Oracle Basic Concepts faqs, Introduction to Oracle Database 10g Express Edition faqs, Introduction to Command-Line SQL*Plus Client Tool faqs, Understanding SQL Basics faqs, Understanding SQL DDL Statements faqs, Understanding SQL DML Statements faqs, Understanding SQL SELECT Query Statements faqs, Understanding SQL Transaction Management faqs, Managing Oracle User Accounts, Schema and Privileges faqs, Managing Oracle Database Tables faqs, Managing Oracle Table Indexes faqs, Managing Oracle Tablespaces and Data Files faqs, Creating New Database Instance Manually faqs, Introduction to PL/SQL faqs, Introduction to Oracle SQL Developer faqs, Understanding PL/SQL Language Basics faqs, Creating Your Own PL/SQL Procedures and Functions faqs, Working with Database Objects in PL/SQL faqs, Working with Cursors in PL/SQL faqs, Loading and Exporting Data faqs, ODBC Drivers, DSN Configuration and ASP Connection faqs

You may be a good DBA, you know that but not the person who is interviewing you. Interview is a demonstration of your technical and interpersonal skills. Before going to interview, make sure you know the stuff that you have written on your resume. Below is a brief list of some commonly asked questions. We are in the process to add more questions soon.

Oracle Server Architectuthere pictorial Diagrams and the components in Oracle Server with their functions

Creating and Managing Initialization files – PFILE and SPFILE, Adv. of SPFILE over PFILE Identifying the various states/options of Instance Startup/Shutdown, DB Mount/Open stages Monitoring Alert and Trace Files in udump, bdump and cdump for DB Troubleshooting Configuring System Global Area (SGA) – DB Buffer Cache, Log Buffer and Shared Pool Understanding Background Processes – Mandatory/Optional and the jobs performed by them using the Data Dictionary to retrieve information about the database – V$, DBA_ views

Creating and Managing Rollback Segments, Optimal Parameter, Online/Offline, Pending Offline, Deferred Rollback Segments, Snapshot too old scenario Understanding Oracle Undo Segments, Retention Policy, Retention Gurantee/Nogurantee, Switching Undo Tablespaces

Creating and Altering Tablespaces, adding, resizing, renaming and relocating a Datafile, Renaming Tablespace. Tablespace – offline, online, readonly, readwrite, Temporary tablespace groups, multiple blocks Creating and Managing a Tablespace when using OMF and the advantages of OMF feature Extent management- Dictionary Managed and Locally Managed Tablespaces (AUTOALLOCATE, UNIFORM) and advantages of locally managed over dictionary managed tablespaces

Creating, Maintaining tables using appropriate storage settings – initial, minextents, pctfree, etc Obtaining table information like avg. row length, chained rows, etc after analyzing the tables Managing, Listing diff. types of Indexes and their uses, Creating B-Tree and Bitmap Indexes, Maintaining Indexes, Identifying unused Indexes, Obtaining Index Information

Explaining solutions included with Oracle for managing complex networks Oracle Net Architecture – Explaining the key components, Role in Client/Server connections Oracle Net Services Server-side Configuration, Oracle Net Services Client-Side Configuration Configuring and Maintaining Distributed DBs by creating DB Links, Materialized Views Usage and Configuration of Oracle Shared Server, Components of the Oracle Shared Server, Configuring Shared Servers and Dispatchers, Identifying Useful Data Dictionary Views

Importance, Role, Sizing, Contents, Multiplexing and Backing up of the Control File Purpose of and how online redo log files work with their associated Background Processes Controlling log switches and checkpoints, Multiplexing and Archiving online redo log files

Describing the basics of DB Backup, Restore and Recovery, Listing the types of Failures that may occur in an Oracle Environment, Defining Backup and Recovery Strategies Instance and Media Recovery Structures – Describing the Oracle Processes, Memory Structures and Files related to Recovery, Identifying the importance of Checkpoints, Redo Log Files and Archived Log Files, Describing the ways to tune Instance Recovery User Managed Backups and Recoveries – Backup and Recovery Operations, Closed and Open DB Backups (Hot and Cold), Complete Recovery, Identifying the situations which require Incomplete Recovery, Recovery from loss of Online Redo Logs, Creating Clone DBs Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) – Features and Components, Repository, Channel Allocation, Configuring RMAN Environment, Backup Commands and Scripts for Backup sets, Image copies, Complete and Incomplete Recovery and Full/Incremental Compressed backups, Incremental baclups with block change tracking Transporting Data between DBs using Export, Import, Data Pump, Transportable TS across platform, SQL*Loader

Dataguard - offers Maximum Protection/Performance, centralizing and simplifying mgmt., safeguarding against physical corruptions, provides Fail Over and Switch Over Logminer – Read and Analyze the contents of redo log files, obtain info. about DML activities on standard tables, provides a means of auditing actions to either specific tables or by users Flashback Technology – Intro to Flash Recovery Area, Flashback Version Query, Flashback Transaction Query Oracle10g’s New Features

Overview of Tuning Phases, Goals, Methodology and Common Performance problems Tuning O/S, Virtual and Physical Memory, Paging and Swapping, CPU Tuning guidelines DB Conf. and I/O Issues, File Striping, Optimize/Tuning Sorting Operations, Diagnosing and Tuning Latch and Lock Contention, Partitioning, Redo Log File Configuration, Online Segment Shrinking Enabling Oracle’s Parallel Query Option, Multiple DB Writers, Log Writers, Table Caching Sizing of SGA – Shared Pool (Reuse Stmts., etc.), Buffer Cache, Redo Log Buffer Cache Tuning Rollback/Undo Segments – Usage, Configuration, Detecting and Resolving problems Diagnostic and Tuning Tools – Alert Log File, Trace Files, TKPROF, Explain Plan, trcsess, Dynamic Performance Views, TIMED_STATISTICS parameter to collect statistics, STATSPACK

Configuring Master Sites and Materialized View Sites for Multimaster Replication and Materialized View Replication using Oracle Replication Management Tool

Oracle11g on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, Win2K & Solaris 9 (Sun SPARC)

Why should databases be secured/ hardened How does one change an Oracle user's password Managing administrative (privileged) users and password files

SQL Server 2008 Installation and Features, Creating and Managing Databases, Implementing Server and Database Security, Managing Permissions, Recovering from Disasters, Automating Tasks with Jobs and Alerts, Performing Database Maintenance, Monitoring SQL Server