Top 20 SQL Azure Interview Questions and Answers

Most Common SQL Azure Interview Questions and Answers

If you are going to face an interview for the job of SQL Azure expert in any of the organizations, it is very important to prepare well for it and you have to know about some of the most common SQL Azure interview questions that will be asked in the interview.

If you will get prepared for the interview with good knowledge of all these questions, you will definitely get help to beat the competition that you will face during the interview. Here, you will find some of the top SQL Azure interview questions and answers that will definitely give you the right solution to get the job opportunity as an expert of SQL Azure in the best organizations.

1. What is SQL Azure?

Answer: SQL Azure is the cloud-based relational database that is offered by Microsoft. The service is based on SQL server technology and it is used in a Microsoft data center that is hardware owned and maintained by Microsoft.

It is the very basic question about SQL Azure database and you may get this question not only among top SQL Azure interview questions but also among the Microsoft Azure interview questions for experienced.

2. What will happen when SQL Azure database will reach the max size?

Answer: If the SQL Azure database will reach the max size, data read or fetch operations will still work on it but create, insert or update operations will stop with it. You can choose to drop, delete or truncate the data in this condition.

3. What are the limitations of SQL Azure database size currently?

Answer: At the current time, the maximum SQL Azure database size can be 250 GB (s0, s1, s2, and s3) or 500GB (p1, p2, p3, and p6 ) or 4TB (p11 and p15).

4. In SQL Azure, which encryption security is available?

Answer: In SQL Azure, SSL connections are supported only.

SET encryption = TRUE

5. What is SQL Azure firewall?

Answer: As you know, security is one of the main concerns at the present time in the IT sector. It will be one of the latest SQL Azure interview questions that you may need to face during the interview. SQL Azure Firewall is used as a security mechanism that will work to block the requests based on the IP address.

6. How many of the databases can you create in the single server?

Answer: In the single SQL Azure server, it is possible to create 150 databases that will include a master database as well.

7. How many servers can you create in the single subscription?

Answer: In the single subscription, it is possible to create six servers while using SQL Azure.

8. Can you explain about the SQL Azure security?

Answer: SQL Azure services will allow you to block the request that will be based on IP address by using the SQL Azure firewall. It will use the SQL server authentication process that will authenticate the connections. By default, SQL Azure connections are SSL encrypted.

9. What will be the differences between business edition and web edition?

Answer: The max size of the SQL Azure web edition will be 5 GB and the size of the business edition will be up to 50 GB. It is possible to increase or decrease web edition database size of 1GB and you will be able to increase or decrease the size of the business edition up to 10 GB.

10. What will be the process to migrate to SQL Azure from SQL server?

Answer: If you are going to face an interview for SQL Azure job, you may find it as one of the best SQL Azure interview questions. If you want to migrate from SQL server to SQL Azure, you can use SSIS or BCP. For the schema migration, generate script wizard will be used and you can also use the tool named as SQL Azure Migration Wizard for it.

This is one of the most common Microsoft Azure interview questions for experienced candidates who have worked on the SQL Azure database. If you have some previous experience on the Azure platform, you should prepare yourself with the answer to this question.

11. Which tools are available for the management of SQL Azure service and databases?

Answer: For the management of the SQL Azure database, the SQL server management server 2008 R2 is available. You can also use Silverlight app having integration with Azure management portal for the management of SQL Azure service and databases.

12. How will you sync SQL Azure with on-premise SQL server?

Answer: It is possible to use No code solution named as DATA SYNC to sync SQL Azure with on-premise SQL server. It is also possible to develop the custom solutions by using SYNC Framework for it.

SQL Azure allows users to run their SQL server workloads as a hosted service (PaaS). So, you may also come across some of the PaaS interview questions in the SQL Azure interview. Read few and get yourself ready for everything.

13. How will you back up the SQL Azure data?

Answer: Backup is important to handle the issues of hardware and 3 database replicas are used in SQL Azure for backup. For the errors based on user level, the COPY command is used for the creation of SQL Azure database replica. It is also possible to back up the data of SQL Azure to any local SQL server with the use of SSIS, BCP etc.

14. On which factors current pricing model for SQL Azure consumption depend?

Answer: The charges for consumption of SQL Azure are currently based on the following two factors

Size
Data Transfer

15. How will you handle the data sets having a size larger than 50 GB?

Answer: If you want to appear in an interview, it may be one of the latest SQL Azure interview questions that you will face. You will need to build a custom solution on application level to handle out of scale SQL Azure database. According to the Microsoft, you will be assisted by SQL Azure Federations for scaling out of the SQL Azure database. Scaling out of data means that the data will be split into smaller subsets and will be spread to multiple databases.

16. How can you improve the performance of SQL Azure databases?

Answer: To improve the performance of SQL Azure databases, you can tune the database by using the information from the execution plan as well as statistics of the query. It is possible to use dynamic management views of SQL Azure for the monitoring and management of the SQL Azure database. Network latency and bandwidth also affect the performance of the SQL Azure database so it can be used to improve the performance.

17. What is the code new application topology?

Answer: The code in your application topology will mean that the database and Windows Azure hosting services are consuming the data hosted in the same Azure data center.

18. What are the latest updates for SQL Azure services?

Answer: For the SQL Azure services, the latest updates will include the multiple servers for every subscription. There are also updates for SQL Azure administrator support and to create the firewall rules for a server with IP detection.

You may also have read this question among PaaS interview questions and Microsoft Azure interview questions and answers pdf that covers top questions to crack the Azure interview. This type of general questions are very common among Azure interview so don’t miss the latest updates of SQL Azure services while preparing for Microsoft Azure interview.

19. When will the workload on SQL schedule get throttled?

Answer: If the database will reach the maximum size then the operations for insert, update, and create will get throttled. There are also policies that will not allow the workload to exploit the shared physical server.

20. What are the benefits of a Sharded Database?

Answer: Followings are some of the benefits of the sharded database –

Allows users to take benefit of maximum resources within the cloud
Reduces the chances of a single point of failure
Reduces SQL Azure throttling and I/O bottlenecks
Enables users to have their own database, to access other databases, and to share database
Benefits users by offering low-cost cloud resources on-demand basis and releasing when done

After going through all the top SQL Azure interview questions, the interviewer may ask if you want to ask any of the questions related to the post you are applying for. Most of the candidates deny it but it will be good to ask if you have any questions. It will show your interest in the job and working with the organization.

The above questions are the frequently asked SQL Azure Interview Questions and Answers that are faced by the candidate during the interview. SQL Azure Interview Questions must be answered with a full description to the interviewer. As an applicant, you also need to focus on your confidence level and communication skills.

It is true that the above questions may be answered in many other possible ways. The important thing is you need to express the answer in your own words so that your skills and creativity will come out in front of the interviewers. Try to explain large ideas in limited words with the use of good vocabulary.

Happy reading!

Team Techno-Rhythms

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