Oracle DBA interview questions

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19. When a transaction modifies the database, Oracle copies the original data before modifying it. The original copy of the modified data is called

20. What is the purpose of SMON background process?

21. Setting of which parameter can affect the performance of the database?

21. Setting of which parameter can affect the performance of the database?

How do you increase the performance of %LIKE operator? The % placed after he search word can enable the use of index if one is specified in the index column. This performs better than the other two ways of using % - before the search word OR before and after the search word.............
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What is a standby database? Difference between Physical and logical standby databases. A standby database is a backup database that can be promoted should the primary fail. A physical standby database is created from an existing other database. This other database will then be the primary database...............
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What is Cache Fusion Technology? Cache fusion treats multiple buffer caches as one joint global cache.This solves the issues like data consistency internally, without any impact on the application code or design..............
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What is simple replication and advance replication? Replication is the process of creating and maintaining replicas of database objects in a distributed database system..............
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How are the indexes updated? Whenever a table partition is modified using a DDL command, the associated index partitions are placed in the default tablespace or in the same tablespace as the data segments. This has been an issue with the previous releases of the Oracle databases..............

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Latches vs Enqueues Enqueues permit several concurrent processes to have varying degree of sharing of resources. Any object which can be concurrently used, can be protected with enqueues. The enqueue is obtained using an OS.............
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Explain the difference between a hot backup and a cold backup. A cold backup is done when there is no user activity going on with the system. Also called as offline backup, is taken when the database is not running and no users are logged in. all files of the database are copied and no changes during the copy are made...............
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How many memory layers are in the oracle shared pool? Explain them Oracles shared pool consists of two layers namely, Library cache and Data dictionary cache. Library cache: This layer has information about SQL statements that were parsed, information about cursors and any plan data...............
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What is the cache hit ratio, what impact does it have on performance of an Oracle database and what is involved in tuning it? When the cache client like a CPU, web browser etc finds a successful entry in the cache memory, it is called as a cache hit..............
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Explain the concept of the DUAL table. On installing Oracle database, DUAL table Is present by default. It is a special table with just one row. It has a single column called DUMMY. The data type of this column in VARCHAR2(1). It has a value X..............
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What are the ways tablespaces can be managed and how do they differ? Objects can be assigned to a table space. The related objects can be then grouped together. Table space can also be managed using extents. Extents consist of a specific number of contiguous data blocks..............
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Explain what are Oracle Catalog and Oracle Archive log? Oracle catalog contains tables and views to get information about the database. It helps user to understand the available tables, attributes, constraints etc..............
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What are PCT Free and PCT Used? What is PCT increase parameter in segment? PCTFREE is a parameter used to find how much space should be left in a database block for future updates. This means that if the PCTFREE = 20, new rows will be added in the block until it is 80% full..............

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What is dump destination? What are bdump, cdump and udump? Trace files for Oracle processes are stored in dump destination. Bdump- Oracle writes to the trace log and creates trace files for background processes in background dump destination. If this directory becomes full and more files cannot be written, debugging becomes difficult...............
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What is the difference between Cloning and Standby databases? The clone database is a copy of the database which can be opened in read write mode. It is treated as a separate copy of the database that is functionally completely separate. The standby database is a copy of the production database used for disaster protection..............
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Why use materialized view instead of a table? Materialized views are basically used to increase query performance since it contains results of a query..............
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Why and how the deadlock situation arises? A deadlock situation arises when two or more users wait for the same resource locked by one anther or two or more processes wait to update rows which are locked by other processes..............
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Also read Oracle tablespaces A table space can be considered as a storage location where the database objects are kept........... Oracle system privilege A system privilege is the right to perform an action on any schema objects of a particular type............. Oracle Security Explain the security features in Oracle, What are roles? How can we implement roles?, What is user Account in Oracle database?, What is a trace file and how is it created?, What are Tablespace Quota and default tablespace?............ Oracle optimizer Explain how oracle optimizer works, Describe optimization methods, i.e. cost-based approach and role-based optimization.......... Explain how to prevent tablespace fragmentation in oracle. Tablespace fragmentation can be prevented by using PCTINCREASE command. PCTINCREASE is the percentage

a new subsequent extent will grow.............. Oracle database tuning Automatic Performance Diagnostic and Tuning Features, Automatic Shared Memory Management - Automatic Shared Memory Management puts Oracle in control of allocating memory within the SGA......... What are layers in Oracle Architecture? The Oracle database has a logical layer and a physical layer. The physical layer consists of the files that reside on the disk and logical layer map the data to these files of physical.......... What is a static data dictionary in Oracle? The information in data dictionary can be accessed through data dictionary views as they are not directly accessible............ What is a database buffer cache? Database buffer cache is a component of SGA. It has the responsibility to cache most recent accessed data. It keeps the transaction in the buffer cache till it is written on the disk............. What is configure command and recovery catalog? A recovery catalog is a schema stored in a database. It tracks backups and stores scripts for use in RMAN backup and recovery situations...................
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What are different types of backup? (Hot, Cold, logical, Physical) Explain in detail. Cold Backup In this type of backup, after the database is shut down, DBA exits the SVRMGR utility and copies the log files, data files and control files onto a backup media.Once the backup has been completed the DBA can restart the database...................
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Whats the Concept of Flashback Query in Oracle (10g in particular) and how is it beneficial? Due to human errors, valuable data gets deleted or misentered. Oracle Flashback Technology provides a set of new features to view and undo the data back and forth......................
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What is mean live lock and deadlock? How to prevent it? A deadlock can occur when two or more processes that strive to acquire resources are not able to acquire them due to some of the following reasons:.................
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What is Partial Backup? A partial backup is similar to a full database backup, but a it does not contain all the filegroups.............

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What is Mirrored on-line Redo Log? Due to Mirrored online redo logs and disk array mirroring, the occurrence of redo log corruptions has dropped to practically zero...................
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Also read Oracle DBA How do you increase the performance of %LIKE operator?, What is a standby database? Difference between Physical and logical standby databases, What is Cache Fusion Technology?, What is simple replication and advance replication?............. Explain how to prevent tablespace fragmentation in oracle. Tablespace fragmentation can be prevented by using PCTINCREASE command. PCTINCREASE is the percentage a new subsequent extent will grow............... Oracle Modernization Solutions A lot has been written on legacy modernization in the past few years. Most of the books, analyst reports, and white papers discuss at a high level why one should modernize and theorize, and the different approaches to, and possible outcomes of modernization............ Oracle table Explain drop and truncate table command, Write the command to view the structure of the table, What are the limitation of alter command?, Explain Alter Table Command. What are the limitations of Alter Table command?............ Oracle database tuning Automatic Performance Diagnostic and Tuning Features, Automatic Shared Memory Management - Automatic Shared Memory Management puts Oracle in control of allocating memory within the SGA..........

Oracle auditing Session auditing, Statement auditing, Privilege auditing, Object auditing............. Oracle system privilege A system privilege is the right to perform an action on any schema objects of a particular type............. Use of Roles in oracle Roles in Oracle can be used to grant privileges to a specific group of users for security. The database manager is usually responsible for granting privileges to a Role..........

What are the different Levels of Auditing? Explain them Statement Auditing, Privilege Auditing, and Object Auditing........... Define Statement Auditing, Privilege Auditing and Object Auditing in oracle. Statement auditing is the auditing of the powerful system privileges without regard to specifically named objects.............. What is implicit cursor in Oracle? Latest answer: An implicit cursor is a cursor which is internally created by Oracle, It is created by Oracle for each individual SQL...........
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Can you pass a parameter to a cursor? Explain with an explain Latest answer: Yes, explicit cursors can take parameters...........
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What is a package cursor? Latest answer: In a package cursor, the SQL statement for the cursor is attached dynamically at runtime from calling procedures............
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Explain why cursor variables are easier to use than cursors. Latest answer: They are easier to define as there is no need to specify a query statement, The query can also be specified dynamically at the opening time...........
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What is locking, advantages of locking and types of locking in oracle? Latest answer: Locking protect table when several users are accessing the same table. Locking is a concurrency control technique in oracle. It helps in data integrity while allowing maximum..........
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What are transaction isolation levels supported by Oracle? Latest answer: READ COMMITTED: If row locks are obtained by a certain transaction, then any other transaction that contains DML needs to wait until the row locks have been released by that particular transaction.............
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Explain how to view existing locks on the database. Latest answer: A number of data locks need to be monitored, in order to maintain a good performance level for all sessions, along with the time for which they last............
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Explain how to lock and unlock a user account in Oracle.

Latest answer: SQL> ALTER USER user_name ACCOUNT LOCK; SQL> ALTER USER user_name ACCOUNT UNLOCK;
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What are background processes in oracle? Latest answer: Oracle uses background process to increase performance : Database writer, DBWn, Log Writer, LGWR, Checkpoint, CKPT, System Monitor, SMON, Process Monitor, PMON, Archiver, ARCn...........
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What is SQL*Loader? Latest answer: It is a database tool that allows data to be loaded from external files into database tables, It is available as part of the free Oracle 10g Expression Edition..........
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What is a SQL*Loader Control File? Latest answer: A SQL*Loader control file contains the following specification: location of the input data file, format of the input date file, target table where the data should be loaded............
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Explain oracle memory structures. Latest answer: Two memory area: System global area(SGA), Program Global Area(PGA)..........
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What is Program Global Area (PGA)? Latest answer: The PGA is a memory area that contains data and control information for the Oracle server processes. This area consists of the following components:.............
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What is a shared pool? Latest answer: It is the area in SGA that allows sharing of parsed SQL statements among concurrent users...........
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What is snapshot in oracle? Latest answer: A recent copy of a table or a subset of rows or cols of a table is called as snapshot in oracle. A snapshot is more useful in distributed computing environment. We can create..........
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What is a synonym? Latest answer: Synonym simplifies the use of the table, the table for which synonym is created can be referred by synonym name............
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What is a schema? Latest answer: Schema represents structure of the database. Database has two main types of schemas partitioned :

Physical schema: Describes the database design at the physical level.............

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Explain how to list all indexes in your schema. Latest answer: The list of all indexes in a schema can be obtained through the USER_INDEXES view with a SELECT statement:...........
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What are Schema Objects? Latest answer: Schema objects are the logical database structure that represents database's data. Schema objects include tables, views, sequences, synonyms, indexes, clusters, database............
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What is an Archiver? Latest answer: Archiving is the process of removing of old data and unused data from the main databases. This process keeps databases smaller, more manageable and thus acquires.............
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What is a sequence in oracle? Latest answer: A Sequence is a user created database object. A sequence can be shared by multiple users to generate unique integers. This object is used to create a primary key value...............
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Difference between a hot backup and a cold backup Latest answer: Cold Backup : In this type of backup, after the database is shut down, DBA exits the SVRMGR utility and copies the log files, data files and control files onto a backup media...........
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How to retrieve 5th highest sal from emp table? SELECT DISTINCT (emp1.sal) FROM EMP emp1 WHERE &N = (SELECT COUNT (DISTINCT (emp2.sal))..........
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What is $FLEX$ and $PROFILES$? Where are they used? $FLEX$ is used to get a value used in the previous value set. It is usually used to retrieve the Flex value contained in an AOL value..........
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How to call a trigger inside a stored procedure? A trigger cannot be called within a stored procedure. Triggers are executed automatically as a result of DML or DDl commands............
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What is WATER MARK IN oracle? Explain the significance of High water mark. WATER MARK is a divided segment of used and free blocks. Blocks which are below high WATER MARK i.e. used

blocks, have at least once...........

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What is an object groups? Object group is a container for a group of objects..........

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Difference between clustering and mirroring Clustering means one than one database server configured for the same user connection. When users connect, one of the servers responds..........
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Difference between paging and fragmentation Paging is a concept occurring in memory, whereas, Fragmentation occurs on disk level..........
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Can you explain how to insert an image in table in oracle? Insert image into a table: Create the following table: create table pics_table (bfile_id number,.........
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How to find out second largest value in the table? SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE SAL IN (SELECT MAX(SAL) FROM EMP.........
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Disadvantage of user defined function in oracle. Disadvantage of UDF in Oracle: Oracle does not support calling UDFs with Boolean parameters or return types..........
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Explain the significance of cluster table or non cluster table. A Cluster provides an alternate method of storing table data. It is made up of a group of tables that share the same data.........
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What are the purposes of Import and Export utilities? Latest answer: Import and Export utilities are helpful in following ways: They can be used for backup and recovery process, they can also be used while moving database between two different...............
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Difference between ARCHIVELOG mode and NOARCHIVELOG mode Latest answer: There are two modes in which the hot backup works: ARCHIEVELOG mode, NOARCHIVELOG mode........
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What are the original Export and Import Utilities? Latest answer: The import and export utilities of oracle provide a very simple way to transfer data objects between Oracle databases. These may reside on heterogeneous software and hardware............
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What are data pump Export and Import Modes? Latest answer: Data pump export and import modes are used to determine the type and portions of database to be exported and imported:...............
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What are SQLCODE and SQLERRM and why are they important for PL/SQL developers? Latest answer: When a SQL statement raises an exception, Oracle captures the error codes by using the SQLCODE and SQLERRM globally-defined variables...............
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Explain user defined exceptions in oracle. Explain the concepts of Exception in Oracle. Explain its type. Latest answer: Exceptions in oracle occur when unwanted situations happen during the execution of a program. They can occur due to system error, user error or application error.............
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How exceptions are raised in oracle? Latest answer: Internal exceptions are raised implicitly by the run-time system. However, user-defined exceptions must be raised explicitly by RAISE statements................
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What is tkprof and how is it used? Latest answer: Tkprof is a performance diagnosing utility available to DBAs. It formats a trace file into a more readable format for performance analysis. So that the DBA can identify and resolve...............
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What is Oracle Server Autotrace? Latest answer: The Autotrace feature of Oracle server generates two statement execution reports which are useful for performance tuning. They are: Statement execution path..............
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Explain the different types of queries in Oracle. Latest answer: Session Queries are implicitly constructed and executed by a Session based on input parameters.Input parameters are used to perform the most common data source actions on objects............
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What is SQL*Plus? Latest answer: SQL*Plus is an interactive and batch query tool, it gets installed with every Oracle Database Server

or Client installation.............
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Explain how to change SQL*Plus system settings. Latest answer: The SET command can be used to change the settings in the SQl*PLUS environment : SET AUTOCOMMIT OFF: Turns off the auto-commit feature, SET FEEDBACK OFF............
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What are SQL*Plus Environment variables? Latest answer: The behaviour of SQL PLUS depends on some environmental variables predefined in the OS: ORACLE_HOME: This variable stores the home directory where the Oracle client.............
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What is Output Spooling in SQL*Plus? Latest answer: The spooling feature facilitates copying of all the contents of the command line SQL*Plus to a specified file. This feature is called Spooling............
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What is Input Buffer in SQL*Plus? Latest answer: Input buffer feature of the command-line SQL*Plus tool allows a revision of multiple-line command and rerunning it with a couple of simple commands. The last SQL statement is...........
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What is a subquery in Oracle? Latest answer: When a query needs to be run which has a condition that needs to be a result of another query then, the query in the condition part of the main one is called a sub-query...............
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What is Data Block? Latest answer: Data blocks are also called logical blocks, Oracle blocks, or pages. At the finest level of granularity, Oracle stores data in data blocks............
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Explain the difference between a data block, an extent and a segment. Latest answer: A data block is the smallest unit of logical storage for a database object. As objects grow they take chunks of additional storage that are composed of contiguous data blocks.............
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What are the uses of Rollback Segment? Latest answer: Rollback segments undo changes when a transaction is rolled back, they also ensure that transactions leave the uncommitted changes unnoticed..............
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What is Rollback Segment in oracle?

Latest answer: Rollback Segment in oracle is used to store "undo" information temporarily.........
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What are the different types of Segments? Latest answer: Data Segment, Index Segment, Rollback Segment, and Temporary Segment...........
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Explain difference between SQL and PL/SQL. Latest answer: PL/SQL is a transaction processing language that offers the following advantages:

support for SQL - SQL is flexible, powerful and easy to learn. support for object-oriented programming...............
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Oracle-DBA Test Breakdown:

1. What is the System Global Area? You answered: Remote Memory area that contains data shared between all database users Incorrect Correct answer: Memory area that contains data shared between all database users. 2. Privileges are assigned to users through ________________ You answered: DBA Incorrect Correct answer: Role 3. Tables in recycle bin can be recovered back into database by using Correct 4. When a user process fails, what background process cleans up after it? You answered: Both a and c Incorrect Correct answer: PMON 5. DBA_DATA_FILES is used for? You answered: Look at all the data files Incorrect Correct answer: Look at the size of a data file 6. An ALL_ DICTIONARY view is used for You answered: All of above Incorrect Correct answer: Displays all the information accessible to the current user 7. The IMPORT IGNORE option tells import to ignore "already exists" errors You answered: Ignore_error

Incorrect Correct answer: Both a and b 8. Which utility is used to find version of any file? You answered: ADIDENTVER UTILITY Incorrect Correct answer: ADIDENT UTILITY 9. What is iAS Patch used for? Correct 10. PFILE is simply a text based file Correct 11. In which of the files below are parameters stored? Correct 12. A database is a collection of logical structures of data, or schema objects You answered: True Incorrect Correct answer: False 13. What happens if a tablespace clause is left off of a primary key constraint clause? You answered: There is no effect. Incorrect Correct answer: Both a and b 14. In which of the files below are parameters stored? Correct 15. Each tablespace in an Oracle database consists of one or more files called You answered: name space Incorrect Correct answer: datafiles 16. Recycle bin can be turned on or off in the recyclebin=on/off in You answered: PFILE Incorrect Correct answer: Parameter file 17. The ______________ records all changes made to data Correct 18. Even though a table space may be dropped, the objects and data in it are still available You answered: True Incorrect Correct answer: False 19. When a transaction modifies the database, Oracle copies the original data before modifying it. The original copy of the modified data is called

You answered: Redo data Incorrect Correct answer: Undo data 20. What is the purpose of SMON background process? You answered: Both a and b Incorrect Correct answer: Performs crash recovery when a failed instance starts up again 21. Setting of which parameter can affect the performance of the database? You answered: Both a and b Incorrect Correct answer: Memory parameter 22. When an Oracle database is created, which user is automatically created and granted the DBA role Correct 23. The SYSDBA and SYSOPER system privileges allow access to a database instance even when the database is not open You answered: False Incorrect Correct answer: True 24. Which of the following rule below is FALSE for a database object? Correct 25. Which of the following rule below are categories of index? You answered: Both and b Incorrect Correct answer: Column and Functional 26. A ____________________ is a structure that contains definitions, blocks of PL/SQL code, or both in a single unit You answered: Both a and b Incorrect Correct answer: Package 27. Procedures and functions that are created within a package are called standalone subprograms You answered: True Incorrect Correct answer: False 28. Which schema object instructs Oracle to connect to a remotely access an object of a database? You answered: Sequence Incorrect Correct answer: Database link 29. To create a ____________________ backup, the database must have been shut down normally You answered: Inconsistent

Incorrect Correct answer: Consistent