Top 150 Civil Engineer Interview questions asked in Top Companies { Must Read }

2020-09-252021-04-13 civilsitevisit

What Do You Understand by M25 Concrete?

According to IS 456 : 2000, M refers Mix and 25 refers the characteristic compressive.

Strength of concrete cube of 150mmX150mmX150 mm tested at the end of 28 days should be minimum 25 N/Sq.mm

2. What is the maximum allowable fresh concrete temperature until used as per ASTM ?

32 ^OC

3. what are the skills required to become an architect ?

Conceptual understanding of designing models
Basic knowledge of computer and architect related software programs
Designing 3D models
Engineering ability
Business aptitude
Legal knowledge

4. What is guniting ?

It is a process in which mixture of cement & sand in proportion of 1:3 is shooted on concrete surface with the help of cement gun under pressure of 2 to 3 kg/cm². It is a highly effective process for repairing concrete walls or damaged surfaces.

5. For filling cracks in masonry structures, the type of bitumen used, is

Plastic bitumen

6. What is the bending moment (BM) & Shear force (SF) – Explain.

A bending moment is the reaction induced in a structural element when an external force or moment is applied to the element causing the element to bend. The most common or simplest structural element subjected to bending moments is the beam.

Shear force is the force in the beam acting perpendicular to its longitudinal (x) axis. For design purposes, the beam’s ability to resist shear force is more important than its ability to resist an axial force. Axial force is the force in the beam acting parallel to the longitudinal axis.

7. For filling cracks in masonry structures, the type of bitumen used, is

Plastic bitumen

8. What is the process of covering of concrete placed on the exposed top of an external wall ?

Coping

9. A wall constructed to resist the pressure of an earth filling, is known as

Retaining wall

10. What is the minimum curing period?

IS 456 – 2000 recommends that curing duration of concrete must be at least 7 days in case of Ordinary Portland Cement, at least 10 days for concrete with Mineral admixtures. It also recommends that the curing duration should not be less than 10 days for concrete of OPC exposed to dry and hot weather conditions and 14 days for concrete with mineral admixtures in hot and dry weather.

11. What is the minimum weight of fine aggregate for sieve analysis as per ASTM C136 ?

300 g

12. How many hours should CBR samples be soaked ?

96 Hrs

13. What is a bearing capacity of soil?

Bearing capacity is the capacity of soil to support the loads applied to the ground by the foundation of the structure.

14. What do you mean by honeycomb in concrete?

Honeycomb, also known as air pocket, is nothing but the air voids in concrete. It is usually formed during concrete casting.

15. What field tests are required for quality check of cement?

Quality of cement can be checked with color, physical properties, etc. Cement should have grey color with light greenish shade. It should feel smooth when rubbed between fingers. If hand is inserted in a heap of cement or its bags, it should feel cool. When pinch of cement is thrown in Water then cement should float for some time before it sink. Also, it should be lump free.

16. What are the types of cement?

There are various types of cement which are: Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), White Portland Cement (WPC), Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), Low Heat Portland Cement, Coloured Portland Cement, Hydrophobic cement, Rapid Hardening Cement, Portland Slag Cement, Sulphate resisting Portland Cement, etc.

17. what is the difference between built area and super built up area?

• Built up area: It includes your carpet area plus area covered by walls, pillars and ducts. It is usually 10% more from the carpet area
• Super built up area: It includes your built up area plus the area that you use as building amenities like passage to lift, stairs and lifts, gym, club, etc.

18. What is Water-Cement Ratio and How it is related to the strength of concrete?

The water-cement ratio is the ratio of the weight of water to the weight of cement used in a concrete mix. A lower ratio leads to higher strength and durability, but may make the mix difficult to work i.e. low workability of Concrete Mix. Workability can be increased with the use of admixtures.

19. Explain what is Hybrid Foundation?

Hybrid Foundation is usually used for high rise building, it contains both soil supported mat and piles. This type of foundation is helpful in reducing the amount of the settlement.

20 . What are the steps involved in the concreting process, explain?

Steps In Concreting:

Batching: The process of measuring different concrete materials such as cement, coarse aggregate, sand, water for the making of concrete is known as batching.
Mixing.
Transportation:
Compaction.
Curing.

21. Explain what is flashing?

Flashing is an extended construction that is done to seal and protects joints in a building from water penetration. Flashing is installed at the intersecting roofs, walls and parapets.

22. What is Bursting Reinforcement ?

Tensile stresses are induced during prestressing operation and the maximum bursting stress occurs where the stress trajectories are concave towards the line of action of the load. Reinforcement is needed to resist these lateral tensile forces.

23. What are the major problems in using pumping for concreting works?

The main problems associated with pumping are the effect of segregation and bleeding. To rectify these adverse effects, the proportion of cement is increased to enhance the cohesion in order to reduce segregation and bleeding. On the other hand, a proper selection of aggregate grading helps to improve the pump-ability of concrete.

24. What are the responsibilities of a construction manager?

The responsibilities of a construction manager are

• Cost Estimates
• Pre-purchase of selected materials
• Selection of bidders for bidding phase
• Analysis of proposals
• Construction contract negotiations
• Construction Scheduling and Monitoring
• Cost control of construction
• Construction supervision

25. What is Shear slump ?

Shear slump implies that the concrete mix is deficient in cohesion. Consequently, it may undergo segregation and bleeding and thus is undesirable for durability of concrete.

26. Why is concrete weak in tension?

Concrete is made up of collection of materials (several aggregate types, cement, pozzolans, water, air…), which are stick together with a cement paste. The “interface” zone is the weakest link in the structure. When compressing, that interface only serves to transfer compressive stresses from one aggregate to the next. That does not require exceptional strength.

Under tension, the aggregates are trying to pull away from each other, and the glue is what holds the whole system together. Since it is significantly weaker than the aggregates, it is where the failure starts at much lower stresses.

27. What is grouting?
Grout is a fluid form of concrete which is used to fill the voids.

28. What is the recommended slump for column ?

75 to 125 mm

29. The bearing capacity of granite is generally ?

30 to 35 kg/cm ²

30. What are the specifications of tamping rod used in cube filling for cube test ?

Ans :- According to the IS code 2386, a 16 mm steel rod with rounded edge

31 .What is the minimum curing period ?

IS 456 – 2000 recommends that curing duration of concrete must be at least 7 days in case of Ordinary Portland Cement, at least 10 days for concrete with Mineral admixtures.

It also recommends that the curing duration should not be less than 10 days for concrete of OPC exposed to dry and hot weather conditions and 14 days for concrete with mineral admixtures in hot and dry weather.

32. What are the functions of column in a building ?

Column is a vertical member in building whose Primary function is to support structural load and transfer it through beams. Upper columns transfers the load to the lower columns and finally to the ground through footings.

33. What are the uses of Groynes ?

They prevent, or slow down erosion, and stop the longshore drift. This, however, can have bad knock-on effects somewhere near.

34. What is the initial and final setting time of ideal cement mix?

Initial setting time for ideal cement mix is around 30 minutes for almost all kind of cements. For masonry cement it can be 90minutes. Final setting time of ideal cement mix should be 10 hours at max. For masonry cement it shouldn’t exceed 24hours

35. The portion of a brick cut across the width is called

Bat

36. What reinforcements are used in the process of prestressing?

The major types of reinforcements used in prestressing are:

Spalling Reinforcement: The spalling stresses leads to stress behind the loaded area of the anchor blocks. This results in the breaking off of the surface concrete. The most likely causes of such types of stresses are Poisson`s effects strain interoperability or by the stress trajectory shapes.

Equilibrium reinforcements: This type of reinforcements are required where several anchorages exist where the prestressing loads are applied in a sequential manner.

Bursting Reinforcements: These kinds of stresses occur in cases where the stress trajectories are concave towards the line of action of load. In order to reduce such stresses, reinforcements in the form of bursting are required.

37. What are the common ways of demolition?

• Hydro-demolition
• Pressure Bursting
• Dismantling

38. What are the main reasons for conducting pull-out tests for soil nails?

There are mainly four reasons for this test:

To check and verify the bond strength between soil and grout adopted during the design of soil nails. This is the main objective of conducting soil nail pull-out test.
To determine the bond strength between soil and grout for future design purpose. However, if this target is to be achieved, the test nails should be loaded to determine the ultimate soil/grout bond with an upper limit of 80% of the ultimate tensile strength of steel bars.
To check if there is any slippage or creep occurrence.
To check the elastic and plastic deformations of test nails. This is observed during the repeated loading and unloading cycles of soil nails.

39. Explain QA&QC ?

Quality Assurance (QA): Quality Assurance is a set of activities for ensuring quality in the processes by which works are done. Quality Assurance is the process of managing for quality.

Quality Control (QC): Quality Control is a set of activities for ensuring quality in works. The activities focus on identifying defects in the actual products produced. Quality Control is used to verify the quality of the output.

40. What Is The Ratio Of Grades M5, M7.5, M10, M15, M20, M25, M30, M35, M40?

M5 – 1:5:10

M7.5 – 1:4:8

M10 – 1:3:6

M15 – 1:2:4

M20 – 1:1.5:3

M25 – 1:1:2

M30, M35, M40 – Design Mix Followed

41. The length of each fish plate is

457.2mm

42. Rail chairs are used to fix

Double head rails

43. What is guniting ?

It is a process in which mixture of cement & sand in proportion of 1:3 is shooted on concrete surface with the help of cement gun under pressure of 2 to 3 kg/cm2

44. It is a highly effective process for repairing concrete walls or damaged surfaces

Flat bearing

The main purpose of using bearing plate is to

Distribute the pressure over wider area,eliminate the adzing of wooden sleepers,preventing the widening of gauge of curves

45. How would you describe the soundness of cement?

Cement soundness can be described as a property which ensures that the cement does not go through any appreciable expansion pr experience any chance in volume once it has been set. This process helps get rid of any possibilities of the mortar or concrete from getting disrupted.

46. Creeping of rails can be checked by using

Anchors

47. What Is Rigging ?

In sailing, the ropes used to move the sails around so the boat will move in the right direction when the wind blows.

48. What Are The Materials Used In Building A Gravity Dam?

There are many gravity dams constructed of compacted earth. High dams are generally concrete. All dams require a spillway to be safe. The spillway must be armored.

49. What made you decide to become a civil engineer?

I Decided to become a civil engineer because of my father who is a Math teacher. As a child he shared his great love for solving mathematical equations and other types of puzzles with me. He was always asking me to look outside the box to solve each dilemma. He encouraged me to have a quizzical mind and to always explore not only how something was built but also how it worked. He inspired me to figure out if the design could be improved upon by utilizing a different means.”

50. what The Purpose Of The Gap In The Road On This Bridge?

Purpose of the gap in the road is to allow the road to expand and contract with temperature changes without causing damage or deformation to the road

51. On Indian railways , minimum formation width in embankment for a single line of board gauge ,is

6.1m

53. The device used for changing the direction of the engines is called

Turn table

54. The device provided to prevent the vehicles from moving beyond the end of rail at terminals is called

Buffer stops

55. What Are Moment Of Inertia And Its Importance In Civil Engineering?

The moment of inertia measures the opposition any kind of body will have against a certain momentum (along that same axis) trying to rotate that body.

56. The distance between the running edge of the stock and switch rails at the switch heel ,is called

Heel clearance

57. What are various tests for checking brick quality?

We can use water absorption test, hardness test, shape & size, crushing strength test, soundness test, etc. to check the brick quality. In water absorption test, we dip the brick for 16 hours in water. If weight of brick after dipping in water doesn’t exceed by 20%, it can be considered as first class brick, if below 22.5% it can be considered as second class brick, if below 25% it can be considered as third class brick. In crushing test, it crushing strength should be minimum of 10 N/mm2 for first class brick, 7.5 N/mm2

for second class bricks. In hardness test, we scratch the brick with nails. It should be scratch free. In soundness test we check the metallic sound by striking two bricks with each other

58.The distance between the adjacent faces of the stock rail and the check rail , is called

Flange way clearance

59. What is void ratio?

Void ratio is the ratio of volume of voids to volume of solids.

60 .Stock rails are fitted

Against tongue clearance

61.The switch angle is the angle subtended between the gauge faces of the

Stock rail and check

62. Explain what is Critical Path Method (C.P.M)?

Critical Path Method is strategy and method of representing the respective tasks and activities involved in the construction through a symbolic diagram.

63. How Do You Determine Specific Gravity Of Cement?

Cement is usually purchased as a powdery substance that is mixed with sand, aggregate, gravel, and water to form concrete. Since the cement itself is usually a powder, it is hard to measure a standard value for its specific gravity. In addition, since cement is usually not used by itself, knowing its specific gravity is not Particularly useful.

A more useful question is “What is the typical density of concrete?” A rule of thumb answer is that normal cured concrete has a density of about 150 pounds per cubic foot. This includes the weight of the cement, sand, aggregate, and that PArt of the water that chemically binds with the cement to form the concrete. Since water weighs about 62.4 pounds per cubic feet, concrete is about 2.4 times as heavy. Thus, the specific gravity of concrete is about 2.4. If you took cement and mixed it with water, you would eventually have a hard lump of useless cement and it would also have a specific gravity of between 2 and 2.4.

64. The distance between the running face of the stock rail and toe of the tongue rail is known as

Throw of switch

65. The maximum value of throw of switch for a broad gauge track is

95mm

66 . In INDIA , the crossing number for passenger turnout is taken as

67 .A warner signal ,which is first seen by the driver , is known as

Outer signal

68.

69. The reception signal is

Outer signal ,home signal

70 .In a shunting signal , if the red band is horizontal , it indicates

Proceed

What the steps involved in Building Construction?

71. There are different steps involved in Building construction like,

Concreting
Masonry work
Plastering work
Flooring work
Formwork
Steel cutting and Bending

72. How do you measure the volume of concrete?

The volume of concrete is calculated by Multiplying its Length, Width, and Thickness together. For Example – 1m x1m x1m = 1 m³ of volume of concrete.

73. Why Concrete Cover is provided to reinforcement?

Concrete cover for reinforcement is required to protect the rebar against corrosion and to provide resistance against fire.

74. How to do check level on construction site?

I will check the level on construction site by Spirit level, Dumpy Level and Leveling Pipe.

75. What is the accuracy of the dumpy level or minimum reading we can take?

With the help of a dumpy level we can take up 5mm accurate reading or minimum reading.

76. How do you calculate the weight of 12m long and 10mm dia. Steel on-site?

By multiplying the length of steel bar with its unit weight

(unit wt of 10mm = 0.60 kg/m)

Weight of steel = 0.60x 12

= 7.2 kg

77. Which is the equation used for calculating unit weight of steel bar?

(D²/162)

78. What is the size of a concrete cube?

15 cm x 15 cm x 15 cm

79. What do you do if any concrete cube fails in 28 days compressive strength test?

If the concrete cube fails in strength test, I will conduct a core cutter test on concrete and send a report to higher authorities.

80. What is the mix ratio for M – 20 Grade of concrete?

1: 1.5: 3

81. What is the Unit weight of 12 mm Steel Bars.

0.89 kg/m

82. Explain what is floating slab foundation?

A floating concrete foundation is a type of mat foundation that consists of the hollow mat formed by a grid of thick reinforced concrete walls between two thick reinforced concrete slabs.

83. What is the Density of Steel?

7850 kg/m³

84. In Fe – 415 Steel Grade, 415 indicates of Steel.

Tensile Strength

85. The height of low kerb ?

A kerb is a structure used to separate pavement and median, pavement and shoulder, pavement and footpath. In low kerb height is restricted to 100mm only.

86. What is the Volume of 50 kg bag of cement?

0.035 m³

87. What are the functions of grout inside tendon ducts?

Grout in prestressing works serves the following purposes:
1. Protect the tendon against corrosion.
2. Improve the ultimate capacity of tendon.
3. Provide a bond between the structural member and the tendon.
4. In case of failure, the anchorage is not subject to all strain energy.

88. In Residential Building, Average Value of Stair Width?

900 mm

89. What is the function of shear keys in the design of retaining walls?

In determining the external stability of retaining walls, failure modes like bearing failure,
sliding and overturning are normally considered in design. In considering the criterion of
sliding, the sliding resistance of retaining walls is derived from the base friction between
the wall base and the foundation soils. To increase the sliding resistance of retaining walls,
other than providing a large self-weight or a large retained soil mass, shear keys are to be
installed at the wall base.

90. he Slope of Stair Should not Exceed.

25- 40º

91. What are the major problems in using pumping for concreting works?

In pumping operation, the force exerted by pumps must overcome the friction between
concrete and the pumping pipes, the weight of concrete and the pressure head when placing
concrete above the pumps. In fact, as only water is pumpable, it is the water in the concrete
that transfers the pressure.
The main problems associated with pumping are the effect of segregation and bleeding. To
rectify these adverse effects, the proportion of cement is increased to enhance the cohesion
in order to reduce segregation and bleeding. On the other hand, a proper selection of
aggregate grading helps to improve the pumpability of concrete.

92. Minimum diameter of steel in Column.

12 mm

93. What are the disadvantages of curing by ponding and polythene sheets?

The purpose of curing is to reduce the rate of heat loss of freshly placed concrete to the
atmosphere and to minimize the temperature gradient across concrete cross section.
Moreover, curing serves to reduce of the loss water from freshly placed concrete to the
atmosphere.
Ponding: This method of thermal curing is readily affected by weather condition (cold
wind). Moreover, a large amount of water used has to be disposed off the construction sites
after curing.
Polythene sheet: This method of curing is based on the principle that there is no flow of air
over the concrete surface and thereby no evaporation can take place on top of the freshly
concreted surface by provision of polythene sheets. However, it suffers from the demerit
that polythene sheets can be easily blown off in windy condition and the performance of
curing would be affected. Moreover, for water lost due to self-desiccation, this method
cannot replenish these losses.

94. Standard Size of Brick?

19 cm x 9 cm x 9 cm

95. What is Unit Weight of RCC?

2500 kg/ m³

96. Explain what are the problems one might face while having a Cantilever balcony?

Cantilever balcony are usually unsupported and extend outwards, so the problem with Cantilever balconies are

• Excess deflection or bounce
• Weakness of the deck structure
• Rot and water damage to the interior of the house
• Unevenness inside the house
• Can’t use the balcony for gardening or other purposes as it is not designed to lift excess amount of weight

97. One Acre = Sq. ft.

43560 Sq. ft.

98. What is the Full Form of UTM?

Universal Testing Machine

99. What do you understand by segregation?

Segregation is defined as a process of filtering cement & sand separately from the concrete mixture. In other words, segregation is caused due to vibration between materials forming a concrete.

One material being high in weight & one being less tend to be uneven while in a liquid state. The heavier material gets settled at the bottom of the concrete & lighter material moves on top.

100. Cement Expire After?

3 month

101. What is the IS code for Plain and Reinforced Concrete

IS :456

102. One square meter = Sq. ft?

10.76 Sq. ft

103. What are the standard American codes for steel and concrete

ACI and AISC

104. What is the code of practice for General Construction in steel

IS :800

105. What is unit weight of 25 mm Steel Bars

3.85 kg/m

106 . One Hectare = _______Acres

2.47 Acres

107. One Gallon = Liters 3.78Liters

108 . Which type of cement is used is construction of massive Dam structures

Low heat cement

109. One kilonewton is equal to kilograms

101.97 KG

110. For Steel structures what is permissible vertical deflection

Span / 325

111. One Tonne is equal to kilograms

1000 KG

112. Maximum Free fall of concrete allowed is ?

1.5 m

113. Instrument used for level work on a construction site?

Dumpy Level

114. What is the minimum reinforcement in beams

Ast/b*d = 0.85/ fy

115. What is the maximum reinforcement in beams

0.04*b*d

116. What is the minimum reinforcement in slabs

0.12 % of gross area

117. What is the minimum reinforcement in columns

0. 8% of area

118. What is the maximum reinforcement in columns

119. Minimum Bars in Circular Column Should be_______

6 Nos.

120. What is the Full Form of AAC?

Autoclaved Aerated Concrete

121. What is the Full Form of NDT?

Non – Destructive Test

122. What is the Full Form of JCB?

Joseph Cyril Bamford

123. Which Test is conducted to determine the bearing capacity of Soil?

Plate Load Test

124. Ring and ball test is conducted on which construction material?

Bitumen

125. Where is the section for bending considered

At the face of column

126. What is the maximum no of steps in a flight

127. What are various limit states of strength

Flexure, Compression, shear and torsion

128. Minimum hook length as per IS Code?

75 mm

129. What is the extra length in Bent up bars?

0.45 X D

130. What is Least Count of Dumpy?

5mm

131. What is Full of EGL?

Existing ground level.

132. A First Class Brick Should Absorb Water More than?

20 %

133. What are the minimum no of bars to be provided in rectangular column

134 .What are minimum no of bars to be provided in circular column

135. What are various losses in prestressing

1 Elastic deformation of concrete
2 Shrinkage of concrete
3 Creep of concrete
4 Relaxation of stress in steel

136. Vicats apparatus is used for

Consistency test

137. Le chatliers apparatus is used for

Soundness test

138. Number of Bricks used in 1 Cubic meter of Brickwork?

500 Nos.

139. The Normal Consistency of Portland Cement?

25 %

140. The Expansion in Portland cement is tested by…

Soundness Test

141. What is shear center in steel beam

It is point or axis through which load acts

142. What is Strut

Struct is a compression member

143. What is Modular ratio

It is the ratio of Modulus of elasticity of steel to Modulus of elasticity of concrete

144. What is the minimum diameter of bar used in column

145. What are bearing piles

Bearing piles transfer the loads to the hard strata

146. What are friction Piles

Friction piles transfer the loads by friction between surface of pile and soil.

147. According to IS Code, Full Strength of Concrete is achieved after?

28 Days

148. What is the Volume of 1 bag of cement?

0.035 m³

149. Minimum Grade of Concrete Used For RCC?

M – 20

149. What is the slenderness limit for column

Less than 12 , it is short column
More than 12 , it is Long column

150. What is the initial and final setting time for cement?

Initial: Less than 30 min and 600 min.

150. Le chatliers apparatus is used for

Soundness test