Updated October 9, 2026
Introduction to COBOL Interview Questions
These COBOL interview questions are designed to familiarize you with the essence of COBOL programming. Good interviewers do not plan to ask a particular question. Questions usually begin with a basic idea of the subject and then continue on the basis of further discussion and answers. COBOL is a flexible development tool as it is implemented in many areas, such as accounting, management, etc. If you are an applicant seeking employment as a developer at COBOL, you have to answer any questions an interviewer may ask.
Part 1 – COBOL Interview Questions (Basic)
This first part covers basic COBOL Interview Questions and Answers.
Q1. What is COBOL?
Answer:
COBOL is Static and weak. The computer programming language for common business applications is a typing discipline. The US Department of Defense formed CODASYL. From CODASYL, the US Department of Defense developed the COBOL Computer Programming language. It is the common language used to meet administrative, corporate, and financial needs. The acronym for Standard Language. COBOL operates on simple English terms and phrases to enable business users to understand and fulfill their data processing needs through COBOL.
Q2. What are Literals? What are Types of Literals?
Answer:
A literal data object is a value-based element. The name can’t be identified. They’re data objects.
Two kinds of literals are:
- Numeric literals
- Alphanumeric Literals
Q.3 What is the Division of the COBOL program?
Answer:
There are four main sections in which the COBOL Programming language is divided: Procedure Division, Data Identification Division, Identification Division, and Environment Division.
- Data Identification: It is the place where data items are identified, names are established in the program, and memory is allocated according to the program.
- Identification Division: The COBOL Program is the most important division. It is used for program identification.
- Environment Division: The environment that the COBOL software is written for is specified in this division. There are two parts: the configuration and the input-output.
Q4. What is the Difference between COBOL programming (formal) and COBOL programming (object-oriented)?
Answer:
Structured programming is a logical way to arrange the features of modules, helping to logically write the code. Object-oriented COBOL is a natural way of programming in which objects are defined, and functions and procedures are then written.
Part 2 – COBOL Interview Questions (Advanced)
Let us now have a look at the advanced COBOL Interview Questions.
Q5. What instructions should be followed for a standardized COBOL program?
Answer:
These are some standardized COBOL program instructions that should be followed:
• For constructing the cases, you are supposed to use EVALUATE
• For nesting, you are supposed to use Scope terminators
• Use TEST BEFORE and TEST AFTER when writing DO-WHILE statements in the PERFORM sentence.
Q6. What are Some COBOL Features as a Business Language?
Answer:
COBOL was the dominant programming language for decades and has supported business users. As a language of business, the following features of COBOL are:
1. It can be stored, performed, and assembled on different machines.
2. It can handle large quantities of data, and it is used in applications for companies.
3. It offers several debugging and testing tools for business users because it has multiple versions, which makes debugging simple.
4. It is also called a structured language.
Q7. Define In-line PERFORM in COBOL?
Answer:
In-line PERFORM is a principle in which the control executes the same paragraph with a series of declarations instead of one individual paragraph. IN-LINE PERFORM will continue to work until there are no GO TOs or exits. The PERFORM and END—PERFORM declarations are interspersed with all the COBOL phrases.
Q8. What do you mean by SSRANGE and NOSSRANGE in COBOL?
Answer:
SSRANGE is an array overflow compiler option. In the COBOL programming language, SSRANGE must also be defined. It helps you to consider the plan out of control.
For performance-sensitive applications, NOSSRANGE is used. NOSSRANGE is a default option to avoid runtime errors when the index or subscript is out of reach.
Q9. Explain the Difference between Sequential Search and Binary Search?
Answer:
The table is split into two halves in binary search, and key values are placed in order up or down in the table. Once the table is broken down into two, the quest for the item becomes easier to match, above or below the criteria. For additional tables, linear search is preferable, and SEARCH ALL is used for conditional search.
In sequence searches, the elements are scanned from top to bottom and are not searched in a particular way. They do not follow a particular sequence as such.
Q1o. Explain the use of the EVALUATE Statement?
Answer:
ASSESS is like a CASE statement or can be used as a Nested IF. The distinction between ASSESS and CASE is that ‘SPLIT’ is not used in an ASSESS declaration, and when a match has been found, control comes out of EVALUATE.
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This is a guide to the List of COBOL Interview Questions and Answers to help the candidate crack them easily. In this post, we have covered the top COBOL Interview Questions that are often asked. You may also look at the following articles to learn more –
