ServiceNow is the leading IT service management platform used by large enterprises and IT services companies. These ServiceNow interview questions cover ITIL processes, tables and the CMDB for freshers and admins, then business rules, client scripts, script includes, Flow Designer, integrations and best practices for ServiceNow developers.
30 questions · Updated
Fundamentals, definitions and simple scenarios. Good for freshers and warm-ups.
ServiceNow is a cloud platform for automating enterprise workflows.
Its best-known product is IT Service Management (ITSM), which handles incidents, problems, changes, service requests and the service catalogue, based on the ITIL framework.
It also offers HR Service Delivery, Customer Service Management, IT Operations Management and a platform for custom apps.
An incident is an unplanned interruption or degradation of a service, and the goal is to restore service quickly.
A problem is the underlying cause of one or more incidents, and the goal is to find and fix the root cause.
A change is a controlled modification to IT services or infrastructure, assessed for risk and approved before it is implemented.
The configuration management database stores configuration items (CIs), such as servers, applications, network devices and business services, and the relationships between them.
It helps teams see what a failing component affects, assess change risk and route incidents correctly.
Discovery and Service Mapping keep it accurate automatically.
Everything in ServiceNow is stored in tables. Many tables extend a parent table and inherit its fields, for example incident, problem and change_request extend the task table, which provides common fields such as number, state, assigned to and short description. sys_id is the unique identifier of every record, and the dictionary defines each table's fields.
The service catalog lets users request services and products through a portal.
A catalog item, such as a new laptop or software access, has variables for user input and is fulfilled through a flow that creates requests, requested items and tasks.
A record producer is a catalog form that creates a record in another table, such as an incident or HR case, in a user-friendly way.
SLA definitions set target times for task records, such as resolving a priority 1 incident within four hours, with start, pause and stop conditions and a schedule (such as business hours).
Task SLA records track progress, and notifications or escalations trigger as breach times approach.
Response and resolution SLAs are commonly defined separately.
Tasks are assigned to assignment groups and individuals.
Assignment rules or data lookup rules set the group automatically based on conditions such as category, configuration item or location, and flows can assign them too.
Each group has members and a manager, and on-call scheduling decides who is notified out of hours.
Knowledge Management stores articles that help users solve problems themselves and help agents resolve tickets faster.
Articles live in knowledge bases with categories, go through creation, review, publishing and retirement workflows, and are shown in the portal search and suggested in incidents.
Feedback and usage reports keep content useful.
Roles control access.
Common roles include admin (full access), itil (fulfillers who work on incidents, problems and changes), catalog_admin, knowledge_admin and approver_user.
Roles are assigned to groups, and users get roles through group membership, which is easier to manage than assigning roles to individuals.
Roles are used in ACLs, modules and UI policies.
Dot-walking lets you access fields on related records through reference fields, using dots, such as caller_id.department.name on an incident, in scripts, conditions, list columns, reports and filters. It avoids extra queries in many cases, but long chains in scripts can still perform several database lookups.
Notifications define when to send an email (record inserted or updated, an event fired or a condition met), who receives it (users, groups or fields on the record such as caller or assigned to), and what it contains, using email templates and scripts. Inbound email actions process replies, such as adding comments to an incident or creating new records.
Applied problems, trade-offs and questions about your own projects.
A business rule runs on the server when a record is displayed, inserted, updated, deleted or queried, and can run before or after the database operation or asynchronously.
A client script runs in the browser on a form, with types onLoad, onChange, onSubmit and onCellEdit, for example to show a message or validate a field.
Server logic belongs in business rules; client scripts are for user experience.
A script include is a reusable server-side JavaScript class or function library that other scripts can call, such as business rules or other script includes. Marking it as client callable lets client scripts call it through GlideAjax, which is the right way to fetch server data from a form without slowing it down with synchronous calls.
GlideRecord is the server-side API to query and change records in ServiceNow tables.
For example: var gr = new GlideRecord('incident'); gr.addQuery('priority', 1); gr.query(); while (gr.next()) { ... }.
It is used for inserting, updating and deleting too.
GlideAggregate is used for counts and sums, and setLimit helps performance.
UI policies make fields mandatory, read-only or visible based on conditions, without code.
They are simpler to maintain than client scripts for these common cases and run on the client.
Client scripts are needed for more complex logic.
Data policies enforce the same rules on the server, including for imports and integrations.
Access control lists secure tables and fields for read, write, create and delete operations.
A user must pass the role requirement, the condition and the script of a matching ACL.
Rules are matched from most specific to most general: field-level rules (table.field) then table-level rules (table.*), and for extended tables the child table rules are checked before parent ones.
Users need both table and field access.
Standard changes are pre-approved, low-risk and repeatable, using templates, such as resetting a server.
Normal changes need risk assessment and approval, often by the Change Advisory Board (CAB), and go through planning, implementation and review.
Emergency changes fix urgent issues quickly with expedited approval and are reviewed afterwards.
Change conflict detection checks schedules and blackout windows.
Variables collect input on catalog items: single-line text, reference fields, select boxes, checkboxes, date pickers and more, and variable sets reuse groups of variables across items. Catalog client scripts and catalog UI policies make variables mandatory, visible or read-only and validate input, applying in the portal and the request form.
Client scripts sometimes need server data, such as a user's manager or asset details.
GlideAjax calls a client-callable script include.
It should be asynchronous, using getXMLAnswer with a callback, so the browser does not freeze while waiting.
Synchronous GlideRecord or getXMLWait calls in client scripts block the form and are not allowed in the portal.
Import sets load data into a staging table, and a transform map copies it into the target table, mapping source fields to target fields with optional transform scripts.
Coalesce marks one or more fields as unique keys: if a matching record exists it is updated, otherwise a new one is inserted.
Without coalesce, every import creates new records and duplicates.
UI actions add buttons, context menu items and links to forms and lists, such as Resolve Incident or Create Change. They have conditions controlling when they appear, can run server-side scripts, client-side scripts, or both (client script first, then server script with gsftSubmit), and can be restricted by roles.
Reference qualifiers restrict the records available in a reference field.
Simple qualifiers use a fixed condition, such as only active users.
Dynamic qualifiers use a reusable dynamic filter option.
Advanced qualifiers use a script, for example showing only configuration items belonging to the selected caller's company, often by calling a script include.
System design, deep internals, leadership and tough follow-ups.
Flow Designer is ServiceNow's low-code tool to build automated processes with triggers (such as a record being created), actions, conditions and approvals.
Integration Hub adds spokes for systems like Slack, Teams or Azure AD.
ServiceNow recommends flows over workflows and heavy scripting because they are easier to read, maintain and upgrade.
I script only when logic is too complex for a flow.
ServiceNow offers REST and SOAP APIs, such as the Table API, and I can build custom Scripted REST APIs.
For outbound calls I use REST messages or Integration Hub spokes.
Import sets with transform maps load data from files, JDBC or other sources, and the MID Server connects to systems inside the company network.
Authentication uses OAuth, basic auth or mutual certificates.
I build in scoped applications, use update sets and move them through development, test and production, avoid customising out-of-the-box records so upgrades stay smooth, prefer configuration and Flow Designer over code, avoid synchronous GlideRecord calls in client scripts, use ACLs for security rather than hiding fields, write clear names and comments, and use the Automated Test Framework for regression testing.
Discovery automatically finds devices, servers, applications and their relationships in the network and cloud, using a MID Server and probes and patterns, and keeps the CMDB up to date. Service Mapping builds maps of business services by tracing connections from entry points, such as a URL, through applications to infrastructure, so teams can see what an outage affects.
Service Portal pages are built from widgets with HTML, CSS, AngularJS client scripts and server scripts.
Employee Center provides a unified portal for IT, HR and other services.
The Next Experience UI and UI Builder build modern workspaces and pages from components, with data resources and client state, and are where new development is focused.
Review release notes, clone production to a sub-production instance and upgrade it first.
Check the upgrade history for skipped records, which are customised out-of-the-box files that were not updated, and decide whether to keep your version, accept the new one or merge.
Run Automated Test Framework tests and manual regression tests before upgrading production.
Fewer customisations make upgrades easier.
Find slow transactions and scripts with the transaction logs, slow query logs and the Performance dashboard. Common fixes are adding indexes for slow queries, replacing GlideRecord counts with GlideAggregate, avoiding queries inside loops, limiting expensive before-query business rules, moving heavy work to async business rules or scheduled jobs, reducing synchronous client calls and keeping lists and dashboards efficient.
Event Management collects events from monitoring tools, deduplicates and correlates them into alerts linked to CMDB configuration items and services, and can open incidents or run automated remediation, reducing alert noise. Now Assist is ServiceNow's generative AI, which summarises incidents and cases, drafts resolution notes and knowledge articles, powers conversational virtual agents and helps developers generate code and flows.
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