SQL DBA Interview Topics

In the search for a good SQL Server DBA you'll likelytable depending upon data from another table.
interview many candidates. While there are manyThere are several types of joins: INNER JOINs,
things a hiring manager looks for in an interview, forOUTER JOINs, CROSS JOINs.
instance what is termed soft skills definitely plays aWhat is normalization? Explain different levels of
role, managers are basically looking for someone whonormalization?
knows what they are doing. In other words, it's whatThe process of applying normal forms sequentially on
you know or at the very least appear to know in thea database design to efficiently organize data. 1NF
interview that counts.Eliminate Repeating Groups - Make a separate table
Here are a few questions to review that will betterfor each set of related attributes, and give each table
prepare you for an interview for a SQL DBA position..a primary key.
What is SQL? (hopefully this is a given if you are2NF Eliminate Redundant Data - If an attribute
interviewing for type of position). SQL stands fordepends on only part of a multi-valued key, remove it
'Structured Query Language'.to a separate table. 3NF Eliminate Columns Not
What is SELECT statement? A SELECT statementDependent On Key - If attributes do not contribute to
allows you to select a set of values from a table in aa description of the key, remove them to a separate
database. The values selected from the databasetable.
table depend on the various conditions that areBCNF Boyce-Codd Normal Form - If there are
specified in the SQL query.non-trivial dependencies between candidate key
How do you delete a record from a database? Useattributes, separate them out into distinct tables.
the DELETE statement to remove records from a4NF Isolate Independent Multiple Relationships - No
database.table may contain two or more 1:n or n:m relationships
What's the difference between a primary key and athat are not directly related.
unique key? Both primary key and unique enforce5NF Isolate Semantically Related Multiple Relationships
uniqueness of the column on which they are defined.-There may be practical constrains on information that
But by default primary key creates a clustered indexjustify separating logically related many-to-many
on the column, where are unique creates arelationships.
nonclustered index by default. Another majorONF Optimal Normal Form - a model limited to only
difference is that, primary key doesn't allow NULLs, butsimple (elemental) facts, as expressed in Object Role
unique key allows one NULL only.Model notation.
What is a join and what are some examples of typesDKNF Domain-Key Normal Form - a model free from
of joins? Joins are used in queries to connect differentall modification anomalies.
tables together. Joins allow you to select data from a