dictionary derived from the TempDataDictionary class
and stored in short lives session. It is a string key and object value.
It keeps the information for the time of an HTTP Request. This means
only from one page to another. It helps to maintain data when we
move from one controller to another controller or from one action to
other action. In other words, when we redirect Tempdata helps to
maintain data between those redirects. It internally uses session
variables. Temp data use during the current and subsequent request
only means it is used when we are sure that the next request will be
redirecting to next view. It requires typecasting for complex data type
and checks for null values to avoid error. Generally it is used to store
only one time messages like error messages, validation messages.

69) How can you define a dynamic property with the help of
viewbag in ASP.NET MVC?
Assign a key name with syntax, ViewBag.[Key]=[ Value] and value
using equal to operator.
For example, you need to assign list of students to the dynamic
Students property of ViewBag.

List<string> students = new List<string>();

countries.Add("Akhil");
countries.Add("Ekta");
ViewBag.Students = students;
//Students is a dynamic property associated with ViewBag.
Note: Some of the content has been taken from various books/articles.

70) What is ViewModel?

Accepted a view model represents data that you want to have
displayed on your view/page.
Let's say that you have an Employee class that represents your
employee domain model and it contains the following 4 properties:
public class Employee : IEntity
{
public int Id { get; set; } // Employee's unique identifier
public string FirstName { get; set; } // Employee's first name
public string LastName { get; set; } // Employee's last name
public DateTime DateCreated { get; set; } // Date when employee
was created
}
View models differ from domain models in that view models only
contain the data (represented by properties) that you want to use on
your view. For example, let's say that you want to add a new employee
record, your view model might look like this:
public class CreateEmployeeViewModel
{
public string FirstName { get; set; }

public string LastName { get; set; }

}
As you can see, it only contains 2 of the properties of the employee
domain model. Why is this you may ask? Id might not be set from the
view, it might be auto generated by the Employee table.
AndDateCreated might also be set in the stored procedure or in the
service layer of your application. So Id and DateCreated is not needed
in the view model.
When loading the view/page, the create action method in your
employee controller will create an instance of this view model,
populate any fields if required, and then pass this view model to the
view:
public class EmployeeController : Controller
{
private readonly IEmployeeService employeeService;
public EmployeeController(IEmployeeService employeeService)
{
this.employeeService = employeeService;
}
public ActionResult Create()
{
CreateEmployeeViewModel
CreateEmployeeViewModel();

viewModel

new

return View(viewModel);
}
public ActionResult Create(CreateEmployeeViewModel viewModel)
{

// Do what ever needs to be done before adding the employee to

the database
}
}
Your view might look like this (assuming you are using ASP.NET MVC3
and razor):
@model MyProject.Web.ViewModels.ProductCreateViewModel
<table>
<tr>
<td><b>First Name:</b></td>
<td>@Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.FirstName, new { maxlength =
"50", size = "50" })
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(x => x.FirstName)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Last Name:</b></td>
<td>@Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.LastName, new { maxlength =
"50", size = "50" })
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(x => x.LastName)
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Validation would thus be done only on FirstName and LastName.
Using Fluent Validation, you might have validation like this:
public
class
CreateEmployeeViewModelValidator
AbstractValidator<CreateEmployeeViewModel>
{
public CreateEmployeeViewModelValidator()

{
RuleFor(x => x.FirstName)
.NotEmpty()
.WithMessage("First name required")
.Length(1, 50)
.WithMessage("First name must not be greater than 50
characters");
RuleFor(x => x.LastName)
.NotEmpty()
.WithMessage("Last name required")
.Length(1, 50)
.WithMessage("Last name must not be greater than 50
characters");
}
}
The key thing to remember is that the view model only represents the
data that you want use. You can imagine all the unneccessary code and
validation if you have a domain model with 30 properties and you only
want to update a single value. Given this scenario, you would only have
this one value/property in the view model and not the whole domain
object.

71) How do you check for AJAX request with C# in MVC?

The solution is independent of MVC.NET framework and is global
across server side technologies. Most modern AJAX applications utilize
XmlHTTPRequest to send async request to the server. Such requests
will have distinct request header:
X-Requested-With = XMLHTTPREQUEST

MVC.NET provides helper function to check for ajax requests which

internally inspects X-Requested-With request header to set IsAjax flag.

72) What are Scaffold templates?

These templates use the Visual Studio T4 templating system to
generate a view based on the model type selected. Scaffolding in
ASP.NET MVC can generate the boilerplate code we need for create,
read, update, and delete (CRUD) functionality in an application. The
scaffolding templates can examine the type definition for, and then
generate a controller and the controllers associated views. The
scaffolding knows how to name controllers, how to name views, what
code needs to go in each component, and where to place all these
pieces in the project for the application to work.

73) What are the types of Scaffolding Templates?

Various types are as follows:
SCAFFOLD
DESCRIPTION
Empty
Creates empty view. Only the model type is specified
using the model syntax.
Create
Creates a view with a form for creating new instances of
the model.

Generates a label and input field for each property of the

model type.
Delete
Creates a view with a form for deleting existing instances
of the model.
Displays a label and the current value for each property of the
model.
Details
Creates a view that displays a label and the value for each
property of the
model type.
Edit
Creates a view with a form for editing existing instances of
the model.
Generates a label and input field for each property of the
model type.
List
Creates a view with a table of model instances. Generates a
column
for each property of the model type. Make sure to pass an
IEnumerable<YourModelType> to this view from your action
method.
The view also contains links to actions for performing the
create/edit/delete operation.

75) What are Code Blocks in Views?

Unlike code expressions, which are evaluated and outputted to the
response, blocks of code are simply sections of code that are executed.
They are useful for declaring variables that we may need to use later.
Razor
@{
int x = 123;

string y = ?because.?;
}
Aspx
<%
int x = 123;
string y = "because.";
%>

76) What is HelperPage.IsAjax Property?

HelperPage.IsAjax gets a value that indicates whether Ajax is being
used during the request of the Web page.

Namespace: System.Web.WebPages
Assembly: System.Web.WebPages.dll

However, the same can be achieved by checking requests header

directly:
Request["X-Requested-With"] == XmlHttpRequest.

77) Explain combining text and markup in Views with the

help of an example?
This example shows what intermixing text and markup looks like using
Razor as compared to Web Forms:
Razor
@foreach (var item in items) {
<span>Item @item.Name.</span>

}
Aspx
<% foreach (var item in items) { %>
<span>Item <%: item.Name %>.</span>
<% } %>

78) Explain Repository Pattern in ASP.NET MVC?

In simple terms, a repository basically works as a mediator between
our business logic layer and our data access layer of the application.
Sometimes, it would be troublesome to expose the data access
mechanism directly to business logic layer, it may result in redundant
code for accessing data for similar entities or it may result in a code
that is hard to test or understand. To overcome these kinds of issues,
and to write an Interface driven and test driven code to access data, we
use Repository Pattern. The repository makes queries to the data
source for the data, thereafter maps the data from the data source to a
business entity/domain object, finally and persists the changes in the
business entity to the data source. According to MSDN, a repository
separates the business logic from the interactions with the underlying
data source or Web service. The separation between the data and
business tiers has three benefits:

It centralizes the data logic or Web service access logic.

It provides a substitution point for the unit tests.
It provides a flexible architecture that can be adapted as the
overall design of the application evolves.

In Repository, we write our whole business logic of CRUD operations

with the help of Entity Framework classes, that will not only result in

meaningful test driven code but will also reduce our controller code of
accessing data.

79) How can you call a JavaScript function/method on the

change of Dropdown List in MVC?
Create a JavaScript method:
<script type="text/javascript">
function selectedIndexChanged() {
}
</script>
Invoke the method:
<%:Html.DropDownListFor(x => x.SelectedProduct,
new SelectList(Model.Users, "Value", "Text"),
"Please Select a User", new { id = "ddlUsers",
onchange="selectedIndexChanged()" })%>

80) Explain Routing in MVC?

A route is a URL pattern that is mapped to a handler. The handler can
be a physical file, such as an .aspx file in a Web Forms application.
Routing module is responsible for mapping incoming browser requests
to particular MVC controller actions.
Routing within the ASP.NET MVC framework serves two main
purposes:

It matches incoming requests that would not otherwise match a

file on the file system and maps the requests to a controller
action.

It constructs outgoing URLs that correspond to controller actions.

81) How route table is created in ASP.NET MVC?

When an MVC application first starts, the Application_Start() method
in global.asax is called. This method calls the RegisterRoutes() method.
The RegisterRoutes() method creates the route table for MVC
application.

82) What are Layouts in ASP.NET MVC Razor?

Layouts in Razor help maintain a consistent look and feel across
multiple views within our application. As compared to Web Forms,
layouts serve the same purpose as master pages, but offer both a
simpler syntax and greater flexibility.
We can use a layout to define a common template for your site (or just
part of it). This template contains one or more placeholders that the
other views in your application provide content for. In some ways, its
like an abstract base class for your views.
E.g. declared at the top of view as:
@{
Layout = "~/Views/Shared/SiteLayout.cshtml";
}

83) What is ViewStart?

For group of views that all use the same layout, this can get a bit
redundant and harder to maintain.
The _ViewStart.cshtml page can be used to remove this redundancy.
The code within this file is executed before the code in any view placed
in the same directory. This file is also recursively applied to any view
within a subdirectory.
When we create a default ASP.NET MVC project, we find there is
already a _ViewStart .cshtml file in the Views directory. It specifies a
default layout:
@{
Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}
Because this code runs before any view, a view can override the Layout
property and choose a different one. If a set of views shares common
settings, the _ViewStart.cshtml file is a useful place to consolidate
these common view settings. If any view needs to override any of the
common settings, the view can set those values to another value.
Note: Some of the content has been taken from various books/articles.

84) What are HTML Helpers?

HTML helpers are methods we can invoke on the HTML property of a
view. We also have access to URL helpers (via the Url property), and
AJAX helpers (via the Ajax property). All these helpers have the same
goal: to make views easy to author. The URL helper is also available
from within the controller. Most of the helpers, particularly the HTML
helpers, output HTML markup. For example, the BeginForm helper is a

helper we can use to build a robust form tag for our search form, but
without using lines and lines of code:
@using (Html.BeginForm("Search", "Home", FormMethod.Get)) {
<input type="text" name="q" />
<input type="submit" value="Search" />
}

85) What is Html.ValidationSummary?

The ValidationSummary helper displays an unordered list of all
validation errors in the ModelState dictionary. The Boolean parameter
you are using (with a value of true) is telling the helper to exclude
property-level errors. In other words, you are telling the summary to
display only the errors in ModelState associated with the model itself,
and exclude any errors associated with a specific model property. We
will be displaying property-level errors separately. Assume you have
the following code somewhere in the controller action rendering the
edit view:
ModelState.AddModelError("", "This is all wrong!");
ModelState.AddModelError("Title", "What a terrible name!");
The first error is a model-level error, because you didnt provide a key
(or provided an empty key) to associate the error with a specific
property. The second error you associated with the Title property, so in
your view it will not display in the validation summary area (unless you
remove the parameter to the helper method, or change the value to
false). In this scenario, the helper renders the following HTML:
<div class="validation-summary-errors">
<ul>
<li>This is all wrong!</li>

</ul>
</div>
Other overloads of the ValidationSummary helper enable you to
provide header text and set specific HTML attributes.
NOTE: By convention, the ValidationSummary helper renders the CSS
class validation-summary-errors along with any specific CSS classes
you provide. The default MVC project template includes some styling
to display these items in red, which you can change in styles.css.

86) What are Validation Annotations?

Data
annotations
are
attributes
you
can
find
in
System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations
namespace.
These
attributes provide server-side validation, and the framework also
supports client-side validation when you use one of the attributes on a
model property. You can use four attributes in the DataAnnotations
namespace to cover common validation scenarios,
Required, String Length, Regular Expression, Range.

87) What is Html.Partial?

The Partial helper renders a partial view into a string. Typically, a
partial view contains reusable markup you want to render from inside
multiple different views. Partial has four overloads:
public void Partial(string partialViewName);
public void Partial(string partialViewName, object model);

public void Partial(string partialViewName, ViewDataDictionary

viewData);
public void Partial(string partialViewName, object model,
ViewDataDictionary viewData);

88) What is Html.RenderPartial?

The RenderPartial helper is similar to Partial, but RenderPartial writes
directly to the response output stream instead of returning a string. For
this reason, you must place RenderPartial inside a code block instead
of a code expression. To illustrate, the following two lines of code
render the same output to the output stream:
@{Html.RenderPartial("AlbumDisplay"); }
@Html.Partial("AlbumDisplay ")
If they are the same, then which one to use?
In general, you should prefer Partial to RenderPartial because Partial is
more convenient (you dont have to wrap the call in a code block with
curly braces). However, RenderPartial may result in better
performance because it writes directly to the response stream,
although it would require a lot of use (either high site traffic or
repeated calls in a loop) before the difference would be noticeable.

89) How do you return a partial view from controller?

return PartialView(options); //options could be Model or View name

90) What are different ways of returning a View?

There are different ways for returning/rendering a view in MVC Razor.
E.g. return View(), return RedirectToAction(), return Redirect() and
return RedirectToRoute().

92) What is ASP.NET MVC?

ASP.NET MVC is a web development framework from Microsoft that is
based on MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural design pattern.
Microsoft has streamlined the development of MVC based applications
using ASP.NET MVC framework.

100) Is it possible to unit test an MVC application without

running the controllers in an ASP.NET process?
Yes, all the features in an asp.net MVC application are interface based
and hence mocking is much easier. So, we don't have to run the
controllers in an ASP.NET process for unit testing.

101) What is namespace of ASP.NET MVC?

ASP.NET MVC namespaces and classes are located in the
System.Web.Mvc assembly.
System.Web.Mvc namespace

Contains classes and interfaces that support the MVC pattern for
ASP.NET Web applications. This namespace includes classes that
represent controllers, controller factories, action results, views, partial
views, and model binders.
System.Web.Mvc.Ajax namespace
Contains classes that support Ajax scripts in an ASP.NET MVC
application. The namespace includes support for Ajax scripts and Ajax
option settings.
System.Web.Mvc.Async namespace
Contains classes and interfaces that support asynchronous actions in
an ASP.NET MVC application.
System.Web.Mvc.Html namespace
Contains classes that help render HTML controls in an MVC
application. The namespace includes classes that support forms, input
controls, links, partial views, and validation.

102) Is it possible to share a view across multiple controllers?

Yes, put the view into the shared folder. This will automatically make
the view available across multiple controllers.

103) What is the role of a controller in an MVC application?

The controller responds to user interactions, with the application, by
selecting the action method to execute and selecting the view to
render.

104) Where are the routing rules defined in an asp.net MVC

application?
In Application_Start event in Global.asax

107) What is the significance of NonActionAttribute?

In general, all public methods of a controller class are treated as action
methods. If you want prevent this default behavior, just decorate the
public method with NonActionAttribute.

108) What is the significance of ASP.NET routing?

ASP.NET MVC uses ASP.NET routing, to map incoming browser
requests to controller action methods. ASP.NET Routing makes use of

route table. Route table is created when your web application first
starts. The route table is present in the Global.asax file.

109) What is the adavantage of using ASP.NET routing?

In an ASP.NET web application that does not make use of routing, an
incoming browser request should map to a physical file. If the file does
not exist, we get page not found error.
An ASP.NET web application that does make use of routing, makes use
of URLs that do not have to map to specific files in a Web site. Because
the URL does not have to map to a file, you can use URLs that are
descriptive of the user's action and therefore are more easily
understood by users.

110) What are the 3 things that are needed to specify a

route?
1. URL Pattern - You can include placeholders in a URL pattern so that
variable data can be passed to the request handler without requiring a
query string.
2. Handler - The handler can be a physical file such as an .aspx file or a
controller class.

3. Name for the Route - Name is optional.

111) Is the following route definition a valid route definition?

{controller}{action}/{id}
No, the above definition is not a valid route definition, because there is
no literal value or delimiter between the placeholders. Therefore,
routing cannot determine where to separate the value for the
controller placeholder from the value for the action placeholder.

112) What is the use of the following statement?

{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}
This route definition, prevent requests for the Web resource files such
as WebResource.axd or ScriptResource.axd from being passed to a
controller.

113) What is the difference between adding routes, to a

webforms application and to an mvc application?
To add routes to a webforms application, we use MapPageRoute()
method of the RouteCollection class, where as to add routes to an MVC
application we use MapRoute() method.

114) How do you handle variable number of segments in a

route definition?
Use a route with a catch-all parameter. An example is shown below. *
is referred to as catch-all parameter.
controller/{action}/{*parametervalues}

115) What are the 2 ways of adding constraints to a route?

1. Use regular expressions
2. Use an object that implements IRouteConstraint interface

116) Give 2 examples for scenarios when routing is not

applied?
1. A Physical File is Found that Matches the URL Pattern - This default
behaviour can be overriden by setting the RouteExistingFiles property
of the RouteCollection object to true.
2. Routing Is Explicitly Disabled for a URL Pattern - Use the
RouteCollection.Ignore() method to prevent routing from handling
certain requests.

117) What is the use of action filters in an MVC application?

Action Filters allow us to add pre-action and post-action behavior to
controller action methods.

118) If I have multiple filters implemented, what is the order

in which these filters get executed?
1. Authorization filters
2. Action filters
3. Response filters
4. Exception filters

120) Give an example for Authorization filters in an asp.net

mvc application?
1. RequireHttpsAttribute
2. AuthorizeAttribute

121) Which filter executes first in an asp.net mvc

application?
Authorization filter

122) What are the levels at which filters can be applied in an

asp.net mvc application?
1. Action Method
2. Controller
3. Application

123) Is it possible to create a custom filter?

Yes

124) What filters are executed in the end?

Exception Filters

125) Is it possible to cancel filter execution?

Yes

126) What type of filter does OutputCacheAttribute class

represents?
Result Filter

128) When using razor views, do you have to take any

special steps to protect your asp.net mvc application from
cross site scripting (XSS) attacks?
No, by default content emitted using a @ block is automatically HTML
encoded to protect from cross site scripting (XSS) attacks.

129) When using aspx view engine, to have a consistent look

and feel, across all pages of the application, we can make
use of asp.net master pages. What is asp.net master pages
equivalent, when using razor views?
To have a consistent look and feel when using razor views, we can
make use of layout pages. Layout pages, reside in the shared folder,
and are named as _Layout.cshtml

130) What are sections?

Layout pages, can define sections, which can then be overriden by
specific views making use of the layout. Defining and overriding
sections is optional.

131) What are the file extensions for razor views?

1. .cshtml - If the programming lanugaue is C#
2. .vbhtml - If the programming lanugaue is VB

132) How do you specify comments using razor syntax?

Razor syntax makes use of @* to indicate the beginning of a comment
and *@ to indicate the end.

133) Is it possible to combine ASP.NET webforms and

ASP.MVC and develop a single web application?

Yes, it is possible to combine ASP.NET webforms and ASP.MVC and

develop a single web application.