#SOAP

Last updated    - V4 (13-Sep-2025)

Topic - SubTopic	Basic	Intermediate	Advanced	Expert
SOAP Basics - Introduction	What is SOAP?, Difference between SOAP and REST, Advantages of SOAP	SOAP message structure, SOAP envelope, SOAP encoding rules	SOAP vs REST in enterprise apps, SOAP message compression	SOAP in microservices, SOAP and legacy system integration, Scalability considerations
SOAP Protocol - Architecture	SOAP request and response, SOAP headers, SOAP body	SOAP fault handling, Namespaces in SOAP, SOAP roles	SOAP over different protocols (HTTP, SMTP, JMS), WS-Addressing	SOAP performance optimization, SOAP with message queues, High-throughput SOAP services
WSDL - Basics	What is WSDL?, Types of WSDL (Abstract vs Concrete), Elements of WSDL	WSDL operations, PortTypes, Bindings, Service definition	Dynamic WSDL generation, WSDL versioning, WSDL validation	WSDL federation, WSDL and schema evolution, Multi-service WSDL management
SOAP Security - Basics	Basic Authentication in SOAP, HTTPS with SOAP, WS-Security introduction	Digital signatures, Encryption in SOAP, Tokens (SAML, UsernameToken)	Security policies (WS-SecurityPolicy), Message-level security, Custom security handlers	Enterprise-grade security, Integration with OAuth/SAML, End-to-end encryption strategies
SOAP Faults & Error Handling	SOAP fault elements, Common fault codes, Handling simple faults	Custom fault handling, Fault codes mapping, Fault actors	Advanced error handling strategies, Retry mechanisms, Logging SOAP faults	Distributed error handling, Fault tolerance patterns, SLA-based fault management
SOAP Operations - Requests & Responses	Simple request/response, Synchronous operations, Example SOAP message	Asynchronous operations, SOAP attachments (MTOM, SwA), RPC vs Document style	Complex operations, Transaction handling in SOAP, Chained SOAP calls	Large payload optimization, Performance tuning, Multi-step service orchestration
SOAP Tools & Frameworks	SOAP UI basics, Testing SOAP APIs, Sample SOAP requests	Spring-WS, Apache CXF, JAX-WS usage	Automated testing strategies, SOAP mocking, Code generation from WSDL	Enterprise automation, CI/CD integration for SOAP, Service virtualization
SOAP Interoperability	N/A	SOAP with different platforms (Java, .NET, Python), SOAP vs REST hybrid systems	Handling SOAP version differences, Cross-platform compatibility	Global-scale SOAP integrations, Multi-tenant SOAP services, Legacy system interoperability
SOAP Standards & WS-*	N/A	WS-AtomicTransaction, WS-ReliableMessaging, WS-Policy	WS-Coordination, WS-Trust, Advanced WS-* usage	Enterprise-level WS-* orchestration, High-availability setups, Compliance and governance
SOAP Performance & Optimization	N/A	Message size optimization, Caching SOAP responses, Connection management	Data compression, MTOM for large files, Efficient XML parsing	High-volume SOAP message processing, Scalability, Load balancing SOAP services

Basic

SOAP Basics

1. What is SOAP?
2. Difference between SOAP and REST
3. Advantages of SOAP
4. What is a SOAP message?
5. Explain the SOAP envelope
6. What is SOAP encoding?
7. Explain SOAP headers
8. Explain SOAP body
9. What are SOAP roles?
10. Explain SOAP request and response structure

WSDL Basics

1. What is WSDL?
2. Types of WSDL: Abstract vs Concrete
3. Elements of WSDL
4. How does WSDL define operations?
5. Explain PortTypes
6. Explain Bindings
7. Explain Service definition in WSDL
8. How is WSDL used with SOAP?
9. What is the difference between WSDL and XSD?
10. Explain the purpose of SOAP faults

SOAP Tools

1. What is SOAP UI?
2. How to test SOAP APIs with SOAP UI?
3. What is a sample SOAP request?
4. How to parse SOAP responses?
5. Explain synchronous SOAP operations

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Intermediate

SOAP Protocol & Operations

1. Explain SOAP fault handling
2. Namespaces in SOAP
3. Differences between RPC and Document style
4. Explain asynchronous SOAP operations
5. SOAP attachments (MTOM, SwA)
6. How to handle chained SOAP calls
7. Transaction handling in SOAP
8. How to optimize SOAP message size
9. SOAP over different protocols (HTTP, SMTP, JMS)
10. Handling null or empty elements in SOAP

SOAP Security

1. Basic Authentication in SOAP
2. HTTPS with SOAP
3. WS-Security introduction
4. Digital signatures in SOAP
5. Encryption in SOAP messages
6. Using tokens (SAML, UsernameToken)
7. Security policies (WS-SecurityPolicy)
8. Message-level security
9. Custom security handlers
10. How to prevent replay attacks

Tools & Frameworks

1. Spring-WS basics
2. Apache CXF usage
3. JAX-WS usage
4. SOAP API mocking
5. Automated SOAP testing strategies

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Advanced

SOAP Design & Performance

1. Advanced error handling strategies
2. Retry mechanisms for SOAP requests
3. Logging SOAP faults
4. Large payload optimization
5. Using MTOM for large files
6. Efficient XML parsing
7. Performance tuning for SOAP services
8. Connection management optimization
9. Data compression for SOAP messages
10. Message size optimization strategies

SOAP Interoperability

1. SOAP with different platforms (Java, .NET, Python)
2. SOAP version differences handling
3. Cross-platform compatibility
4. SOAP and REST hybrid systems
5. Handling SOAP headers across platforms
6. Schema validation across services
7. SOAP response normalization
8. Interoperability testing
9. WSDL version management
10. Managing SOAP namespace differences

Standards & WS-*

1. WS-AtomicTransaction
2. WS-ReliableMessaging
3. WS-Policy usage
4. WS-Coordination
5. WS-Trust

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Expert

SOAP Architecture & Integration

1. SOAP in microservices
2. SOAP and legacy system integration
3. Scalability considerations for SOAP
4. High-volume SOAP message processing
5. Enterprise-grade SOAP security
6. Multi-tenant SOAP services
7. Global-scale SOAP integrations
8. Distributed SOAP transactions
9. Service orchestration with SOAP
10. SOAP in serverless architectures

Performance & Optimization

1. High-throughput SOAP services
2. Load balancing SOAP endpoints
3. SOAP caching strategies
4. Persistent connections optimization
5. SOAP message batching
6. Monitoring and logging at scale
7. Retry and failover strategies
8. SLA-based fault management
9. Optimizing SOAP parsing for speed
10. MTOM performance tuning

Advanced Security & Compliance

1. End-to-end encryption strategies
2. OAuth integration with SOAP
3. SAML integration
4. GDPR compliance for SOAP services
5. Enterprise audit and logging