Walmart Database Admin Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round duration - 50 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

This round majorly focused on the architecture side of Database .

Q1. Can you explain the Oracle Database Architecture?
Ans. 
1) There are three major structures in Oracle Database server architecture: memory structures, process structures, and storage structures. A basic Oracle database system consists of an Oracle database and a database instance.

2) The database consists of both physical structures and logical structures. Because the physical and logical structures are separate, the physical storage of data can be managed without affecting ...read more
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Q2. Can you explain the architecture of Oracle Data Guard?
Ans. 
1) Oracle's Data Guard is a well test and supported solution but it does not come cheap but it is a solution that is practically the same across all companies and one that all DBA's should be able to grasp very quickly when starting at a new company.

2) Data Guard is basically a ship redo and then apply redo, as you know redo is the information needed to recover a database transaction. A production database referred to ...read more
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Round duration - 50 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Major stress was given on Performance Tuning and AWR Reports .

Q1. What is DMV in Microsoft SQL Server?
Ans. 
1) Dynamic Management Views are functions built into Microsoft SQL Server that allow for troubleshooting, diagnostics and server health monitoring.

2) The default port for MySQL is 3306, and can be changed in Windows.

3) The default port for Oracle is 1521, and can be changed .Depending on your security stance, changing the port that your database server uses can be a good way to lower your profile and reduce the amount ...read more
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Q2. Can you explain AWR report analysis and how it relates to performance testing?
Ans. 
I was asked to mention some important points that we need to ensure while analysing the AWR( Automatic Workload Repository ) Report . I answered accordingly : 

1) To Collect Multiple AWR Reports: It’s beneficial to have two AWR Reports, one for the good time and other when performance is poor or we can also create three reports (Before/Meantime/After reports) during the time frame problem was experienced and compar...read more
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Round duration - 40 Minutes
Round difficulty - Medium

Some questions revolving around Backups in Oracle and some standard DBMS questions were asked in this round.

Q1. What are the advantages of using views in a database management system?
Ans. 
The advantages of using a view in the table are : 
1) It is a subset of the data in table
2) It store complex queries
3) It can simplify multiple tables into one
4) It occupies very little space
5) It presents the data from different perspectives
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Q2. What are the types of backups available in Oracle?
Ans. 
The main four types of backups in Oracle are:
1) COLD Backup
2) HOT Backup
3) Import – Export Backup
4) RMAN Backup

Follow Up Question : Explain Hot Backup and Cold Backup.

Hot backup is also recognized as an Online Backup because here the backup is taken while the database is active and running. And when the backup can only happen while the database is in shut down mode then it is called Cold Backup which can also be identi
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Round duration - 30 Minutes
Round difficulty - Easy

This is a cultural fitment testing round .HR was very frank and asked standard questions. Then we discussed about my role.

Q1. What do you know about the company?
Ans. 
General Tip : Before an interview for any company , have a breif insight about the company , what it does , when was it founded and so on . All these info can be easily acquired from the Company Website itself .
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Q2. Why should we hire you?
Ans. 
Tip 1 : The cross questioning can go intense some time, think before you speak.
Tip 2 : Be open minded and answer whatever you are thinking, in these rounds I feel it is important to have opinion.
Tip 3 : Context of questions can be switched, pay attention to the details. It is okay to ask questions in these round, like what are the projects currently the company is investing, which team you are mentoring. How all is the...read more
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