February 21, 2019 at 5:19 am
As a beginner DBA I am really interested what kind of question do employers ask while interviewing for a position of Database Administrator.
I've looked up some websites, but I'd very much appreciate if you share your personal experience and show me what kind of topics to concentrate on. Besides theoretical questions on architecture or design what practical problems are applicants suggested to solve? What do they usually expect from a beginner DBA to perform in a team?
Thanks for your support!
February 21, 2019 at 10:48 am
elea.grig - Thursday, February 21, 2019 5:19 AMAs a beginner DBA I am really interested what kind of question do employers ask while interviewing for a position of Database Administrator.
I've looked up some websites, but I'd very much appreciate if you share your personal experience and show me what kind of topics to concentrate on. Besides theoretical questions on architecture or design what practical problems are applicants suggested to solve? What do they usually expect from a beginner DBA to perform in a team?
Thanks for your support!
Do you know what a database is?
How do you spell SQL?
What is your name?
What is your favorite color?
What is the wingspan of an unladen swallow?
EDIT: What questions did you get when interviewing for the position?
February 21, 2019 at 12:38 pm
Brandie Tarvin - Thursday, February 21, 2019 10:48 AMWhat is the wingspan of an unladen swallow?
African or European?
Drew
J. Drew Allen
Business Intelligence Analyst
Philadelphia, PA
February 21, 2019 at 12:47 pm
drew.allen - Thursday, February 21, 2019 12:38 PMBrandie Tarvin - Thursday, February 21, 2019 10:48 AMWhat is the wingspan of an unladen swallow?African or European?
Drew
Sheesh! I don't know.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
February 21, 2019 at 7:27 pm
When I hire candidates I would like to test them for below things
1. Are they passionate about data?
2. Are they self learners? Involved in reading or community learning about SQL?
3. General understanding of the basics of DB Engine like Security, Backups and Restore
One cannot know everything. As far as a beginner or junior level is concerned, getting the basics right is the fundamental thing to me moving forward with the candidate.
Hope this gives you an idea to prepare. If you get interviewed by a nerd who wants to go deep into a specific area you never worked on just to show how good he is then don't feel bad if you don't get the job. You should like the job and the person you are working for anyways 🙂
February 22, 2019 at 4:19 am
All joking aside, most of us on this site don't post interview questions because of several reasons.
1) There are too many people who want to fake their way onto the job, so they memorize questions and answers to get the job then don't know what they're doing when then get the job.
2) We don't all ask the same questions.
3) If a DBA knows their stuff, it's obvious regardless of the questions asked. Especially when they're honest (and this is important) about the stuff they DON'T know. I got my current job because when they asked me about SSRS, I told them I had only briefly played with it at home and never in a real work environment. Apparently I was the only one they interviewed who had actually touched it at all, but several people tried to bluff their way through that part of the interview.
At my workplace, we give people SQL problems (T-SQL and administrative) to see how they solve it. There are usually no right answers to that because we want to see how our interviewees process and work problems. And yes, we do ask trick questions. If you know that a question you've been asked is impossible, don't doubt yourself. On the other hand, it's better to say "as far as I know XYZ can't be done, but I would research in ABC ways to verify that information if it came up" than "Nope, can't be done." If only because sometimes those impossible questions actually have come up in that employer's workplace.
Know your stuff. Security, Backups, and the basics of T-SQL are the most important things to know going into an interview. Everything else should be "I don't know it, but I'm willing to learn and my learning resources are SQLServerCentral.com, Google, and MNOP." Assuming you use Google and other sources for your research.
February 22, 2019 at 4:35 am
Brandie Tarvin - Friday, February 22, 2019 4:19 AMAll joking aside, most of us on this site don't post interview questions because of several reasons.1) There are too many people who want to fake their way onto the job, so they memorize questions and answers to get the job then don't know what they're doing when then get the job.
2) We don't all ask the same questions.
3) If a DBA knows their stuff, it's obvious regardless of the questions asked. Especially when they're honest (and this is important) about the stuff they DON'T know. I got my current job because when they asked me about SSRS, I told them I had only briefly played with it at home and never in a real work environment. Apparently I was the only one they interviewed who had actually touched it at all, but several people tried to bluff their way through that part of the interview.At my workplace, we give people SQL problems (T-SQL and administrative) to see how they solve it. There are usually no right answers to that because we want to see how our interviewees process and work problems. And yes, we do ask trick questions. If you know that a question you've been asked is impossible, don't doubt yourself. On the other hand, it's better to say "as far as I know XYZ can't be done, but I would research in ABC ways to verify that information if it came up" than "Nope, can't be done." If only because sometimes those impossible questions actually have come up in that employer's workplace.
Know your stuff. Security, Backups, and the basics of T-SQL are the most important things to know going into an interview. Everything else should be "I don't know it, but I'm willing to learn and my learning resources are SQLServerCentral.com, Google, and MNOP." Assuming you use Google and other sources for your research.
What's MNOP
ThanksSaurabh.D
February 22, 2019 at 4:59 am
Saurabh.D - Friday, February 22, 2019 4:35 AMBrandie Tarvin - Friday, February 22, 2019 4:19 AMAll joking aside, most of us on this site don't post interview questions because of several reasons.1) There are too many people who want to fake their way onto the job, so they memorize questions and answers to get the job then don't know what they're doing when then get the job.
2) We don't all ask the same questions.
3) If a DBA knows their stuff, it's obvious regardless of the questions asked. Especially when they're honest (and this is important) about the stuff they DON'T know. I got my current job because when they asked me about SSRS, I told them I had only briefly played with it at home and never in a real work environment. Apparently I was the only one they interviewed who had actually touched it at all, but several people tried to bluff their way through that part of the interview.At my workplace, we give people SQL problems (T-SQL and administrative) to see how they solve it. There are usually no right answers to that because we want to see how our interviewees process and work problems. And yes, we do ask trick questions. If you know that a question you've been asked is impossible, don't doubt yourself. On the other hand, it's better to say "as far as I know XYZ can't be done, but I would research in ABC ways to verify that information if it came up" than "Nope, can't be done." If only because sometimes those impossible questions actually have come up in that employer's workplace.
Know your stuff. Security, Backups, and the basics of T-SQL are the most important things to know going into an interview. Everything else should be "I don't know it, but I'm willing to learn and my learning resources are SQLServerCentral.com, Google, and MNOP." Assuming you use Google and other sources for your research.
What's MNOP
It's "fill in the blank" like "XYZ" and "ABC".
February 22, 2019 at 1:41 pm
Brandie Tarvin - Friday, February 22, 2019 4:19 AMAll joking aside, most of us on this site don't post interview questions because of several reasons.1) There are too many people who want to fake their way onto the job, so they memorize questions and answers to get the job then don't know what they're doing when then get the job.
2) We don't all ask the same questions.
3) If a DBA knows their stuff, it's obvious regardless of the questions asked. Especially when they're honest (and this is important) about the stuff they DON'T know. I got my current job because when they asked me about SSRS, I told them I had only briefly played with it at home and never in a real work environment. Apparently I was the only one they interviewed who had actually touched it at all, but several people tried to bluff their way through that part of the interview.At my workplace, we give people SQL problems (T-SQL and administrative) to see how they solve it. There are usually no right answers to that because we want to see how our interviewees process and work problems. And yes, we do ask trick questions. If you know that a question you've been asked is impossible, don't doubt yourself. On the other hand, it's better to say "as far as I know XYZ can't be done, but I would research in ABC ways to verify that information if it came up" than "Nope, can't be done." If only because sometimes those impossible questions actually have come up in that employer's workplace.
Know your stuff. Security, Backups, and the basics of T-SQL are the most important things to know going into an interview. Everything else should be "I don't know it, but I'm willing to learn and my learning resources are SQLServerCentral.com, Google, and MNOP." Assuming you use Google and other sources for your research.
I remember one interview I went on and they gave a query that contained a CURSOR and asked me to identify what was wrong with it. I told them that I generally don't use CURSORS, because they're horribly inefficient. That was actually a good answer, because they were looking to get rid of CURSORS from their code. I was also able to answer the original question after they gave me the clue that it produced an infinite loop. It was missing a FETCH NEXT.
Drew
J. Drew Allen
Business Intelligence Analyst
Philadelphia, PA
February 22, 2019 at 2:09 pm
i don't ask yes or no or fill in the blank questions, i try to make the interviewer talk about the issue and experiences he has with a particular focus.
"Do you have Replication experience" should actually be "Tell me the gory details about the last time you set up replication"; one question elicits the "oh yeah i have lots of experience in replication", where the other returns the details where i can objectively review that knowledge. asking "What do you know about HEAP Tables" starts a conversation about someones knowledge. that's what i am really trying to evaluate.
to that end, how about some of these from my crib sheet:
| Why would you use SQL Agent? |
| What happens on checkpoint? |
| Why would you call Update Statistics? |
| What is a correlated sub-query? |
| What authentication modes does SQL Server support? |
| Why is it frowned upon to use ‘SELECT * ..’ in a large database? |
| What is input sterilization? |
| What is the difference between ‘=’ and ‘LIKE’? |
| What is a Null Value? |
| What is a DMV? Dynamic Management Views? What views do you use a lot? |
| What is a HEAP? |
| What is a correlated sub-query? What is it's impact on performance |
| What authentication modes does SQL Server support? Which is more secure? |
| have you heard of the term RBAR(Ree-Bar)? What does it mean? |
| What’s the most challenging project you worked on? Describe your role in the project. |
| What does NOLOCK do? Have you heard of the term dirty reads? What is the impact? |
| name some isolation levels? |
| What are some kinds of functions, which are the best? Why? How do you use a table function |
| What is the difference between a trace and an extended event? What is the purpose, why would you use it? |
| What is XML? JSON? what have you done with it in your career? |
| What is the term Parameter Sniffing, is it good or bad? |
| how do I convert rows to columns or columns to rows? Have you ever used PIVOT or UNPIVOT? |
| Which is better, adding an AD user, or adding an AD group? Why? |
| Have you heard of the expression SARG-Ability? Search-Arguments Ability to use an index. What does that mean? |
| What do you look for when performance tuning a query or procedure? |
| How to create a table from a SELECT statement? |
| Can you name some kinds of Transaction modes? |
| How do you read the SQL error log? What does it show you? |
| What is Collation? Can you tell me some kinds of collation? What do you do when you have a collation conflict in a query? |
| what is the difference between the HAVING Clause and a WHERE Clause? |
| what are windows functions? Have you used any? What does the partition by on a windowed function do? |
| what is a view? Can you update a view? When would an update not work in a view? |
| is it good to join views to other views to get the data you want? |
| What is the Default Trace? What does it have in it? How much data does it capture? |
| Any Encryption experience? |
| how to format a datetime to a specific format |
| What is a linked server? Have you used them? Example? |
| in general, if you had to update one server to a higher version of SQL, how would you do it? |
| What is a SEQUENCE? An IDENTITY? Difference? |
| what is the command line version of SSMS |
| What Are Change Data Capture? Change Tracking? What is the difference? |
| What is the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE? |
| What is the EXCEPT operator? INTERSECT OPERATOR? How to use? |
| What is the difference between a block (b – l – o – c – k) and a deadlock (d – e – a – d – l – o – c – k)? |
| Can you tell me a few things that might cause a query stored in cache to recompile? |
| How do you handle Error Handling in a SQL statement or Stored Procedure? |
| You’re the DBA. The phone rings. One of the users is on the line. They say “The database is slow.” Then they hang up. What do you do? |
| What is an Execution plan? What are some of the objects you see in one? What is a key lookup? Is it good or bad? |
| Are you familiar with Database Mail? How do you use it? How can you check if an email was sent or failed? |
| What is ownership chaining? When does it break? |
| what is it for?What is a synonym? Can you use a synonym for part of a name? what would you use it for? |
| How would you move a database from one drive to another? |
| what is parallel processing? Is it good? When is it bad? What does MAXDOP do? What is a decen setting for that value? |
| what is a missing index? |
| what is an implicit conversion? |
| What is Compresison? What kinds are there? Advantages? Disadvantages? |
| What is a database Schema? What is a schema object? Besides dbo, can you name some other schemas? |
| What is the QueryStore? What is it used for? |
| how do you rename a table? An object? A column? A database? |
| Talk about programming experience |
| Tell me about your ssis experience? Name some objects from the toolbox? Name some objects from the data flows? How do you handle bad data? |
| Tell me about your ssas experience |
| Tell me about your ssrs experience? What are some best practices? What are some object names inside an SSRS report? How do you publish an SSRS report? |
| Tell me about your powershell experience |
| What is your proudest achievement or script/project you completed? |
| how many indexes is too many indexes? What is the remifications of having fifty indexes on a table? |
| What was your last work environment like? How many DBA's how many Developers? How many bosses?Primary role? How was your time split as far as ops vs development vs server administration? |
Lowell
February 25, 2019 at 4:49 am
Wow, Lowell, I'm not sure I'd be too confident of myself after getting all those questions. Some of them I've only encountered once or twice and would actually have to look up before I could answer your question. "Yeah, I know what it is, but off the top of my head, I don't have the details."
On the other hand, at least 85% of those questions I could write essays about.
February 25, 2019 at 4:58 am
On the other hand....
What is a Null Value?
This one brings back memories. Specifically of an end user at my workplace who tried to argue with the DBA team about the definition of the word NULL. She literally looked up NULL in the dictionary and copy-pasted the definition into the email to all of us (being or amounting to zero.) totally ignoring the other definitions available. You can always tell someone who's worked in an accounting department and not programming by their response to this question.
February 25, 2019 at 6:58 am
Brandie Tarvin - Monday, February 25, 2019 4:58 AMOn the other hand....What is a Null Value?
This one brings back memories. Specifically of an end user at my workplace who tried to argue with the DBA team about the definition of the word NULL. She literally looked up NULL in the dictionary and copy-pasted the definition into the email to all of us (being or amounting to zero.) totally ignoring the other definitions available. You can always tell someone who's worked in an accounting department and not programming by their response to this question.
Heh... NULL. My definition...
"The greatest source of both "ExpAnsive" updates that cause massive fragmentation, blocking, and excessive log file usage and the greatest source for non-Saragable predicates simply because people don't understand that "NULL does NOT mean NOTHING". 😉
--Jeff Moden
February 25, 2019 at 7:14 am
Jeff Moden - Monday, February 25, 2019 6:58 AMBrandie Tarvin - Monday, February 25, 2019 4:58 AMOn the other hand....What is a Null Value?
This one brings back memories. Specifically of an end user at my workplace who tried to argue with the DBA team about the definition of the word NULL. She literally looked up NULL in the dictionary and copy-pasted the definition into the email to all of us (being or amounting to zero.) totally ignoring the other definitions available. You can always tell someone who's worked in an accounting department and not programming by their response to this question.
Heh... NULL. My definition...
"The greatest source of both "ExpAnsive" updates that cause massive fragmentation, blocking, and excessive log file usage and the greatest source for non-Saragable predicates simply because people don't understand that "NULL does NOT mean NOTHING". 😉
Can I steal that definition? @=)
February 25, 2019 at 8:17 am
Brandie Tarvin - Monday, February 25, 2019 4:49 AMWow, Lowell, I'm not sure I'd be too confident of myself after getting all those questions. Some of them I've only encountered once or twice and would actually have to look up before I could answer your question. "Yeah, I know what it is, but off the top of my head, I don't have the details."On the other hand, at least 85% of those questions I could write essays about.
Heh... he forgot the first question I always ask... "How do you get the current date and time using T-SQL?" It was meant to be a simple ice-breaker to get the interviewee to start to relax but turned out to be a very effective a litmus strip.
--Jeff Moden
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