MicroStrategy | Interview Series Questions 01

MicroStrategy Interview Questions

Below were my list of questions to be aware as an basic MicroStrategy Developer from my personal experience (dusted from my backup to share with you all)

• Schema Objects
  • Attributes (Types)
    • Simple
    • Compound
    • Implicit
  • Facts(Types)
    • Simple
    • Compound
    • Implicit
  • Homogeneous & Heterogeneous Facts/Attributes
    • Same column name on different tables (Homo)
      • E.g. CUSTOMER_ID on Lookup and Fact table
    • Different column name on different tables (Hetero)
      • E.g. CUSTOMER_ID on Lookup & CUST_ID on Fact table
  • Transformations (Types)
    • Expression Based (YEAR_ID -1)
    • Table Based (YTD, QTD, MTD, PREV_YEAR, etc.,)
    • How the table structure looks like for YTD?
      • DATE_ID | YTD_ID
      • Many to Many data storage
  • Hierarchies
    • User Hierarchy
    • System Hierarchy
• Public Objects
  • Metric (Types & its difference technically)
    • Simple
    • Compound
    • Nested
    • Derived
    • Smart Metrics
  • Filter (Types)
    • Attribute qualification
    • Metric qualification
    • Shortcut to filter
    • Shortcut to report
    • Advanced filter
  • Prompt (Types)
    • Element List Prompt
    • Value Prompt (Date, Numeric, Big Decimal, Text)
    • Level Prompt
    • Hierarchy Prompt
    • Object Prompt
  • Object Prompt Usage
    • Talk about its benefits for adhoc reports
    • Talk about its usage for deployment
  • Custom Group vs Consolidation
  • Auto Styles (Report vs Document vs Dossiers)
  • Reports Creation
    • Fine Tuning how to do from BI Developer standpoint
    • VLDB properties (Changing governor settings, tuning the report sql, table creation type, pre/post sql statements for any stats, etc.,)
    • SQL level tuning (Stats, Indexes, Cross Join Avoid, etc.,)
    • Sorting
    • Subtotal
    • Threshold
    • Alerting
    • Etc.,
  • Document/Dashboard Creation
    • Widgets/Graphs
    • Panels and Panel Stacks
    • Selector Types
    • Challenges to pass selector from one dashboard to other
    • HTML5 vs Flash – How MSTR replaced HTML 5 and what are its challenges post that ?
  • Visual Insight/Dossier
    • Talk about its adhoc capabilities as an user to develop dashboard within minutes
    • Explain about the sections (Filter, Properties, Dataset, Visualizations, etc.,)
    • Explain about using D3 on VI for more advanced or out of the box capabilities
    • Explain about self-service deployment challenges – about how IT is key person during the business development
    • Talk about Freeform Canvas Design (Best Practices)
    • Know about Custom Charts deployment (Vitara , D3)
    • https://www.microstrategy.com/Strategy/media/downloads/resource-library/microstrategy-analytics_white-paper_best-practices-for-secure-governed-self-service.pdf
• Scenario based questions
  • Where and how to use Attribute Roles?
    • https://community.microstrategy.com/t5/Architect/TN6197-How-do-Attribute-Roles-Work-in-MicroStrategy-9-x/ta-p/167252
  • If my report or icube doesn’t run quickly – how can I fine tune it for faster responses?
    • Check the database for Index/Stats collection
    • Check the SQL generated by MSTR is good (without cross joins)
    • Check for the execution plan on database
    • Check for VLDB properties tuning to see if SQL generation is using standards or best practice as per DB that we use (like Intermediate Table Type)
    • Check individual pass by pass to see where the problem is
  • If my dashboard takes lot of time – how can I improve it
    • Check for core design to see if dataset is reused or created with repeated info
    • Check for widgets if it takes more time to render & avoid if so.
    • Go for Graphs and Grids for better and smoothness
    • Use Fiddler or some tool to identify which part within dashboard takes time
    • Images if used extensively – does it takes time or so
    • Avoid having more detail data on the dashboard – as it’s for executive reporting
• Little Admin
  • How to do deployment? Object Manager usage (Package creation by doing version of objects and using SEARCH object)
  • How to look at object level security? (Right click folder and seeing the security will let us know if user has VIEW/EDIT/MODIFY access to the objects)
  • How did you perform upgrade testing? You could share your skills we did on Clinical application
  • How does Integrity Manager helps for testing purpose pre and post migrations/upgrade?
  • How does command manager helps for automation of stuffs like event trigger or subscriptions trigger or etc.,
  • About Enterprise Manager usage on doing reports on statistics data or usage stats.

More to come in coming weeks – Enjoy Reading!!

Hope it helps for folks to be prepared for interview!!