COBOL Practice Exam

COBOL Practice Exam

COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) remains a critical programming language in sectors such as banking, finance, and government. Our COBOL Practice Exam helps you gain the knowledge and confidence needed to excel in COBOL certification exams and tackle real-world COBOL programming challenges.

Why choose the COBOL Exam?

• Comprehensive Preparation: Focus on key areas of COBOL, including syntax, program structure, and data handling.
• Realistic Questions: Get exam-style questions to simulate the actual testing experience.
• Detailed Feedback: Understand your mistakes and learn with in-depth answer explanations.
• Track Progress: Measure your exam readiness with our performance tracking system.

Who should take this Exam?

• Aspiring COBOL Developers
• Software Developers looking to enhance legacy system skills
• Professionals working in finance, banking, or government sectors
• Certification candidates seeking COBOL credentials

Skills Covered

• Mastery of COBOL syntax and structure
• Data division and file handling
• Control structures (IF, PERFORM, etc.)
• COBOL debugging and error handling
• Legacy system integration and maintenance

Knowledge Gained

• Writing, compiling, and executing COBOL programs
• Effective use of COBOL for business data processing
• Understanding of COBOL in legacy systems and modern applications
• Handling files, databases, and data structures using COBOL
• Error handling and program debugging techniques

Course Outline

The COBOL Practice Exam Covers the following topics - 

Domain 1. Introduction to COBOL Programming

• Overview of COBOL: History, development, and significance of COBOL in modern business applications.
• Basic Program Structure: Understanding Identification, Environment, Data, and Procedure Divisions.
• Writing and Executing a Simple COBOL Program: Step-by-step approach to writing, compiling, and executing COBOL programs.
• COBOL in Business Applications: Role of COBOL in financial services, government, and legacy systems.

Domain 2. Data Types, Variables, and Structures

• COBOL Data Division: Detailed look at the Data Division structure.
• Variables and Constants: How to declare, use, and manipulate variables and constants.
• COBOL Data Types: Numeric, Alphanumeric, and Alphabetic data types.
• Group and Elementary Items: Defining and organizing complex data structures.
• Working with Level Numbers (01 to 49, 66, 77, 88): Structuring data efficiently.
• Handling Literals: Numeric, non-numeric, and figurative constants.

Domain 3. File Handling in COBOL

• File Control & File Descriptors: Introduction to COBOL's file handling and description of files.
• Sequential File Operations: OPEN, READ, WRITE, REWRITE, CLOSE statements.
• Indexed Files and Relative Files: Definition, creation, and handling of indexed files.
• File Organization and Access Methods: Understanding file organizations such as Sequential, Indexed, and Relative.
• Handling File I/O Errors: Using the FILE STATUS clause to handle file input/output errors.

Domain 4. Control Structures and Logic

• COBOL Conditional Statements: IF, EVALUATE, and complex conditions.
• PERFORM Statements: Using simple and nested loops with PERFORM UNTIL, PERFORM TIMES, and PERFORM VARYING.
• GO TO and EXIT Statements: Understanding control flow and avoiding excessive GO TO usage.
• Decision Making: Utilizing logical operations for decision-making within the program.
• Case Structures with EVALUATE: Implementing advanced decision-making using the EVALUATE statement.

Domain 5. COBOL Program Debugging and Error Handling

• Common Errors in COBOL Programs: Syntax errors, logic errors, and runtime errors.
• Debugging Tools and Techniques: COBOL program debugging strategies and the use of debugging tools like interactive COBOL debuggers.
• Handling Data and Computational Errors: Managing divide-by-zero, data overflow, and other runtime errors.
• Using the DISPLAY Statement: Debugging with the DISPLAY command to print values during program execution.
• Advanced Error Handling Techniques: Using declaratives for error handling.

Domain 6. COBOL and Legacy System Integration

• COBOL in Mainframe Systems: How COBOL integrates with modern and legacy mainframe environments.
• COBOL with Databases: Utilizing COBOL in conjunction with databases, specifically DB2 and other legacy databases.
• Batch vs. Online COBOL Programs: Differentiating between batch processing and online transaction programs.
• COBOL for Business Data Processing: Use cases for COBOL in large-scale business operations.
• COBOL in Banking and Financial Systems: Real-world applications of COBOL in banking and finance.

Domain 7. COBOL Subprograms and Modular Programming

• Modularization in COBOL: Writing reusable modules using COBOL subprograms.
• CALL and LINKAGE Section: Passing data between programs using the CALL statement and the LINKAGE section.
• Subprograms vs. Main Programs: Differences, uses, and benefits of subprograms.
• Using COPYBOOKS: Implementing copybooks to standardize code.

Domain 8. Advanced COBOL Topics

• String Manipulation: Handling strings using INSPECT, STRING, and UNSTRING.
• Sorting and Merging Files: COBOL SORT and MERGE statements for data organization.
• Handling Tables (Arrays): Defining and using tables with OCCURS clause.
• Indexing and Subscripting: Differences between subscripting and indexing for accessing array elements.

Domain 9. COBOL Report Generation

• Generating Reports in COBOL: Writing code to generate business reports.
• Report Formatting Techniques: Formatting data for reports with detailed report headers, footers, and page breaks.
• ADVANCING Clause: Managing report page breaks using the ADVANCING clause.

Domain 10. COBOL Standards and Best Practices

• COBOL Programming Standards: Writing clean, maintainable COBOL code.
• Optimizing COBOL Programs: Techniques to improve the performance of COBOL programs.
• Documenting COBOL Code: Writing effective comments and documentation.
• Transitioning to Modern COBOL: Adapting to modern versions and extensions of COBOL.