Interview 2019

Tell me About yourself?

This is the major interview question for freshers and experienced. Everyone should prepare before
going to the interview.
Experienced:Tell ur name with experience what you have with current and previous organization and
then explain the porject what you done. If they expecting more then give your educational details but
no need to mention the family back ground.
What are your roles and responsibilities in your current project?
As a OBIEE developer,the reponsibilities like repository configuration and reports generation based
on the client requirements. At the end we need to implement the security.
From where you start your work in daily routine?
Daily i got a mail from my reporting manager with a attached document. It includes all the
requirements and details of the work. 
What is the architecture of OBIEE?
https://oracletechnotalk.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/obiee-architecture/
Explain the 3 layers of the repository?
https://oracletechnotalk.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/obiee-architecture/
What is connection pool and how many connection pools you have in your project?What is the purpose?
Actually connection pool is a link between repository and database. For more details use the link
http://oracletechnotalk.blogspot.in/search?q=connection+pool

We can use multiple connection pools for to increase the performance. The no.of connection pools
may dependent on the project. We created different connection pools for
security implementation,users and variables creation etc.
What is the difference between Obiee 10g & 11g?
OBIEE 10g:
 We have 2 joins, foreign key join and complex join.
 We have only level-based hierarchy in the logical layer.
 All the configuration settings will be done at NQSconfig file.
OBIEE 11g:
 we have only 1 join, new join.
 We have different hierarchies; level-based hierarchies,parent-child hierarchies,ragged
hierarchies,skipped hierarchies.
 All the configuration settings will be done at the enterprise manager.
 we have option like look-up table.
 In answers,the chart view renamed as graph.
which version of OBIEE you are using?
Go to help in the repository of your project. There we can get the exact version of OBIEE.
What is the difference between OCI and ODBC?
OCI will be specific to the oracle database but the ODBC connection, we can use with any data
source.
Have you ever worked on Joins?If yes how?
Yes, In physical layer i worked on joins based on the data-modelling document.

Did u get the data from any other data sources? If yes how?
Yes,ofcourse client will provide the data in different formats like excel sheets, files, cubes etc. We can
import the data by creating the drivers for data sources.
Can i import the data directly from other sources to repository?
yes, we can directly import the data to repository
How to set the logging level in repository?
manage->identity->goto the user->set the logging level
The logging level for developer:min 2
The logging level for Administrator:upto 7
In production phase the logging level should be disabled. We can set the logging level for a specific
request at answers
Have you ever worked with ETL-tools?
As a reporting developer, i know the flow of ETL process. I never worked on that.The ETL people
takecare of everything.
Which type of schema you are used in your project?
Actually most of the projects are designed like a star-schema.My project is also used star-schema as a
data model.
What is star and snow-flake schema?
For complete details about star and snow-flake schema
https://oracletechnotalk.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/basic-dataware-housing-interview-questions/
What is fact and dimension table?
The detailed description of fact and dimension tables
https://oracletechnotalk.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/basic-dataware-housing-interview-questions/
What is the flow of your porject?
Every project must follow the software development life cycle.
Generally,the porject flow may like requirements gathering, Development(ETL and Report), testing
and Production.The flow of project may differ from project to project based on domain like retail,
telecom, healthcare, construction etc.
The complete knowledge on SDLC
https://oracletechnotalk.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/obiee-application-development-life-cycle/
What is Dataware housing?
https://oracletechnotalk.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/basic-dataware-housing-interview-questions/
Rate yourself in SQL?
OBIEE developer must have the knowledge on sql because he need to test his own stuff.Minimum
knowledge of SQL is required for dataware housing developers.The rating should be dependent on
the person knowledge.

1.What you did in physical layer,BMM layer and Presentation layer?

Ans: Physical layer:Physical layer is a connection between database and repository by using
connection pool.We can import the data from the different data sources, no.of connection pools,
aliases like  tables and columns, duplicate tables, opaque views and physical joins etc.
BMM layer:Also called as Logical layer, Actually we implemented the logic here.We can do the
calculations, create the logical tables and columns, establish the joins like physical and logical or
complex joins, dimensions, level-based-metrics etc.
Presentation layer:We can show only the content which we want to show the end-user, We can
implement authorization and authentication, Implicit fact column and sort order column etc.
2.What are Level-Based-Metrics(LBM)?How you use in your project?
Ans: Level-based-metrics show the measures at different levels based on the dimension hierarchy.
Generally LBMs  will use to display the data at month, week and day level. To show this we will
create the alias measure columns. Explain more details from your project.
3.What is Dimension Hierarchies?Explain the procedure to create the Hierarchy? 
Ans: Below link give the complete procedure for creating the dimension hierarchy..
http://oracletechnotalk.blogspot.in/2012/04/creation-of-hierarchy-in-obiee.html
4.What is Sort order columns?
Ans: We can sort the columns at 2 levels
 1. Repository:At the presentation layer,sort the one column values based on another column
2. Answers:At the criteria tab->columns->sort the column values either ascending or descending
order based on the requirement.
5.Rate yourself in SQL?
Ans: Here you need answer very carefully because based on your rating they are ready to fire the
questions on SQL. You have the minimum knowledge in SQL like select statement, joins,
performance concepts etc.
6.What is Implicit fact table and Implicit fact column?
Ans: A common fact table for dimension tables is called as Implicit fact table. An Implicit fact
column is a column in a Implicit fact table, we can select the best path between the dimensions.
Implicit fact column is decided in presentation layer.
7.Can we handle the nulls?
Ans: Yes,we can handle either in repository and answers.
ifnull(column_name,0)->at expression of the measure column
8.What is the use of connection pool?
Ans: We can create different no.of connection pools in the project. It has the database connection
details, no.of minimum users can access the application.
9.What is security in OBIEE?
Ans: Security in OBIEE can be implemented in 2 ways.
1. Authentication:Verify and validate the users against the system. 
2. Authorization:Validate the users against the Data.
10.What is Authentication?How can we implement?
Ans: Verify and validate the users against the system.We can implement the Authentication in 4
ways
1. External table
2. Operating system
3. Data base
4. LDAP
11.What is Authorization?How can we implement?
Ans: Validate the users against the Data. Data can be limited the users by
1. Object level
2. Data level
3. Reports/Dashboard level

Application Life-cycle:
            This is the End-to End process of an application in the organisation (From requirements
gathering to production support).
There are 4 phases in the life-cycle
1. Requirements Gathering
2. Development
3. Testing
4. Production or Support
1. Requirements Gathering
Business analyst(BA): He is the person or a mediator between the client and the organisation.
 First Business Analyst is going to interact with the client to know about the client business and
pain-areas, from that business analysis BA will prepare the document called as Business
requirement document or BRD or FSD(Functional Specification document) or SPEC.
 From the BRD,the development team will prepare the HLD and LLD.
HLD(High-level-document): Divide the BRD into different modules for requirement analysis,
prepared by developers.
 LLD(Low-level-document): Gives the detailed information about each entity in the BRD or HLD,
prepared by developers.
 GAP Analysis:This is the comparision between client requirement and reporting tool features like
is the tool fulfill all the requirements of the client or not.
 POC(Proof of Concept):This is the dummy or a duplicate model where the development team will
cook the data manually and prepares a sample model which is going to send for the client’s
approval.
Note:The end product should be same with the POC.
2. Development 
There are 2 parts in development
 ETL development: ETL developers will prepare a data-model with all dimensions
and facts.Also build an integrated dataware-house from the heterogeneous data sources.
 Reporting development:Once the DWH is built,the reporters will configure the repository and
generate the reports asa per the client’s requirement.
3. Testing
Tesing is the major part in any application or product development.There are 3 types of testing in the
OBIEE application development.
 Unit Testing:The developer will test the own stuff.
 Peer-Reviews:Test the application within the organisation as the application developed.
 UAT(User Acceptance Test):This is a client test testing,the application will be tested by some other
company.
4. Production or Support
The company need to give the application support for one month by default.After that based on the
client’s decision, the development company or some other company will give the production support.

1. What are all the other objects you can use in physical layer other than tables?
ANS:FUNCTIONS,PROCEDURES,SELECT statement,Materialized views,OPAQUE
2. What is a materialized view?
ANS: Materialized view is a physical object and replica of the one or more master objects.It will
refresh in an intervals.
3. Have you ever tried with de-normalized Database to build reports? If yes, How to handle?
ANS: Building reports on de-normalized data is not a best practice it leads to performance issues but
we can build the reports. These are reports can’t be used for business analysis because the data will
fluctuate non regular intervals.
4. Employee table, Department table
a) How to get the duplicate records from the employee table?
ANS: select * from employee group by EMPID having count(EMPID)>1;
b) How to establish a primary key, foreign key join between employee and department tables?
ANS:DEPARTMENT is the PRIMARY KEY AND EMPLOYEE is the FOREIGN KEY.
c) If I want to add another department to the each employee, what are all the ways to design the tables?
ANS:Create an another DEPARTMENT column to the EMPLOYEE TABLE.
5. Have to ever work with complex BMM layer? Not like star and snow flake schema? Generally what
are all the objects it includes?
ANS:YES,It includes BRIDGE tables,LOOK-UP tables,HIERARCHIES,TIME SERIES
functions,Complex calculations,SNOW FLAKE schema etc.

Tell me About yourself?

This is the major interview question for freshers and experienced. Everyone should prepare before going
to the interview.
Experienced: Tell ur name with experience what you have with current and previous organization and
then explain the porject what you done. If they expecting more then give your educational details but no
need to mention the family back ground.

What are your roles and responsibilities in your current project?

As a OBIEE developer,the reponsibilities like repository configuration and reports generation based on
the client requirements. At the end we need to implement the security.

From where you start your work in daily routine?

Daily i got a mail from my reporting manager with a attached document. It includes all the requirements
and details of the work. 

What is the architecture of OBIEE?

http://oracletechnotalk.blogspot.in/search?q=OBIEE+architecture

Explain the 3 layers of the repository?

http://oracletechnotalk.blogspot.in/search?q=OBIEE+architecture

What is connection pool and how many connection pools you have in your project?What is
the purpose?
Actually connection pool is a link between repository and database. For more details use the link
http://oracletechnotalk.blogspot.in/search?q=connection+pool
We can use multiple connection pools for to increase the performance. The no.of connection pools may
dependent on the project. We created different connection pools for
security implementation,users and variables creation etc.

What is the difference between Obiee 10g & 11g?

OBIEE 10g:
 We have 2 joins, foreign key join and complex join.
 We have only level-based hierarchy in the logical layer.
 All the configuration settings will be done at NQSconfig file.
OBIEE 11g:
 we have only 1 join, new join.
 We have different hierarchies; level-based hierarchies, parent-child hierarchies, ragged
hierarchies, skipped hierarchies.
 All the configuration settings will be done at the enterprise manager.
 we have option like look-up table.
 In answers,the chart view renamed as graph.

which version of OBIEE you are using?

Go to help in the repository of your project. There we can get the exact version of OBIEE.

What is the difference between OCI and ODBC?

OCI will be specific to the oracle database but the ODBC connection, we can use with any datasource.

Have you ever worked on Joins?If yes how?

Yes, In physical layer i worked on joins based on the data-modelling document.

For more real time interview questions on OBIEE

For more concepts 

creation of hierarchy in OBIEE
How will you create Interactive Dashboards ?
By clicking on Administration and Manage dashboards and by adding column selector
we can create interactive Dashboard.
What is write-back in obiee ?
We can give a column as updatable and then view the reports,this option is called write
back option.
How will you execute Direct SQL in OBIEE?
By clicking Direct Database Request below the subject area in we can execute
Direct SQL in OBIEE.
How OBIEE Developer can create report from two subject areas?
From the Criteria Pane of the Report Created from First Subject Area come to the
bottom of the page and click combine request. By this we can create report from two
subject areas.
How we can Port changes for dashboards, reports, rpd from development to
production?
For the RPD we can use the Merge option in Admin Tool and for dashboards and
reports we can use Content Accelerator Framework.
What are the different types of variables in OBIEE 11g? explain
There are two types of variables in OBIEE 11g.
a. Repository variable:
This variable is used for the whole repository.
b. Session variable:
session variable are of two types: system variable and non system variable.
System variable uses NQ_SESSION. Examples of non system variables are user
defined filters.
Explain the Architecture of OBIEE 11g and function of each components?
OBIEE Comprises Presentation Services,Oracle BI Server:
The user constructs sql and passes it to the Analytic Engine and then the Oracle
BI (Analytic Engine) describes the physical sql to the Datasources and recover the data
back to the Engine and presents to the presentation Services.
How we can extract sql from OBIEE for reports?
There are many ways to extract the sql:
a. Change the request and click Advanced in that you get xml code and also the actual
sql.
b. In the catalog Manager click Tools-Create Report . In the Create Report Window –>
Click Request SQL and save the sql to the physical path in your PC.
c. Enable Loglevel to 2 in the OBIEE 11g Administration Tool from Manage-> Security
and enable the log level to 2 by clicking properties for the user, then go to the
NQQuery.log in BI_HOME/OracleBI/Server/Logs.You will find the SQL for that User.
d. By clicking Administration->Manage sessions-> view sql.
How can you sort in Reports in OBIEE 11g?
Click on modify and then click on sort (order by icon) on the relevant column in the
criteria pane.
How we can do different types of narrative Reports in OBIEE?
By clicking modify request and Narrative View and by giving @1 for the first column
result and @2 for the 2nd column and so on and we can also give a heading for No
Results by clicking the Narrative view.
How will you enable or disable caching in the system level and table level?
In the NQSConfig.ini file use ENABLE under CACHE Section for System Level.
For tables, if we want to enable the cache at table level , open the repository in offline
mode This should be different from the current repository and click enable or disable the
cache.
How will you go about adding additional column to the repository in
the presentation layer?
Check if the table is already existing if so add in physical layer ,then click on BMM and
then Presentation layer, then reload server metadata ,then it will be visible to all users.
How will effect the changes for a report , if for certain users only the column
heading in the report should be changed?
Using session variables for that user.
What is a table alias in OBIEE 11g? Where and how will you create it?
Table alias is used for creating self joins. Table alias can be created by right clicking the
table in the physical layer then click alias.
Have you created Hierarchy in OBIEE 11g. if so where and how?
Yes, we can create hierarchy in BMM Layer of OBIEE in dimensions for the dimension
tables. This can be done by right clicking the dimension table and click create
dimension and then we can manually define the hierarchy and its levels.
What is Level Based Metrics? How we can create it?
Level-base metrics means, having a measure held at a certain level of the dimension.
Examples Monthly Total Sales or Quarterly Sales
To create a level based measure, create a new logical column based on the original
measure .Drag and drop the new logical column to the appropriate level in
the Dimension hierarchy.
Different layers of OBIEE 11g Repository?
The different layers of OBIEE 11g Repository are:
1. Physical Layer
2. Business Model
3. Mapping Layer
4. Presentation Layer
What is Authentication? How many types of authentication?
Authentication is the procedure by which a system confirms, through the use of a user
a. Operating system authentication
b. External table authentication
c. Database authentication
d. LDAP authentication
What is a bridge table ?
If we want to connect two tables where there is no relationship we can use a thrived
bridge table for connecting them which will have same columns in both tables.
How Time based triggered report can be generated?
Using Scheduler – ibots we can generate time based triggered report.
What are different types of joins that are possible in OBIEE RPD?
1. Complex Join –it uses multiple conditions, such as A.ROW_WID = B.ROW_WID AND
/ OR A.A_WID =        B.B_WID
2. Natural Join
How we can have two different columns from two different tables or subject
areas?
Using confirmed dimensions,we can fetch many metrics across various facts, but the
join should be of same level of data detail.
How can we use saved filters and where we will save the filters?
Shared Folders-XYZ Folder- It have two folders
a. Prompts
b. Reports
Have you worked in dashboard? when we run a dashboard? how will we stop the
dashboard report run automatically?
By clicking on the cancel button, we can stop a exact report placed on the dashboard.
Define surrogate key.
A surrogate key is an artificially generated key, usually a number. A surrogate key, in
the level aggregate table, simplifies this join and removes unnecessary columns from
the fact table, resulting in a smaller-sized fact table.
Define repository in terms of Siebel Analytics.
1.Repository stores the Meta data information. Siebel repository is a file
system ,extension of the repository file. rpd.
META DATA REPOSITORY
2.With Siebel Analytics Server, all the rules needed for security, data modeling,
aggregate navigation, caching, and connectivity is stored in metadata repositories.
3.Every metadata repository can store many business models. Siebel Analytics Server
can access many repositories.
Explain the end to end life cycle of Siebel Analytics?
Siebel Analytics life cycle
1. Collect Business Requirements
2. Recognize source systems
3. Plan ETL to load to a DW if source data doesn’t exist.
4. Build a repository
5. Build dashboard or use answers for reporting.
6. Define security
7. Based on performance, decide an aggregations and/or caching mechanism.
8. Testing and QA.
How does Siebel Architecture works? Explain the three layers.
There are five parts of Siebel Architecture.
1. Clients
2. data sources
3. Siebel analytics Web Server data sources
4. Siebel analytics scheduler
5. Siebel analytics server
Metadata represents the analytical Model which is created using the siebel Analytics
Administration tool.
Repository divided into three layer
1. Physical – Signifies the data Sources
2. Business – copies the Data sources into Facts And Dimension
3. Presentation – Specifies the users view of the model ; rendered in Siebel answer.
If we have 3 facts and 4 dimension and we need to join would you recommend
joining fact with fact? If no than what is the option?
In the BMM layer,we can create one logical table (fact) and add the 3 fact table as
logical table source.

Desired to gain proficiency on OBIEE 11g ?

Explore the blog post on OBIEE 11g training online to become a pro in OBIEE 11g

What is connection pool and how many connection pools did we have in our last
project?
Connection pool is needed for each and every physical database.
It contains material about the connection to the database, not the database itself.
We can use either shared user accounts or pass-through accounts -Use: USER and
PASSWORD for pass through.
We can have many connection pools for each group to avoid waiting
Define JDK and why do we need it?
Java Development Kit (JDK), is a software package that contains the minimal set of
tools needed to write, compile, debug, and run Java applets.
Oracle doesn’t recommend Opaque Views because of performance
considerations, so why/when do we use them?
An opaque view is a physical layer table that contain select statement. An opaque view
should be used only if there is no other option.
Can we migrate the presentation layer to a different server?
No we cant migrate the presentation layer to a different server rather we have to
migrate the whole web & rpd files
How we can identify the dimension tables and how we can decide them during
the Business/Data modeling?
Dimension tables contain descriptions about data analysts which is used as query in the
database. Every table contains a primary key that contains one or more columns; each
row in a table is uniquely identified by its primary-key value or values
Why do we have multiple LTS in BMM layer?What is the purpose?
To improve the performance and query response time we have multiple LTS in BMM.
What is the full form of rpd?
There is no full form for rpd as such, it is just a repository file which is known as
Rapidfile Database.
How we can disable cache for only 2 particular tables?
We can disable cache in the physical layer, by right clicking on the table there we can
have the option which define cacheable
How we can split a table in the rpd given the condition. ( the condition given was
Broker and customer in the same table) Split Broker and customer.
We have to make a dubbed table in the physical layer.
What type of protocol did we use in SAS?
TCP/IP type protocol. 

1What is single LTS and multiple LTS?Answer:

 The logical table created at the BMM layer can be based on the data from a single physical
layertable, when it is called single Logical Table source. When the specific logical layer table is
dependent on thecolumns of different physical layer tables, it is called Multiple LTS.
Most of the time we will be dealing withMultiple LTS.
Question.2 If we have 5 different dimension tables and we need to
have hierarchies for only one table, is it mandatory to have hierarchies
implemented for all the tables?Answer:
 No, it is not mandatory to create the hierarchies for all the tables, we can just define hierarchies
tothose tables that need to have it.