Here are some SQL Server Interview Questions

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Here are some SQL Server Interview Questions

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TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 1

David Webb-CDS (5/15/2015)
Your customer comes to you and says the query he has run daily for the last two years is suddenly taking hours instead of seconds. You gather the customer, the developer, the network guys, the storage guy, and the server guy in a conference room. They all swear that nothing has changed. Which one is lying?

That's the wrong question - you should be asking which, if any, is telling the truth?

Tom

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004339 More actions · Answer 2

TomThomson (5/15/2015)
David Webb-CDS (5/15/2015)
Your customer comes to you and says the query he has run daily for the last two years is suddenly taking hours instead of seconds. You gather the customer, the developer, the network guys, the storage guy, and the server guy in a conference room. They all swear that nothing has changed. Which one is lying?
That's the wrong question - you should be asking which, if any, is telling the truth?

The one whose lips have not moved.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004339 More actions · Answer 3

Jason A. Long (5/15/2015)
Next question:
How would you describe the differences between being "Loyal" to a company and "Dedicated" to a company? Heh... The answer will be provided either at 2AM tomorrow morning or sometime after 9 tomorrow morning. It depends on when I run out of coffee. :w00t:
The same way I'd describe the difference between bacon & eggs... 😉

Heh... it's not often that I run into someone that knows that answer. 🙂

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004339 More actions · Answer 4

Michael L John (5/15/2015)
Interviewer: If your database was a country, what country would it be?
My answer: North Korea, because it will be run by a dictator!

It wouldn't be a country... it would be a city... "Detroit... where the weak are killed and eaten". 😛

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004339 More actions · Answer 5

Lynn Pettis (5/15/2015)
Jeff Moden (5/14/2015)
Luis Cazares (5/14/2015)
You receive a late call during the night to inform you that the server is down and must be working correctly before everyone arrives in the morning. How many cups of coffee will you need to have available?
When I finally look at my silenced phone at 9:00AM during scrum, I'll let you know. 😛
Next question:
How would you describe the differences between being "Loyal" to a company and "Dedicated" to a company? Heh... The answer will be provided either at 2AM tomorrow morning or sometime after 9 tomorrow morning. It depends on when I run out of coffee. :w00t:
So, when are you going to answer your own question?

Heh... it's still "sometime after 9". 😉 Jason got it right, though. The reason why "Bacon and Eggs" is the correct answer is the chicken was "loyal".... the pig was "dedicated". 😛

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 6

Jeff Moden (5/15/2015)
Lynn Pettis (5/15/2015)
Jeff Moden (5/14/2015)
Luis Cazares (5/14/2015)
You receive a late call during the night to inform you that the server is down and must be working correctly before everyone arrives in the morning. How many cups of coffee will you need to have available?
When I finally look at my silenced phone at 9:00AM during scrum, I'll let you know. 😛
Next question:
How would you describe the differences between being "Loyal" to a company and "Dedicated" to a company? Heh... The answer will be provided either at 2AM tomorrow morning or sometime after 9 tomorrow morning. It depends on when I run out of coffee. :w00t:
So, when are you going to answer your own question?
Heh... it's still "sometime after 9". 😉 Jason got it right, though. The reason why "Bacon and Eggs" is the correct answer is the chicken was "loyal".... the pig was "dedicated". 😛

That's also why only the pigs can talk at a scrum meeting and the chickens can only listen.

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398882 More actions · Answer 7

David Webb-CDS (5/15/2015)
Your customer comes to you and says the query he has run daily for the last two years is suddenly taking hours instead of seconds. You gather the customer, the developer, the network guys, the storage guy, and the server guy in a conference room. They all swear that nothing has changed. Which one is lying?

Yes.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

xsevensinzx One Orange Chip Points: 25560 More actions · Answer 8

xsevensinzx

One Orange Chip

Points: 25560

May 16, 2015 at 4:39 am

#1798420

What's wrong with this picture?

Sean Lange SSC Guru Points: 286590 More actions · Answer 9

Jeff Moden (5/15/2015)
Lynn Pettis (5/15/2015)
Jeff Moden (5/14/2015)
Luis Cazares (5/14/2015)
You receive a late call during the night to inform you that the server is down and must be working correctly before everyone arrives in the morning. How many cups of coffee will you need to have available?
When I finally look at my silenced phone at 9:00AM during scrum, I'll let you know. 😛
Next question:
How would you describe the differences between being "Loyal" to a company and "Dedicated" to a company? Heh... The answer will be provided either at 2AM tomorrow morning or sometime after 9 tomorrow morning. It depends on when I run out of coffee. :w00t:
So, when are you going to answer your own question?
Heh... it's still "sometime after 9". 😉 Jason got it right, though. The reason why "Bacon and Eggs" is the correct answer is the chicken was "loyal".... the pig was "dedicated". 😛

It the difference between a days work and lifetime commitment. 😛

_______________________________________________________________

Need help? Help us help you.

Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183706 More actions · Answer 10

xsevensinzx (5/16/2015)
What's wrong with this picture?

It's incomplete.

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182911 More actions · Answer 11

Grant Fritchey (5/15/2015)
Question: Can you outline for me how to best design a system so that I can move it between Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, DB2, Couchbase, DocumentDB, Hadoop, Redshift, Azure SQL or MongoDB depending on the time of day, direction of the wind and the stomach contents of the goat we slaughtered this morning?

Only if the goat's diet consisted of herbs and grains, otherwise you will have to restore from TP 0 (Big Bang)

😎

Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182911 More actions · Answer 12

Jeff Moden (5/14/2015)
Interviewer: What makes you think you're a good <<any job title here>>?
Candidate: I don't. It's just that everyone else sucks so bad that I end up looking good. 😀

Hmm, I never saw you during that interview:w00t:

😎

Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182911 More actions · Answer 13

Overheard on the commute: "RedGate's backup" "Is it?"

😎

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004339 More actions · Answer 14

GilaMonster (5/15/2015)
David Webb-CDS (5/15/2015)
You gather the customer, the developer, the network guys, the storage guy, and the server guy in a conference room. They all swear that nothing has changed. Which one is lying?
None of them.

Actually, that's the correct answer because they all honestly believe that nothing changed.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004339 More actions · Answer 15

I was interviewing one person who claimed over 10 years working as a Senior DBA and "tuning experience". Here's how the clustered index segment went.

Me: Tell me all that you know about Clustered Indexes.

Candidate: I've never used Clustered Indexes before.

Me: Wow! How come?

Candidate: Because you can only use them on Clustered Servers and I've never worked on those before.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)