1. What is Informatica IICS / CAI?

Answer:
CAI (Cloud Application Integration) is an IDMC/IICS service used for real-time, API-driven, event-based integration. It helps build processes, microservices, API workflows, and business automation.

2. What are CAI Processes?

Answer:
A Process is a workflow created using steps, assignments, decisions, loops, service calls, timers, and fault handlers. It is executed synchronously or asynchronously depending on how it is invoked.

3. Difference between CDI and CAI?

Answer:

4. What is a Service Connector?

Answer:
A Service Connector is a reusable integration object used to connect to REST, SOAP, or OData APIs.
You define:

• API URL

• Authentication

• Input/Output structure

• Header/body mappings

5. What are Process Objects in CAI?

Answer:
Process Objects are structured data types (similar to JSON schemas).
Used for:

• API input/output

• Passing nested objects

• Handling arrays and loops

Example: Customer, Order, Invoice object.

6. How do you call external APIs from CAI?

Answer:
Using:

• Service Connector

• REST API Step

• Web Service Step

• HTTP connector with request/response mapping

7. What is a Guide in CAI?

Answer:
A Guide is a user-facing workflow with screens, inputs, and decisions.
Used for:

• Approvals

• HR onboarding

• Data entry

• Ticketing workflows

8. What is the Wait Step used for?

Answer:
The Wait step pauses a process for a specific duration or until a condition is met.
Useful for:

• Delayed notifications

• Retry mechanism

• Polling external systems

9. How does CAI handle error management?

Answer:
Using Fault Handlers, which manage:

• Exceptions

• Timeouts

• API call failures

• Retry logic

• Custom error messages

10. What are synchronous vs asynchronous processes?

Answer:

• Synchronous → Returns response immediately (API style).

• Asynchronous → Runs in background, used for long-running tasks with no immediate response.

11. How do you loop through arrays in CAI?

Answer:
Using:

• For Each Loop

• While Loop
  Looping is commonly done on JSON arrays returned from APIs.

12. What authentication methods are supported in CAI?

Answer:

• OAuth 2.0

• API Key

• Basic Auth

• Session Token

• Custom headers

13. What is the Application Integration Console?

Answer:
It is the monitoring dashboard to view:

• Process execution logs

• API call history

• Errors

• Response times

• Usage reports

14. What is the role of Assign Activity?

Answer:
Assign Activity is used to:

• Create variables

• Modify values

• Map data

• Format or transform fields

15. What is the purpose of Decision Step?

Answer:
Decision step helps build branching logic based on conditions, similar to IF/ELSE.