MCSD Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield MCSD facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Which API is used to send toast notifications in Windows Store apps? → ToastNotificationManager
2. In C# LINQ, what does the 'Where' extension method return? → A filtered IEnumerable based on a predicate
3. In ASP.NET Core middleware, what method is called to pass the request to the next component in the pipeline? → next()
4. What does the CSS `position: sticky` value do? → Positions the element relative to its nearest scrolling ancestor until a threshold is met
5. What does Azure Service Bus provide? → Reliable cloud messaging between distributed applications
6. Which JavaScript concept allows a function to access variables from its outer scope even after the outer function has returned? → Closure
7. In C# generics, what does a `where T : class` constraint enforce? → T must be a reference type
8. What is a Windows Store app tile used for? → The app's live icon on the Start screen that can display dynamic content
9. In CSS Grid, which property defines the size and number of columns in the grid? → grid-template-columns
10. What is an Azure Resource Group? → A logical container for related Azure resources with a shared lifecycle
11. Which HTML5 API would you use to run CPU-intensive JavaScript without blocking the main UI thread? → Web Workers
12. What is a concurrency conflict in Entity Framework? → Two users modifying the same data and one overwriting the other's changes
13. What does REST stand for? → Representational State Transfer
14. What does `DbContext` represent in Entity Framework? → The session with the database, exposing DbSet properties for querying
15. In ASP.NET MVC, what does the `RedirectToAction()` method return? → RedirectToRouteResult
16. What file in a Windows Store app project declares the app's capabilities and identity? → Package.appxmanifest
17. Which interface do you implement to create a custom model binder in ASP.NET MVC? → IModelBinder
18. Which CSS3 property is used to apply a smooth transition between two states of an element? → transition
19. Which Entity Framework loading strategy fetches related entities in separate queries on demand? → Lazy loading
20. Which Azure feature allows you to deploy code without downtime using staged environments? → Deployment Slots
21. Which WCF binding is used to create REST/JSON endpoints instead of SOAP endpoints? → WebHttpBinding
22. Which Azure service provides a fully managed relational database with built-in high availability? → Azure SQL Database
23. AppCache API event fired when downloading Answer: ondownloading → TRUE
24. What is the correct way to create a Promise that immediately resolves with the value 42? → new Promise(resolve => resolve(42))
25. Which attribute in ASP.NET MVC restricts an action to HTTP POST requests only? → [HttpPost]
26. Which pattern separates application concerns into Model, View, and ViewModel layers and is commonly used in XAML-based apps? → MVVM
27. In WPF, what mechanism allows a UI element to automatically reflect changes in a data source without manual event handling? → Data binding
28. What does the Unit of Work pattern ensure in .NET data access? → All operations in a business transaction are committed or rolled back together
29. In ASP.NET MVC, what is ViewBag? → A dynamic property bag for passing data from controller to view
30. What is the purpose of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)? → Provides cloud-based identity and access management