Windows Workflow Interview Questions

A few people have asked me what "hard core" WF questions to ask a job candidate.

For advanced topics, I like open-ended questions. Not all these questions have a right or wrong answer- but they should give you an idea of the candidates WF experience, and how they'd design and implement software with WF.

1. Are there advantages to building workflows using only XAML? Are there disadvantages?
2. What are the pros and cons of using an ExternalDataExchange service versus going directly to the WorkflowQueuingService?
3. When are attached dependency properties useful in WF programming?
4. What behavior does the default scheduling service provide?
5. How can my code participate in a database transaction with a workflow instance?
6. Why would I use a tracking service?
7. Describe a scenario where the WF runtime will cancel an executing activity.
8. Describe a scenario where I'd need to spawn an ActivityExecutionContext.
9. Tell me why I'd use a compensation handler.
10. Tell me about the following activities: Replicator, Parallel, and Policy.

A candidate who can run the table on these 10 questions knows their WF stuff.