Top 25 ITSM / Incident Management / ServiceNow Interview Questions & Answers
Top 25 ITSM / Incident Management / ServiceNow Interview Questions & Answers: These questions are commonly asked for:
- Production Support
- Operations Support
- Scheduling Support (JSCH/TAAR)
- NOC Engineer
- IT Operations Analyst
- Service Desk Analyst
1. What is ITSM?
Answer:
ITSM (IT Service Management) is the practice of designing, delivering, managing, and improving IT services to meet business requirements efficiently.
2. What is ServiceNow?
Answer:
ServiceNow is a cloud-based ITSM platform used for managing incidents, service requests, changes, problems, assets, and workflows.
3. What is an Incident?
Answer:
An incident is any unplanned interruption or reduction in the quality of an IT service that requires restoration as quickly as possible.
Example:
- Application outage
- Failed batch job
- Server down
4. What is Incident Management?
Answer:
Incident Management is the process of restoring normal service operation quickly while minimizing business impact.
5. What is a Major Incident?
Answer:
A Major Incident is a high-priority incident that significantly impacts business operations and requires immediate attention.
Examples:
- Production outage
- Payment gateway failure
- Critical application unavailable
6. Difference Between Incident and Major Incident
| Incident | Major Incident |
|---|---|
| Normal issue | Critical issue |
| Standard SLA | Emergency SLA |
| Limited impact | High impact |
| Single team involvement | Multiple teams involved |
7. What is SLA?
Answer:
SLA (Service Level Agreement) defines the agreed response and resolution times between the service provider and the customer.
Example
| Priority | Response Time | Resolution Time |
|---|---|---|
| P1 | 15 mins | 4 hrs |
| P2 | 30 mins | 8 hrs |
| P3 | 4 hrs | 24 hrs |
| P4 | 1 day | 3 days |
8. What is Priority?
Answer:
Priority determines how quickly an incident should be resolved.
Formula:
Priority = Impact + Urgency
9. What is Impact?
Answer:
Impact indicates how many users, systems, or business functions are affected.
Examples
High Impact
- Entire production system down
Medium Impact
- One department affected
Low Impact
- Single user issue
10. What is Urgency?
Answer:
Urgency indicates how quickly the issue needs resolution.
Example:
- Payroll application down before salary processing = High Urgency
11. What is Escalation?
Answer:
Escalation is the process of involving higher-level support teams when an incident cannot be resolved within defined timelines.
12. Types of Escalation
Functional Escalation
Moving ticket to another technical team.
Example:
L1 Support
↓
L2 Support
↓
L3 Support
Hierarchical Escalation
Informing management.
Example:
Team Lead
↓
Manager
↓
Director
13. What is a Bridge Call?
Answer:
A bridge call is a conference call where multiple support teams collaborate to resolve a major incident.
Participants:
- Incident Manager
- Application Team
- Database Team
- Network Team
- Infrastructure Team
14. What is Problem Management?
Answer:
Problem Management focuses on identifying and permanently removing the root cause of incidents.
15. Difference Between Incident and Problem
| Incident | Problem |
|---|---|
| Service interruption | Root cause |
| Immediate restoration | Permanent fix |
| Short-term focus | Long-term focus |
16. What is RCA?
Root Cause Analysis
Answer:
RCA is the process of identifying the actual cause of an incident and recommending preventive actions.
Example RCA Format
Issue:
Application Down
Root Cause:
Database connection pool exhausted
Resolution:
Service Restart
Preventive Action:
Increase pool size and monitoring
17. What is Change Management?
Answer:
Change Management controls modifications made to IT systems to minimize risk and service disruption.
18. Types of Changes
Standard Change
Pre-approved routine change.
Example:
- Password reset
Normal Change
Requires approval.
Example:
- Application deployment
Emergency Change
Urgent fix during production outage.
Example:
- Critical security patch
19. What is CAB?
(Change Advisory Board)
Answer:
CAB is a group that reviews and approves changes before implementation.
20. What Would You Do if a Production Job Fails?
Since you work with JSCH/TAAR-related scheduling, this is important.
Answer:
- Verify job failure.
- Check logs.
- Identify error message.
- Validate dependencies.
- Inform stakeholders if needed.
- Raise incident.
- Restart or rerun job if approved.
- Monitor completion.
- Update ticket.
21. What Would You Do During a Major Incident?
Answer:
- Verify business impact.
- Declare Major Incident.
- Join bridge call.
- Engage support teams.
- Provide regular updates.
- Track actions.
- Ensure service restoration.
- Participate in RCA.
22. What is Cross-Functional Management?
Answer:
Cross Functional Management is the coordination of multiple teams working together to resolve incidents.
Example
Application Team
+
Database Team
+
Network Team
+
Server Team
↓
Resolution
23. What Information Should Be Included in an Incident Ticket?
- Short Description
- Impact
- Urgency
- Priority
- Affected Service
- Error Details
- Time of Occurrence
- Resolution Notes
24. What is the Incident Lifecycle?
New
↓
Assigned
↓
In Progress
↓
Pending
↓
Resolved
↓
Closed
25. Explain a Real-Time Major Incident Example
Sample Answer
During production monitoring, multiple business users reported application unavailability. I validated the issue, raised a P1 incident, notified the Incident Manager, joined the bridge call, coordinated with application and infrastructure teams, provided status updates to stakeholders, and monitored the recovery until services were restored. After restoration, I helped document the RCA and closure activities.
Quick Interview Closing Answer (2 Minutes)
“I have experience working with ITSM processes using ServiceNow. I understand Incident Management, Major Incident Management, SLA tracking, escalations, RCA preparation, and cross-functional coordination. My focus is to restore services quickly, communicate effectively with stakeholders, and ensure incidents are resolved within SLA while contributing to long-term improvements through problem and change management processes.”
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