SQL Server Interview Questions    

Related interview questions

More Questions to be prepared before SQL Server interview

1. Explain in brief SQL.
2. How do you delete a record from a database?
3. How do we get distinct entries from a table?
4. Explain the difference among DROP, TRUNCATE and DELETE command of SQL.
5. What is GROUP BY?
6. What is Normalization?
7. Define Database and Relational Database.
8. Explain CODD rules.
9. Explain in brief Extent and Page.
10. Where does SQL server store data?
11. Define Collation in SQL Server.
12. Define “GRANT” and “REVOKE’ statements.
13. What is Cascade and Restrict in DROP table command?
14. How do you select unique rows in SQL server?
15. What is the default “SORT” order in SQL Server?
16. Explain in brief self-join.
17. List down the difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE.
18. List down the difference between “UNION” and “UNION ALL”.
19. Define cursors in SQL server.
20. What are the situations in which we use cursors?
21. What are the steps to create a cursor?
22. What are the different Cursor Types?
23. Define in brief “Global” and “Local” cursors.
24. Explain the use of “Group by” clause.
25. Define ROLLUP and CUBE.
26. List out difference between HAVING and WHERE clause.
27. What is COMPUTE clause in SQL?
28. What is WITH TIES clause in SQL?
29. Explain the use SET ROWCOUNT in SQL.
30. Define Sub-Query.
31. What is Correlated Subqueries?
32. Explain when we use ALL and ANY operator.
33. Explain the use of “CASE” statement in SQL.
34. Explain the use of COLLATE Keyword in SQL.
35. Explain the difference between procedure and function.
36. How to remove duplicate records from a table?
37. How to copy the structure of a table without copying the data?
38. Explain the difference between VARCHAR and VARCHAR2 datatypes.
39. Explain trigger in SQL Server.
40. Is it possible to have multiple records set from stored procedure?
41. What are the ways to optimize stored procedures?
42. Why can a "group by" or "order by" clause be expensive to process?
43. Define fill factor. What are their uses?
44. Explain Extended Stored Procedure in SQL Server 2000.
45. Describe transaction isolation level. What are different options that we set for a transaction isolation level?
46. Explain COMMIT & ROLLBACK statement in SQL.
47. What is DTS in SQL Server?
48. What is the difference between SQL and Pl/Sql?
49. Explain Checkpoint in SQL Server.
50. List out disadvantages of Cursor.
51. What are Log Shipping and its purpose?
52. What are the null values in SQL SERVER?
53. What are the different types of Locks?
54. What are Rules and Constraints in SQL server?
55. What is default in Sql Server and types of Default?
56. Explain Data Integrity in SQL server.
57. What is the use of DBCC commands?
58. Differentiate between a HAVING CLAUSE and a WHERE CLAUSE.
59. When do you use SQL Profiler?
60. What is the difference between temp table and table variable?
61. Why do we consider Replication as the best way to update data between SQL Server?
62. Define the term publisher, distributor and subscriber in “Replication”.
63. Explain in brief “Push” and “Pull” subscription.
64. Is is possible for a publication to support push and pull at one time?
65. What are different types of replication?
66. Define each types of replication.
67. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Snapshot replication?
68. What type of data will qualify for “Snapshot replication”?
69. What is the actual location where the distributor runs?
70. What are advantages and disadvantages of Merge replication?
71. Can you explain in detail how transactional replication works?
72. What are data type concerns during replications?
73. What is nested join, hash join and merge join in SQL Query plan?
74. What is an Execution plan?
75. What are indexes? What are types of indexes?
76. Define B-Trees.
77. How do you see the SQL plan in textual format?
78. Is it a good database design to create indexes on the table in which lot of inserts occurs?
79. What are “Table Scan’s” and “Index Scan’s”?
80. What is “FillFactor” concept in indexes? What is the best value for “FillFactor”?
81. Define “Index statistics”.
82. How can we see statistics of an index?
83. Define Fragmentation. How can we measure Fragmentation?
84. What are the criteria to be considered while selecting an index?
85. Define “Index Tuning Wizard”.
86. What are different types of Locks in SQL Server?
87. What kind of problems occurs if we do not implement proper locking strategy?
88. Explain in brief “Database Transactions “.
89. What is ACID?
90. Define “Begin Trans”, “Commit Tran”, “Rollback Tran” and “Save Tran”.
91. What are “Checkpoint’s” in SQL Server?
92. What are “Implicit Transactions”?
93. What is a “Deadlock” ?
94. What are the steps you can take to avoid “Deadlocks” ?
95. How can I know what locks are running on which resource?
96. Is it good to use “Implicit Transactions”?
97. What are “Dirty reads”?
98. Explain in brief “Unrepeatable reads”.
99. Define “Phantom rows”.
100. What are “Lost Updates”?
101. Define Concurrency.
102. What are different Isolation levels in SQL Server?
103. What are different levels of granularity of locking resources?
104. What are “Lock” hints?