TFS Interview Questions & Answers (2025)

TFS stands for Team Foundation Server also known as Microsoft TFS that helps to manage teams and their code. It provides a combo of version control, issue tracking, and application lifecycle management.

Major functionalities provided by TFS are listed below:
1. Project Management.
2. Tracking work items.
3. Version Control.
4. Test case management.
5. Build Automation.
6. Reporting.
7. Virtual Lab Management.

TFS is written in three of the primary languages such as C, C++, and C#.

The major difference between TFS and SVN are as follows -

Yes

Steps to create a repository on TFS are listed below:
• Step 1: Click the Options button on the Code Review Board.
• Step 2: Go to the Projects tab.
• Step 3: Select a project from the list.
• Step 4: Click Add New Repository.
• Step 5: Select TFS as a repository type.
• Step 6: Specify a Host — your TFS server URL.
• for example:
• http://TfsServer:80/tfs/DefaultCollection
• http://TfsServer:8080/tfs
• http://tfs.abc.com
• https://webcollection.visualstudio.com/DefaultCollection/
• Note: To connect Visual Studio Online services, you need to specify a project collection
• in the Host field (e.g. https://myaccount.visualstudio.com/DefaultCollection/).
• Step 7: Specify the TFS server settings.
• Remote directory — TFS server-side directory.
• Working directory — where you check out the source code.
• Enter a Description.
• Step 8: Click Credentials, and enter the login information to connect to Team Foundation Server, then click OK.
• Step 9: You will be notified when a connection is established (or if the connection failed).
• Step 10: Click Apply.

tf Command-line utility provides many useful operations that we can perform with Team Foundation Server.

Some tf commands in TFS are listed below:
1. tf add adds news folder and file from file system to TFS Source Control.
2. tf branch copies an item/s from one location to another inside TFS Source Control.
3. tf branches displays the history of a branch which can be a file or a folder.
4. tf changeset displays info about changesets such as comments, notes and etc.
5. tf checkin checks in pending changes to the TFS Source Control.
6. tf checkout checks out local files for edit.
7. tf configure updates Source Control Settings with modified Check-out settings; Check-in policies; Check-in notes.
8. tf delete removes files and folders from TFS.
9. tf diff displays differences between two files or a shelveset.
10. tf dir presents the contents of the TFS Source Control server.
11. tf get gets a read-only copy of a file from the TFS to the workspace and creates folders with the file on the disk.
12. tf help shows help topics about TFS command.
13. tf history shows the history of revisions for file/s and folders.
14. tf label creates or removes a label from a version of a file or folder.
15. tf labels shows labels in the TFS.
16. tf lock locks or unlocks a file or folder.
17. tf merge applies changes from one branch into another.
18. tf merges shows detailed information about past merges between branches.
19. tf properties presents info about items under TFS Source Control.
20. tf rename renames files or folder paths. Also used to move files or folders.
21. tf resolve resolves conflicts between changed items.
22. tf shelve stores or deletes pending changes with check-in notes, a comment, and work items.
23. tf shelvsets shows info about a set of shelved changes inside TFS Source Control.
24. tf status shows info about pending changes to items.
25. tf undelete restores deleted items.
26. tf undo removes pending changes from a TFS workspace.
27. tf unlabel removes an item from an existing label.
28. tf unshelve restores shelved file revisions, check-in notes, comments, and work items.
29. tf view retrieves a specific version of a file to a disk.
30. tf workfold creates, updates, or displays info about the mappings between your workspace and TFS Source Control.
31. tf workspace creates, modifies, and views properties and mappings.
32. tf workspaces displays info about workspaces in the system.