COBOL Online Test

About the test:

The COBOL Online Test uses scenario-based MCQs to evaluate candidates on their knowledge of COBOL programming language, including their proficiency in working with data types, control structures, file handling, and database access. The test also evaluates a candidate's familiarity with popular COBOL software tools and techniques for developing, maintaining, and deploying COBOL applications. The test aims to evaluate a candidate's ability to work with COBOL effectively and design and develop COBOL-based applications that adhere to industry standards and best practices.

Covered skills:

Write Out-Rec statement
merge verb
string verb

procedure - division statement
rewrite verb
access mode clause

See all covered skills

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9 reasons why

Adaface COBOL Online Test is the most accurate way to shortlist COBOL Developers

Reason #1

Tests for on-the-job skills

The COBOL Assessment Test helps recruiters and hiring managers identify qualified candidates from a pool of resumes, and helps in taking objective hiring decisions. It reduces the administrative overhead of interviewing too many candidates and saves time by filtering out unqualified candidates.

The Adaface COBOL Online Test screens candidates for the typical skills recruiters look for in a COBOL professional:

Excellent knowledge of mainframe programming
In-depth understanding of project management and software development cycle
Knowledge of business processes
Experience working with advanced debugging tools
Deep understanding of popular database systems

The insights generated from this assessment can be used by recruiters and hiring managers to identify the best candidates for the role. Anti-cheating features enable you to be comfortable with conducting assessments online. The COBOL Online Test is ideal for helping recruiters identify which candidates have the COBOL skills to do well on the job.

The COBOL Online Test can be used to screen candidates for roles like:

Google Adwords Specialist
Google Adwords Executive
Digital Marketing Manager
Digital Marketing Executive

Reason #2

No trick questions

Traditional assessment tools use trick questions and puzzles for the screening, which creates a lot of frustration among candidates about having to go through irrelevant screening assessments.

The main reason we started Adaface is that traditional pre-employment assessment platforms are not a fair way for companies to evaluate candidates. At Adaface, our mission is to help companies find great candidates by assessing on-the-job skills required for a role.

Why we started Adaface ->

Reason #3

Non-googleable questions

We have a very high focus on the quality of questions that test for on-the-job skills. Every question is non-googleable and we have a very high bar for the level of subject matter experts we onboard to create these questions. We have crawlers to check if any of the questions are leaked online. If/ when a question gets leaked, we get an alert. We change the question for you & let you know.

These are just a small sample from our library of 10,000+ questions. The actual questions on this COBOL Online Test will be non-googleable.

🧐 Question
Medium Decision Control Arithmetic Operations Decision Structures Data Types	Solve
Consider the following COBOL program: What will the program display when it is executed?
Medium Multi Dimensional Arrays Arrays Data Processing Subroutines	Solve
Consider the following pseudocode snippet in COBOL: After executing this program, what will be the final state of StrArr?
Medium VSAM File Processing in COBOL VSAM File Handling	Solve
Consider the following COBOL code snippet. The program aims to read from a VSAM Key-Sequenced Data Set (KSDS) named 'CUSTOMER-FILE' which contains customer records. The program reads the file in ascending order by 'CUSTOMER-ID', performs some processing (not shown here), and then displays the 'CUSTOMER-NAME' of the last record read. Assuming there are no syntax errors and the 'CUSTOMER-FILE' is present and accessible, what will the program display as the last customer's name after executing this COBOL program? A: The program will display the name of the customer with the highest 'CUSTOMER-ID'. B: The program will display the name of the customer with the lowest 'CUSTOMER-ID'. C: The program will not display any customer name. D: The program will display the name of the first customer in the 'CUSTOMER-FILE'. E: The program will display an uninitialized or random 'LAST-NAME'.

	🧐 Question	🔧 Skill
	Medium Decision Control Arithmetic Operations Decision Structures Data Types	2 mins COBOL	Solve
Consider the following COBOL program: What will the program display when it is executed?
	Medium Multi Dimensional Arrays Arrays Data Processing Subroutines	2 mins COBOL	Solve
Consider the following pseudocode snippet in COBOL: After executing this program, what will be the final state of StrArr?
	Medium VSAM File Processing in COBOL VSAM File Handling	2 mins COBOL	Solve
Consider the following COBOL code snippet. The program aims to read from a VSAM Key-Sequenced Data Set (KSDS) named 'CUSTOMER-FILE' which contains customer records. The program reads the file in ascending order by 'CUSTOMER-ID', performs some processing (not shown here), and then displays the 'CUSTOMER-NAME' of the last record read. Assuming there are no syntax errors and the 'CUSTOMER-FILE' is present and accessible, what will the program display as the last customer's name after executing this COBOL program? A: The program will display the name of the customer with the highest 'CUSTOMER-ID'. B: The program will display the name of the customer with the lowest 'CUSTOMER-ID'. C: The program will not display any customer name. D: The program will display the name of the first customer in the 'CUSTOMER-FILE'. E: The program will display an uninitialized or random 'LAST-NAME'.

	🧐 Question	🔧 Skill	💪 Difficulty	⌛ Time
	Decision Control Arithmetic Operations Decision Structures Data Types	COBOL	Medium	2 mins	Solve
Consider the following COBOL program: What will the program display when it is executed?
	Multi Dimensional Arrays Arrays Data Processing Subroutines	COBOL	Medium	2 mins	Solve
Consider the following pseudocode snippet in COBOL: After executing this program, what will be the final state of StrArr?
	VSAM File Processing in COBOL VSAM File Handling	COBOL	Medium	2 mins	Solve
Consider the following COBOL code snippet. The program aims to read from a VSAM Key-Sequenced Data Set (KSDS) named 'CUSTOMER-FILE' which contains customer records. The program reads the file in ascending order by 'CUSTOMER-ID', performs some processing (not shown here), and then displays the 'CUSTOMER-NAME' of the last record read. Assuming there are no syntax errors and the 'CUSTOMER-FILE' is present and accessible, what will the program display as the last customer's name after executing this COBOL program? A: The program will display the name of the customer with the highest 'CUSTOMER-ID'. B: The program will display the name of the customer with the lowest 'CUSTOMER-ID'. C: The program will not display any customer name. D: The program will display the name of the first customer in the 'CUSTOMER-FILE'. E: The program will display an uninitialized or random 'LAST-NAME'.

Reason #4

1200+ customers in 75 countries

With Adaface, we were able to optimise our initial screening process by upwards of 75%, freeing up precious time for both hiring managers and our talent acquisition team alike!

Brandon Lee, Head of People, Love, Bonito

Reason #5

Designed for elimination, not selection

The most important thing while implementing the pre-employment COBOL Online Test in your hiring process is that it is an elimination tool, not a selection tool. In other words: you want to use the test to eliminate the candidates who do poorly on the test, not to select the candidates who come out at the top. While they are super valuable, pre-employment tests do not paint the entire picture of a candidate’s abilities, knowledge, and motivations. Multiple easy questions are more predictive of a candidate's ability than fewer hard questions. Harder questions are often "trick" based questions, which do not provide any meaningful signal about the candidate's skillset.

Reason #6

1 click candidate invites

Email invites: You can send candidates an email invite to the COBOL Online Test from your dashboard by entering their email address.

Public link: You can create a public link for each test that you can share with candidates.

API or integrations: You can invite candidates directly from your ATS by using our pre-built integrations with popular ATS systems or building a custom integration with your in-house ATS.

Reason #7

Detailed scorecards & benchmarks

Reason #8

High completion rate

Adaface tests are conversational, low-stress, and take just 25-40 mins to complete.

This is why Adaface has the highest test-completion rate (86%), which is more than 2x better than traditional assessments.

Reason #9

Advanced Proctoring

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About the COBOL Developer Job Role

A COBOL programmer writes and works with computer programs writing using COBOL. They are often active in the field of business data processing.

The day-to-day of a COBOL programmer involves designing, developing, and configuring code for new programs, testing these programs to make sure they function on the intended operating system and implementing any required changes.

Typical responsibilities of a COBOL Developer include:

Developing and maintaining COBOL programs
Gathering and documenting system requirements
Designing, Developing, and Testing enterprise software applications
Fine-tuning DB2 SQL queries

What roles can I use the COBOL Online Test for?

COBOL Developer
Senior COBOL Developer
Mainframe Developer
Legacy Systems Programmer

What topics are covered in the COBOL Online Test?

Write Out-Rec statement

procedure - division statement

merge verb

rewrite verb

string verb

access mode clause

index

subscript

NEXT SENTENCE is used for transferring control to the next sentence.

NEXT SENTENCE

CONTINUE acts like a null statement, and it continues execution.

CONTINUE

identification

environment

data

procedure

static linking

dynamic linking

EVALUATE

Nested IF

ON SIZE ERROR

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The hiring managers felt that through the technical questions that they asked during the panel interviews, they were able to tell which candidates had better scores, and differentiated with those who did not score as well. They are highly satisfied with the quality of candidates shortlisted with the Adaface screening.

85%

reduction in screening time

View Full Case Study

FAQs

Can I combine multiple skills into one custom assessment?

Yes, absolutely. Custom assessments are set up based on your job description, and will include questions on all must-have skills you specify.

Do you have any anti-cheating or proctoring features in place?

We have the following anti-cheating features in place:

Non-googleable questions
IP proctoring
Web proctoring
Webcam proctoring
Plagiarism detection
Secure browser

Read more about the proctoring features.

How do I interpret test scores?

The primary thing to keep in mind is that an assessment is an elimination tool, not a selection tool. A skills assessment is optimized to help you eliminate candidates who are not technically qualified for the role, it is not optimized to help you find the best candidate for the role. So the ideal way to use an assessment is to decide a threshold score (typically 55%, we help you benchmark) and invite all candidates who score above the threshold for the next rounds of interview.

What experience level can I use this test for?

Each Adaface assessment is customized to your job description/ ideal candidate persona (our subject matter experts will pick the right questions for your assessment from our library of 10000+ questions). This assessment can be customized for any experience level.

Does every candidate get the same questions?

Yes, it makes it much easier for you to compare candidates. Options for MCQ questions and the order of questions are randomized. We have anti-cheating/ proctoring features in place. In our enterprise plan, we also have the option to create multiple versions of the same assessment with questions of similar difficulty levels.