A system programmer of z/OS UNIX is a challenging position. It requires a good and sound technical knowledge. If you have a deep understanding of computer science and have an experience of working in UNIX environment then this career option has lot of opportunities to offer you.

I would like to suggest some of the important interview questions that are mainly asked in an interview for this job:

1. Give some important facts about z/OS UNIX.
Some important features of z/OS UNIX are:

• It is an integral element of z/OS and a certified UNIX system.
• It has an excellent ability to prioritize workload thus yields high       performance.
• Oracle Web Server, Lotus Domino, SAP R/3, Web Sphere MQ, Java Runtime, Tuxedo and DB2 all use z/OS UNIX.
• Various ISV applications are ported to it.
• It has a hierarchical file system.
• Three interface choices are available for the user namely standard shell, 3270 and the ISPF interfaces.

2. What differentiates z/OS UNIX from traditional UNIX.
Some basic differences between z/OS UNIX and traditional UNIX are:

• z/OS UNIX system is capable of managing and securing system resources from a single point unlike the other traditional UNIX system which handle the system’s resources individually.
• z/OS runs with 100% consistency while a dedicated UNIX system runs at 50 to 70% consistency level.
• WLM provides extra resources to manage tasks in case of z/OS UNIX system while it is not in the case of traditional UNIX systems.

3. What is a shell? What shells are available for use on z/OS UNIX system services?
A shell is a command interpreter. It is used to invoke shell commands that ask for utilities and services from the system. Shell programming languages are used for writing shell scripts. There are two shells available in z/OS UNIX operating system:

• The z/OS shell: It is modeled after the UNIX system V shell.
• The tcsh shell: It is a compatible version of csh, the Berkeley UNIX C shell.

4. What are the ways to access a shell?
Some common ways to access a shell are:

• The OMVS command issued by a TSO/E user ID, in this the user must be logged in from a 3270 terminal or a workstation that is running a 3270 emulator.
• The telnet or rlogin commands issued from a workstation that employs TCP/IP.

These are some of the important interview questions that are mainly asked in an interview of z/OS UNIX system programmer. All the Best!