Re: Are these too harsh ?

My opinion is that these questions are not too harsh, and they are very appropriate for the job you are trying to fill. However, I am not too surprised that you may have a little difficult time to find one who can do better than 60%, because what you are looking for is not an "average" DBA. It may take longer to get one who can do, say, even better than 80%, but such people are certainly out there (just in a smaller percentage).

Connor McDonald (connor_mcdonald_at_yahoo.com) wrote:
: I'm currently assisting in the interviewing for a DBA - the company is not
: looking for an "Einstein", but also not a junior, just someone who can do
: the job adequately. I was asked to come up with a list of DBA questions, so
: I produced a set that was created for exactly the same purpose at a previous
: site. But so far, no one has explained more than about 60% to an acceptable
: degree.
 

: So I'm looking for impartial opinions - are the following questions too hard
: ?
 

: Ta
: Connor
 

: - What are the various shutdown modes for the database?
: - Describe the basic mechanics of how hot backup works?
: - Besides the overhead of copying the files to disk/tape, what other
: performance issues are relevant during a hot backup, namely, why do many
: sites try to keep the time spent in backup mode to a minimum?
: - If I need to export a single 40G table, but only have 5 separate file
: system, each of only 10G, for the export file - what measures could you
: take?
: - What is the standby database feature and how does it work?
: - List the steps that Oracle goes through at database startup
: - What is the difference between a latch and a lock? Give an example of use
: of each
: - What is "spinning" as it pertains to a latch?
: - What are the positives and negatives of a large database block size on
: indexes?
: - What is the Oracle log buffer? Describe how Oracle uses latches as
: information is written into the log buffer
: - What is a function-based index and where could it be used?
: - What is the 8i feature "Native Dynamic SQL"?
: - What is a locally managed tablespace and list some benefits
: - How do I allow end-user queries against a standby database without
: damaging its ability to act as a standby?
: - What are the significant features of "analytic functions" available from
: 8.1.6 onwards ?
: - What does the "explain plan" command do
: - On a Unix machine, you see an oracle process using all of the CPU.
: Assuming it is due to a poorly written SQL, describe how to determine the
: SQL that is causing the problem, starting with the Unix process ID.
: - How would you determine the amount of I/O occurring on each datafile in
: the database ? If a great deal of this is occurring on the TEMP tablespace
: what is the likely cause ?
: - Describe the three buffer pools (available in 8.0 and 8i) and their uses ?
: - List the pros and cons of using bind variables
: - You issue 'select count(*) from my_table;' and it takes a tremendously
: long time, but then return no rows. What could be causing this ?
: - Describe the common RAID levels used for Oracle databases and how they
: typically pertain to performance
: - Describe how you would determine whether an index requires rebuilding ?
: - What are the advantages of creating code using packages over standalone
: PL/SQL procedures
: - Describe how and why a PL/SQL module could be defined as an autonomous
: transaction
: - Your database contains a view, which joins two tables. It is possible to
: insert, update, and delete rows from this view. - Describe two ways of
: implementing this.
: - What is an inline view?
 

: --
: ==============================
: Connor McDonald
 

: http://www.oracledba.co.uk
 

: "Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue..."
Received on Mon Jun 25 2001 - 18:08:17 CDT