ORACLE

1.

Explain the difference between a hot backup and a cold

backup and the benefits associated with each.
A hot backup is basically taking a backup of the database while
it is still up and running and it must be in archive log mode. A
cold backup is taking a backup of the database while it is shut
down and does not require being in archive log mode. The
benefit of taking a hot backup is that the database is still
available for use while the backup is occurring and you can
recover the database to any ball in time. The benefit of taking a
cold backup is that it is typically easier to administer the backup
and recovery process. In addition, since you are taking cold
backups the database does not require being in archive log mode
and thus there will be a slight performance gain as the database
is not cutting archive logs to disk.

2.

You have just had to restore from backup and do not have
any control files. How would you go about bringing up this
database?
I would create a text based backup control file, stipulating where
on disk all the data files where and then issue the recover
command with the using backup control file clause.

3.
4.

How do you switch from an init.ora file to a spfile?

Issue the create spfile from pfile command.
Explain the difference between a data block, an extent and
a segment.
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. These groupings of
contiguous data blocks are called extents. All the extents that an

object takes when grouped together are considered the segment

of the database object.
5.

Give two examples of how you might determine the

structure of the table DEPT.
Use the describe command or use the dbms_metadata.get_ddl
package.

6.

Where would you look for errors from the database engine?
In the alert log.
7.
Compare and contrast TRUNCATE and DELETE for a
table.
Both the truncate and delete command have the desired outcome
of getting rid of all the rows in a table. The difference between
the two is that the truncate command is a DDL operation and
just moves the high water mark and produces a now rollback.
The delete command, on the other hand, is a DML operation,
which will produce a rollback and thus take longer to complete.
8.
9.

Give the reasoning behind using an index.

Faster access to data blocks in a table.
Give the two types of tables involved in producing a star
schema and the type of data they hold.
Fact tables and dimension tables. A fact table contains
measurements while dimension tables will contain data that will
help describe the fact tables.

10.

What type of index should you use on a fact table?

A Bitmap index.

11.

Give two examples of referential integrity constraints.

A primary key and a foreign key.

12. A table is classified as a parent table and you want to drop

and re-create it. How would you do this without affecting the
children tables?
Disable the foreign key constraint to the parent, drop the table,
re-create the table, enable the foreign key constraint.
13. Explain the difference between ARCHIVELOG mode and
NOARCHIVELOG mode and the benefits and disadvantages
to each.
ARCHIVELOG mode is a mode that you can put the database in
for creating a backup of all transactions that have occurred in the
database so that you can recover to any ball in time.
NOARCHIVELOG mode is basically the absence of
ARCHIVELOG mode and has the disadvantage of not being
able to recover to any ball in time. NOARCHIVELOG mode
does have the advantage of not having to write transactions to an
archive log and thus increases the performance of the database
slightly.
14. What command would you use to create a backup control
file?
Alter database backup control file to trace.
15. Give the stages of instance startup to a usable state where
normal users may access it.
STARTUP NOMOUNT - Instance startup
STARTUP MOUNT - The database is mounted
STARTUP OPEN - The database is opened
16. What column differentiates the V$ views to the GV$ views
and how?
The INST_ID column which indicates the instance in a RAC
environment the information came from.
17.

How would you go about generating an EXPLAIN plan?

Create a plan table with utlxplan.sql.

Use the explain plan set statement_id = 'tst1' into plan_table for
a SQL statement
Look at the explain plan with utlxplp.sql or utlxpls.sql
18. How would you go about increasing the buffer cache hit
ratio?
Use the buffer cache advisory over a given workload and then
query the v$db_cache_advice table. If a change was necessary
then I would use the alter system set db_cache_size command.
19.

Explain an ORA-01555
You get this error when you get a snapshot too old within
rollback. It can usually be solved by increasing the undo
retention or increasing the size of rollbacks. You should also
look at the logic involved in the application getting the error
message.

20. Explain the difference between $ORACLE_HOME and

$ORACLE_BASE.
ORACLE_BASE is the root directory for oracle.
ORACLE_HOME located beneath ORACLE_BASE is where
the oracle products reside.
1. Describe the difference between a procedure, function and
anonymous pl/sql block.
Candidate should mention use of DECLARE statement, a
function must return a value while a procedure doesn?t have to.
2.

What is a mutating table error and how can you get around
it?
This happens with triggers. It occurs because the trigger is trying
to update a row it is currently using. The usual fix involves

either use of views or temporary tables so the database is

selecting from one while updating the other.
3.

Describe the use of %ROWTYPE and %TYPE in PL/SQL

Expected answer: %ROWTYPE allows you to associate a
variable with an entire table row. The %TYPE associates a
variable with a single column type.

4.

4What packages (if any) has Oracle provided for use by

developers?
Expected answer: Oracle provides the DBMS_ series of
packages. There are many which developers should be aware of
such as DBMS_SQL, DBMS_PIPE, DBMS_TRANSACTION,
DBMS_LOCK, DBMS_ALERT, DBMS_OUTPUT,
DBMS_JOB, DBMS_UTILITY, DBMS_DDL, UTL_FILE. If
they can mention a few of these and describe how they used
them, even better. If they include the SQL routines provided by
Oracle, great, but not really what was asked.

5.

Describe the use of PL/SQL tables

Expected answer: PL/SQL tables are scalar arrays that can be
referenced by a binary integer. They can be used to hold values
for use in later queries or calculations. In Oracle 8 they will be
able to be of the %ROWTYPE designation, or RECORD.

6.

When is a declare statement needed ?

The DECLARE statement is used in PL/SQL anonymous blocks
such as with stand alone, non-stored PL/SQL procedures. It must
come first in a PL/SQL stand alone file if it is used.

7.

In what order should a open/fetch/loop set of commands in

a PL/SQL block be implemented if you use the %NOTFOUND
cursor variable in the exit when statement? Why?
Expected answer: OPEN then FETCH then LOOP followed by
the exit when. If not specified in this order will result in the final
return being done twice because of the way the %NOTFOUND
is handled by PL/SQL.

8.

What are SQLCODE and SQLERRM and why are they

important for PL/SQL developers?
Expected answer: SQLCODE returns the value of the error
number for the last error encountered. The SQLERRM returns
the actual error message for the last error encountered. They can
be used in exception handling to report, or, store in an error log
table, the error that occurred in the code. These are especially
useful for the WHEN OTHERS exception.

9.

How can you find within a PL/SQL block, if a cursor is

open?
Expected answer: Use the %ISOPEN cursor status variable.

10.

11.

How can you generate debugging output from PL/SQL?

Expected answer: Use the DBMS_OUTPUT package. Another
possible method is to just use the SHOW ERROR command, but
this only shows errors. The DBMS_OUTPUT package can be
used to show intermediate results from loops and the status of
variables as the procedure is executed. The new package
UTL_FILE can also be used.
What are the types of triggers?

Expected Answer: There are 12 types of triggers in PL/SQL that

consist of combinations of the BEFORE, AFTER, ROW,
TABLE, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE and ALL key words:
BEFORE ALL ROW INSERT
AFTER ALL ROW INSERT
BEFORE INSERT
AFTER INSERT etc.
1.
Give one method for transferring a table from one schema
to another:
There are several possible methods, export-import, CREATE
TABLE... AS SELECT, or COPY.
2.

What is the purpose of the IMPORT option IGNORE?

What is it?s default setting
The IMPORT IGNORE option tells import to ignore "already
exists" errors. If it is not specified the tables that already exist
will be skipped. If it is specified, the error is ignored and the
tables data will be inserted. The default value is N.

3.

You have a rollback segment in a version 7.2 database that

has expanded beyond optimal, how can it be restored to
optimal
Use the ALTER TABLESPACE ..... SHRINK command.

4.

If the DEFAULT and TEMPORARY tablespace clauses are

left out of a CREATE USER command what happens? Is this
bad or good? Why
The user is assigned the SYSTEM tablespace as a default and
temporary tablespace. This is bad because it causes user objects
and temporary segments to be placed into the SYSTEM
tablespace resulting in fragmentation and improper table

placement (only data dictionary objects and the system rollback

segment should be in SYSTEM).
5.

What are some of the Oracle provided packages that DBAs

should be aware of
Oracle provides a number of packages in the form of the
DBMS_ packages owned by the SYS user. The packages used
by DBAs may include: DBMS_SHARED_POOL,
DBMS_UTILITY, DBMS_SQL, DBMS_DDL,
DBMS_SESSION, DBMS_OUTPUT and DBMS_SNAPSHOT.
They may also try to answer with the UTL*.SQL or CAT*.SQL
series of SQL procedures. These can be viewed as extra credit
but aren?t part of the answer.

6.

What happens if the constraint name is left out of a

constraint clause
The Oracle system will use the default name of SYS_Cxxxx
where xxxx is a system generated number. This is bad since it
makes tracking which table the constraint belongs to or what the
constraint does harder.

7.

What happens if a tablespace clause is left off of a primary

key constraint clause
This results in the index that is automatically generated being
placed in then users default tablespace. Since this will usually be
the same tablespace as the table is being created in, this can
cause serious performance problems.

8.

What is the proper method for disabling and re-enabling a

primary key constraint

You use the ALTER TABLE command for both. However, for
the enable clause you must specify the USING INDEX and
TABLESPACE clause for primary keys.
9.

What happens if a primary key constraint is disabled and

then enabled without fully specifying the index clause
The index is created in the user?s default tablespace and all
sizing information is lost. Oracle doesn?t store this information
as a part of the constraint definition, but only as part of the index
definition, when the constraint was disabled the index was
dropped and the information is gone.

10. (On UNIX) When should more than one DB writer process
be used? How many should be used
If the UNIX system being used is capable of asynchronous IO
then only one is required, if the system is not capable of
asynchronous IO then up to twice the number of disks used by
Oracle number of DB writers should be specified by use of the
db_writers initialization parameter.
11. You are using hot backup without being in archivelog mode,
can you recover in the event of a failure? Why or why not
You can?t use hot backup without being in archivelog mode. So
no, you couldn?t recover.
12. What causes the "snapshot too old" error? How can this be
prevented or mitigated
This is caused by large or long running transactions that have
either wrapped onto their own rollback space or have had
another transaction write on part of their rollback space. This
can be prevented or mitigated by breaking the transaction into a

set of smaller transactions or increasing the size of the rollback

segments and their extents.
13. How can you tell if a database object is invalid
By checking the status column of the DBA_, ALL_ or
USER_OBJECTS views, depending upon whether you own or
only have permission on the view or are using a DBA account.
13. A user is getting an ORA-00942 error yet you know you
have granted them permission on the table, what else should
you check
You need to check that the user has specified the full name of
the object (select empid from scott.emp; instead of select empid
from emp;) or has a synonym that balls to the object (create
synonym emp for scott.emp;)
14. A developer is trying to create a view and the database won?
t let him. He has the "DEVELOPER" role which has the
"CREATE VIEW" system privilege and SELECT grants on
the tables he is using, what is the problem
You need to verify the developer has direct grants on all tables
used in the view. You can?t create a stored object with grants
given through views.
15. If you have an example table, what is the best way to get
sizing data for the production table implementation
The best way is to analyze the table and then use the data
provided in the DBA_TABLES view to get the average row
length and other pertinent data for the calculation. The quick and
dirty way is to look at the number of blocks the table is actually

using and ratio the number of rows in the table to its number of
blocks against the number of expected rows.
16. How can you find out how many users are currently logged
into the database? How can you find their operating system id
There are several ways. One is to look at the v$session or
v$process views. Another way is to check the current_logins
parameter in the v$sysstat view. Another if you are on UNIX is
to do a "ps -ef|grep oracle|wc -l? command, but this only works
against a single instance installation.
17. A user selects from a sequence and gets back two values, his
select is:
SELECT pk_seq.nextval FROM dual;What is the problem
Somehow two values have been inserted into the dual table. This
table is a single row, single column table that should only have
one value in it.
18. How can you determine if an index needs to be dropped and
rebuilt
Run the ANALYZE INDEX command on the index to validate
its structure and then calculate the ratio of
LF_BLK_LEN/LF_BLK_LEN+BR_BLK_LEN and if it isn?t
near 1.0 (i.e. greater than 0.7 or so) then the index should be
rebuilt. Or if the ratio
BR_BLK_LEN/ LF_BLK_LEN+BR_BLK_LEN is nearing 0.3
1.
How can variables be passed to a SQL routine
By use of the & symbol. For passing in variables the numbers 18 can be used (&1, &2,...,&8) to pass the values after the
command into the SQLPLUS session. To be prompted for a

specific variable, place the ampersanded variable in the code

itself:
"select * from dba_tables where owner=&owner_name;" . Use
of double ampersands tells SQLPLUS to resubstitute the value
for each subsequent use of the variable, a single ampersand will
cause a reprompt for the value unless an ACCEPT statement is
used to get the value from the user.
2.

3.

You want to include a carriage return/linefeed in your

output from a SQL script, how can you do this
The best method is to use the CHR() function (CHR(10) is a
return/linefeed) and the concatenation function "||". Another
method, although it is hard to document and isn?t always
portable is to use the return/linefeed as a part of a quoted string.
How can you call a PL/SQL procedure from SQL
By use of the EXECUTE (short form EXEC) command.

4.

How do you execute a host operating system command

from within SQL
By use of the exclamation ball "!" (in UNIX and some other OS)
or the HOST (HO) command.

5.

You want to use SQL to build SQL, what is this called and
give an example
This is called dynamic SQL. An example would be:
set lines 90 pages 0 termout off feedback off verify off
spool drop_all.sql
select ?drop user ?||username||? cascade;? from dba_users
where username not in ("SYS?,?SYSTEM?);

spool off
Essentially you are looking to see that they know to include a
command (in this case DROP USER...CASCADE;) and that you
need to concatenate using the ?||? the values selected from the
database.
6.

What SQLPlus command is used to format output from a

select
This is best done with the COLUMN command.

7.

You want to group the following set of select returns, what

can you group on
Max(sum_of_cost), min(sum_of_cost), count(item_no), item_no
The only column that can be grouped on is the "item_no"
column, the rest have aggregate functions associated with them.

8.

What special Oracle feature allows you to specify how the

cost based system treats a SQL statement
The COST based system allows the use of HINTs to control the
optimizer path selection. If they can give some example hints
such as FIRST ROWS, ALL ROWS, USING INDEX, STAR,
even better.

9.

You want to determine the location of identical rows in a

table before attempting to place a unique index on the table,
how can this be done
Oracle tables always have one guaranteed unique column, the
rowid column. If you use a min/max function against your rowid
and then select against the proposed primary key you can
squeeze out the rowids of the duplicate rows pretty quick. For
example:

select rowid from emp e

where e.rowid > (select min(x.rowid)
from emp x
where x.emp_no = e.emp_no);
In the situation where multiple columns make up the proposed
key, they must all be used in the where clause.
10.

What is a Cartesian product

A Cartesian product is the result of an unrestricted join of two or
more tables. The result set of a three table Cartesian product will
have x * y * z number of rows where x, y, z correspond to the
number of rows in each table involved in the join.
11. You are joining a local and a remote table, the network
manager complains about the traffic involved, how can you
reduce the network traffic
Push the processing of the remote data to the remote instance by
using a view to pre-select the information for the join. This will
result in only the data required for the join being sent across.

11. What is the default ordering of an ORDER BY clause in a

SELECT statement
Ascending
12.

What is tkprof and how is it used

The tkprof tool is a tuning tool used to determine cpu and
execution times for SQL statements. You use it by first setting
timed_statistics to true in the initialization file and then turning
on tracing for either the entire database via the sql_trace
parameter or for the session using the ALTER SESSION

command. Once the trace file is generated you run the tkprof
tool against the trace file and then look at the output from the
tkprof tool. This can also be used to generate explain plan
output.
13.

What is explain plan and how is it used

The EXPLAIN PLAN command is a tool to tune SQL
statements. To use it you must have an explain_table generated
in the user you are running the explain plan for. This is created
using the utlxplan.sql script. Once the explain plan table exists
you run the explain plan command giving as its argument the
SQL statement to be explained. The explain_plan table is then
queried to see the execution plan of the statement. Explain plans
can also be run using tkprof.

14. How do you set the number of lines on a page of output?

The width
The SET command in SQLPLUS is used to control the number
of lines generated per page and the width of those lines, for
example SET PAGESIZE 60 LINESIZE 80 will generate reports
that are 60 lines long with a line width of 80 characters. The
PAGESIZE and LINESIZE options can be shortened to PAGES
and LINES.
15.

How do you prevent output from coming to the screen

The SET option TERMOUT controls output to the screen.
Setting TERMOUT OFF turns off screen output. This option can
be shortened to TERM.

16. How do you prevent Oracle from giving you informational

messages during and after a SQL statement execution

The SET options FEEDBACK and VERIFY can be set to OFF.

17.

How do you generate file output from SQL

By use of the SPOOL command

1.

A tablespace has a table with 30 extents in it. Is this bad?

Why or why not.
Multiple extents in and of themselves aren?t bad. However if
you also have chained rows this can hurt performance.

2.

How do you set up tablespaces during an Oracle

installation?
You should always attempt to use the Oracle Flexible
Architecture standard or another partitioning scheme to ensure
proper separation of SYSTEM, ROLLBACK, REDO LOG,
DATA, TEMPORARY and INDEX segments.

3.

You see multiple fragments in the SYSTEM tablespace,

what should you check first?
Ensure that users don?t have the SYSTEM tablespace as their
TEMPORARY or DEFAULT tablespace assignment by
checking the DBA_USERS view.

4.

What are some indications that you need to increase the

SHARED_POOL_SIZE parameter?
Poor data dictionary or library cache hit ratios, getting error
ORA-04031. Another indication is steadily decreasing
performance with all other tuning parameters the same.

5.

6.

What is the general guideline for sizing db_block_size and

db_multi_block_read for an application that does many full
table scans?
Oracle almost always reads in 64k chunks. The two should have
a product equal to 64 or a multiple of 64.
What is the fastest query method for a table
Fetch by rowid

7.

Explain the use of TKPROF? What initialization parameter

should be turned on to get full TKPROF output?
The tkprof tool is a tuning tool used to determine cpu and
execution times for SQL statements. You use it by first setting
timed_statistics to true in the initialization file and then turning
on tracing for either the entire database via the sql_trace
parameter or for the session using the ALTER SESSION
command. Once the trace file is generated you run the tkprof
tool against the trace file and then look at the output from the
tkprof tool. This can also be used to generate explain plan
output.

8.

When looking at v$sysstat you see that sorts (disk) is high.

Is this bad or good? If bad -How do you correct it?
If you get excessive disk sorts this is bad. This indicates you
need to tune the sort area parameters in the initialization files.
The major sort are parameter is the SORT_AREA_SIZe
parameter.

9.

When should you increase copy latches? What parameters

control copy latches

When you get excessive contention for the copy latches as

shown by the "redo copy" latch hit ratio. You can increase copy
latches via the initialization parameter
LOG_SIMULTANEOUS_COPIES to twice the number of CPUs
on your system.
10. Where can you get a list of all initialization parameters for
your instance? How about an indication if they are default
settings or have been changed
You can look in the init.ora file for an indication of manually set
parameters. For all parameters, their value and whether or not
the current value is the default value, look in the v$parameter
view.
11. Describe hit ratio as it pertains to the database buffers.
What is the difference between instantaneous and cumulative
hit ratio and which should be used for tuning
The hit ratio is a measure of how many times the database was
able to read a value from the buffers verses how many times it
had to re-read a data value from the disks. A value greater than
80-90% is good, less could indicate problems. If you simply take
the ratio of existing parameters this will be a cumulative value
since the database started. If you do a comparison between pairs
of readings based on some arbitrary time span, this is the
instantaneous ratio for that time span. Generally speaking an
instantaneous reading gives more valuable data since it will tell
you what your instance is doing for the time it was generated
over.
12. Discuss row chaining, how does it happen? How can you
reduce it? How do you correct it

Row chaining occurs when a VARCHAR2 value is updated and

the length of the new value is longer than the old value and
won?t fit in the remaining block space. This results in the row
chaining to another block. It can be reduced by setting the
storage parameters on the table to appropriate values. It can be
corrected by export and import of the effected table.
13. When looking at the estat events report you see that you are
getting busy buffer waits. Is this bad? How can you find what
is causing it
Buffer busy waits could indicate contention in redo, rollback or
data blocks. You need to check the v$waitstat view to see what
areas are causing the problem. The value of the "count" column
tells where the problem is, the "class" column tells you with
what. UNDO is rollback segments, DATA is data base buffers.
14.

If you see contention for library caches how can you fix it
Increase the size of the shared pool.

15. If you see statistics that deal with "undo" what are they
really talking about
Rollback segments and associated structures.
16. If a tablespace has a default pctincrease of zero what will
this cause (in relationship to the smon process)
The SMON process won?t automatically coalesce its free space
fragments.
17. If a tablespace shows excessive fragmentation what are some
methods to defragment the tablespace? (7.1,7.2 and 7.3 only)

In Oracle 7.0 to 7.2 The use of the 'alter session set events
'immediate trace name coalesce level ts#';? command is the
easiest way to defragment contiguous free space fragmentation.
The ts# parameter corresponds to the ts# value found in the ts$
SYS table. In version 7.3 the ?alter tablespace coalesce;? is best.
If the free space isn?t contiguous then export, drop and import of
the tablespace contents may be the only way to reclaim noncontiguous free space.
18.

How can you tell if a tablespace has excessive fragmentation

If a select against the dba_free_space table shows that the count
of a tablespaces extents is greater than the count of its data files,
then it is fragmented.

19.

You see the following on a status report:

redo log space requests 23
redo log space wait time 0
Is this something to worry about? What if redo log space
wait time is high? How can you fix this
Since the wait time is zero, no. If the wait time was high it might
indicate a need for more or larger redo logs.

20. What can cause a high value for recursive calls? How can
this be fixed
A high value for recursive calls is cause by improper cursor
usage, excessive dynamic space management actions, and or
excessive statement re-parses. You need to determine the cause
and correct it By either relinking applications to hold cursors,
use proper space management techniques (proper storage and
sizing) or ensure repeat queries are placed in packages for
proper reuse.

21. If you see a pin hit ratio of less than 0.8 in the estat library
cache report is this a problem? If so, how do you fix it
This indicate that the shared pool may be too small. Increase the
shared pool size.
22. If you see the value for reloads is high in the estat library
cache report is this a matter for concern
Yes, you should strive for zero reloads if possible. If you see
excessive reloads then increase the size of the shared pool.
23. You look at the dba_rollback_segs view and see that there is
a large number of shrinks and they are of relatively small size,
is this a problem? How can it be fixed if it is a problem
A large number of small shrinks indicates a need to increase the
size of the rollback segment extents. Ideally you should have no
shrinks or a small number of large shrinks. To fix this just
increase the size of the extents and adjust optimal accordingly.
24. You look at the dba_rollback_segs view and see that you
have a large number of wraps is this a problem
A large number of wraps indicates that your extent size for your
rollback segments are probably too small. Increase the size of
your extents to reduce the number of wraps. You can look at the
average transaction size in the same view to get the information
on transaction size.
25. In a system with an average of 40 concurrent users you get
the following from a query on rollback extents:
ROLLBACK CUR EXTENTS

--------------------- -------------------------R01 11
R02 8
R03 12
R04 9
SYSTEM 4
26. You have room for each to grow by 20 more extents each. Is
there a problem? Should you take any action
No there is not a problem. You have 40 extents showing and an
average of 40 concurrent users. Since there is plenty of room to
grow no action is needed.
27. You see multiple extents in the temporary tablespace. Is this
a problem
As long as they are all the same size this isn?t a problem. In fact,
it can even improve performance since Oracle won?t have to
create a new extent when a user needs one.
28.

Define OFA.
OFA stands for Optimal Flexible Architecture. It is a method of
placing directories and files in an Oracle system so that you get
the maximum flexibility for future tuning and file placement.

29.

How do you set up your tablespace on installation

The answer here should show an understanding of separation of
redo and rollback, data and indexes and isolation os SYSTEM
tables from other tables. An example would be to specify that at
least 7 disks should be used for an Oracle installation so that you
can place SYSTEM tablespace on one, redo logs on two
(mirrored redo logs) the TEMPORARY tablespace on another,
ROLLBACK tablespace on another and still have two for DATA

and INDEXES. They should indicate how they will handle

archive logs and exports as well. As long as they have a logical
plan for combining or further separation more or less disks can
be specified.
30. What should be done prior to installing Oracle (for the OS
and the disks)
adjust kernel parameters or OS tuning parameters in accordance
with installation guide. Be sure enough contiguous disk space is
available.
31. You have installed Oracle and you are now setting up the
actual instance. You have been waiting an hour for the
initialization script to finish, what should you check first to
determine if there is a problem
Check to make sure that the archiver isn?t stuck. If archive
logging is turned on during install a large number of logs will be
created. This can fill up your archive log destination causing
Oracle to stop to wait for more space.
32. When configuring SQLNET on the server what files must be
set up
INITIALIZATION file, TNSNAMES.ORA file, SQLNET.ORA
file
33. When configuring SQLNET on the client what files need to
be set up
SQLNET.ORA, TNSNAMES.ORA

34. What must be installed with ODBC on the client in order

for it to work with Oracle
SQLNET and PROTOCOL (for example: TCPIP adapter) layers
of the transport programs.
35. You have just started a new instance with a large SGA on a
busy existing server. Performance is terrible, what should you
check for
The first thing to check with a large SGA is that it isn?t being
swapped out.
36. What OS user should be used for the first part of an Oracle
installation (on UNIX)
You must use root first.
37. When should the default values for Oracle initialization
parameters be used as is
Never
38. How many control files should you have? Where should they
be located
At least 2 on separate disk spindles. Be sure they say on separate
disks, not just file systems.
39. How many redo logs should you have and how should they
be configured for maximum recoverability
You should have at least three groups of two redo logs with the
two logs each on a separate disk spindle (mirrored by Oracle).
The redo logs should not be on raw devices on UNIX if it can be
avoided.

40. You have a simple application with no "hot" tables (i.e.

uniform IO and access requirements). How many disks should
you have assuming standard layout for SYSTEM, USER,
TEMP and ROLLBACK tablespaces
At least 7, see disk configuration answer above.
41.

Describe third normal form

Something like: In third normal form all attributes in an entity
are related to the primary key and only to the primary key

42.

Is the following statement true or false:

"All relational databases must be in third normal form"
False. While 3NF is good for logical design most databases, if
they have more than just a few tables, will not perform well
using full 3NF. Usually some entities will be denormalized in
the logical to physical transfer process.

43.

What is an ERD
An ERD is an Entity-Relationship-Diagram. It is used to show
the entities and relationships for a database logical model.

44. Why are recursive relationships bad? How do you resolve

them
A recursive relationship (one where a table relates to itself) is
bad when it is a hard relationship (i.e. neither side is a "may"
both are "must") as this can result in it not being possible to put
in a top or perhaps a bottom of the table (for example in the
EMPLOYEE table you couldn?t put in the PRESIDENT of the
company because he has no boss, or the junior janitor because

he has no subordinates). These type of relationships are usually

resolved by adding a small intersection entity.
45. What does a hard one-to-one relationship mean (one where
the relationship on both ends is "must")
Expected answer: This means the two entities should probably
be made into one entity.
46.

How should a many-to-many relationship be handled

By adding an intersection entity table

47. What is an artificial (derived) primary key? When should

an artificial (or derived) primary key be used
A derived key comes from a sequence. Usually it is used when a
concatenated key becomes too cumbersome to use as a foreign
key.
48.

When should you consider denormalization

Whenever performance analysis indicates it would be beneficial
to do so without compromising data integrity.

49. How can you determine if an Oracle instance is up from the

operating system level
There are several base Oracle processes that will be running on
multi-user operating systems, these will be smon, pmon, dbwr
and lgwr. Any answer that has them using their operating system
process showing feature to check for these is acceptable. For
example, on UNIX a ps -ef|grep dbwr will show what instances
are up.

50.

Users from the PC clients are getting messages indicating :

ORA-06114: (Cnct err, can't get err txt. See Servr Msgs &
Codes Manual)
What could the problem be
The instance name is probably incorrect in their connection
string.

51. Users from the PC clients are getting the following error
stack:
ERROR: ORA-01034: ORACLE not available
ORA-07318: smsget: open error when opening sgadef.dbf
file.
HP-UX Error: 2: No such file or directory
What is the probable cause
The Oracle instance is shutdown that they are trying to access,
restart the instance.
52. How can you determine if the SQLNET process is running
for SQLNET V1? How about V2
For SQLNET V1 check for the existence of the orasrv process.
You can use the command "tcpctl status" to get a full status of
the V1 TCPIP server, other protocols have similar command
formats. For SQLNET V2 check for the presence of the
LISTENER process(s) or you can issue the command "lsnrctl
status".

53. What file will give you Oracle instance status information?
Where is it located
The alert.ora log. It is located in the directory specified by the
background_dump_dest parameter in the v$parameter table.
54. Users aren?t being allowed on the system. The following
message is received:
ORA-00257 archiver is stuck. Connect internal only, until
freed
What is the problem
The archive destination is probably full, backup the archive logs
and remove them and the archiver will re-start.
55. Where would you look to find out if a redo log was
corrupted assuming you are using Oracle mirrored redo logs
There is no message that comes to the SQLDBA or SRVMGR
programs during startup in this situation, you must check the
alert.log file for this information.
56.

You attempt to add a datafile and get:

ORA-01118: cannot add anymore datafiles: limit of 40
exceeded
What is the problem and how can you fix it
When the database was created the db_files parameter in the
initialization file was set to 40. You can shutdown and reset this
to a higher value, up to the value of MAX_DATAFILES as
specified at database creation. If the MAX_DATAFILES is set
to low, you will have to rebuild the control file to increase it
before proceeding.

57. You look at your fragmentation report and see that smon
hasn?t coalesced any of you tablespaces, even though you know
several have large chunks of contiguous free extents. What is
the problem
Check the dba_tablespaces view for the value of pct_increase for
the tablespaces. If pct_increase is zero, smon will not coalesce
their free space.
58.

Your users get the following error:

ORA-00055 maximum number of DML locks exceeded
What is the problem and how do you fix it
The number of DML Locks is set by the initialization parameter
DML_LOCKS. If this value is set to low (which it is by default)
you will get this error. Increase the value of DML_LOCKS. If
you are sure that this is just a temporary problem, you can have
them wait and then try again later and the error should clear.

59. You get a call from you backup DBA while you are on
vacation. He has corrupted all of the control files while playing
with the ALTER DATABASE BACKUP CONTROLFILE
command. What do you do
As long as all datafiles are safe and he was successful with the
BACKUP controlfile command you can do the following:
CONNECT INTERNAL
STARTUP MOUNT
(Take any read-only tablespaces offline before next step ALTER
DATABASE DATAFILE .... OFFLINE;)
RECOVER DATABASE USING BACKUP CONTROLFILE
ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS;
(bring read-only tablespaces back online)
Shutdown and backup the system, then restart

If they have a recent output file from the ALTER DATABASE

BACKUP CONTROL FILE TO TRACE; command, they can
use that to recover as well.
If no backup of the control file is available then the following
will be required:
CONNECT INTERNAL
STARTUP NOMOUNT
CREATE CONTROL FILE .....;
However, they will need to know all of the datafiles, logfiles,
and settings for MAXLOGFILES, MAXLOGMEMBERS,
MAXLOGHISTORY, MAXDATAFILES for the database to use
the command.

1.

2.

What is a CO-RELATED SUBQUERY

A CO-RELATED SUBQUERY is one that has a correlation name
as table or view designator in the FROM clause of the outer query
and the same correlation name as a qualifier of a search condition
in the WHERE clause of the subquery.
eg

3.

SELECT field1 from table1 X

4.

WHERE field2>(select avg(field2) from table1 Y

5.

where
field1=X.field1);

(The subquery in a correlated subquery is revaluated for every row

of the table or view named in the outer query.)

6.

What are various joins used while writing SUBQUERIES

Self join-Its a join foreign key of a table references the same table.
Outer Join--Its a join condition used where One can query all the
rows of one of the tables in the join condition even though they
don't satisfy the join condition.
Equi-join--Its a join condition that retrieves rows from one or more
tables in which one or more columns in one table are equal to one
or more columns in the second table.

7.

What are various constraints used in SQL

NULL
NOT NULL
CHECK
DEFAULT

8.

What are different Oracle database objects

TABLES
VIEWS
INDEXES
SYNONYMS
SEQUENCES
TABLESPACES etc

9.

What is difference between Rename and Alias

Rename is a permanent name given to a table or column whereas
Alias is a temporary name given to a table or column which do not
exist once the SQL statement is executed.

10. What is a view

A view is stored procedure based on one or more tables, its a
virtual table.

11. What are various privileges that a user can grant to another
user
SELECT
CONNECT
RESOURCE
12. What is difference between UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY
constraints
A table can have only one PRIMARY KEY whereas there can be
any number of UNIQUE keys. The columns that compose PK are
automatically define NOT NULL, whereas a column that compose
a UNIQUE is not automatically defined to be mandatory must also
specify the column is NOT NULL.
13. Can a primary key contain more than one columns
Yes
14. How you will avoid duplicating records in a query
By using DISTINCT
15. What is difference between SQL and SQL*PLUS
SQL*PLUS is a command line tool where as SQL and PL/SQL
language interface and reporting tool. Its a command line tool that
allows user to type SQL commands to be executed directly against
an Oracle database. SQL is a language used to query the relational
database(DML,DCL,DDL). SQL*PLUS commands are used to
format query result, Set options, Edit SQL commands and
PL/SQL.
16. Which datatype is used for storing graphics and images
LONG RAW data type is used for storing BLOB's (binary large
objects).
17. How will you delete duplicating rows from a base table
DELETE FROM table_name A WHERE rowid>(SELECT
min(rowid) from table_name B where B.table_no=A.table_no);

CREATE TABLE new_table AS SELECT DISTINCT * FROM

old_table;
DROP old_table RENAME new_table TO old_table DELETE
FROM table_name A WHERE rowid NOT IN (SELECT
MAX(ROWID) FROM table_name GROUP BY column_name)

18. What is difference between SUBSTR and INSTR

SUBSTR returns a specified portion of a string eg
SUBSTR('BCDEF',4) output BCDE INSTR provides character
position in which a pattern is found in a string.
eg INSTR('ABC-DC-F','-',2) output 7 (2nd occurence of '-')
19. There is a string '120000 12 0 .125' ,how you will find the
position of the decimal place
INSTR('120000 12 0 .125',1,'.') output 13
20. There is a '%' sign in one field of a column. What will be the
query to find it.
'\' Should be used before '%'.
21. When you use WHERE clause and when you use HAVING
clause
HAVING clause is used when you want to specify a condition for a
group function and it is written after GROUP BY clause The
WHERE clause is used when you want to specify a condition for
columns, single row functions except group functions and it is
written before GROUP BY clause if it is used.
22. Which is more faster - IN or EXISTS
EXISTS is more faster than IN because EXISTS returns a Boolean
value whereas IN returns a value.

23. What is a OUTER JOIN

Outer Join--Its a join condition used where you can query all the
rows of one of the tables in the join condition even though they
dont satisfy the join condition.
24. How you will avoid your query from using indexes
SELECT * FROM emp Where emp_no+' '=12345;
i.e you have to concatenate the column name with space within
codes in the where condition.
SELECT /*+ FULL(a) */ ename, emp_no from emp where
emp_no=1234;
i.e using HINTS
25. What is a pseudo column. Give some examples
It is a column that is not an actual column in the table.
eg USER, UID, SYSDATE, ROWNUM, ROWID, NULL, AND
LEVEL.
Suppose customer table is there having different columns like
customer no, payments.What will be the query to select top three
max payments.
SELECT customer_no, payments from customer C1 WHERE
3<=(SELECT COUNT(*) from customer C2 WHERE C1.payment
<= C2.payment)
26. What is the purpose of a cluster.
Oracle does not allow a user to specifically locate tables, since that
is a part of the function of the RDBMS. However, for the purpose
of increasing performance, oracle allows a developer to create a
CLUSTER. A CLUSTER provides a means for storing data from

different tables together for faster retrieval than if the table

placement were left to the RDBMS.
27. What is a cursor.
Oracle uses work area to execute SQL statements and store
processing information PL/SQL construct called a cursor lets you
name a work area and access its stored information A cursor is a
mechanism used to fetch more than one row in a Pl/SQl block.
28. Difference between an implicit & an explicit cursor.
PL/SQL declares a cursor implicitly for all SQL data manipulation
statements, including quries that return only one row.
However,queries that return more than one row you must declare
an explicit cursor or use a cursor FOR loop.
Explicit cursor is a cursor in which the cursor name is explicitly
assigned to a SELECT statement via the CURSOR...IS statement.
An implicit cursor is used for all SQL statements Declare, Open,
Fetch, Close. An explicit cursors are used to process multirow
SELECT statements An implicit cursor is used to process INSERT,
UPDATE, DELETE and single row SELECT. .INTO statements.
29. What are cursor attributes
%ROWCOUNT
%NOTFOUND
%FOUND
%ISOPEN
30. What is a cursor for loop.
Cursor For Loop is a loop where oracle implicitly declares a loop
variable, the loop index that of the same record type as the cursor's
record.
31. Difference between NO DATA FOUND and %NOTFOUND
NO DATA FOUND is an exception raised only for the
SELECT....INTO statements when the where clause of the

querydoes not match any rows. When the where clause of the
explicit cursor does not match any rows the %NOTFOUND
attribute is set to TRUE instead.
32. What a SELECT FOR UPDATE cursor represent.
SELECT......FROM......FOR......UPDATE[OF column-reference]
[NOWAIT] The processing done in a fetch loop modifies the rows
that have been retrieved by the cursor.
A convenient way of modifying the rows is done by a method with
two parts: the FOR UPDATE clause in the cursor declaration,
WHERE CURRENT OF CLAUSE in an UPDATE or declaration
statement.
33.

What 'WHERE CURRENT OF ' clause does in a cursor.

34.

LOOP

35.
SELECT num_credits INTO v_numcredit
s FROM classes
36.

WHERE dept=123 and course=101;

37.

UPDATE students

38.
SET
current_credits=current_credits+v_numcredits
39.

WHERE CURRENT OF X;

40.

END LOOP

41.

COMMIT;
END;

42. What is use of a cursor variable? How it is defined.

A cursor variable is associated with different statements at run

time, which can hold different values at run time. Static cursors
can only be associated with one run time query. A cursor variable
is reference type(like a pointer in C).
Declaring a cursor variable: TYPE type_name IS REF CURSOR
RETURN return_type type_name is the name of the reference
type,return_type is a record type indicating the types of the select
list that will eventually be returned by the cursor variable.
43. What should be the return type for a cursor variable.Can
we use a scalar data type as return type.
The return type for a cursor must be a record type.It can be
declared explicitly as a user-defined or %ROWTYPE can be used.
eg TYPE t_studentsref IS REF CURSOR RETURN students
%ROWTYPE
44. How you open and close a cursor variable.Why it is
required.
OPEN cursor variable FOR SELECT...Statement CLOSE cursor
variable In order to associate a cursor variable with a particular
SELECT statement OPEN syntax is used.In order to free the
resources used for the query CLOSE statement is used.
45. How you were passing cursor variables in PL/SQL 2.2.
In PL/SQL 2.2 cursor variables cannot be declared in a
package.This is because the storage for a cursor variable has to be
allocated using Pro*C or OCI with version 2.2,the only means of
passing a cursor variable to a PL/SQL block is via bind variable or
a procedure parameter.
46. Can cursor variables be stored in PL/SQL tables.If yes
how.If not why.
No, a cursor variable points a row which cannot be stored in a twodimensional PL/SQL table.
47. Difference between procedure and function.
Functions are named PL/SQL blocks that return a value and can be

called with arguments procedure a named block that can be called

with parameter. A procedure all is a PL/SQL statement by itself,
while a Function call is called as part of an expression.
48. What are different modes of parameters used in functions
and procedures.
IN
OUT
INOUT
49. What is difference between a formal and an actual
parameter
The variables declared in the procedure and which are passed, as
arguments are called actual, the parameters in the procedure
declaration. Actual parameters contain the values that are passed to
a procedure and receive results. Formal parameters are the
placeholders for the values of actual parameters
50. Can the default values be assigned to actual parameters.
Yes
51. Can a function take OUT parameters.If not why.
No.A function has to return a value,an OUT parameter cannot
return a value.
52. What is syntax for dropping a procedure and a function
.Are these operations possible.
53.
54.

Drop Procedure procedure_name

55.

Drop Function function_name

56. What are ORACLE PRECOMPILERS.

Using ORACLE PRECOMPILERS ,SQL statements and PL/SQL
blocks can be contained inside 3GL programs written in C,C+
+,COBOL,PASCAL, FORTRAN,PL/1 AND ADA.
The Precompilers are known as Pro*C,Pro*Cobol,... This form of
PL/SQL is known as embedded pl/sql,the language in which pl/sql
is embedded is known as the host language.
The prcompiler translates the embedded SQL and pl/sql ststements
into calls to the precompiler runtime library.The output must be
compiled and linked with this library to creater an executable.
57. What is OCI. What are its uses.
Oracle Call Interface is a method of accesing database from a 3GL
program. Uses--No precompiler is required,PL/SQL blocks are
executed like other DML statements.
58.

The OCI library provides

59.

-functions to parse SQL statemets

60.

-bind input variables

61.

-bind output variables

62.

-execute statements

63.

-fetch the results

64. Difference between database triggers and form triggers.

a) Data base trigger(DBT) fires when a DML operation is
performed on a data base table.Form trigger(FT) Fires when user
presses a key or navigates between fields on the screen
b) Can be row level or statement level No distinction between row
level and statement level.
c) Can manipulate data stored in Oracle tables via SQL Can

manipulate data in Oracle tables as well as variables in forms.

d) Can be fired from any session executing the triggering DML
statements. Can be fired only from the form that define the trigger.
e) Can cause other database triggers to fire.Can cause other
database triggers to fire,but not other form triggers.
65. What is an UTL_FILE.What are different procedures and
functions associated
with it. UTL_FILE is a package that adds the ability to read and
write to operating system files Procedures associated with it are
FCLOSE, FCLOSE_ALL and 5 procedures to output data to a file
PUT, PUT_LINE, NEW_LINE, PUTF, FFLUSH.PUT,
FFLUSH.PUT_LINE,FFLUSH.NEW_LINE. Functions associated
with it are FOPEN, ISOPEN.
66. Can you use a commit statement within a database trigger.
No
67. What is the maximum buffer size that can be specified using
the DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE function?
1,000,000
Oracle Interview Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

How would you determine the time zone under which a

database was operating?
Explain the use of setting GLOBAL_NAMES equal to TRUE.
What command would you use to encrypt a PL/SQL
application?
Explain the difference between a FUNCTION, PROCEDURE
and PACKAGE.
Explain the use of table functions.
Name three advisory statistics you can collect.
Where in the Oracle directory tree structure are audit traces
placed?

8.
9.

Explain materialized views and how they are used.

When a user process fails, what background process cleans up
after it?
10. What background process refreshes materialized views?
11. How would you determine what sessions are connected and
what resources they are waiting for?
12. Describe what redo logs are.
13. How would you force a log switch?
14. Give two methods you could use to determine what DDL
changes have been made.
15. What does coalescing a tablespace do?
16. What is the difference between a TEMPORARY tablespace and
a PERMANENT tablespace?
17. Name a tablespace automatically created when you create a
database.
18. When creating a user, what permissions must you grant to allow
them to connect to the database?
19. How do you add a data file to a tablespace?
20. How do you resize a data file?
21. What view would you use to look at the size of a data file?
22. What view would you use to determine free space in a
tablespace?
23. How would you determine who has added a row to a table?
24. How can you rebuild an index?
25. Explain what partitioning is and what its benefit is.
26. You have just compiled a PL/SQL package but got errors, how
would you view the errors?
27. How can you gather statistics on a table?
28. How can you enable a trace for a session?
29. What is the difference between the SQL*Loader and IMPORT
utilities?
30. Name two files used for network connection to a database.