Top Teradata Interview Questions You Should Practice

A typical interview at Teradata consists of six to seven rounds where you have to answer various types of tech and non-tech Teradata interview questions. The company is strict on recruiting highly-skilled professionals. You are expected to outperform your peers in order to crack the interview process.

Hence, it is necessary that you do strategic preparation and practice some Teradata interview questions. In this article, we’ll cover some basic and advanced Teradata interview questions to help you nail the tech interview.

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Go through the following sections to understand the types of Teradata interview questions and ace your upcoming tech interview. In this article, we’ll cover:

• Basic Teradata Interview Questions
• Experienced Level Teradata Interview Questions
• Teradata Interview Questions on SQL
• Teradata Interview Questions on Performance Tuning
• FAQs on Teradata Interview Questions

Basic Teradata Interview Questions

Here are some basic level Teradata real-time interview questions and answers that you may come across during your interview:

Q1. Draft a comparison of Teradata with a basic RDMS.

Teradata features a huge number of heterogeneous destinations. In addition, source operation is allowed in Teradata. It is also easier to debug Teradata. On the other hand, basic RMDS lack heterogeneous destinations, and source operations are not always permissible. Debugging is difficult in basic RDMS.

Q2. Tell me what you know about Teradata.

This is one of the most common Teradata interview questions. Teradata is a Relational Database Management System known for its vast features that work best for data-related tasks. Add a few other details if you want.

Q3. What is the purpose of a Dispatcher in Teradata?

A dispatcher is best known for storing and taking requests and then placing them in a queue. This helps users in saving both time and effort.

Q4. Mention any two common ETL tools you can use.

The two common ETL tools are DataStage and Informatica.

Q5. Is it possible to send or bypass Teradata jobs to Unix Environment easily?

Yes, it is possible to do so. However, users may have to fulfill some basic conditions to execute UNIX.

A few other Teradata interview questions for beginners are:

1. Why is it important to manage data?
2. What do you know about Catching?
3. Mention a few features of Teradata.
4. Are you aware of a Channel driver? What is the difference between a Channel driver and a Gateway?
5. Mention an approach that you can adopt to control traffic in Teradata.
6. Suppose the Fast Load Script fails to operate reliability. In such a situation, how would you restart the system?
7. What are a few important functions you have executed while working with Teradata?
8. Name the easiest method to create the sequence during display time.
9. Mention the maximum limit to assign the gateway to the node.
10. How can you check Teradata’s version? Are there any commands to do so?
11. Why does multi-load support NUSI instead of the USI?
12. Define Parallel Data Extension in Teradata.
13. How can you save data if the node has failed?
14. What do you know about virtual disks?
15. What is an Access Module Processor?

If you are an experienced professional, interviewers will ask you advanced-level Teradata interview questions. Go through them in the following section.

Experienced Level Teradata Interview Questions

In Teradata, experienced professionals may encounter the following interview questions. Keep in mind that the interviewer may ask scenario-based Teradata Interview questions. Make the necessary preparations. For experienced professionals, here are a few Teradata interview questions and answers:

Q1. What do you understand about journals in Teradata?

Journals provide data availability in case of process failure. There are two types of journals, namely Permanent journals and Recovery journals.

Q2. Mention the different types of BTEQ exports.

They are of four types:

• Export REPORT
• Export DATA
• Export INDICDATA
• Export DIF

Q3. What is the difference between MULTISET and SET tables?

The MULTISET table allows duplicate records and SET tables do not.

Q4. What are the ways to create a table in Teradata?

We can create tables using the CREATE TABLE statement.

Q5. Mention a statement to locate duplicate records in a table.

We can find duplicate records by using GROUP BY or DISTINCT statement.

Here’s the statement to locate duplicate records in a table:

SELECT DISTINCT column 1, column 2…

FROM tablename;

Finding Duplicate Records Using GROUP BY statement:

SELECT column 1, column 2,…

FROM tablename

GROUP BY column 1, column 2….;

Find a few other Teradata interview questions for experienced professionals below:

1. Write a query to locate the amount of AMPs in a system.
2. What do you mean by spool space error in Teradata?
3. Mention the purpose of this query: SELECT HASHMAP (HASHBUCKET(HASHROW(primaryindexvalue))), COUNT(*)
4. What is the TENACITY command?
5. What is the difference between NUSI and Full Table scan?
6. How can we generate a sequence in Teradata?
7. A specific load is imposed on a table every hour. The morning traffic is low, and the traffic is relatively high at night. During such a situation, what is an advisable utility?
8. How can you restart the MLOAD client system after execution?
9. What do you know about the Parsing Engine?
10. Explain the significance of the UPSERT command.
11. What are the advantages of PPI?
12. What are the sizes of INTEGER, BYTEINT, and SMALLINT?
13. Explain the meaning of the Least Cost Plan.
14. Mention the difference between Primary Key and Primary Index.
15. Is the bottleneck an error?

Do you want to crack Teradata interview questions on SQL? If yes, then the following section might be of great help to you.

Teradata Interview Questions on SQL

SQL is a domain-specific language that helps in managing data in an RDMS. Questions on SQL are highly common in tech interviews of leading companies. Here are a few Teradata SQL interview questions with answers:

Q1. Define FAST EXPORT.

FAST EXPORT is the export of data to a Flat file from Teradata.

Q2. How many populated tables can Teradata MultiLoad support?

Up to 5 populated tables.

Q3. Define transient journaling.

Transient journaling is a dictionary table maintained by the system that protects transactions from deadlock and system failures.

Q4. What do you understand about data privileges in Teradata?

A data privilege is access to manipulate a data or database object. Administrators use them to manage access to data and control the tires of activities and actions available to the users.

Q5. Mention the privilege levels in Teradata.

Privilege levels in Teradata are:

• Object-level privileges
• System-level privileges
• Zone-level privileges
• Row-level privileges

Go through a few more SQL Teradata interview questions below:

1. What is the GIVE statement in Teradata?
2. Explain the GRANT statement.
3. Mention the various GRANT forms in Teradata.
4. How do you utilize GRANT (SQL Form) and GRANT (Monitor Form)?
5. What does the REVOKE statement in Teradata mean?
6. Explain the purpose of the SHOW statement.
7. What do you understand about Hot Standby Nodes (HSN)?
8. What are volatile tables?
9. Explain LOG and NO LOG in Teradata.
10. What is permanent journaling?
11. What is MERGEBLOCKRATIO?
12. Define surrogate keys in Teradata.
13. What is the difference between PRIMARY KEY constraints and UNIQUE constraints?
14. What is BLOCK COMPRESSION?
15. Define DATABLOCKSIZE.

For a better understanding of such Teradata interview questions, you can take a look at the top advanced SQL interview questions and answers.

Teradata Interview Questions on Performance Tuning

Here are a few Teradata interview questions on performance tuning:

Q1. What do you understand by CHECK Constraints?

They are the most basic SQL constraint specification. Depending on their position, they can be applicable to an entire row or just an individual column.

Q2. Define referential constraints.

The Optimizer can sometimes make better query plans in specific referential relationships between the specified tables in the request. Referential constraints help us take advantage of such optimizations without going through the overhead of recommended referential constraints.

Q3. Define the ADD option in Teradata.

The ADD option undoes additional partition digits for a certain partitioning level to authorize partitions to a specific partitioning level later on through an ALTER TABLE statement.

Q4. What is the QUEUE keyword?

Each queue table that one creates must contain a QUEUE keyword as one of the CREATE TABLE options after the table name.

Q5. Explain the QITS column in Teradata.

QITS is the first column for any query table.

A few more Teradata interview questions on performance tuning are:

1. Mention the difference between REPLACE TRANSFORM and CREATE TRANSFORM in Teradata.
2. Define transition tables.
3. Why is the DATABASE Statement not considered valid for 2PC mode?
4. Mention the various types of Teradata utilities.
5. What are a few benefits of Teradata?
6. Teradata databases can be utilized in how many ways?
7. Mention the primary components of Teradata Architecture.
8. Define BYNET. What is its purpose?
9. What do you understand about the Unique Primary Index?
10. How can you create a Non-Unique Primary Index in Teradata?

Whether you are looking to work as a software engineer or a tech lead, these Teradata interview questions will help you crack your upcoming interview.

FAQs on Teradata Interview Questions

Q1. What is the average annual salary of a Teradata software engineer?

The average Teradata software engineer salary is around $150k per year with a base salary of $131k, a bonus of $9k, and stocks of $10k.

Q2. What subjects are covered in the written round of Teradata interview questions?

The written round generally consists of a technical test containing questions from C++, operating system, and data structures and algorithms.

Q3. Which companies use the Teradata database?

Leading companies worldwide use the Teradata database, such as Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Cleveland Clinic.

Q4. What is the interview process at Teradata?

Teradata conducts interviews in typically 6-7 rounds. Teradata interview questions start with a written round, followed by technical rounds 1 and 2. After that, there is a technical round for machine learning and a manager round. The last round is called the HR round.

Q5. Is the technical round on machine learning compulsory for all candidates during the Teradata interview?

No, for the Teradata interview, the machine leaning round is optional. It is conducted per requirement and is applicable for candidates with prior experience in ML.

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