October 21, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Right, but this was supposed to be an simple question, isn't it? My point was if it was simple then they should have had no difficulty answering this.
Amol
Amol Naik
October 21, 2009 at 2:28 pm
repent_kog_is_near (10/21/2009)
if Senior DBA's do not know the answers to these questions, what were they doing at work, while gathering their experience?I would expect the junior DBA with a modest experience to be able to give answer to most, if not all of these simple questions.
If they were thrust into their job, I can understand, but then you cannot call them 'senior', yet.
Time & opportunity and aptitude to grasp & interest/commitment will make that person experienced.
-Dan.
I know some Senior DBA's that still work in SQL 7/2000 shops with very little activity. In other words, they are just babysitting current legacy servers/databases and their SQL skills tend to get rusty. They stay because of the job security but the shop has not upgraded along the way either...Thry don't feel s need to and as result some DBA's have not kept up with the ever increasing technology. You would be surprised how many DBA's out there fit into this area. As a result they interview for another position and run into trouble in the interview answering very simple 2005/2008 questions. I always keep up with the versions and the technology even if my company isn't. It pays off in the long run believe me...
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
October 21, 2009 at 6:12 pm
talltop-969015 very good point. Job security often gives false security to coast, and then you are caught off-guard down the road.
Amol, yes, he may be taken off guard, or may not have worked on that one aspect or from a situation that talltop-969015 explains. Regardless, you would get a picture quick if he has spent quality & productive time in SQL Server.
Dan
October 22, 2009 at 2:52 am
talltop-969015 (10/21/2009)
repent_kog_is_near (10/21/2009)
talltop-969015You asked some simple 'baby' questions.. here they are..
*Difference between delete and truncate
*What is identity column?
*Login vs User
*What are Collations
*CAST Vs CONVERT
*Union Vs Union All
*What is ANSI
*View vs Table
*SPs Vs Functions
*What is dynamic SQL?
*SQL Vs Windows Authentication
*How do you find who are the active users in the database
*What is database fragmentation
*RAID 5 Vs 10
*What is DMV
*NULL vs zero
*How do you stop SQL Server from running?
*32 bit Vs 64 bits
*What is a file
*How do you move a table to a different filegroup
*What is MSDB
*What is MARS
*What is Cluster
*What is Instant Initialization
*Where do you use OPENROWSET
*Profiler Vs Trace
*How do you rebuild index through code
*what is asymmetric Key or how do you use encryption in SS?
*READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT Vs ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION
*How do you send email in SS?
*What is merge join
*OLAP Vs OLTP
*How many MB is a TB?
*SUSER_SNAME vs USER_NAME
*What is a Synonym
*what is a Certificate?
*What is AWE?
*How do you find the size of a table/index/database?
of course.. this be a lot longer list, too.. I'll stop here...
-Dan
Thank you sir! Finally someone addresses my original post.. Amazing! You would be surpised how many people even Senior DBA's do not know the answers to even these "baby" questions..No need for convoluted broken chains and missing log file questions.. Stick to the basics first and you will probably find out what you need to know,,,After all, your goal is not to stump the candidate but accurately guage his basic overall knowledge...
Maybe just maybe I am missing something, these are supposed to be simple interview questions, out of this list of questions. I have been asked the following.
*Difference between delete and truncate
*Union Vs Union All
*SPs Vs Functions
Maybe my experiences have been different, but I didnt get asked questions like these. I have been asked simple sql question before like these.
what is point in time recovery
what is the difference between full and simple recovery model
what is high availability
difference between clustering and mirroring regarding high availability
what is the difference between a clustered and non-clustered index
what is a server side trace
the difference between an inner and outer join
what is a cartesian product
what is an execution plan
how do you troubleshoot deadlocks
you have blocking, how do you troubleshoot
these are just examples, depending on the type of role, i would expect questions on reporting services or SSIS or T-SQL.
oh and to add to that, I would expect to get asked what counters i would use when using perfmon and what events i would normally trace using profiler. and i would expect to be asked that, for a sql dba position.
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October 22, 2009 at 6:19 am
Silverfox
I guess it perhaps also depends on what the interviewer considers as an easy or hard question, not?
yes, your questions were down to earth.
Dan
October 22, 2009 at 7:34 am
Maybe just maybe I am missing something, these are supposed to be simple interview questions, out of this list of questions. I have been asked the following.
*Difference between delete and truncate
*Union Vs Union All
*SPs Vs Functions
Maybe my experiences have been different, but I didnt get asked questions like these. I have been asked simple sql question before like these.
what is point in time recovery
what is the difference between full and simple recovery model
what is high availability
difference between clustering and mirroring regarding high availability
what is the difference between a clustered and non-clustered index
what is a server side trace
the difference between an inner and outer join
what is a cartesian product
what is an execution plan
how do you troubleshoot deadlocks
you have blocking, how do you troubleshoot
these are just examples, depending on the type of role, i would expect questions on reporting services or SSIS or T-SQL.
oh and to add to that, I would expect to get asked what counters i would use when using perfmon and what events i would normally trace using profiler. and i would expect to be asked that, for a sql dba position.
I would consider all of Dan's questions pretty simple and I would expect most DBA's worth their salt to know them. Now would I ask all of those? Probably not. What I would not ask is questions about broken chains and missing log files. Candidates can always ramp up to the tougher topics later if they can demonstrate to me that they have a good overall knowledge base of SQL Server. If they don't have that to start with then that is problematic IMHO. No one person knows everything in SQL Server nowadays. It is just too comprehensive and to expect it is unfair to the candidate and not practical. BTW, I consider your questions good as well and have ask many of them in interviews past...
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
October 22, 2009 at 8:07 am
talltop-969015 (10/22/2009)
Maybe just maybe I am missing something, these are supposed to be simple interview questions, out of this list of questions. I have been asked the following.
*Difference between delete and truncate
*Union Vs Union All
*SPs Vs Functions
Maybe my experiences have been different, but I didnt get asked questions like these. I have been asked simple sql question before like these.
what is point in time recovery
what is the difference between full and simple recovery model
what is high availability
difference between clustering and mirroring regarding high availability
what is the difference between a clustered and non-clustered index
what is a server side trace
the difference between an inner and outer join
what is a cartesian product
what is an execution plan
how do you troubleshoot deadlocks
you have blocking, how do you troubleshoot
these are just examples, depending on the type of role, i would expect questions on reporting services or SSIS or T-SQL.
oh and to add to that, I would expect to get asked what counters i would use when using perfmon and what events i would normally trace using profiler. and i would expect to be asked that, for a sql dba position.
I would consider all of Dan's questions pretty simple and I would expect most DBA's worth their salt to know them. Now would I ask all of those? Probably not. What I would not ask is questions about broken chains and missing log files. Candidates can always ramp up to the tougher topics later if they can demonstrate to me that they have a good overall knowledge base of SQL Server. If they don't have that to start with then that is problematic IMHO. No one person knows everything in SQL Server nowadays. It is just too comprehensive and to expect it is unfair to the candidate and not practical. BTW, I consider your questions good as well and have ask many of them in interviews past...
You are right, Dan's questions are simple in some regards, as to whether I would discount someone in an interview if they didnt know some of them, probably not. whether someone is skilled or not, is very subjective and interview questions is only part of the interview process. nowadays a lot of emphasis is placed on the candidates ability to adapt and know where to look for information that he/she doesnt have. A lot of positions for DBA's now, are looking for BI skill/knowledge/experience which totally widens the playing field and makes preparing for a production dba interview that much harder.
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Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help by Jeff Moden[/url]
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How to post Performance problems by Gail Shaw[/url]
Help, my database is corrupt. Now what? by Gail Shaw[/url]
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