Here are some SQL Server Interview Questions
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Eric M Russell (5/18/2015)
Sean Lange (5/18/2015)
Michael L John (5/18/2015)
Jeff Moden (5/18/2015)
andrew gothard (5/18/2015)
Jeff Moden (5/14/2015)
This one is actually true.Me, the interviewer: As the Lead Developer on this project, we're very interested in someone that understands and can easily do conversions between various numbering systems, which is why we're interested in you. For example, we need someone that can look at, say (as I write in on the white-board), 1416 and convert it to decimal in their head. What's the answer?
Candidate that has been verified to have a PHD in Mathematics: I don't know. I'd need my calculator or a piece of paper and pencil.
Did he find his own way there?
Although - to be fair, given how long he'd have spent over the past several years clarting about with the greek alphabet, he may well have forgotten what a number is.
I'm still amazed by this one. I could be wrong but this one was akin to asking someone applying for an "A" IT job and them not knowing how to login to a computer. It's also why I put no stock in the alphabet soup after someone's name. To be honest, I was totally disgusted. I could NOT believe that a PHD in Mathematics with a lengthy programming background on his resume couldn't answer such a fundamental question.
I am not surprised at all. I have seen this repeatedly.
Interviewed a candidate for an admin DBA position. He advertised 12 years experience. He NEVER even installed SQL. Not locally, not in a test, not anywhere. He, literally, did not know anything.
His job function for the past 12 years was to change backup tapes every day. That's it.
You have to keep in mind that while this person is clearly not motivated to better themselves, it is also probably not a lie that they have 12 years experience as a DBA. If the title from their job is DBA and they have been changing backup tapes for 12 years it is wholly accurate. It is however still sad and obviously not a qualified candidate.
In all fairness, for this guy to walk away from a cushy 12 year job that could have lasted into retirement and put himself back in the market takes at least some guts and resolve. Unless he was fired or layed off from his previous job, the fact that he's sitting in your office interviewing for another job is evidence that he's willing to branch out and better himself. He could know a lot about various DBA operational tasks, and is now looking to put this knowledge to practical use. However, is his objective is to land another job juggling backup tapes for a living, then, yes, he truely is a dim bulb.
There is so much more here. His current salary would have put him at the higher end of the salary scale.
He did not want to do on-call.
He had done absolutely nothing, as best we could tell, to learn anything about SQL Server. We asked him lots of questions about learning, what have you learned, what do you plan on learning, and the answer was nothing in all cases.
We initially felt bad for him, but then we wondered if we should apply for HIS job once he left!
Michael L John
If you assassinate a DBA, would you pull a trigger?
To properly post on a forum:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/61537/ -
Michael L John (5/18/2015)
Jeff Moden (5/18/2015)
andrew gothard (5/18/2015)
Jeff Moden (5/14/2015)
This one is actually true.Me, the interviewer: As the Lead Developer on this project, we're very interested in someone that understands and can easily do conversions between various numbering systems, which is why we're interested in you. For example, we need someone that can look at, say (as I write in on the white-board), 1416 and convert it to decimal in their head. What's the answer?
Candidate that has been verified to have a PHD in Mathematics: I don't know. I'd need my calculator or a piece of paper and pencil.
Did he find his own way there?
Although - to be fair, given how long he'd have spent over the past several years clarting about with the greek alphabet, he may well have forgotten what a number is.
I'm still amazed by this one. I could be wrong but this one was akin to asking someone applying for an "A" IT job and them not knowing how to login to a computer. It's also why I put no stock in the alphabet soup after someone's name. To be honest, I was totally disgusted. I could NOT believe that a PHD in Mathematics with a lengthy programming background on his resume couldn't answer such a fundamental question.
I am not surprised at all. I have seen this repeatedly.
Interviewed a candidate for an admin DBA position. He advertised 12 years experience. He NEVER even installed SQL. Not locally, not in a test, not anywhere. He, literally, did not know anything.
His job function for the past 12 years was to change backup tapes every day. That's it.
Three years with my current company and I have not installed SQL Server on any of our servers either here in the US or while in Afghanistan. All installs are completed by the Sys Admins.
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Lynn Pettis (5/18/2015)
Michael L John (5/18/2015)
Jeff Moden (5/18/2015)
andrew gothard (5/18/2015)
Jeff Moden (5/14/2015)
This one is actually true.Me, the interviewer: As the Lead Developer on this project, we're very interested in someone that understands and can easily do conversions between various numbering systems, which is why we're interested in you. For example, we need someone that can look at, say (as I write in on the white-board), 1416 and convert it to decimal in their head. What's the answer?
Candidate that has been verified to have a PHD in Mathematics: I don't know. I'd need my calculator or a piece of paper and pencil.
Did he find his own way there?
Although - to be fair, given how long he'd have spent over the past several years clarting about with the greek alphabet, he may well have forgotten what a number is.
I'm still amazed by this one. I could be wrong but this one was akin to asking someone applying for an "A" IT job and them not knowing how to login to a computer. It's also why I put no stock in the alphabet soup after someone's name. To be honest, I was totally disgusted. I could NOT believe that a PHD in Mathematics with a lengthy programming background on his resume couldn't answer such a fundamental question.
I am not surprised at all. I have seen this repeatedly.
Interviewed a candidate for an admin DBA position. He advertised 12 years experience. He NEVER even installed SQL. Not locally, not in a test, not anywhere. He, literally, did not know anything.
His job function for the past 12 years was to change backup tapes every day. That's it.
Three years with my current company and I have not installed SQL Server on any of our servers either here in the US or while in Afghanistan. All installs are completed by the Sys Admins.
Maybe so, but you know you could do it. I think I've done a single install in the last year. Most of the time I just spin up new instances in Azure.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
I've never installed SQL Server in a production environment, but I've installed it at dozens of times on my work PC, laptop, and in development. There are several points in the installation where one can really muck things up in way that's problematic to undue. It's not a task I'd pass on to the new guy. I'd prefer a vendor who specializes in provisioning do it.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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xsevensinzx (5/16/2015)
What's wrong with this picture?
nothing at all:hehe:
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events -
Jeff Moden (5/14/2015)
Alvin Ramard (5/14/2015)
Here's an interview question:Name 10 of the parameters for DBCC TimeWarp. 😛
I'd seriously consider asking a DBCC TimeWarp question at an interview, just to see how the person would handle it.
DBCC has 137 parameters but has been deprecated. We are now encouraged to use the new "ALTER LIFE" command but it only has 5 parameters, two of which were almost immediately deprecated as being too useful in the latest service pack.
Oh, I love it!!!!
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GilaMonster (5/15/2015)
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?None. I haven't done 15 odd years in this field to have to work in the middle of the night. How many cups of coffee the junior who I delegate the problem to will need is another matter.
BRILLIANT!
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Luis Cazares (5/15/2015)
It's important for us that you'll be a good fit in our team, so the following question will define if you get the job or not.Leading commas or trailing commas?
Oh, yeah. I so need to add that one to the list.
Next question: Do you write your own code, or do you wait for the Code Fairy to deliver it to you via FedEx?
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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?Trick question. None of them is lying because nothing really has changed. Time to backup the transaction log, update the statistics, and rebuild the indexes... Like we should have been doing on a weekly basis. Only we didn't because... Reasons.
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Along the lines of interview questions, let's just throw this question out there.
If you are hiring for a senior position, you create an exam for the position, you require applicants to take the exam and then when grading it you are proven to be wrong in your understandings of key principles what do you do?
Continue to mark the answers from applicants as correct for questions you just discovered were wrong (well because it is a common myth so why punish them)?
Or do you mark the answers from applicants as incorrect?
E.g. A common misconception is that truncate cannot be rolled back. A senior level for a client thought the same way. A candidate said a truncate could not be recovered (even worse than rolled back). But the "senior" said it was ok because nobody knows the difference.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events -
SQLRNNR (5/19/2015)
Continue to mark the answers from applicants as correct for questions you just discovered were wrong (well because it is a common myth so why punish them)?Or do you mark the answers from applicants as incorrect?
Neither. I do my research while creating the test and discover that I was wrong at that point
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverabilityWe walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass -
SQLRNNR (5/19/2015)
Along the lines of interview questions, let's just throw this question out there.If you are hiring for a senior position, you create an exam for the position, you require applicants to take the exam and then when grading it you are proven to be wrong in your understandings of key principles what do you do?
Do what happened to me. Hire the other guy who got all the questions right including the one that was wrong but graded incorrectly over me who educated them about how the answer was wrong (nicely, btw).
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
SQLRNNR (5/19/2015)
Along the lines of interview questions, let's just throw this question out there.If you are hiring for a senior position, you create an exam for the position, you require applicants to take the exam and then when grading it you are proven to be wrong in your understandings of key principles what do you do?
Continue to mark the answers from applicants as correct for questions you just discovered were wrong (well because it is a common myth so why punish them)?
Or do you mark the answers from applicants as incorrect?
E.g. A common misconception is that truncate cannot be rolled back. A senior level for a client thought the same way. A candidate said a truncate could not be recovered (even worse than rolled back). But the "senior" said it was ok because nobody knows the difference.
Simple, I don't grade the exams as right or wrong. I'll go through them with the person to complete their answers and be sure if they're just remembering some notes, making up stuff, being so nervous that can't explain themselves on paper or simply are very knowledgeable and confident (still waiting for this).
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SQLRNNR (5/19/2015)
Along the lines of interview questions, let's just throw this question out there.If you are hiring for a senior position, you create an exam for the position, you require applicants to take the exam and then when grading it you are proven to be wrong in your understandings of key principles what do you do?
Continue to mark the answers from applicants as correct for questions you just discovered were wrong (well because it is a common myth so why punish them)?
Or do you mark the answers from applicants as incorrect?
E.g. A common misconception is that truncate cannot be rolled back. A senior level for a client thought the same way. A candidate said a truncate could not be recovered (even worse than rolled back). But the "senior" said it was ok because nobody knows the difference.
If the hiring decision hasn't been made yet, and you subsequently discover there is some confusion in how on of your questions was worded or subjectivity regarding what is the correct technical answer, then strike it from your test and also go back and disregard the question from prior rankings. I'd also say that whatever candidate was knowledgable and confident enough to point out the issue with the question during the interview, they should get bonus points.
But honestly, I could coach an average 12 year old how to fake their way through a SQL Server interview, if all it involves is knowing the right answer to a set of 100 possible boilerplate questions that anyone can google on the web. In fact, kids are probably better at that "game" than adults.
When I've done interviews in the past, I'll ask a few prepared technical questions, but the bulk of the time is spent asking open-ended questions based on their stated job history. For example, if they say they developed a data warehouse, then they should be able to talk at length about the data model and ETL process. If they say they have experience with performance optimization, then I'll ask them for three specific examples of how they identified and resolved the issue. I won't even bother asking them what a clustered index is; I'll instead ask them to tell me their opinion regarding best practices for clustered indexes, and this alone could be a ten minute conversation. It's totally OK if they disagree with me over something, and by the time it's all over, I know if they're solid. I also know a good deal about their personality and ability to handle stress.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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GilaMonster (5/19/2015)
SQLRNNR (5/19/2015)
Continue to mark the answers from applicants as correct for questions you just discovered were wrong (well because it is a common myth so why punish them)?Or do you mark the answers from applicants as incorrect?
Neither. I do my research while creating the test and discover that I was wrong at that point
Trying to get the client to see that they were wrong in their assumptions on their exam for hiring.
But they keep falling back on "It's a common misconception so it's ok"
ARGHHH
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
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