Top 50 Jira Interview Question and Answers
Jira is one of the most widely used project management tools, especially in Agile and DevOps environments. If you’re preparing for an interview related to Jira, here are 50 important Jira interview questions, along with their detailed answers, to help you ace your interview.
1. What is Jira?
Answer:
Jira is a popular project management tool used primarily for issue tracking and project management. It allows teams to plan, track, and manage Agile software development projects.
2. What are the different types of issues in Jira?
Answer:
Jira allows various types of issues, including:
- Story: A feature or requirement.
- Bug: A defect in the product.
- Task: An individual task to be completed.
- Epic: A large body of work that can be broken down into smaller stories.
- Sub-task: A smaller task that is part of a larger task or story.
3. What is a Jira workflow?
Answer:
A Jira workflow is a set of statuses and transitions that an issue moves through during its lifecycle. It defines the steps an issue goes through, such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.”
4. What is the difference between Scrum and Kanban boards in Jira?
Answer:
- Scrum Board: Used for managing Scrum-based projects. It works in iterations called Sprints.
- Kanban Board: Used for continuous flow projects. It allows tasks to be tracked individually without timeboxed iterations.
5. What are the components of a Jira project?
Answer:
A Jira project consists of:
- Issues: Tasks, bugs, and user stories tracked in Jira.
- Boards: Visual representation of issues.
- Workflows: The process through which issues flow.
- Sprints (in Scrum): Timeboxed periods during which work is completed.
6. What is a Jira Epic?
Answer:
An Epic is a large body of work that can be broken down into smaller user stories. It typically represents a significant feature or initiative within a project.
7. What is a Jira User Story?
Answer:
A user story represents a feature or functionality from the user’s perspective. It describes what a user needs to do with the product.
8. How do you customize a Jira issue?
Answer:
You can customize Jira issues by modifying the fields, workflows, permissions, and notifications. This can be done in the project settings.
9. What is the difference between a project and a board in Jira?
Answer:
- Project: A container for issues and configuration, representing a set of work items.
- Board: A visual representation of issues from one or more projects, helping to track and manage work.
10. How can you filter issues in Jira?
Answer:
You can filter issues using Jira Query Language (JQL), a powerful query language, or by using pre-configured filters like “Assigned to Me,” “Open Issues,” etc.
11. What is JQL (Jira Query Language)?
Answer:
JQL is a query language used in Jira to filter and sort issues. It provides advanced search capabilities beyond the standard filters.
12. What are Jira’s permission schemes?
Answer:
A permission scheme defines what actions users or groups can perform in Jira, such as creating issues, editing issues, and transitioning issues.
13. What is the use of a Jira dashboard?
Answer:
Jira dashboards allow users to see a personalized summary of their work, including gadgets for tracking issues, project progress, and other important metrics.
14. What are Jira reports?
Answer:
Jira reports provide insights into the project’s progress and performance. Common reports include burndown charts, sprint reports, and velocity charts.
15. Explain the difference between “Resolved” and “Closed” statuses in Jira.
Answer:
- Resolved: An issue is fixed, but it is not yet verified.
- Closed: The issue is fixed, verified, and considered complete.
16. How do you manage workflows in Jira?
Answer:
Workflows in Jira can be managed by going to the Project Settings > Workflows. You can create custom workflows or modify existing ones.
17. What is the use of a filter subscription in Jira?
Answer:
A filter subscription allows users to receive automatic email notifications based on specific filter criteria. It helps to keep team members updated on relevant changes.
18. What is the difference between a “Task” and a “Sub-task” in Jira?
Answer:
- Task: A standalone unit of work.
- Sub-task: A smaller part of a larger task or story that can be assigned and tracked individually.
19. What are Jira’s global permissions?
Answer:
Global permissions define the actions that users can perform across the entire Jira instance, such as managing projects, system settings, and user permissions.
20. What is the difference between Jira Cloud and Jira Server?
Answer:
- Jira Cloud: A cloud-based version of Jira hosted by Atlassian.
- Jira Server: A self-hosted version of Jira, allowing more customization but requiring more maintenance.
21. What is a Jira version?
Answer:
A version in Jira is a label applied to a set of issues that represent a specific release of a product. It helps track work toward specific milestones.
22. What is a Jira component?
Answer:
Components are sub-sections within a project, allowing issues to be categorized by area, function, or team. For example, “UI,” “Backend,” and “Testing” might be components in a software project.
23. What is a Jira sprint?
Answer:
A sprint is a set period during which specific tasks or user stories are completed, typically part of an Agile Scrum methodology.
24. How do you create a custom field in Jira?
Answer:
To create a custom field in Jira, go to Jira Settings > Issues > Custom Fields. Here, you can define new fields with different types (text, dropdown, date, etc.).
25. What is the significance of Jira’s “Issue Types”?
Answer:
Issue types allow you to categorize tasks, bugs, user stories, and other work items according to their nature and purpose within the project.
26. What is a Jira backlog?
Answer:
A backlog is a list of tasks, user stories, and bugs that are awaiting prioritization and development in an Agile project.
27. Explain the concept of “Bulk Change” in Jira.
Answer:
Bulk change allows you to modify multiple issues at once, such as updating the status, assignee, or priority for a group of issues.
28. What are Jira’s notification schemes?
Answer:
Notification schemes define how and when notifications are sent to users when changes occur in issues, such as updates, transitions, or comments.
29. What is a Jira service desk?
Answer:
Jira Service Desk is a tool built on Jira used for IT service management. It allows teams to manage incidents, service requests, and change requests in an ITIL framework.
30. What is an SLA in Jira Service Desk?
Answer:
SLA (Service Level Agreement) is a set of criteria that define the expected service standards, such as response times and resolution times, for customer support requests.
31. How do you integrate Jira with Confluence?
Answer:
You can integrate Jira with Confluence by linking Jira issues and Confluence pages. This helps teams collaborate on documentation while tracking issues.
32. What is the role of a Jira Administrator?
Answer:
A Jira Administrator is responsible for managing Jira’s configuration, including creating projects, workflows, issue types, permissions, and user management.
33. What is an “Active Sprint” in Jira?
Answer:
An active sprint is a sprint that is currently in progress, and work is being completed for the issues within it.
34. How can you create a Jira board?
Answer:
To create a board, go to Jira Settings > Boards > Create Board. You can choose a Scrum board, Kanban board, or a new board from an existing project.
35. What is the significance of the “Assigned to Me” filter?
Answer:
The “Assigned to Me” filter shows all issues assigned to the logged-in user, helping them track their tasks and responsibilities.
36. Explain the concept of “Issue Security Levels” in Jira.
Answer:
Issue security levels allow you to restrict access to certain issues based on the user’s role or security level. This ensures sensitive information is only visible to authorized users.
37. What are Jira’s Agile features?
Answer:
Jira offers several Agile features such as Scrum boards, Kanban boards, sprint planning, burndown charts, and velocity tracking to manage Agile workflows.
38. How do you delete an issue in Jira?
Answer:
To delete an issue, you must have the necessary permissions. Go to the issue, click on the ellipsis menu, and select “Delete.”
39. What is the purpose of a Jira “filter”?
Answer:
A Jira filter allows users to query and retrieve issues based on specific criteria, such as issue type, assignee, and priority.
40. What are the different Jira user roles?
Answer:
- Jira Software User: Can access and interact with Jira Software projects.
- Jira Administrator: Has full administrative access.
- Project Administrator: Manages project-specific configurations.
- Jira Service Desk Agent: Manages support tickets in Jira Service Desk.
41. How do you use Jira’s “Versions” feature?
Answer:
Versions in Jira help track releases. You can associate issues with a specific version, track progress, and see how much work remains before the release.
42. What is the purpose of a “Sub-task” in Jira?
Answer:
A sub-task is used to break down larger tasks into smaller, manageable pieces, helping to track specific aspects of a larger issue.
43. How can you automate tasks in Jira?
Answer:
Jira offers automation rules to automate common tasks like sending notifications, changing issue status, or assigning issues based on specific triggers.
44. What is a “Kanban” in Jira?
Answer:
Kanban is a visual project management tool used to optimize the flow of tasks. It uses a board with columns representing task statuses like “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.”
45. What is a “Burndown Chart” in Jira?
Answer:
A Burndown chart is a graphical representation of work completed versus work remaining in a sprint, helping to track project progress.
46. How do you import data into Jira?
Answer:
Jira provides tools for importing data from CSV files, external systems, or previous Jira instances using the External System Import feature.
47. What is a “Velocity Chart” in Jira?
Answer:
The velocity chart in Jira measures the amount of work completed in each sprint, helping teams forecast their capacity for future sprints.
48. What is a Jira “Service Level Agreement (SLA)”?
Answer:
An SLA defines the expected service delivery standards for customer support teams. Jira Service Desk tracks and manages SLAs for support tickets.
49. What is Jira Portfolio?
Answer:
Jira Portfolio is an advanced project management tool that helps teams plan and track project progress, resources, and dependencies across multiple projects.
50. How do you create a Jira report?
Answer:
Jira offers various pre-configured reports like burndown charts, sprint reports, and velocity reports. You can create reports under the Reports section in the project sidebar.
