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Question 1. What is oracle database ? Subscribe to our mailing list

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Answer: Oracle Database is a relational database management system (RDBMS) which is used and receive notifications of new posts by email
to store and retrieve the large amounts of data. Oracle Database had physical and logical
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structures. Logical structures and physical structures are separated from each other

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ORA-errors

1. ORA-06512
2. ORA-00911
3. ORA-03113
4. ORA-29913
5. ORA-00257
6. ORA-00054
7. ORA-27154
8. ORA-29285
9. ORA-29280
Question 2 What is the di erence between Oracle database and Oracle instance? 10. ORA-29283
11. ORA-01017
Answer:Oracle database is the collection of datafiles,redologs and control files while Oracle 12. ORA-00900
13. ORA-00001
instance is the SGA ,processes in the Memory.
14. ORA-00936

We can have 1 or more instance serving a oracle database . In Oracle RAC, we have one set of
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datafiles,control file and redo logs while instance on one ore more boxes accesses the same
database

Question 3 What is a Tablespace?

Answer: Oracle use Tablespace for logical data Storage. Physically, data will get stored in
Datafiles. Datafiles will be connected to tablespace. A tablespace can have multiple datafiles.
A tablespace can have objects from di erent schema’s and a schema can have multiple
tablespace. Database creates “SYSTEM tablespace” by default during database creation. It
contains read only data dictionary tables which contains the information about the database.

Question 4 What are Datafiles?

Answer:The datafiles contain all the database data. The data of logical database structures,
such as tables and indexes, is physically stored in the datafiles allocated for a database.

Question 5 what is Control Files?

Answer:Every Oracle database has a control file. A control file contains entries that specify
the physical structure of the database such as Database name and the Names and locations of
datafiles and redo log files.

Question 6 What is Redo Log Files?

Answer The primary function of the redo log is to record all changes made to data. If a failure
prevents modified data from being permanently written to the datafiles, then the changes can
be obtained from the redo log, so work is never lost.

Question 7 What is Archive Log Files ?

Answer:Oracle automatically archives log files when the database is in ARCHIVELOG mode.
This prevents oracle from overwriting the redo log files before they have been safely archived
to another location.

Question 8 What is Parameter Files (initSID.ora)

Answer:Parameter files contain a list of configuration parameters for that instance and
database.

Question 9 What is schema?

Answer:A user account and its associated data including tables, views, indexes, clusters,
sequences,procedures, functions, triggers,packages and database links is known as Oracle
schema. System, SCOTT etc are default schema’s. We can create a new Schema/User. But we
can’t drop default database schema’s.

Question 10 What is data blocks ?

Answer:Data Blocks are the base unit of logical database space. Each data block represents a
specific number of bytes of database space on a disk.The data blocks can be 4 K,8 K size
depending on the requirement.

Question 11. What is an Extent ?

Answer:Extent is a collection of Continuous data blocks, which is used for storing a specific
type of information.

Question 12. What is a Segment ?

Answer:A segment is a collection of extents which is used for storing a specific data structure
and resides in the same tablespace.

Question 13. What is Rollback Segment ?

Answer:Database contain one or more Rollback Segments to roll back transactions and data
recovery.

Question 14. What are the di erent type of Segments ?

Answer

Data Segment(for storing User Data), Index Segment (for storing index), Rollback Segment
and Temporary Segment.

Question 15. What is archive-log and No archive log mode?

Answer: We all know that redo logs stored the redo information and redo log files are in
circular fashion.Oracle Database lets you save filled groups of redo log files to one or more
o line destinations, known collectively as the archived redo log. The process of turning redo
log files into archived redo log files is called archiving.

The background process ARCn automates archiving operations when automatic archiving is
enabled. The database starts multiple archiver processes as needed to ensure that the
archiving of filled redo logs does not fall behind. No archive log means archive log are not
generated and redo are overwritten

Question 16. What all things are present in the shared pool?

Answer: The shared pool portion of the SGA contains three major areas:
library cache(contains parsed sql statements,cursor information,execution plans)
dictionary cache (contains cache -user account information,privileges
information,datafile,segment and extent information)
bu ers for parallel execution messages
control structure.

Question 17. What is hotbackup?

Answer:If the database must be up and running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, then you
have no choice but to perform inconsistent backups of the whole database. A backup of
online data files is called an online backup. This requires that you run your database in
ARCHIVELOG mode.

Question 18. which views is used to finding the locking in the database?

Answer: v$lock, v$session, v$process

Related Article

Oracle Enqueue and locks(Oracle table locks): How it works

Question 19. You have many instances running on the same UNIX box. How can you
determine which shared memory and semaphores are associated with which instance?

Answer:
There are two ways

SQL> oradebug setmypid

SQL> oradebug ipc
SQL>oradebug tracfile_name

Another way is to use

$ORACLE_HOME/bin/sysresv

Question 20. What is Database index ?

Answer:
A database index is a data structure that improves the speed of data retrieval operations on a
database table at the cost of slower writes and increased storage space.By default, Oracle
creates B-tree indexes.

Related article

Oracle Indexes and types of indexes in oracle with example

Question 21.  What is di erence between the hotbackup taken through RMAN and Manual?

Answer check the below link for Detailed explanation

Mechanism followed by Oracle when we are taking hotbackup

Question 22. What is library cache lock?

Answer
A library cache lock means that a session is waiting to use or change an object definition or to
use a SQL statement that another session is loading, changing or parsing, or is waiting to
change or parse. This usually indicates that database object definitions are being changed
regularly.

Another example is gathering statistics on an object. When statistics are gathered all
references to that object in the shared pool or library cache become invalid, requiring a new
hard parse for each SQL statement referencing the object. Statistics should only be gathered
when there are no active users or system activity is very low.

Question 23. How do we find the blocker for Library cache lock?

Answer:
We can run hanganalyze to find the blocking session.

Many times the below query also works in wonderful manner

select /*+ all_rows */ w1.sid waiting_session,

h1.sid holding_session,
w.kgllktype lock_or_pin,
w.kgllkhdl address,
decode(h.kgllkmod, 0, 'None', 1, 'Null', 2, 'Share', 3, 'Exclusive',
'Unknown') mode_held,
decode(w.kgllkreq, 0, 'None', 1, 'Null', 2, 'Share', 3, 'Exclusive',
'Unknown') mode_requested
from dba_kgllock w, dba_kgllock h, v$session w1, v$session h1
where
(((h.kgllkmod != 0) and (h.kgllkmod != 1)
and ((h.kgllkreq = 0) or (h.kgllkreq = 1)))
and
(((w.kgllkmod = 0) or (w.kgllkmod= 1))
and ((w.kgllkreq != 0) and (w.kgllkreq != 1))))
and w.kgllktype = h.kgllktype
and w.kgllkhdl = h.kgllkhdl
and w.kgllkuse = w1.saddr
and h.kgllkuse = h1.saddr
/

Question 24.  How to take global hanganalyze dump?

Answer

ORADEBUG setmypid
ORADEBUG setinst all
ORADEBUG -g def hanganalyze <level>

Question 25. How do you recover the database if you lost one of the controlfile in the
database?
Answer

Shutdown Instance ( abort )

sqlplus / as sysdba
shutdown abort
Change Init.ora file to remove the lost controlfile or copy the existing controlfile to that
location
startup the database

Check below link for all the useful scenario for recovery

Database recovery various cases and solution

Question 26. How do you recover the database if you lost all of the controlfile in the
database?

Answer

a. Shutdown Instance (abort)

b.  If the control-file backup is available ,then restore it from backup or if you have got the
controlfile information in trace using alter database backup controlfile to trace
c. Once the controlfile is created, recover database using backup controlfile. You will need to
apply the redo logs to complete the recovery
d, alter database open resetlogs;

We can avoid the resetlogs by using the steps below

1. A er the database is mounted with restore of controlfile from backup,create a trace of the
controlfile using the command below
alter database backup controlfile to trace;
2. Now take out the create controlfile statement from the trace. Choose the NORESETLOG
portion
3. Recreate the controlfile using the above portion.
4. Do recover database
5. alter database open

Check below link for all the useful scenario for recovery

Database recovery various cases and solution

Question 27. What is flashback database?

Answer:

It is New feature in Oracle database post 10.1 onwards. It Uses past block images to back out
changes to a oracle database. As the name suggest, we can use this flashback database in
previous time

a.During normal database operation, Oracle occasionally logs past block images in flashback
logs
b.Flashback logs are  written sequentially not archived
c. Oracle automatically creates, resizes and deletes flashback logs in the flash recovery area
d.  DBA should be aware of flashback logs to monitor performance,to decide how much space
to allocate to flash recovery area
e. Allows database to be recovered to a previous time to correct problems caused by logical
data corruptions,user errors
Flashback database explained and limitation

Question 28. How can you rebuild an index?

Answer: We can rebuild the index using the below command

If it is to be online

alter index index_name rebuild online;

If it is to be rebuild o line

alter index index_name rebuild;

You can use parallel to speed up the rebuild

alter index index_name rebuild parallel 4;

Question 29 What is Branch Block in index ?

Answer: Branch block rows hold <separator key,dba> pairs used to guide the B-tree search
to a row in a leaf block.

Question 30. What is Leaf Block in index ?

Answer: Leaf block rows hold the <KEY, KEYDATA> pairs stored by the B-tree.

Question 31. What is High Water Mark in Oracle?

Answer:

1. High water mark is the maximum amount of database blocks used so far by a segment.
This mark cannot be reset by delete operations.
2. Delete Table operation won’t reset HWM.
3. TRUNCATE will reset HWM.
4. The high water mark level is just a line separate the used blocks and free blocks.

The blocks above the HWM level is free blocks, they are ready to use.
The blocks below the HWM level is used blocks, they are already used.

Question 32. What parameters are used to set parallelism in the database?

Answer:Following initialization parameters are required for parallelism setup in database.

PARALLEL_SERVER,
PARALLEL_SERVER_INSTANCES,
PARALLEL_MIN_SERVERS,
PARALLEL_MAX_SERVERS
PARALLEL_THREADS_PER_CPU

Question 33. If the table is fragmented, how would you rebuild it?

Answer
First we need to rebuild the table

alter table <table_name> move;

Secondly we need to rebuild all its indexes

We can find all the indexes

select index_name from dba_indexes where table_name=<table name> and

table_owner=<table owner>

alter index <index_name> rebuild

Finally we should gather the stats on the table

Related article

How to rebuild the table in oracle

Question 34. What view would you use to determine free space in a tablespace?
Answer dba_free_space

Question 35. How do you switch from an init.ora file to a spfile?

Answer:
Create spfile from pfile;
shutdown instance
startup

It will start using spfile

Question 36. You are experiencing high “busy bu er waits” . how can you find what’s causing
it?
Answer Bu er busy wait means that the queries are waiting for the blocks to be read into the
db cache.There could be the reason when the block may be busy in the cache and session is
waiting for it. It could be undo, data block or segment header wait.

Run the following query to find out the p1,p2 and p3 of a session causing bu er busy wait

sql> select p1 "File #",p2 "Block #",p3 "Reason Code" from v$session_wait
where event = 'buffer busy waits';

A er that running the following query to find the segment causing bu er busy wait:-

sql> select owner,segment_name,segment_type from dba_extents where file_id

= &P1 and &P2 between block_id and block_id + blocks -1

Question 37.  How to kill the database session?

Answer

First you need to find the SID,serial# of the session

select SID,SERIAL# from v$session where <>;
alter system kill session 'SID,SERIAL#';

In some situations, like waiting for a reply from a remote database or

rolling back transactions, the session will not kill itself immediately
and will wait for the current operation to complete.So Upon issuing the
alter system kill session command, the session will be 'marked for kill'.
It will then be killed as soon as possible

For Oracle RAC

If you want to kill session from another instance
ALTER SYSTEM KILL SESSION 'sid,serial#,@inst_id';

Question 38.  What is di erence between startup mount and startup nomount?

Answer.  startup mount -mount the control file

startup nomount- does not mount the controlfile

Related Articles

ORA-27154: post/wait create failed during startup

Oracle Shutdown steps decoded

How to easily find the database startup and shutdown time using sqlplus

Question 39. How to check Oracle database version?

Answer

Select * from v$version;

The below matrix explains the number of the Oracle version

Major The first digit is the most general identifier. It represents a major new version
Database of the so ware that contains significant new functionality.
Release
Number

Database The second digit represents a maintenance release level. Some new features
Maintenance may also be included.
Release
Number

Application The third digit reflects the release level of the Oracle Application Server
Server (OracleAS).
Release
Number

Component- The fourth digit identifies a release level specific to a component. Di erent
Specific components can have di erent numbers in this position depending upon, for
Release example, component patch sets or interim releases.
Number

Platform- The fi h digit identifies a platform-specific release. Usually this is a patch set.
Specific When di erent platforms require the equivalent patch set, this digit will be
Release the same across the a ected platforms.
Number

Lets take the example of Oracle version 10.2.0.4.0

10 – Major database release number
2 – Database Maintenance release number
0 – Application server release number
4 – Component Specific release number
0 – Platform specific release number

Question 40. What is SCN (System Change Number) ?

Answer The system change number (SCN) is an ever-increasing value that uniquely identifies
a committed version of the database at a point in time. Every time a user commits a
transaction Oracle records a new SCN in redo logs.
Oracle uses SCNs in control files datafile headers and redo records. Every redo log file has
both a log sequence number and low and high SCN. The low SCN records the lowest SCN
recorded in the log file while the high SCN records the highest SCN in the log file

Additional Oracle DBA questions/oracle database interview questions  for experienced

professionals

Question 41. How to apply patch to Oracle database Home so ware?

Answer: Oracle database Home so ware is patched using OPATCH utility

Applying patch

cd <patch no>

opatch apply

Rollback

opatch rollback -id <patch no>

Question 42. How to find  Last password change of a user?

Answer

select du.username, du.profile, du.account_status, u.ptime last_pwd_change

from dba_users du, sys.user$ u
where du.username = u.name and du.username='&1'
order by 2, 4
/

Question 43. What is Physical Block Corruptions?

Answer

This kind of block corruptions are normally reported by Oracle with error ORA-1578 and the
detailed corruption description is printed in the alert log.

Corruption Examples are:

Bad header – the beginning of the block (cache header) is corrupt with invalid values
The block is Fractured/Incomplete – header and footer of the block do not match
The block checksum is invalid
The block is misplaced

Question 44. What is Row chaining ?

Answer

Row chaining happens when a  row is too large to fit into a single database block.

For example, Suppose you have 4 KB block size for your database,and you need to insert a
row of 8 KB into it, Oracle will use 3 blocks and store the row in pieces.

In this case, Oracle stores the data for the row in a chain of data blocks (one or more) reserved
for that segment.So, instead of just having a forwarding address on one block and the data on
another we have data on two or more blocks.And Row Chaining happens only when the row is
being inserted and whenever it has inserted it cannot be chained.

In most cases chaining is unavoidable, especially when this involves tables with large columns
such as LONGS, LOBs, etc. When you have a lot of chained rows in di erent tables and the
average row length of these tables is not that large, then you might consider rebuilding the
database with a larger block size.
Tables with more than 255 columns can potentially force Chaining

Question 45. What is Row Migration ?

Answer

We will migrate a row when an update to that row would cause it to not fit on the block
anymore (with all of the the «forwarding address». So, the original block just has the ROWID of
the new block and the entire row is moved.

Question 46. How to find the physical location of the datafiles,redo logs,controlfile?

Answer

Prompt Control file Locations

select name
from sys.v_$controlfile
/

Prompt Redo logs Locations

col Grp format 9999

col member format a50 heading "Online REDO Logs"
col File# format 9999
col name format a50 heading "Online REDO Logs"
break on Grp
select group#,member
from sys.v_$logfile
/

Prompt Data Files Locations

col Tspace format a25

col status format a3 heading Sta
col Id format 9999
col Mbyte format 999999999
col name format a50 heading "Database Data Files"
select F.file_id Id,
F.file_name name,
F.bytes/(1024*1024) Mbyte,
decode(F.status,'AVAILABLE','OK',F.status) status,
F.tablespace_name Tspace
from sys.dba_data_files F
order by tablespace_name;

Question 47 How to generate the AWR report

Answer

$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/awrrpt.sql

Oracle Database 12c Related questions and articles are given below

Top 10 oracle 12c new features

Understand Oracle Database 12c – Multitenant Architecture

5 Simple (But Important) Things To Remember About Oracle Database 12c views ,parameters
and packages

Top Oracle 12c New Features for developers

Very useful 10 new things in 12c database

Hope you like this compilation of core oracle dba interview questions and answers.This will be
helpful to senior DBA & experienced DBA also. Please do provide the feedback

Recommended  Udemy Courses for Oracle DBA

Oracle DBA 11g/12c – Database Administration for Junior DBA

Oracle 11g Certified Professional Exam Prep I

Oracle 11g Certified Professional Exam Prep III

Recommended Books
OCA/OCP Oracle Database 12c All-in-One Exam Guide (Exams 1Z0-061, 1Z0-062, & 1Z0-063)

Oracle Database 12c DBA Handbook (Oracle Press)

Oracle DBA All-in-one Scripts – A guide every DBA must have: Oracle dba scripts collection
used by expert database administrators everyday. Must have dba scripts for your daily
activities!
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Comments

JanBask Training says

November 3, 2017 at 5:50 pm

Thanks for sharing.learn more at https://www.janbasktraining.com/blog/top-sql-server-

interview-questions-and-answers/

Reply

elias quinn says

April 23, 2019 at 9:41 am

thanks for the information

Read More

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