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Oracle DBA interview questions
A SearchOracle.com user asks what questions they can expect in an interview for the position of a DBA.
I have two years of experience in J2EE and PL/SQL technologies. I recently completed my Oracle 10g (OCA) and (OCP) database administration certifications. I have an
interview next week for the role of DBA. What are the possible
questions I can expect?
Unless this is an entry-level DBA position, you can probably expect a lot of
job interview questions about your lack of
experience as a DBA. Having the certifications will certainly help you combat this with the fact that you are well-educated and well-versed in database administration. However, you may encounter a lot of
real-world type questions designed to trip you up. For example, "Explain how you would go about escalating an iTAR with Oracle" or "Describe a time when you had to recover a database." You might be able to combat the latter with your knowledge and describe a scenario when you would need to recover and how you would go about it.
On the non-technical skills end, you may encounter questions like:
- Describe your strengths.
- Describe your weaknesses (often the hardest to talk about).
- Talk about a time when you went above and beyond to succeed.
- Talk about a time when you failed. What did you learn?
- Why did you / are you leaving your current job?
For more advice, you can read my series on becoming an Oracle DBA here at SearchOracle.
I hope this helps and good luck!
This was last published in May 2008
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