RE: DBA Interview Questions
- From: "Bobak, Mark" <Mark.Bobak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <dofreeman@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Oracle-L (E-mail)" <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 14:43:17 -0500
I think one of the best ones is from Tom Kyte.
Describe the various components that make up a database. Then,
go into detail describing the various components that make up
an instance. How do these components interact and work together?
Anyone who can do a good job describing the databases (datafiles, redo,
controlfiles) and the instance (various background processes and what
they do, SGA, how it's divided up, etc) is going to have a pretty good
knowledge of Oracle.
If candidate survives that one, favorite questions seem to be:
Describe a recent database corruption issue and how you recovered from =
it.
What's a nested loop join? Sort-merge join? Hash join? semi-join?
anti-join? Self-join? outer join?
Describe scenarios where it may or may not be appropriate to use
a B*Tree or bitmap index.
Describe your approach to tuning SQL. What tools do you use?
How do you approach the problem? How can you measure the improvement
that's been achieved?
A user complains that the system is slow. What do you do? Where do
you begin?
There's some questions that ought to keep him busy for a while...;-)
Good luck,
-Mark
> -----Original Message-----
> From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Freeman, Donald
> Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 2:29 PM
> To: Oracle-L (E-mail)
> Subject: DBA Interview Questions
>=20
>=20
> We have a position open suddenly and I'll be participating in =3D
> interviewing my contract co-dba next week for a Oracle 9i=20
> data warehouse =3D
> position. One of the resumes I read mentioned the applicant had =3D
> experience in performance tuning by 'tuning buffer cache hit=20
> ratios' and =3D
> that made me want to buckle down and ask a few appropriate questions.
>=20
> I first plan to ask what a buffer cache hit ratio is and then what a =
=3D
> 10046 trace is: If they can explain how to use it and=20
> explain waits =3D
> then I'll know I've got a winner. =3D20
>=20
> Whats the quickest way to find out if somebody knows something about =
=3D
> tuning? I'm just a novice myself and would like to be sure=20
> that the =3D
> guy/gal we hire knows more than I do and can strengthen us in=20
> that area. =3D
>=20
>=20
> The guy we interviewed today didn't know what system stats and =3D
> histograms were and didn't know what RAC was. Hopefully we'll do =3D
> better next week when we resume. If anybody is interested in these =
=3D
> kind of contract positions you have to get on the list with=20
> Deloitte and =3D
> Touche. They are our primary contractors.=3D20
>=20
> Don Freeman
> Database Administrator 1
> Pennsylvania Dept of Health
> Bureau of Information Technology
>=20
>=20
> --
> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>=20
--
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