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Top 39 RPA Interview Questions and Answers

01/Oct/2020 | 10 minutes to read

QFLES is listing some Essential Robotic Process Automation - RPA Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers and mid level of Experienced Professionals prepared by Industry Experts. All answers for these Robotic Process Automation - RPA interview questions are given based on standard documents and tried to explain in simple and easiest way.

Best Answers to Robotic Process Automation - RPA Interview Questions

These interview questions are targeted for Robotic Process Automation known as RPA and related tools like UiPath, Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere.

1. What is Robotic Process Automation or RPA?

RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is a technology that is used to automate the tasks or work in software applications and systems just like humans are performing on them. In RPA Robots can be trend based on some flow or steps to perform some actions. RPA enables organizations to make use of these software robots to finish repetitive, time consuming tasks for better satisfaction of customers.
So in simple terms RPA is a process to automate other softwares, these softwares will do repetitive and time consuming tasks which are done by humans now.

2. Give some examples of RPA Applications.

Below is the list of Examples of RPA applications.

  • Process customer orders
  • Transfer data from one application to another
  • Processing incoming email queries
  • Payroll processing
  • Call center operations
  • Forms processing
  • Claims processing

3. What are the different types of RPA tools in market?

There are many different type of RPA tools available. Below is the some common Robotic Process Automation tools list.

  • Blue Prism - It's a company which invented the RPA (Robotic Process Automation). This company provides software robots to process clerical back office processes in an agile manner.
  • UiPath - A web based application to deploy, schedule, monitor manage processes and robots.
  • Automation Anywhere - A web based application to perform end to end automated business tasks.
  • OpenSpan- This tool can be integrated into Visual Studio by plugins or can be used as it is standalone.
  • WorkFusion- AI driven automation software, used to create and manage robots for knowledge based work. It's mainly built for Data-First companies.
  • Jacada
  • Pega
  • Nice Systems
  • There are many other.

4. What are the stages of RPA life cycle?

These are the below stages of RPA life cycle.

  • Identification- RPA architects and experts identify business process with the RPA business team for RPA development.
  • Analysis- Analysis of a business process for RPA development is done by RPA Architects and business team.
  • Design- In this phase PDD (Process Definition Document) is prepared by RPA Architects based on analysis in previous phase. This document describe the information of each phase in every process.
  • Bot Development- RPA developer team start the development part by referring PDD.
  • Testing- It's a normal SDLC flow testing performed by testing team. A dedicated team starts testing of developed bot.
  • Deployment and Maintenance- After testing is completed, bot is ready for deployment and use. It's followed by maintenance process.

5. What are the characteristics of RPA?

RPA has the following characteristics.

  • No Code- Making use of RPA does not require any programming language knowledge. Employees only need to trend on how RPA works. This concept keeps RPA above then other automation methods.
  • User Friendly- RPA softwares are very east to use, there is no special knowledge is required by the users in order to use RPA.
  • Non-Disruptive- Traditional automation methods involve complex processes for transformation but In RPA transformation process is very easy and straight forward.

6. What are the advantages of RPA tools or Robotic Process Automation tools?

There are many benefits of implementing RPA.

  • Reduced Cost- By automating the process cost savings can be achieved. Software robots are also cost less than a employee.
  • Quality Work- RPA softwares perform the work error free as compare to work done by humans.
  • Simple and Flexible- RPA automation does not require any coding skills. Complex processes can be transformed easily.
  • Better Customer Experience- RPA automation deliver the error free work that results better customer satisfaction.
  • Less Operational Risk- Human errors are big mistakes, so RPA reduce the rate of errors by providing a lower level of operational risk.
  • Internal Process Improvement- When AI and RPA comes together that means faster internal reporting, on boarding and other internal activities.
  • Better Control- Most companies outsource the business process work but RPA provides better control over transparency, visibility etc. since all RPA development is in-house because of less effort and cost.

7. What is bot in RPA? What are the different types of bots available in RPA?

A Bot is a software program to perform or automate the tasks very quick as compared to humans. RPA bots can learn and cloned. There are many type of bots are available.

  • Task bots- used for Front-end automation and best for repetitive, rule based tasks and process structured data.
  • Meta bots- perform visual captures that include GUI components used for front-end automation (Facilitates scalability with next-gen integration) and best for complex and scalable process.
  • IQ bots- These are next generation intelligent bots with some AI techniques that learn from every human error and best for managing fuzzy rules and processing unstructured data.

8. How RPA is Different from Scripting and Macros?

RPA is related to scripting and macros but comes with additional values.
Macros- A Macro is a short sequence of code to perform a single task or a series of tasks.
Script- It's closely related to macro. A script is a general term for a sequence of computer code that execute some procedure or series of tasks.
RPA- RPA tools include the functionality that's beyond the capability of scripts and macros like OCR (optical character recognition) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) .
Difference - script or macro is linear and fixed while RPA robots are dynamic. RPA robots can learn, adding cognitive and AI capabilities. When using script or macros you need developers who has programming knowledge but for RPA robots programming knowledge is not required to maintain the automation.
Another major difference is that RPA is autonomous of the application. Where you might need multiple scripting tools to create scripts to perform in your various applications, RPA can interact with multiple applications at once at the object layer.It can be applied virtually to any application or multiple applications at a time.

9. What is Attended versus Unattended Automation?

Let's understand the attended and unattended automation.
Attended Automation - When automation can not be achieved for entire end to end process then attended automation comes in picture. In this Attended bots works alongside humans by system level events that can share the data with human workers. Attended robots optimize the tasks by offloading portions of them and helping work done quickly. for example, in a bank for customer call attended robot can pick the data during live call with human and put that data in another required form.
Unattended Automation - This automation executes the task without human involvement. In this case Robots can be triggered by events and scheduled. Unattended robots can work 24*7*365 without human interaction. for example, A batch job to populate the data in a spreadsheet on server.

10. Explain Thin Client and Thick Client in RPA Automation.

Thin Client and Thick Client both are related network connection and standalone application approach.
Thin Client - It's a software that is designed primarily to work with servers, for example browser need continuous network connection to work properly. Thin client software:

  • does not work if there is no server connection as data is on server.
  • consumes very few local resources like disk, memory etc.
  • functionality depends on fast network connection.
Thick Client - It's a software that implements it's own features, it may connected to server but will be functional in case of disconnect. Thick client software:
  • works properly if there is no server connection as data is stored locally.
  • consumes more local resources like disk space, memory etc.
  • functionality does not depend on network connection.

11. What are the limitations of RPA?

RPA performs very quick for repetitive and complex process tasks but like any other technology RPA also has some limitations.

  • Incomplete Process Automation- Any Process which required multiple department judgment (human interaction) can not be automate. it does not bring end to end solution.
  • Any Process which is using non-digital with unstructured input sources can not be automated.
  • RPA does not learn from experiences so it's not a cognitive solution.

12. What are the different components of RPA Solution Architecture?

RPA (Robotic Process Automation) architecture is very critical phase of RPA life cycle. RPA solution architecture define how well suited RPA solution you are developing. RPA solution is the combination of many tools, platforms and various infrastructure elements to make it complete working RPA tool or solution. So All these blocks are decided in architect phase. So RPA Architecture is the combination of different blocks, let's understand these blocks.
RPA Tool - The capabilities of RPA Tool that you are going to use has ability to automate the applications for any environment such as web, desktop, citrix. These tools has ability to read/write from/to different data sources or not.
RPA Platform - A shared central repository that is used to store all the software robots and resources created using RPA tools, it's preferable in the cloud. RPA Platform has the capability to schedule, distribute and monitor other software robots where All RPA software logs can be stored. RPA Platform act as a repository for reusable components share across multiple software robots.
Infrastructure for RPA Execution - RPA execution infrastructure is the collection of virtual or physical machines that can be scaled up or down based on data patterns, on which software robots are executed for attended or unattended process automation.
Configuration Management - When RPA software version is important then configuration management comes to constantly update software robots to newer versions. When multiple team members are working on shared components then it's needed to maintain code versions and branching.
Other Considerations - There are many RPA vendors in market providing all components are as single unit for RPA development. You should consider the tools or platform which are providing more configuration management capabilities.

13. What is Screen Scraping in RPA?

Screen Scraping is the process of capturing the screen display bitmap data. Bitmap Data is cross checked against stored information to decipher it. This data is stored in database or spreadsheets and used for other applications.
Screen scraping is well suited to work with application interfaces which can not be directly accessed by any UI framework or code. Screen scraping for Text is very common, when UI frameworks or code is not able to extract text from applications then Automation capture the text blocks and decipher it.

14. How RPA is different from Traditional Automation?

RPA and Traditional both are used for automating the business process tasks. But there are few differences as below.

  • For traditional automation, programming language and many APIs are required to integrate the systems, On the hand RPA just mimics the user action at UI level just like humans.
  • For Traditional Automation complexity matters as developers required good knowledge of system and programming language but in RPA robot software is performing the tasks so complexity does not matter as long as robot software is following the instructions.
  • Some times there is no access of source code, APIs or skilled resources not available then traditional automation might not be a option. But RPA works only on User Interface so here RPA will be a good option.
  • RPA does not require lot of time, complex programming knowledge and robust testing efforts, it's just trend and apply concept. Traditional Automation requires complex programming, testing efforts and time as well.
    • So RPA is process of performing the repetitive and redundant tasks faster and similar to humans without any programming knowledge and human intervention.

15. What are the advantages and disadvantage of Screen Scraping?

Screen Scraping has some advantages and some disadvantages as below.
Advantage

  • Some times UI elements are not accessible with the UI Frameworks or Code then Screen Scraping is the option.
  • When Scanned or Image based text is not accessible with Code or UI framework then it's achieved using OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
Disadvantage Screen Scrapping affects the performance as Screen scrappers use some special techniques to achieve the result that reduce the speed.

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16. For the selection of RPA tools what key points you should consider?

While selecting any RPA tool you should keep these points in consideration.

  • AI/ML - RPA tool is supporting AI based techniques or not.
  • Platform Independence - How Flexible the tool is as RPA tool should run independent of platform.
  • OCR (Optical Character Recognition) - should provide the OCR capability.
  • User Friendliness - How easy to understand the RPA software to process the tasks.
  • Maintenance Support - Every Software has bugs and errors so what is the service support for that RPA tool?
  • Cost - Every organization has limitation of cost for their software budgets.
  • Scalability - If companies plan to expand their automation then how much scalable the tool is to perform the tasks?
  • Security - How secure is RPA Tool for very sensitive data like health care and financial?
  • Hosting and Deployment Option - How easy is the deployment and maintenance of Software robots?

17. What is the goal behind RPA?

The Main goal of RPA is to perform the repetitive and complex business tasks (which are performed by humans) very quickly, with minimal cost and zero rate of errors. RPA also provides many AI capabilities.

18. what are the 2 scripting standards that you should consider during automation?

Two standards that you should consider in scripting are:

  • Naming convention should be uniform.
  • Indentation should be adequate.

19. Can RPA automate any business process?

RPA is not responsible for all business process automation. A business Process which involves repetitive steps based on some business rules is perfectly fit for RPA. A Process which take decisions based on some scenarios, and perform some reasoning is not fit for RPA.

20. What is a Test Automation Framework?

A Testing Automation Framework is defined as a set of best practices or certain guidelines and tools to write test cases and to achieve expected results. These best practices could include object repositories, test data handling methods, coding standards, process to store test results and information about external resources.

21. Explain different types of Test Automation Framework.

There are 6 different types of Testing Automation Framework with their own advantages and disadvantages as below.

  • Linear Automation Framework - It's most basic automation framework also known as 'Record and Playback' framework. In this framework No coding is required to perform the tests. Testers can record the navigations, user inputs, checks and then can play back the recording to perform the tests.
  • Modular Based Testing Framework - This framework is based on modular programming concept as testers are required to divide the application into separate units or section. For each individual unit tests are performed in isolation and then combined to achieve larger tests. If any changes are made to application then test changes are only made to particular module not in full application.
  • Library Architecture Testing Framework - It's similar to modular based testing framework with some additional benefits as Application is divided into separate scripts on the basis of objective or function so that similar tasks in the scripts can be identified and grouped by the functions. All these functions are stored in a library and can be used by scripts any time.
  • Data-Driven Framework - It's a framework where data used in scripts stored separately in external resources. Sometimes there is requirement to run the script multiple times with different data so this approach makes it easy as No code changes are required in script, just you can change your data source.
  • Keyword-Driven Framework - It's similar to data driven framework but here keywords associated to object or to parts of UI the action is being performed on, are stored in a separate data table. All keywords are the part of scripts that is being executed to test GUI of an application.
  • Hybrid Testing Framework - It's combination of any above to take the advantages of one and to mitigate the disadvantages of other. Hybrid Testing Framework is mostly adopted now a days to take more benefits to achieve expected results.
For more you can visit Testing Automation Framework

22. What are the benefits of Test Automation Framework.

A Test Automation Framework provides many benefits as below.

  • Increases test speed
  • Improve test efficiency
  • Lower maintenance cost
  • Code re-usability
  • Maximizing test coverage
  • Improve Test Accuracy

23. What are things you should remember for successful RPA Implementation?

You should keep certain points in mind for successful RPA Implementation.

  • Plan - There should be proper step wise plan for the expectations from automation.
  • Process Selection - Choose which process in organization needs to be automated.
  • Partnership - means there should be good collaboration in all involved departments.
  • Training - Employees should be trained on the benefits and uses of RPA Technology.
  • Testing Plan - There should be proper initial and fall back plan for automation.
  • Core Team - There should be a core team of experts for big automation Projects.

24. How long does it take to automate a Process in RPA?

Generally, RPA Process takes 1-3 months for the automation part. But there are certain scenarios where you need to put some break and not let to enter the process for delivery. These scenarios can be:

  • New Technology
  • New Process found
  • On-boarding New Team Members
  • Code changes, Access, Testing etc

25. Does RPA require programming knowledge or special skills?

RPA operations does not required any prior programming knowledge or special skills. Any one can get some training on RPA tools and start the work. So RPA works on just trend and apply concept.

26. What are the most popular RPA tools?

Blue Prism, UiPath and Automations Anywhere are the most popular RPA Tools in the market.

28. Why RPA fits for Data migration?

Data migration is a common task for most of organizations as they do mergers, acquisitions, retirement of old legacy systems, perform modernizations etc. Mostly Organizations use Robotic Process Automation for data migrations as Robots are well suited to perform repetitive , rules based and highly structured data. RPA comes with following data migration benefits.

  • Data migration speed can be increased by deploying multiple Robots.
  • Cost can be reduced using RPA as it does not require any coding or specific UI skills.
  • RPA reduces the errors by eliminating human intervention.
  • RPA can bring the data in line from multiple systems.
  • Robots are able to deal with multiple data formats.
  • RPA can log the information in required situation.
  • RPA has capability to detect inconsistent and low quality data and fix the errors in real-time.

29. How to choose the right process for Robotic Process Automation?

There are several factors which determines a process to be automated.

  • Rules Based Process - In Organizations most of work involves rule based tasks which are performed by humans. A Process which works around rules instead of employee judgment is well suited for RPA.
  • Routine and Well Defined Process - A task which is performed on routine basis, does not change frequently or rarely change is good for RPA.
  • Data Consideration - A Process works well for structured data like CSV, JSON, Database, Spreadsheets etc. When Data in not structured then Process can not be automated or difficult to automate.

30. How will you determine that, Does it make sense to automate a Process?

Sometimes to automate every process is not worth for a organization. Process automation should have a positive and meaningful impact on organization. So consider the process to automate which has more likely effects as below.

  • Repetitive Tasks - To automate a repetitive task has a positive and meaningful impact for a organization as compared to tasks which are executed occasionally.
  • Time consuming and Time critical tasks are good to automate as theses tasks affect the performance of humans but not Robots.
  • Less Errors - As Humans can make the errors and it takes time to fix those errors but Robots can reduce these human errors and produce quality result in less time.
  • When many systems use same data, there are more chances of human errors but Robots can handle that data without any errors.

31. How to select best processes to automate with Intelligent Automation?

Choose a process for Intelligent Automation for

  • Unstructured Data - Intelligent automation comes with the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence and is able to process un-structured data. So choose Intelligent Automation for a Process that use unstructured data as RPA is capable to perform automation of structured data.
    Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Advanced Image Recognition are capable to digitize the data and Machine Learning can process that unstructured data from scanned images and documents.
  • Judgment based Process - Intelligent Automation allow the automation of a end to end process which has minimal human requirement and certain cognitive decisions.

32. How to test RPA task?

33. How will you do RPA Source code Management?

Source code management act as a backbone for any software development. There are many VCS (Version Control Systems) which are used to manage the code. VCS does not help only to manage the code, it reduce seniors efforts while pushing new code to delivery. VCSs should be properly configured in RPA control room before you start your coding. Version control systems also helps to recover your code in case of system failures.

34. How will you handle secure data like username and password in automation project?

In RPA projects, secure data like username and password should be stored in centralized encrypted location not in scripts and other in-secure locations.

35. What are the security risks associated with RPA? and how will you mitigate them?

Despite it's benefits, RPA introduce some security risks.
RPA bots required privileged access to perform automated tasks such as login into system, move data from one application to another application etc. To perform these tasks, Bots need credentials which are stored directly in script or some rule based process. Sometimes there is some step to retrieve these credentials from some location.
Credentials are kept unchanged and stored in insecure locations because they are shared and reused again and again. So Attackers can steal these RPA credentials easily to get privileged access into systems.
You can mitigate these security risks as below.

  • You can use some encrypted centralized locations to store these credentials and should not store sensitive data in scripts and insecure locations.
  • Use the principle of least privilege access for bots means assign the access of application which is required by Bot.
  • Secure RPA console by credentials managed by Admins and should monitor the session activities and terminate the process if found any suspected session.

36. Which RPA Tool did you use? Explain the architecture of the that Tool.

It's scenario based question that may be asked in every interview. You need to explain the architecture of the tool which you worked on like UiPath, Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere etc.

37. Explain Surface automation in RPA.

38. Is there any open source tools for RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is available?

An enterprise or a RPA professional initially explore open-source tools that helps to understand automation without any cost involvement. There are many RPA open-source tools as following.

  • UiPath
  • Blue Prism
  • HelpSystems
  • Automai
  • TagUI
  • RPA for Python
  • Taskt
  • Pegasystems
  • LINX
  • Automagica

39. What are the technical pitfalls in RPA projects?

To know more about technical pitfalls in RPA projects visit this page RPA Project pitfalls

Robotic Process Automation - RPA Quick Facts

  • RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is being popular day by day for all size of business, as it's doing their business tasks automation for their operations to run continuously and smoothly. It's also reducing any human errors. RPA vendors are introducing some advance techniques like AI - Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning techniques, Speech Recognition etc.
  • It's used to automate the complex and repetitive business process which are done by humans now by software robots in very less time, with quality results, and at minimal cost. It does not make any changes in system just replacement of humans by software robots.
  • Many companies accept that they spend 20 to 30 percent oh human work hours on repetitive business tasks and they spend lot of money on that, so RPA is going to reduce this.
  • RPA does not require any prior programming knowledge.
  • RPA is being used by most of Industries like Finance, IT, Retail, health-care, telecommunication, Banking, Manufacturing industries etc.
  • RPA involves lot of cost but benefits are more as compare to cost involved.
  • RPA is not replacing humans completely as RPA users specify which steps are being performed by robot software and other would be implemented by the system.

Future of Robotic Process Automation - RPA

RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is doing very well in all industries to automate their business tasks and being adopted across all industries. RPA has very good future scope as It's providing many benefits to the industries as compared to cost involved in it. Operations are running very smoothly and less chance of human errors.
RPA vendors are also introducing new techniques to provide more capabilities like AI Techniques, ML (Machine Learning), Cloud support etc. Industries are providing many RPA Job opportunities in which you can make your career with attractive salaries. RPA developers are being hired across all industries.

Some General Interview Questions for RPA

1. How much will you rate your self in RPA?

When you attend an interview, Interviewer may ask you to rate your self in specific Technology like RPA, So It's depend on your knowledge and work experience in RPA.

2. What challenges did you face while working on RPA?

This question may be specific to your technology and completely depends on your past work experience. So you need to just explain the challenges you faced related to RPA in your Project.

3. What was your role in last Project related to RPA?

It's based on your role and responsibilities assigned to you and what functionality you implemented using RPA in your project. This question is generally asked in every interview.

4. How much experience do you have in RPA?

Here you can tell about your overall work experience on RPA.

5. Have you done any RPA Certification or Training?

It's depend on candidate like you have done any RPA training or certification. Certifications or trainings are not essential but good to have.

Conclusion

We have covered some frequently asked Robotic Process Automation - RPA Interview Questions and Answers to help you for your Interview. All these Essential Robotic Process Automation - RPA Interview Questions are targeted for mid level of experienced Professionals and freshers.
While attending any Robotic Process Automation - RPA Interview if you face any difficulty to answer any question please write to us at info@qfles.com. Our IT Expert team will find the best answer and will update on portal. In case if we find any new Robotic Process Automation - RPA questions, we will update the same here.

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