Quiz: The COBOL Landscape Today

Multiple Choice

1. Approximately how much daily commerce do COBOL systems process?

a) $300 million b) $3 billion c) $3 trillion d) $30 trillion

2. What percentage of ATM swipe transactions touch COBOL code?

a) 50% b) 75% c) 85% d) 95%

3. The first COBOL specification (COBOL-60) was published in:

a) 1957 b) 1960 c) 1965 d) 1968

4. Which COBOL standard introduced scope terminators like END-IF and END-PERFORM?

a) COBOL-68 b) COBOL-74 c) COBOL-85 d) COBOL 2002

5. Who is the most influential figure associated with COBOL's creation?

a) John von Neumann b) Alan Turing c) Grace Murray Hopper d) Dennis Ritchie

6. Which COBOL standard first introduced object-oriented programming features?

a) COBOL-85 b) COBOL 2002 c) COBOL 2014 d) COBOL 2023

7. What event in 2020 brought the COBOL talent crisis into mainstream public awareness?

a) A major bank's core system failure b) State unemployment system overloads during COVID-19 c) The release of COBOL 2023 standard d) IBM's announcement of mainframe retirement

8. Approximately how many lines of COBOL are in active production use worldwide?

a) 2 billion b) 22 billion c) 220 billion d) 2 trillion

9. In the textbook's running examples, who is the Senior COBOL Developer at GlobalBank?

a) Priya Kapoor b) Derek Washington c) Maria Chen d) James Okafor

10. What is the approximate median salary for a mid-level COBOL developer in the U.S.?

a) $55,000 b) $78,000 c) $98,000 d) $135,000

Short Answer

11. Name three of the five themes of this textbook.

12. Explain in two to three sentences what the "Modernization Spectrum" means.

13. What role does Sarah Kim play at MedClaim, and why is her perspective valuable for COBOL developers?

14. Give two reasons why most organizations have not replaced their COBOL systems despite decades of "COBOL is dying" predictions.

15. What is the estimated ratio of open COBOL positions to new COBOL graduates in the U.S.?

Answer Key

  1. c) $3 trillion
  2. d) 95%
  3. b) 1960
  4. c) COBOL-85
  5. c) Grace Murray Hopper
  6. b) COBOL 2002
  7. b) State unemployment system overloads during COVID-19
  8. c) 220 billion
  9. c) Maria Chen
  10. c) $98,000
  11. Any three of: Legacy != Obsolete, Readability is a Feature, The Modernization Spectrum, Defensive Programming, The Human Factor
  12. Modernization is not a binary choice between keeping COBOL and replacing it. Organizations use a range of strategies — from maintaining as-is through re-platforming, encapsulating, refactoring, re-architecting, to full replacement — each with different trade-offs in cost, risk, and capability.
  13. Sarah Kim is a Business Analyst who transitioned from being a claims examiner. Her perspective is valuable because she bridges business and technical worlds, helping developers understand why business rules exist and how they translate into COBOL structures.
  14. Any two of: (a) Replacement costs are enormous (billions for large systems), (b) Migration projects have high failure rates, (c) The existing COBOL code embodies decades of refined business logic that is difficult to replicate, (d) The systems work reliably and handle enormous transaction volumes, (e) The risk of disrupting critical operations during replacement is unacceptable.
  15. Approximately 10:1 (ten open positions for every new COBOL graduate).