Informatica >> Interview Questions Informatica Repository Manager Q.

What type of repositories can be created using Informatica Repository Manager ? Q. What is a code page? Q. Which all databases PowerCenter Server on Windows can connect to? Q. Which all databases PowerCenter Server on UNIX can connect to? Informatica Designer Q. How to execute PL/SQL script from Informatica mapping? Q. How can you define a transformation? What are different types of transformati ons available in Informatica? Q. What is a source qualifier? What is meant by Query Override? Q. What is aggregator transformation? Q. What is Incremental Aggregation? Q. How Union Transformation is used? Q. Can two flat files be joined with Joiner Transformation? Q. What is a loo up transformation? Q. Can a loo up be done on Flat Files? Q. What are Connected and Unconnected Loo ups? Q. What is a mapplet? Q. What does reusable transformation mean? Q. What is update strategy and what are the options for update strategy? Informatica Repository Manager Q. What type of repositories can be created using Informatica Repository Manager ? A. Informatica PowerCenter includeds following type of repositories : Standalone Repository : A repository that functions individually and this is unr elated to any other repositories. Global Repository : This is a centralized repository in a domain. This repositor y can contain shared objects across the repositories in a domain. The objects ar e shared through global shortcuts. Local Repository : Local repository is within a domain and its not a global repos itory. Local repository can connect to a global repository using global shortcut s and can use objects in its shared folders. Versioned Repository : This can either be local or global repository but it allo ws version control for the repository. A versioned repository can store multiple copies, or versions of an object. This features allows to efficiently develop, test and deploy metadata in the production environment. Q. What is a code page? A. A code page contains encoding to specify characters in a set of one or more l anguages. The code page is selected based on source of the data. For example if source contains Japanese text then the code page should be selected to support J apanese text. When a code page is chosen, the program or application for which the code page i s set, refers to a specific set of data that describes the characters the applic ation recognizes. This influences the way that application stores, receives, and sends character data. Q. Which all databases PowerCenter Server on Windows can connect to? A. PowerCenter Server on Windows can connect to following databases: IBM DB2 Informix Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel Microsoft SQL Server Oracle Sybase

 Teradata Q. Which all databases PowerCenter Server on UNIX can connect to? A. PowerCenter Server on UNIX can connect to following databases: IBM DB2 Informix Oracle Sybase Teradata

Infomratica Mapping Designer Q. How to execute PL/SQL script from Informatica mapping? A. Stored Procedure (SP) transformation can be used to execute PL/SQL Scripts. I n SP Transformation PL/SQL procedure name can be specified. Whenever the session is executed, the session will call the pl/sql procedure. Q. How can you define a transformation? What are different types of transformati ons available in Informatica? A. A transformation is a repository object that generates, modifies, or passes d ata. The Designer provides a set of transformations that perform specific functi ons. For example, an Aggregator transformation performs calculations on groups o f data. Below are the various transformations available in Informatica: Aggregator Application Source Qualifier Custom Expression External Procedure Filter Input Joiner Loo up Normalizer Output Ran Router Sequence Generator Sorter Source Qualifier Stored Procedure Transaction Control Union Update Strategy XML Generator XML Parser XML Source Qualifier Q. What is a source qualifier? What is meant by Query Override? A. Source Qualifier represents the rows that the PowerCenter Server reads from a relational or flat file source when it runs a session. When a relational or a f lat file source definition is added to a mapping, it is connected to a Source Qu alifier transformation. PowerCenter Server generates a query for each Source Qualifier Transformation wh enever it runs the session. The default query is SELET statement containing all the source columns. Source Qualifier has capability to override this default que ry by changing the default settings of the transformation properties. The list o f selected ports or the order they appear in the default query should not be cha nged in overridden query. Q. What is aggregator transformation? A. The Aggregator transformation allows performing aggregate calculations, such as averages and sums. Unli e Expression Transformation, the Aggregator transform

ation can only be used to perform calculations on groups. The Expression transfo rmation permits calculations on a row-by-row basis only. Aggregator Transformation contains group by ports that indicate how to group the data. While grouping the data, the aggregator transformation outputs the last r ow of each group unless otherwise specified in the transformation properties. Various group by functions available in Informatica are : AVG, COUNT, FIRST, LAS T, MAX, MEDIAN, MIN, PERCENTILE, STDDEV, SUM, VARIANCE. Q. What is Incremental Aggregation? A. Whenever a session is created for a mapping Aggregate Transformation, the ses sion option for Incremental Aggregation can be enabled. When PowerCenter perform s incremental aggregation, it passes new source data through the mapping and use s historical cache data to perform new aggregation calculations incrementally. Q. How Union Transformation is used? A. The union transformation is a multiple input group transformation that can be used to merge data from various sources (or pipelines). This transformation wor s just li e UNION ALL statement in SQL, that is used to combine result set of t wo SELECT statements. Q. Can two flat files be joined with Joiner Transformation? A. Yes, joiner transformation can be used to join data from two flat file source s. Q. What is a loo up transformation? A. This transformation is used to loo up data in a flat file or a relational tab le, view or synonym. It compares loo up transformation ports (input ports) to th e source column values based on the loo up condition. Later returned values can be passed to other transformations. Q. Can a loo up be done on Flat Files? A. Yes. Q. What is the difference between a connected loo up and unconnected loo up? A. Connected loo up ta es input values directly from other transformations in th e pipleline. Unconnected loo up doesnt ta e inputs directly from any other transformation, but it can be used in any transformation (li e expression) and can be invo ed as a function using :LKP expression. So, an unconnected loo up can be called multiple times in a mapping. Q. What is a mapplet? A. A mapplet is a reusable object that is created using mapplet designer. The ma pplet contains set of transformations and it allows us to reuse that transformat ion logic in multiple mappings. Q. What does reusable transformation mean? A. Reusable transformations can be used multiple times in a mapping. The reusabl e transformation is stored as a metadata separate from any other mapping that us es the transformation. Whenever any changes to a reusable transformation are mad e, all the mappings where the transformation is used will be invalidated. Q. What is update strategy and what are the options for update strategy? A. Informatica processes the source data row-by-row. By default every row is mar ed to be inserted in the target table. If the row has to be updated/inserted ba sed on some logic Update Strategy transformation is used. The condition can be s pecified in Update Strategy to mar the processed row for update or insert. Following options are available for update strategy : DD_INSERT : If this is used the Update Strategy flags the row for insertion. Equ ivalent numeric value of DD_INSERT is 0. DD_UPDATE : If this is used the Update Strategy flags the row for update. Equiva lent numeric value of DD_UPDATE is 1. DD_DELETE : If this is used the Update Strategy flags the row for deletion. Equi valent numeric value of DD_DELETE is 2. DD_REJECT : If this is used the Update Strategy flags the row for rejection. Equ ivalent numeric value of DD_REJECT is 3. 1.What are Semi-additive and factless facts?And in which scenario will you use s uch inds of fact tables?

There are three ind of facts, Additive:-- That is the facts which can be aggregated or segregated on the chang e of the dimension level and always remains meaningful: example: sales value Now a days almost all data warehouses contain Additrivev facts Semiadditive fact : That is the facts which can be aggregated or segregated on t he change of the dimension level but becomes meaningless on aggregation or segre gation Ex : Gross profit percentage. These can be represented while u use Customized OLAP Nonadditive facts: That is the facts which Can Not be aggregated or segregated o n the change of the dimension level and always remains meaningful: Example: at the time of accident near C.N .Tower weather was HOT Hot is non additive dimension. (you can call me if you are serious to implement semiadditive and nonadditive fa ct) 2.what are conformed dimensions? conformed dimensions are the dimensions which can be used across multiple Data M arts in combination with multiple facts tables accordingly e.g : Date Dimension 3.Differences between star and snowfla e schemas? in star schemas all dimensions point to a centralized fact table in snowfla e dimensions pointing to fact tables itself are pointed by sub dimens ion tables. Question Ban on Datawarehousing: General Questions: 1. What is a data-warehouse? A datawarehouse is a repository(centralized as well as distributed) of Data ,abl e to answer any adhoc,analytical,historical or complex queries. It contains 3 types of data 2. What are Data Marts? Data mart is a subset of a datawarehouse. 4. What is ER Diagram? It represents entities and relationshiup between then in a domain 5. What is a Star Schema? It has a centralized fact table ,reprensenting the facts on the intersection of the dimensions directly pointing to the fact table. 6. What is Dimensional Modelling? Brea up of standard Normilised data between ever changing fact(Numeric informal data) and slowly changing or fixed non numeric data for fast and effective OLAP 7. What Snow Fla e Schema? in snowfla e schema dimensions pointing to fact tables itself are pointed by sub

dimension tables. 8. What are the Different methods of loading Dimension tables? Depends on Dimension type For static dimensions one time or periodical loading can be done For slolwy changing dimensions 1.Overwrite : but u will lost the historical aspect of dw 9. What are Aggregate tables? These are the fact tables which do note represent the lowest granujlarity level People do it when minut info is not needed and fast processing is required 10. What is the Difference between OLTP and OLAP? Online Transaction Processing : Lowest Granularity,continuous update,transaction data,slow reporting Made for fast insert,up;date,delete

OnLine Analytical Processing: Varying Granularity,Batch Update,Historical data , Fast reporting.. Made for fast reporting

11. What is ETL? Extraction,Transformation,Loading 12. What are the vaious ETL tools in the Mar et? DTS,Informatica,Decision Stream 13. What are the various Reporting tools in the Mar et? Hyperion Essbase(earlier Brio),Analysis service,Cognos,Beacon. 14. What is Fact table? Represents the numeric data of a data mart ,representing data on the intersectio n of related dimensions.. 15. What is a dimension table? Non numeric data of the domain on the hierarchy of which aggregation or segregat ion of fact is needed 16. What is a loo up table? Represents metadata 17. What is a general purpose scheduling tool? Name some of them? use in scheduling yaar,..say window scheduler/cognos scheu or upfront schedular 18. What are modeling tools available in the Mar et? Name some of them? Analysis services,Architect(cognos) 19. What is real time data-warehousing? its a concept remains unimplemented, fast update of cube or DW

20. What is data mining? Loo ing for a information which was previously un nown or hidden 21. What is Normalization? First Normal Form, Second Normal Form , Third Normal Form? 22. What is ODS? Operational Data Store 23. What type of Indexing mechanism do we need to use for a typical datawarehous e? 24. Which columns go to the fact table and which columns go the dimension table? (My user needs to see <data element> <data element> bro en by <data element> <da ta element> All elements before bro en = Fact Measures All elements after bro en = Dimension Elements Changing numeric fields..fact table Texual-dimension table 25. What is a level of Granularity of a fact table? What does this signify? Grass root level Transaction data is (Wee ly level summarization there is no need to have Invoice Number in the fact table anymore) 26. How are the Dimension tables designed? De-Normalized , Wide, Short , Use Surrogate Keys, Contain Additional date fields and flags. 27. What are slowly changing dimensions? Which change over time,li e employees department 28. What are non-additive facts? Nonadditive facts: That is the facts which Can Not be aggregated or segregated o n the change of the dimension level and always remains meaningful: Example: at the time of accident near C.N .Tower weather was HOT 29. What are conformed dimensions? conformed dimensions are the dimensions which can be used across multiple Data M arts in combination with multiple facts tables accordingly 30. What is VLDB? (Data base is too large to bac up in a time frame then it s a VLDB) Very Large Data Base 31. What is SCD1 , SCD2 , SCD3 ? Kya hai,Data collection sattelites ETL Questions:

1. What is a staging area? Do we need it? What is the purpose of a staging area? Its the area where most of the ETL is done 2. What is a three tier data warehouse? DW server,Olap Server ,olap clinet 3. What are the various methods of getting incremental records or delta records from the source systems? 1.Extract source data from all operational records, regardless of whether any da ta values have changed since the last ETL load or not 2. Extract source data only from those operational records in which some data va lues have changed since the last ETL load (net change) 4. What are the various tools? - Name a few informatica,decision stream,DTS 5. What is latest version of Power Center / Power Mart? PC7 6. What is the difference between Power Center & Power Mart? main diff is in support of source of data 7. What are the various transformation available? Structured,semistructured,complex structured,unstructured enough for now..