April 9, 2008 at 3:34 am
[font="Verdana"]Hi All,
I am going to face an interview, for the position of SQL / T-SQL Developer, in next few days. This is my first interview, in my life, for the said position. Currently I am working as SSE, so I don't have core idea, what kind of questions can be asked in such interview. I have prepared myself for this, but not sure. Can anybody help me out, what company (DBA) expects from SQL / T-SQL Developer should know about?
Any help will be considerate.
Mahesh
[/font]
MH-09-AM-8694
April 9, 2008 at 6:43 am
Our starter questions are:
What's the difference between a clustered & non-clustered index?
What's the difference between blocking & deadlocking?
How do you trap errors in SQL Server 2005?
What does the NOLOCK hint do?
What does the KEEPFIXEDPLAN hint do?
What can cause recompiles?
You get a call from a user of your database. They think the system is running slow. What do you do?
Get past those and then the conversation starts for real.
----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore RooseveltThe Scary DBAAuthor of: SQL Server 2017 Query Performance Tuning, 5th Edition and SQL Server Execution Plans, 3rd EditionProduct Evangelist for Red Gate Software
April 9, 2008 at 7:23 am
Heh... my very first question is "How do you get the current date and time using a query". Believe it or not, about 1/4 of the candidates that apply for such positions don't know... even the ones that claim to be a "9 out of 10" in SQL Server. Makes for nice short interviews.
--Jeff Moden
April 9, 2008 at 7:29 am
You call out of TSQL to WMI process to launch a .NET app... right?
----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore RooseveltThe Scary DBAAuthor of: SQL Server 2017 Query Performance Tuning, 5th Edition and SQL Server Execution Plans, 3rd EditionProduct Evangelist for Red Gate Software
April 9, 2008 at 7:34 am
Most of the questions are based on the concept of SQL Server. They will test your knowledge not your memory. You should know what all you can do in SQL Server 2005 rather than how you can do. What I mean is they will not check the syntaxes of the SQL statement much.
Definitely they will ask you about different joins espeacially self join. Difference between various index types.
Best of luck.
😛
April 9, 2008 at 8:36 am
One other thing that has been covered on previous such posts to a very great extent. Never lie and never stretch the truth on an interview... heh, and pass gas only if you really, really have a good read on the personalities involved. 😀
--Jeff Moden
April 9, 2008 at 2:17 pm
It varies by company and interviewer. I don't usually ask the same question in 2 different interviews.
I usually ask a couple of questions on indexes, at least one on execution plans, maybe something on statistics. I'll usually ask a scenario. Either how they would find the cause of a sudden slow down, how they would go about optimising a query, or something similar.
I'll sometimes toss in an administration question or 2, just to see the breadth of knowledge. Backups, corruption, restores, etc
If you get asked a question you don't know the answer to, admit that. Don't make something up. It's noticable
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
April 9, 2008 at 10:52 pm
[font="Verdana"]
Grant Fritchey (4/9/2008)
You call out of TSQL to WMI process to launch a .NET app... right?
Gant, I am not getting you?
Mahesh[/font]
MH-09-AM-8694
April 10, 2008 at 12:04 am
Jeff Moden (4/9/2008)
Heh... my very first question is "How do you get the current date and time using a query". Believe it or not, about 1/4 of the candidates that apply for such positions don't know... even the ones that claim to be a "9 out of 10" in SQL Server. Makes for nice short interviews.
does it really make the interview shorter? phone screen, sure. but when I get a dud in a face to face interview I feel like I have to keep talking to them to fill the hour. It's a waste of my and their time - I guess I just don't have the balls to cut it short and send them packing... 🙁
I suppose another part of it is I want them to leave with a good impression of the company even if we aren't going to hire them - you never know who they might talk to afterward.
---------------------------------------
elsasoft.org
April 10, 2008 at 5:40 am
Mahesh Bote (4/9/2008)
[font="Verdana"]Grant Fritchey (4/9/2008)
You call out of TSQL to WMI process to launch a .NET app... right?Gant, I am not getting you?
Mahesh[/font]
Sorry, it was joke. Jeff asked how to get the current date & time and I answered with the most horrible possible approach. The correct answer being:
SELECT GETDATE()
----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore RooseveltThe Scary DBAAuthor of: SQL Server 2017 Query Performance Tuning, 5th Edition and SQL Server Execution Plans, 3rd EditionProduct Evangelist for Red Gate Software
April 10, 2008 at 5:47 am
Grant Fritchey (4/9/2008)
You call out of TSQL to WMI process to launch a .NET app... right?
This answer may be a joke but it can land you the job since the interviewer will not be prepared for this kind of answer. :hehe:
April 10, 2008 at 6:00 am
jezemine (4/10/2008)
Jeff Moden (4/9/2008)
Heh... my very first question is "How do you get the current date and time using a query". Believe it or not, about 1/4 of the candidates that apply for such positions don't know... even the ones that claim to be a "9 out of 10" in SQL Server. Makes for nice short interviews.does it really make the interview shorter? phone screen, sure. but when I get a dud in a face to face interview I feel like I have to keep talking to them to fill the hour. It's a waste of my and their time - I guess I just don't have the balls to cut it short and send them packing... 🙁
I suppose another part of it is I want them to leave with a good impression of the company even if we aren't going to hire them - you never know who they might talk to afterward.
Ah, the phone interview... if only the folks at work believed in them. They bring them in and they talk for at least an hour with the candidate mostly about what the company does and other stuff. If they walk out of that alive (literally, no one goes postal), then I get them or the Primary Java Developer gets them or maybe both of us. Thats when the first glimmer of a technical interview starts... if they fail to answer the date question correctly, I'm all done... it would be a waste of my time and the candidate's time to continue.
Grant is correct... a properly delivered answer like his joke answer, a good laugh between us, followed by the correct answer will get you very high points with me. Just don't do that for every answer... there's a time to be funny and a time to be serious. And learn to read the interviewer... do such a joke on the first question with some folks, and you're pretty much all done.
--Jeff Moden
April 10, 2008 at 6:05 am
Like others have said, if you don't know an answer, be honest about it. Trying to talk your way thru something you don't know undermines your integrity (if you have any), especially if the question was designed so that you most likely couldn't answer it (to see how you handle it).
We all run into situations that we can't answer off the top of our heads...that is when we refer to Books Online, an internet search, or some other resource. After working with a few people who didn't know an answer (which wasn't a problem), but then couldn't find the answer to some very basic problems (which was a problem), I understand how important it is for someone to be able to wade thru the volumes of information available to gather the necessary facts, and then be able to apply it correctly.
If it was easy, everybody would be doing it!;)
April 10, 2008 at 6:09 am
Grant Fritchey (4/9/2008)
Our starter questions are:What's the difference between a clustered & non-clustered index?
What's the difference between blocking & deadlocking?
How do you trap errors in SQL Server 2005?
What does the NOLOCK hint do?
What does the KEEPFIXEDPLAN hint do?
What can cause recompiles?
You get a call from a user of your database. They think the system is running slow. What do you do?
Get past those and then the conversation starts for real.
One question I got on an interview was "What do you do when you run into a T-SQL problem you don't know how to solve?" They were looking for the kind of problem-solving process I use. I think I got extra points for saying that I start with BOL then move on to online resources such as SQLServerCentral.com, TechNet, etc. They wanted to make sure I wasn't going to expect someone to bail me out.
April 10, 2008 at 6:13 am
DonaldW (4/10/2008)
Grant Fritchey (4/9/2008)
Our starter questions are:What's the difference between a clustered & non-clustered index?
What's the difference between blocking & deadlocking?
How do you trap errors in SQL Server 2005?
What does the NOLOCK hint do?
What does the KEEPFIXEDPLAN hint do?
What can cause recompiles?
You get a call from a user of your database. They think the system is running slow. What do you do?
Get past those and then the conversation starts for real.
One question I got on an interview was "What do you do when you run into a T-SQL problem you don't know how to solve?" They were looking for the kind of problem-solving process I use. I think I got extra points for saying that I start with BOL then move on to online resources such as SQLServerCentral.com, TechNet, etc. They wanted to make sure I wasn't going to expect someone to bail me out.
That's one of my questions too, once we get into the interview proper. However, you won't hear that question if you can't answer the other ones above.
----------------------------------------------------The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood... Theodore RooseveltThe Scary DBAAuthor of: SQL Server 2017 Query Performance Tuning, 5th Edition and SQL Server Execution Plans, 3rd EditionProduct Evangelist for Red Gate Software
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