Pega Interview Questions and Answers

This section covers a broad range of Pega interview questions, encompassing its core features, development tools, and architectural concepts. The answers provided are examples; tailor your own responses to your specific experience.

What is Pega?

Pega is a low-code platform for building and deploying applications, integrating systems, and implementing mobile solutions. It focuses on customer engagement and digital process automation.

Main Usages of Pega

Pega is used for:

• Application development.
• Mobile application development.
• Case management.
• UI design.
• Decision management.
• DevOps and robotic process automation (RPA).
• Reporting and analytics.

Pega is known for its low-code approach, allowing developers to build applications quickly with minimal coding.

New Features in Pega 8.4

• Role-based workspaces.
• Improved project overview.
• Enhanced reusable component management.

Pega Developer Tools

• Designer Studio
• Pega Express

Pega Debugging Tools

• Tracer
• Clipboard
• SMA (System Management Application)
• PLA (Pega Log Analyzer)

Pega Developer Certifications

• Certified System Architect (CSA)
• Certified Senior System Architect (CSSA)
• Lead System Architect (LSA)

Workspaces/Studios in Pega

Pega provides different workspaces (App Studio, Dev Studio, Admin Studio, Prediction Studio) with specialized tools for various development and administrative tasks.

Types of Harnesses in Pega

Pega offers various harness types. Some commonly used harnesses include:

• New
• Perform
• Review
• Confirm
• Tabbed
• Perform Screen Flow
• Tree Navigation

Workspaces in the Latest Pega Release

• App Studio
• Dev Studio
• Admin Studio
• Prediction Studio

Types of Classes in Pega

Pega uses different class types to organize rules.

• Base Class: The root class.
• Abstract Classes (end in "-"): Cannot create work objects.
• Concrete Classes: Can create work objects.

Techniques Used in Pega Activities

Pega activities use various methods for data manipulation:

• Page-New
• Page-Remove
• Object-List
• Object-Open
• Object-Save
• RBD-Save
• RBD-List
• RBD-Delete

Data Pages in Pega

Data pages are reusable containers for data. Their scope can be request, session, or application.

Page Property vs. Page List Property

A page property holds a single value. A page list property holds a collection of values (accessed using indexes).

page-validate vs. property-validate

Work Objects in Pega

Work objects represent tasks or cases within a Pega application. They contain data related to a specific piece of work.

[Describe the steps for creating a work object in Pega.]

Starting Flows from Activities

Use the Flow-New method to start a flow from within an activity.

Declare Pages vs. Regular Pages

Portals in Pega

Portals provide customized user interfaces for different roles (developers, users, administrators). They're configured using access groups.

Types of Requestors

• Browser (H)
• Batch (B)
• Application (A)
• Portal (P)

Pega Classes

Pega uses classes to organize and reuse rules. Types of classes include:

• Work classes: Define the structure of work items.
• Data classes: Define data structures.
• Integration classes: Define integration rules.

Direct Capture Object (DCO)

DCO is a Pega toolset for application development and includes features to generate application requirements, documentation, and other project elements.

SLAs (Service Level Agreements) in Pega

SLAs define timeframes for completing tasks. They're used to monitor the performance of processes. Goal and Deadline are common SLA time attributes.

Types of SLAs in Pega

Pega supports different types of SLAs, each applicable at a different level within a process:

• Assignment SLA: Tracks the time it takes to complete an assignment (from assignment creation to completion).
• Case Level SLA: Tracks the entire duration of a case (from case creation to closure).
• Stage Level SLA: Tracks the time spent within a specific stage of a case.
• Step/Flow Level SLA: Tracks the time a step or flow takes to complete. Step SLAs take precedence over flow SLAs.

Tracing SLAs in Pega

[Describe the steps to trace an SLA in Pega using the Tracer tool. This usually involves finding the relevant assignment or work item and analyzing the Tracer output to view SLA information.]

Activities vs. Utilities in Pega

RuleSets in Pega

A RuleSet is a logical grouping of Pega rules. It's a key element for version control and managing rules within a Pega application.

Advantages of Pega Case Management

• Improved process visibility and management.
• Increased efficiency through automation.
• Enhanced consistency and error reduction.
• Time and cost savings.

DCO (Direct Capture of Objectives) in Pega

DCO in Pega is a streamlined approach to capturing, organizing, and managing application requirements and design specifications. It facilitates collaboration and improves the quality of application development by providing a centralized repository of project-related artifacts.

Benefits of DCO

• Improved collaboration.
• Early problem detection (through modeling).
• Increased visibility into the development process.
• Improved ROI (return on investment).

Types of Portals in Pega

• Custom Portals
• Mobile Portals
• Composite Portals
• Predefined Portals

obj-open vs. obj-open-by-handle

Saving Class Instances to a Database

[Explain how to configure Pega to save data to a database table, often involving mapping Pega classes to database tables.]

Resolving Work Objects with Activities

[Describe how to use activities to transition work objects to a resolution state (e.g., using the `@CompleteAssignment` activity).]

Work Objects

Work objects represent tasks or cases within a Pega application. They track the progress of work items and contain associated data.

Layout Types in Pega

• Screen layout: Used in harnesses to create portals.
• Dynamic layout: Uses DIV-based layouts for flexible content arrangement.
• Column layout: Displays content in columns.
• Grid layout: Uses tables for data display.
• Tree grid layout: Hierarchical data display.

Pega BPM vs. Appian BPM

Pega Prediction Studio

Pega's Prediction Studio helps build machine learning models for predictive analytics and text analytics.

Standard Pega Harnesses

[List and briefly describe some of the commonly-used standard harnesses in Pega (e.g., New, Perform, Review, Confirm, Tabbed, etc.).]

Creating Dynamic Layouts in Pega

1. Open a section.
2. Drag a Dynamic Layout onto the work area.
3. Configure layout and visibility properties.

Table for Adding Notes in Pega

In Pega, notes associated with cases or work items are stored in the pc_worklist or pc_workitem database tables. These tables are part of Pega's case management system and help track information related to individual work items or cases.

The actual notes for a case are typically stored in a related table like pc_notes or within the work item table depending on the Pega version and customization.

Declare Pages in Pega

Declare pages in Pega are read-only pages created using declarative rules. They improve efficiency by reducing database access. However, they cannot be directly updated or deleted.

Declarative Rules in Pega

Declarative rules in Pega define application behavior without requiring extensive coding. Types include:

• Declare Expressions
• Declare Constraints
• Declare On Change
• Declare Triggers
• Declare Index

Declare Triggers

Declare triggers in Pega execute activities when data changes (insert, update, delete) in the database. They use forward chaining (triggering subsequent actions).

Key Pega Debugging Tools

• Clipboard: Shows data at various points in a process.
• Tracer: Tracks the execution path of a process.
• SMA (System Management Application): Provides system-level monitoring and management capabilities.
• PLA (Pega Log Analyzer): Analyzes log files to identify issues and problems.

Pega Prediction Studio

Pega's Prediction Studio is used for building machine learning models within Pega applications, using techniques like text analytics, predictive modeling, and adaptive modeling.

Agents in Pega

Agents are background processes that execute activities automatically. Types include:

• Agent Queue: For general-purpose background tasks.
• Data-Agent-Queue: For data-related background processing.

Join Types in Pega Reports

Pega reports support various join types for combining data from multiple sources:

• Inner Join
• Outer Join
• Left Outer Join
• Right Outer Join

WSDL (Web Services Description Language)

WSDL is an XML-based language for describing web services. It defines how clients interact with web services.

Notify in Pega

The Notify functionality is used to configure automated notifications within a Pega application. It typically involves configuring a "Notify" shape within a flow to send messages based on events.

Decision Tree vs. Decision Table

Access Groups in Pega

Access groups control security and permissions in Pega. They define what rules and functionalities users have access to. Access groups help enforce role-based security.

Paging in List Views

Paging in Pega list views divides a large list of data into multiple pages, improving performance and usability. It controls the number of items displayed per page.

Requestor Types in Pega

Requestor types define how an application interacts with the Pega platform:

• Application (A): Used by external systems accessing Pega services.
• Batch (B): Used by agents and background processes.
• Browser (H): Used by web browser interactions.
• Portal (P): Used by portlets in portals.

Table for Adding Notes in Pega

The pc_data_workattach table is used to store notes associated with work items.