Re: Oracle DBA interview questions

    If yes, what versions, operating systems. Explain what problems     you encountered and how you went about solving them.

What you are looking for here is confirmation that the person has good problem solving skills. If they installed anything other than Personal Oracle 7 and had no problems then I would wonder???

2. Have you ever upgraded an Oracle Version

    If Yes, from what version to what version. What problems were     encountered, how did you fix them.

Again we are looking for experience and problem solving skills. Most of us that have upgraded a version have had some problem.

3. Describe the types of oracle backups and generally when each would be used.

    hot, cold, export/import

a general description here gives you a warm and fuzzy that they under stand how backup/recovery works.

4. Have you ever had to recover a production database. If so how did you do it. If not I would have a trial scenario and ask how they would go about recovering.

5. We have a instance that is "TOO SLOW" what would you do first to try to "FIX" this instance.

Most tuning books suggest that you first look at tuning sql queries, but some general knowledge of v$ tables and how to check sga, shared pool, and db block buffers and use of utlbstat/utlestat would all be good indications that the prospect has some idea of how performance tuning is donw.

I might even ask him as a followup what is his favorite Tuning Book. If he has one this is a good sign. If he doesn't he probably hasn't done much tuning.

Sorry for the incomplete first post,

Hope this helps,