[nadavs]

Hi,

Is there a free Mac OS X troubleshooting skills test on the internet with a open license (like Creative Commons or GPL - I want to use the test on my site)?

If not, What 10-20 questions would you ask someone to see if he/she knows her/his way around Mac support before hiring him/her?

Thanks a lot

[Gee4orce]

Ask what their user name is on the Apple Support Discussions, and see how many people have marked their answers as helpful ?

[bowwowman]

1) What are kernel extensions, where are they, and why are they necessary?
2) What do Apache, Pearl, & Ruby have in common?
3) #1 specific reason why macs crash far less than windblows machines?
4) How many ways are there to configure a firewall in Mac OS X?
5) What does the term "plug & play" really mean?
6) What is the electrical specification of the ram originally spec'd for a B&W G3
7) What does "CLI" stand for, and how does it apply to macs?
8) What interface has been standard on every mac since shortly after their inception?
9) Who REALLY, truly invented the GUI ?
10) Name 1 of the places the woz worked prior to joining Steve at apple ?

and YES, I realize most of the regulars here will answer these without a second thought, and that this information can easily be found online. But I would assume that since you are looking for TEST questions, the applicant would have to know the answers without looking them up somewhere.....

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by bowwowman

1) What are kernel extensions, where are they, and why are they necessary?
2) What do Apache, Pearl, & Ruby have in common?
3) #1 specific reason why macs crash far less than windblows machines?
4) How many ways are there to configure a firewall in Mac OS X?
5) What does the term "plug & play" really mean?
6) What is the electrical specification of the ram originally spec'd for a B&W G3
7) What does "CLI" stand for, and how does it apply to macs?
8) What interface has been standard on every mac since shortly after their inception?
9) Who REALLY, truly invented the GUI ?
10) Name 1 of the places the woz worked prior to joining Steve at apple ?

and YES, I realize most of the regulars here will answer these without a second thought, and that this information can easily be found online. But I would assume that since you are looking for TEST questions, the applicant would have to know the answers without looking them up somewhere.....

A really odd set of questions, and some rather flawed in their wording. I'm not sure that these would make good test questions, no offense.

[Velocity211]

Originally Posted by bowwowman

3) #1 specific reason why macs crash far less than windblows machines?

Too many reasons, I can't choose

[besson3c]

Just to elaborate on what I mean, just for fun, here is my commentary on these questions in the context of being test questions..

]1) What are kernel extensions, where are they, and why are they necessary?

The path where Kernel extensions reside is pretty useless trivia. Any tech with some problem solving skills could easily figure this out if they had to.

2) What do Apache, Pearl, & Ruby have in common?

I'm honestly not sure what answer you are looking for here. Stuff that sometimes has to do with the web? Perl is used for all sorts of things on and off the web, as is Ruby. Maybe you are thinking of Ruby on Rails?

Not sure what you'd be able to deduce from any sort of answer to this and how it applies to the Mac either.

3) #1 specific reason why macs crash far less than windblows machines?

What answer are you looking for here? Much of this is debatable and hard to pinpoint.

4) How many ways are there to configure a firewall in Mac OS X?

Nearly infinite. Literally. What are you looking for here?

5) What does the term "plug & play" really mean?

It's not really a tech term, more of a marketing term

6) What is the electrical specification of the ram originally spec'd for a B&W G3

WTF?? Pretty useless trivia if you ask me.

7) What does "CLI" stand for, and how does it apply to macs?

Not sure what you are looking for here? Awareness of the Unix underpinnings? Unix need not be CLI only, there are many GUIs for Unix/Linux.

8) What interface has been standard on every mac since shortly after their inception?

Not sure what you are looking for here

9) Who REALLY, truly invented the GUI ?
10) Name 1 of the places the woz worked prior to joining Steve at apple ?

Don't really see how knowledge of computer history is terribly useful in the context of finding the best applicant.

What sort of job is this? I could offer some suggestions, depending on what sort of qualities would be the most useful in the field of work you work in. What does your business do, and what do you depend upon?

[Kerrigan]

Well done. You get a "C+".

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

Well done. You get a "C+".

You are wearing a very nice necktie today, sir...

[Kerrigan]

I bought it yesterday.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by bowwowman

2) What do Apache, Pearl, & Ruby have in common?

They're all things your kids would hate you for naming them.

[stefanicotine]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

They're all things your kids would hate you for naming them.

I don't know dude, Apache would make a pretty badass name. I wouldn't want to get beat up by a kid named Apache

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by bowwowman

1) What are kernel extensions, where are they, and why are they necessary?
2) What do Apache, Pearl, & Ruby have in common?
3) #1 specific reason why macs crash far less than windblows machines?
4) How many ways are there to configure a firewall in Mac OS X?
5) What does the term "plug & play" really mean?
6) What is the electrical specification of the ram originally spec'd for a B&W G3
7) What does "CLI" stand for, and how does it apply to macs?
8) What interface has been standard on every mac since shortly after their inception?
9) Who REALLY, truly invented the GUI ?
10) Name 1 of the places the woz worked prior to joining Steve at apple ?

Those don't really seem like "troubleshooting questions." More like marketing questions, mixed with some "Jeopardy! Apple edition" questions.

[Laurence]

I don't know about most of the negative comments about bowwowman's questions... the questions would show that the person has been "involved" in the Mac scene for a long time and has a good memory. Those are both reasonably good qualities for an employee who needs to know how to troubleshoot a Mac. I could probably come up with some better questions, but sometimes knowledge of useless trivia shows something about how your mind works. A place I used to work at gave every applicant the Monday NY Times crossword and gave them 30 minutes to complete it. That had nothing to do with the job, but someone who can't complete the Monday crossword likely had other issues as well.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Laurence

I don't know about most of the negative comments about bowwowman's questions... the questions would show that the person has been "involved" in the Mac scene for a long time and has a good memory. Those are both reasonably good qualities for an employee who needs to know how to troubleshoot a Mac.

I have a fair memory, have been involved with the Mac scene for a long time and do troubleshoot Macs for a living (well, part of a living), and I couldn't name the No. 1 reason Macs crash far less than Windows machines or the electrical specification of RAM for a computer designed a decade ago. Heck, I don't think Apple's engineers would be able to tell you.

[bowwowman]

well, well, well......

my questions were "off-the-top-of-my-head" responses, thats all

Of course I realize that there are other/more technical questions that could be asked of a person applying for a troubleshooter position. However, if I were interviewing such a person, I would want someone who at least has some basic knowledge of Apple, their machines, and their histories. I would use these questions as a screening tool, to decide whether or not to proceed to an actual "skills" test.......


Would you hire someone as an administrative assistant if they didnt know how to use MS Office, a telephone, fax machine, copier etc........?????

[bowwowman]

nevermind!

[nadavs]

Some of those questions are good but like SpaceMonkey said:

Originally Posted by SpaceMonkey

Those don't really seem like "troubleshooting questions." More like marketing questions, mixed with some "Jeopardy! Apple edition" questions.

Does anyone know some good troubleshooting questions?

[Moose]

Originally Posted by nadavs

Does anyone know some good troubleshooting questions?

You can't effectively judge somebody's skill at "troubleshooting Mac OS X" (which is, in and of itself, a vague task) solely by asking him or her a series of technical or historical questions. Problem determination and resolution is one part raw technical knowledge, one part resourcefulness, and eighteen parts common sense.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by nadavs

Some of those questions are good but like SpaceMonkey said:

Does anyone know some good troubleshooting questions?

Like I said, this all depends on what you do in your business. The techniques used for troubleshooting Unix-centric services and protocols are much different than troubleshooting the closed "black box" stuff that Apple includes in OS X.

[Laurence]

1. What is "Safe Boot" and why would you use it?
2. Where are Fonts stored and in what order should you troubleshoot fonts if you believe they are causing an issue.
3. If a new user account resolves the issue, how would you go about fixing the original account?
4. Where are the preferences for an individual application?
5. If the Dock reverts back to its factory default state after a reboot, what is the likely cause?
6. If an issue is resolved by logging in as "root" what is a likely cause?

[Moose]

Originally Posted by Laurence

3. If a new user account resolves the issue, how would you go about fixing the original account?

This depends largely on what "the issue" is.

Originally Posted by Laurence

4. Where are the preferences for an individual application?

Wherever it puts them. Or are you asking what locations should contain application preferences?

Originally Posted by Laurence

6. If an issue is resolved by logging in as "root" what is a likely cause?

This is a trick question. Logging in as "root" is not a valid troubleshooting mechanism. You never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever [...] ever ever ever ever ever need to log in as root.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Moose

This is a trick question. Logging in as "root" is not a valid troubleshooting mechanism. You never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever [...] ever ever ever ever ever need to log in as root.

If the admin username is somehow removed from the "wheel" group, this will take away the ability to sudo, and thus the user's admin privileges. If the user has decided to enable root, they have given themselves a backdoor for dealing with this unlikely event.

Just qualifying your ever ever ever ever's with a legitimate (albeit obscure) reason for using the root account.

[nadavs]

Originally Posted by Moose

You can't effectively judge somebody's skill at "troubleshooting Mac OS X" (which is, in and of itself, a vague task) solely by asking him or her a series of technical or historical questions.

I need just a general idea if they can get their way around fixing basic mac issues.

Originally Posted by besson3c

Like I said, this all depends on what you do in your business. The techniques used for troubleshooting Unix-centric services and protocols are much different than troubleshooting the closed "black box" stuff that Apple includes in OS X.

I need to test for troubeshooting "black box" stuff...

Originally Posted by Laurence

1. What is "Safe Boot" and why would you use it?
2. Where are Fonts stored and in what order should you troubleshoot fonts if you believe they are causing an issue.
3. If a new user account resolves the issue, how would you go about fixing the original account?
4. Where are the preferences for an individual application?
5. If the Dock reverts back to its factory default state after a reboot, what is the likely cause?
6. If an issue is resolved by logging in as "root" what is a likely cause?

Thanks Laurence, I would appreciate if whoever posts questions will post the answers too.

Multiple choice questions would be best for what I need.

Thanks a lot

[Moose]

Originally Posted by besson3c

If the admin username is somehow removed from the "wheel" group, this will take away the ability to sudo, and thus the user's admin privileges. If the user has decided to enable root, they have given themselves a backdoor for dealing with this unlikely event.

If that were ever to happen in practice, you have problems that even logging in as root won't adequately address.

[Gee4orce]

Originally Posted by Laurence

1. What is "Safe Boot" and why would you use it?
2. Where are Fonts stored and in what order should you troubleshoot fonts if you believe they are causing an issue.
3. If a new user account resolves the issue, how would you go about fixing the original account?
4. Where are the preferences for an individual application?
5. If the Dock reverts back to its factory default state after a reboot, what is the likely cause?
6. If an issue is resolved by logging in as "root" what is a likely cause?

I asked an Apple Genius, and his answers were:

1) to reinstall the OS
2) reinstalling the OS will fix this
3) by reinstalling the OS
4) um.
5) not reinstalling the OS enough
6) reinstalled the OS incorrectly.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Moose

If that were ever to happen in practice, you have problems that even logging in as root won't adequately address.

Why? You'd just add the user back to the wheel group... It could happen if somebody demotes your privileges to that of a regular user through some mechanism.

[Moose]

Originally Posted by besson3c

It could happen if somebody demotes your privileges to that of a regular user through some mechanism.

If it's as cut-and-dried as that, you just have "somebody" re-add you to wheel.

[besson3c]

- How do you identify and deal with an application that seems to be slowing your system down?

- What are good techniques for dealing with an application that consistently crashes?

- Name some (viable) techniques for securing your system

- How can you move a home directory from one machine to another?

- Name a few different mechanisms for administrating another Mac or Windows computer remotely

- Name some useful Unix commands, indicate what they do and how they are useful

- Name some key technologies that are included in OS X, and indicate their significance

- What is the BSD Subsystem?

- What is the difference between an admin and regular user?

- What does an IP address starting with a 169 indicate? How about a 10, or 192.168?

- Name some techniques for sharing files and/or moving data between computers (including computers running Windows)?

- How are file extensions used within Mac OS X?

- How can you assign access permissions to an individual file or folder?

- Name some techniques for keeping your Mac OS X software up-to-date

- Name some services that OS X provides and their significance (hint: Unix based)

- What are the common mechanisms for installing applications in OS X?

- Can Applications run from locations other than the Applications folder? Are there any drawbacks in doing so?

- What is the Keychain?

[besson3c]

Do you need any server admin questions? If so, what OS are your servers running?

[nadavs]

Thanks for the awesome questions besson3c, I'll be sure to use them. I would appreciate if someone would post the answers...

Originally Posted by besson3c

Do you need any server admin questions? If so, what OS are your servers running?

Nope, just Mac troubleshooting questions

Thanks

[Moose]

Originally Posted by besson3c

- Name some (viable) techniques for securing your system

Securing it from what?

Originally Posted by besson3c

- What does an IP address starting with a 169 indicate?

Nothing special, unless it's in 169.254/16. Additionally, with Mac OS X, you don't necessarily need to know that if an adapter can't get a DHCP lease, it'll self-assign from 169.254/16. System Preferences displays a yellow dot instead of a green one next to the interface and tells you what's going on. XP does something similar.

[SirCastor]

I think those are good questions Besson.

[TimmyDee51]

From my time as a Mac specialist, I can say there is one non-Mac related question that I would certainly ask a new hire.

Say you have a user that is continually "crying wolf" with "problems" that are either imagined or fabricated. How do you deal with them?

Needless to say, I had one of these. She was knowledgeable enough to be dangerous.

[Moose]

Originally Posted by TimmyDee51

Say you have a user that is continually "crying wolf" with "problems" that are either imagined or fabricated. How do you deal with them?

Quicklime.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Moose

Securing it from what?

It's a pretty open ended question... you could go with exploitation of services, viruses/malware, computing practices, usage of insecure protocols, etc.

Nothing special, unless it's in 169.254/16. Additionally, with Mac OS X, you don't necessarily need to know that if an adapter can't get a DHCP lease, it'll self-assign from 169.254/16. System Preferences displays a yellow dot instead of a green one next to the interface and tells you what's going on. XP does something similar.

Good point!

[besson3c]

Answers, in shorthand... let me know if any need further elaboration:


- How do you identify and deal with an application that seems to be slowing your system down?

run top/Activity Monitor and see if there is a misbehaving app that is consuming a lot of resources (which would usually indicate a crashed app), you can kill the process in the terminal, with Activity Monitor, or via Force Quit.

- What are good techniques for dealing with an application that consistently crashes?

-- try the app under a different user account, if it works there, clear out user's prefs relating to this app
-- if it doesn't, look for software updates, notes from the vendor, etc. There isn't much can be done to force a particular version of an app that doesn't work under a virgin user account to work.


- Name some (viable) techniques for securing your system

learn about usage of Firewalls, not running insecure network services or protocols, setting secure passwords, port knocking, etc. Security is a subject of its own, but applicant should demonstrate some familiarity with at least some of these concepts


- How can you move a home directory from one machine to another?

Migration assistant, or manual copy/permissions and ownership assignment


- Name a few different mechanisms for administrating another Mac or Windows computer remotely

SSH, VNC, Apple Remote Desktop (which actually uses VNC as its connection protocol)


- Name some useful Unix commands, indicate what they do and how they are useful

Too many to list here, just looking to see whether Unix is a completely foreign concept to the applicant. A good tech would ideally be at least fairly comfortable with Unix.


- Name some key technologies that are included in OS X, and indicate their significance

Carbon, Cocoa, Quicktime, Quartz, etc.


- What is the BSD Subsystem?

BSD-based Unix environment and associated tools for operating in this CLI environment


- What is the difference between an admin and regular user?

Admin can sudo (in wheel group), and therefore do things that require a password prompt (install apps, set system-wide prefs, etc.)


- What does an IP address starting with a 169 indicate? How about a 10, or 192.168?

self-assigned/private IP addresses


- Name some techniques for sharing files and/or moving data between computers (including computers running Windows)?

AFP/Netatalk, Samba, rsync, scp/sftp, Firewire target disk mode, FTP, WebDAV, etc.


- How are file extensions used within Mac OS X?

primary mechanism for determining file type


- How can you assign access permissions to an individual file or folder?

Finder or with Unix chmod/chown


- Name some techniques for keeping your Mac OS X software up-to-date

Software Update mechanism, CLI Software Update mechanism, download packages from Apple's site (this only covers Apple's software), other software updates are vendor specific


- Name some services that OS X provides and their significance (hint: Unix based)

Everything in the Sharing pane, Postfix (mail transport agent), etc.


- What are the common mechanisms for installing applications in OS X?

disk image/compressed file drag and drop, various installers


- Can Applications run from locations other than the Applications folder? Are there any drawbacks in doing so?

SOftware Update mechanism looks for apps in apps folder


- What is the Keychain?[/QUOTE]

Mechanism for storing user passwords, SSL certificate authorities, network passwords, password's saved from Apache basic auth authentication (in Safari only)

[mitchell_pgh]

QUESTION ONE
What tag line was made famous by Steve Jobs?

QUESTION TWO
What color turtle neck does Steve Jobs wear?

QUESTION THREE
Is the iPod:
a) Phat
b) OMG OMG OMG!!!!1111
c) Ro3or! Hawt!

QUESTION FOUR
How many dozen Macs have you owned.

QUESTION FIVE
Is the new Mac Pro:
a) blistering fast!
b) an engineering marvel
c) a sign of the apocalypse

QUESTION SIX
How many toes would you forfeit to work in Apple's R&D?

QUESTION SEVEN
How many Apple tattoos do you have?

QUESTION EIGHT
How many hours a day do you use your Mac:
a) more than five
b) more than ten
c) it's always on, and always near me

QUESTION NINE
Complete this sentence: Microsoft
a) completely copied OS X (and couldn't get it right).
b) copied most of OS X (and couldn't get it right).
c) copied a good chunk from OS X (and couldn't get it right).

QUESTION TEN
Did the title of this question make you think of OS X?
- Yes
- Sure did!

[besson3c]

kick ass!

[analogika]

Originally Posted by bowwowman

1) What are kernel extensions, where are they, and why are they necessary?
2) What do Apache, Pearl, & Ruby have in common?
3) #1 specific reason why macs crash far less than windblows machines?
4) How many ways are there to configure a firewall in Mac OS X?
5) What does the term "plug & play" really mean?
6) What is the electrical specification of the ram originally spec'd for a B&W G3
7) What does "CLI" stand for, and how does it apply to macs?
8) What interface has been standard on every mac since shortly after their inception?
9) Who REALLY, truly invented the GUI ?
10) Name 1 of the places the woz worked prior to joining Steve at apple ?

and YES, I realize most of the regulars here will answer these without a second thought, and that this information can easily be found online. But I would assume that since you are looking for TEST questions, the applicant would have to know the answers without looking them up somewhere.....

Your set of questions are proof of the fact that it makes more sense to let the applicants ASK the questions, than to ask them questions.

Not one single question of those ten is in any way relevant to Mac support.

Besson3c's questions are excellent, but the point about people skills is probably one of the most important ones.
If you're stumped (and even teh most knowledgeable tech WILL get stumped at some point), you can always excuse yourself and research the issue - web, literature, trial on other machines, etc.

The REAL challenge in finding good support people is in getting someone who can deal with a client who's screaming bloody murder while it's slowly dawning on you that the guy's hard drive is dying and $15,000 of film script contractually due this Thursday have probably NOT been backed up because this Arty Type never bothered with such mundane technological details.

[Moose]

Originally Posted by analogika

The REAL challenge in finding good support people is in getting someone who can deal with a client who's screaming bloody murder while it's slowly dawning on you that the guy's hard drive is dying and $15,000 of film script contractually due this Thursday have probably NOT been backed up because this Arty Type never bothered with such mundane technological details.

Bingo.

[besson3c]

Very true, and of course that comes down to gut feeling perceptions and whatnot.

Ideally, a perfect candidate would send off a good vibe *and* have a healthy amount of experience to answer a reasonable percentage of questions competently. I do believe that it is important to get some firsthand gauge of the person's ability, because they can write anything they want on their resume.

I've known of somebody being hired who, as it turns out, knew very little compared to what his resume projected. We ended up having to fire him because he couldn't cut the gig.

[israces]

Originally Posted by nadavs

Some of those questions are good but like SpaceMonkey said:

Does anyone know some good troubleshooting questions?

Can you fix it?

How much is it going to cost?

[Catfish_Man]

Originally Posted by israces

Can you fix it?

How much is it going to cost?

This is an excellent set of questions. If he/she answers before examining the problem, they're lying. 

[Moose]

Originally Posted by Catfish_Man

This is an excellent set of questions. If he/she answers before examining the problem, they're lying.

Yes.

First rule of problem resolution:

Don't trust what you've been told. Go see for yourself.

[Angus_D]

Originally Posted by besson3c

If the admin username is somehow removed from the "wheel" group, this will take away the ability to sudo, and thus the user's admin privileges. If the user has decided to enable root, they have given themselves a backdoor for dealing with this unlikely event.

Just qualifying your ever ever ever ever's with a legitimate (albeit obscure) reason for using the root account.

So boot into single-user and futz with the NI directory using nicl -raw. Don't go logging into the GUI as root.

[Angus_D]

Originally Posted by besson3c

Answers, in shorthand... let me know if any need further elaboration:
- What is the BSD Subsystem?

BSD-based Unix environment and associated tools for operating in this CLI environment

Or a stupid "optional install" in older releases of Mac OS X that just caused problems if you unchecked it.

- What is the difference between an admin and regular user?

Admin can sudo (in wheel group), and therefore do things that require a password prompt (install apps, set system-wide prefs, etc.)

My admin user isn't in wheel. Installing apps and setting system-wide preferences is nothing to do with sudo.

- How are file extensions used within Mac OS X?

primary mechanism for determining file type

Go look at UTIs.

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Angus_D

So boot into single-user and futz with the NI directory using nicl -raw. Don't go logging into the GUI as root.

True, you could do that. Is Single User Mode disableable in Open Firmware, or whatever the EFI BIOS stuff is called?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Angus_D

My admin user isn't in wheel. Installing apps and setting system-wide preferences is nothing to do with sudo.

Isn't the admin password prompt basically a GUI front-end to sudo?

Go look at UTIs.

I know this is a simplified answer. You could get into type and creator codes and stuff, but I thought that the answer might have sufficed for this context... perhaps not.

[kahuna]

Originally Posted by israces

Can you fix it?

How much is it going to cost?

thats the same no matter what "it" is. computer, car, microwave, DUI...

[24klogos]

you kids shoudnt play so rough, somebody might end up crying...