Total Interview Questions

1. What is the difference between Absolute filtering and standard filtering?

When we use the absolute filtering in definition of level metric  whatever data we obtain from the filter is goingto be reported as such and the the report filter will be overridden by the absolute filter settings. The standard filtering the report filter interacts with the metric filter in the normal way and what we obtain will be formatted according to the report filter settings.

 

2. What types of testing can be carried out over the microstrategy reports?

There are many aspects of the report that can be put into testing depending upon the type of report.

ñ  Naming convention tests.

ñ  Total calculations test.

ñ  SQL query validations.

ñ  Attribute and metric positions in report.

ñ  Drilling options Tests.

ñ  Prompts related verifications.

ñ  Security filter tests.

ñ  Formatting/export functionality tests.

ñ  Threshold testing

 

3. What do you mean by trimming of the SQL queries?

Trimming of the SQL refers to the clean up and optimizations that are applied to the query at the MSTR level using VLDB settings. The main thing that is achieved by the trimming is the removal of the unwanted cross joins and the other complex operations.

 

4. How does the reporting varies in the Cognos and the Microstrategy?

The Cognos has the two metadata repository based database, while the microstrategy is based on single metadata repository.

The Cognos has only a web based reporting tool, while the microstrategy can be operated as a webbased and a desktop tool.

Cognos has a cube dataset which has to be refreshed to get latest repository values before reporting. The microstrategy has no cube dataset and we get the latest data from the data warehouse automatically available.

The Cognos reporting can be considerably slow in performance than the microstrategy reporting.

 

5. What is compound and smart metrics?

Compound metrics are the ones that are derived by some specific expression involving the different simple metrics. Eg, Total( profit/units Sold). Smart metrics is when the compound metric is calculated with the help of subtotal calculations for every element inside the compound metric. For the above example the smart metric computation can be Total(profit)/Total(Sold).

 

6. What are logical views? How are they useful?

The logical views help in establishing a specific view based on the combination of facts, attributes and expressions that are based on values from multiple tables. This can be done without the actual modification to the actual physical database or the DBA involvement. This way the reporting can be altered at the highest level of application and can be very quick way to alterations for reporting.

 

7. How can you make the SQL query to be based on a specific table of your choice?

The MSTR operates in such a way that the incoming queries and data retrievals are done from the table which has the least logical size. Thus if we prefer a specific table to be the center of activity then we should try to reduce the logical size of that specific table so that it becomes considerably lesser than the other tables.

 

8. What are report filters and view filters?

Report filters: report filters are the conditions that accompany the report generating SQL statements. The report definitions have the filters as part of their definition.

View Filters: View Filters are the conditions that come into play before a specific result is presented to the user. Thus the view filters are not part of the SQL statements like report definitions, rather they are the filters applied after the execution of the SQL statements, after the data is retrieved from the data warehouse.

 

9. Why is it required to maintain a parent-child relationship among the various attributes? What are the various types of relationships depending on the number of participants?

The parent-child relationship helps in establishing the hierarchical structure to the entire logic and business model. For example, you can have the quarter to be a child of a specific year attribute. This will help us in having a modularized approach in the design and will help in establishing common usage semantics. The various types of relationships can be one to one, many to one, many to many, one to many relationships.

 

10. How is the number of passes in a SQL query significant in performance evaluation?

The number of passes represents the number of times the SQL query has to be parsed and different parts of the query is handled for every pass. The fewer passes we have the more efficient the query executes and faster the reports are generated.

 

11. What are consolidations and custom groups?

The custom groups are the made up of what are called as custom group elements and together they act as a special filter that can be implemented over a specific template. Consolidations refer to the way in which you group or order the data in your report. The different attributes can be gathered together without changing the underlying metadata and ware housing structure.

12. How can you specify the report template and a report filter? How are reports optimized?

The objects maps are the ones that are used to select the group of microstrategy objects that are used to generate the report. This can serve as the template or filter. Then optimizations to the various reports can be done by analysis of the VLDB properties and the customizations can be monitored by the processing path taken up by the Anlytical engine.

 

13. What are attribute roles? How can you resolve the attribute roles?

The attributes that are single in definition but the instances of the attribute can behave differently according to the role they take. Example for this can be a database of airports around the world. The attribute of airport name is always based on the same database table but can be seen as a destination airport or source airport. Such roles are resolved by having aliases for the same table, one alias for destination and one for source airports. We can also enable the automatic attribute role recognition by configuring it properly.

 

14. What is the command manager used for?

The command manger is the one through which you can manage the applications, user accesses, security and databases of the microstrategy. The command manager allows us to save the text commands that can be executed as scripts. Thus it can help in automation of the entire management process.

15. How is object manager oriented copy operation different from the project merge?

The object manager is the one that copies groups of objects with all the attributes that are associated with it. The project merge is used for copying the entire project along with all the objects. This is why it does not have to check for the attribute constraints before copying. The Object manager however has to make sure of the object attribute matches before copying the objects. The object manager cannot be run from the command prompt directly whilst the project merge can be run directly.

 

16. What are level metrics? Why are they needed?

The level metrics are the metric calculation that are carried out over the specific attribute but at the different levels or dimensions. For example, the number of units sold is an attribute that we keep a count on. That metric can be calculated across time and region. Say number of units sold in last month and the number of units sold in specific region of the country. Here the region and time are two different levels. Such level based metric give analytical inference as to the performance of the organization etc.

 

17. Explain the use of pass-through functions.

The pass-through functions are the specific database oriented SQL statements and constructs that are executed by the microstrategy without checking semantics of the actual construct. They are called pass-through as they are not checked for correctness by the microstrategy as such. ApplySimple, Applycomparison are two pass through functions that microstrategy usually applies.

 

18. How can you impose security measures into the microstrategy.

ñ  Column level security established by the imposing user specific access permissions in the database and having user specific connections.

ñ  Entire set of objects can be secured by imposing folder and object level security.

ñ  Row level security is imposed by having user specific security filters for various records.

 

19. What are the VLDB properties? Which level of VLDB configurations have the highest precedence?

The Very Large Data Base properties is the configuration set that manages the overall way in which the database behaves and generates reports. There are many such settings like check for cross joins, intermediate table creation and type etc. The VLDB properties can be set at many different level like metric level, attribute level, Database Instance level, project level or the DBMS level. The highest precedence is given to the report level of configurations.

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