Top 20 plsql interview questions and

answers
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Interview questions and answers free pdf download

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Tell me about yourself?

This is probably the most asked
question in plsql interview. It breaks
the ice and gets you to talk about
something you should be fairly
comfortable with. Have something
prepared that doesn't sound rehearsed.
It's not about you telling your life story
and quite frankly, the interviewer just
isn't interested. Unless asked to do so,
stick to your education, career and
current situation. Work through it
chronologically from the furthest back
to the present.

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Page 2 of 30

Whats a PL/SQL table? Its purpose and Advantages?

A PL/SQL table is one dimensional, indexed,
unbounded sparsed collection of homogeneous
Data.
PLSQL tables are used to move data into and out of
the database and between client side applications
and stored sub-programs. They have attributes such
as exits, prior, first, last, delete ,next . These
attributes make PLSQL tables easier to use and
applications easier to maintain.
Advantages:
1 PL\SQL tables give you the ability to hold
multiple values in a structure in memory so that a
PL\SQL block does not have to go to the database
every time it needs to retrieve one of these values it can retrieve it directly from the PL\SQL table in
memory.
2 Global temporary tables act as performance
enhancers when compared to standard tables as
they greatly reduce the disk IO.
3 They also offer the ease-of-use of standard tables,
since standard SQL can be used with them; no
special array-processing syntax is required.

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Page 3 of 30

What Can You Do for Us That Other Candidates

Can't?
What makes you unique? This
will take an assessment of
your experiences, skills and
traits. Summarize concisely:
"I have a unique combination
of strong technical skills, and
the ability to build strong
customer relationships. This
allows me to use my
knowledge and break down
information to be more userfriendly."

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Page 4 of 30

What is a Cursor? How many types of Cursor

are there?
Cursor is an identifier/name to a work area
that we can interact with to access its
information. A cursor points to the current
row in the result set fetched. There are three
types of cursors. They are
1 Implicit cursors created automatically by
PL/SQL for all SQL Dml statements such as
Insert Update, delete and Select
2 Explicit cursors Created explicitly. They
create a storage area where the set of rows
Returned by a query are placed.
3 Dynamic Cursors Ref Cursors( used for
the runtime modification of the select
querry).
Declaring the cursor, Opening the cursor,
Fetching data , Closing the cursor(Releasing
the work area) are the steps involved when
using explicit cursors.
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Page 5 of 30

What are the modes for passing parameters to

Oracle?
There are three modes for passing
parameters to subprograms
1.IN - An In-parameter lets you pass
values to the subprogram being
called. In the subprogram it acts like
a constant and cannot be assigned a
value.
2. OUT An out-parameter lets you
return values to the caller of the
subprogram. It acts like an initialized
variable its value cannot be assigned
to another variable or to itself.
3.INOUT An in-out parameter lets
you pass initial values to the
subprogram being called and returns
updated values to the caller.

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Page 6 of 30

What is the difference between Truncate and

Delete Statement?
1.Truncate Data truncated by using
truncate statement is lost permanently
and cannot be retrieved even by
rollback. Truncate command does not
use rollback segment during its
execution, hence it is fast.
2. Delete Data deleted by using the
delete statement can be retrieved back
by Rollback. Delete statement does
not free up the table object allocated
space.

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Page 7 of 30

What are Exceptions? How many types of

Exceptions are there?
Exceptions are conditions that cause
the termination of a block. There are
two types of exceptions
1.Pre-Defined Predefined by
PL/SQL and are associated with
specific error codes.
2.User-Defined Declared by the
users and are rose on deliberate
request. (Breaking a condition etc.)
Exception handlers are used to handle
the exceptions that are raised. They
prevent exceptions from propagating
out of the block and define actions to
be performed when exception is
raised

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Page 8 of 30

What is a Pragma Exception_Init? Explain its

usage?
Pragma Exception_Init is used to
handle undefined exceptions. It issues a
directive to the compiler asking it to
associate an exception to the oracle
error. There by displaying a specific
error message pertaining to the error
occurred. Pragma Exception_Init
(exception_name, oracle_error_name).

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Page 9 of 30

What is the difference between Package,

Procedure and Functions?
1.A package is a database objects that
logically groups related PL/SQL types,
objects, and Subprograms.
2.Procedure is a sub program written
to perform a set of actions and can
return multiple values.
3.Function is a subprogram written to
perform certain computations and
return a single value. Unlike
subprograms packages cannot be
called, passed parameters or nested.

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Page 10 of 30

What is an Anonymous block?

Anonymous Block is a block of
instructions in PL/SQL and SQL which
is not saved under a name as an object
in database schema It is also not
compiled and saved in server storage, so
it needs to be parsed and executed each
time it is run. However, this simple form
of program can use variables, can have
flow of control logic, can return query
results into variables and can prompt the
user for input using the SQL*Plus '&'
feature as any stored procedure.

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Page 11 of 30

What is a Trigger ? How many types of Triggers

are there?
Trigger is a procedure that gets implicitly
executed when an insert/update/delete
statement is issued against an associated
table. Triggers can only be defined on
tables not on views, how ever triggers on
the base table of a view are fired if an
insert/update/delete statement is issued
against a view.
There are two types of triggers, Statement
level trigger and Row level trigger.
Insert
After / For each row
Trigger is fired / Update /
Before / For Each statement
Delete

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Page 12 of 30

What is Commit, Rollback and Save point?

Commit Makes changes to the
current transaction permanent. It
Erases the savepoints and releases
the transaction locks.
Savepoint Savepoints allow to
arbitrarily hold work at any point
of time with option of later
committing. They are used to
divide transactions into smaller
portions.
Rollback This statement is used
to undo work.

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Page 13 of 30

What is the difference between DDL, DML and DCL

structures?
DDL statements are used for defining data.
Ex: Create, Alter, Drop,Truncate,Rename.
DML statements are used for manipulating
data. Ex: Insert, update, truncate.
DCL statements are used for to control the
access of data. Ex; Grant, Revoke.
TCL statements are used for data saving.Ex;
Commit,Rollback,Savepoint.

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Page 14 of 30

What is the difference between the snapshot and

synonym?
7 A snapshot refers to read-only copies of a
master table or tables located on a remote
node. A snapshot can be queried, but not
updated; only the master table can be
updated. A snapshot is periodically refreshed
to reflect changes made to the master table.
In this sense, a snapshot is really a view with
periodicity.
8 A synonym is an alias for table, view,
sequence or program unit. They are of two
types private and public.

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Page 15 of 30

What is the difference between Function and

Procedure?
1..Procedure is a sub program written to
perform a set of actions and returns
multiple valuesUsing out parameters or
return no value at all.
2..Function is a subprogram written to
perform certain computations and
return a single value.

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Page 16 of 30

How do we Tune the Queries?

Queries can be tuned by Checking the
logic (table joins), by creating Indexes
on objects in the where clause, by
avoiding full table scans. Finally use the
trace utility to generate the trace file,
use the TK-Prof utility to generate a
statistical analysis about the query using
which appropriate actions can be taken.

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Page 17 of 30

What is the difference between data types char

and varchar?
Char reserves the number of memory
locations mentioned in the variable
declarations, even though not used (it
can store a maximum of 255 bytes).
Where as Varchar does not reserve any
memory locations when the variable is
declared, it stores the values only after
they are assigned (it can store a
maximum of 32767 bytes).

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Page 18 of 30

What is the significance of _all tables?

All tables are multi-org tables which are
associated with the company as a
whole. Multiple Organizations is
enabled in Oracle
Applications by partitioning
some database tables by the Operating
Unit. Other tables are shared across
Operating Units (and therefore across
set of books). Examples of Applications
with partitioned tables are Oracle
Payables, Oracle Purchasing, Oracle
Receivables, Oracle Projects, Oracle
Sales & Marketing etc. The name of
each corresponding partitioned table is

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Page 19 of 30

What are mutating tables? And what is mutating

error?
A mutating table is a table that is
currently being modified by an
UPDATE, DELETE, or INSERT
statement, or it is a table that might
need to be updated by the effects of a
declarative DELETE CASCADE
referential integrity constraint.
A mutating error occurs when a
trigger which fires when
updation/deletion/insertion is done on
a table A performs
insertion/updation/deletion on the
same table A. This error results in an
infinite loop which is termed as a
mutating error.

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Page 20 of 30

What is Data cleaning and testing?

Data Cleaning: Transformation of data
in its current state to a pre-defined,
standardized format using packaged
software or program modules.
Data Testing: The agreed upon
conversion deliverables should be
approved by the client representatives
who are responsible for the success of
the conversion. In addition, three
levels of conversion testing have been
identified and described in the prepare
conversion test plans deliverables.
Eg: for Summary Balances in GL we
set Test Criteria as Record Counts,
Hash Totals, Balances, Journal Debit
and Credit.

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Page 21 of 30

Useful job interview materials:

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Interview questions and answers free pdf download

Page 22 of 30

Top 6 tips for job interview

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Page 23 of 30

Tip 1: Do your homework

You'll likely be asked difficult questions
during the interview. Preparing the list of
likely questions in advance will help you
easily transition from question to question.
Spend time researching the company. Look
at its site to understand its mission statement,
product offerings, and management team. A
few hours spent researching before your
interview can impress the hiring manager
greatly. Read the company's annual report
(often posted on the site), review the
employee's LinkedIn profiles, and search the
company on Google News, to see if they've
been mentioned in the media lately. The
more you know about a company, the more
you'll know how you'll fit in to it.
Ref material: 4career.net/job-interviewchecklist-40-points
Interview questions and answers free pdf download

Page 24 of 30

Tip 2: First impressions

When meeting someone for the first time, we
instantaneously make our minds about various aspects of
their personality.
Prepare and plan that first impression long before you
walk in the door. Continue that excellent impression in
the days following, and that job could be yours.
Therefore:
Never arrive late.
Use positive body language and turn on your
charm right from the start.
Switch off your mobile before you step into the
room.
Look fabulous; dress sharp and make sure you look
your best.
Start the interview with a handshake; give a nice
firm press and then some up and down movement.
Determine to establish a rapport with the
interviewer right from the start.
Always let the interviewer finish speaking before
giving your response.
Express yourself fluently with clarity and
precision.
Useful material: 4career.net/top-10-elements-to-make-aInterview questions and answers free pdf download

Page 25 of 30

good-first-impression-at-a-job-interview

Tip 3: The Hidden Job Market

Many of us dont recognize that hidden job
market is a huge one and accounts for 2/3
of total job demand from enterprises. This
means that if you know how to exploit a
hidden job market, you can increase your
chance of getting the job up to 300%.
In this section, the author shares his
experience and useful tips to exploit hidden
job market.
Here are some sources to get penetrating
into a hidden job market: Friends; Family;
Ex-coworkers; Referral; HR communities;
Field communities; Social networks such
as Facebook, Twitter; Last recruitment
ads from recruiters; HR emails of potential
recruiters

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Page 26 of 30

Tip 4: Do-It-Yourself Interviewing Practice

There are a number of ways to prepare
for an interview at home without the
help of a professional career counselor
or coach or a fee-based service.
You can practice interviews all by
yourself or recruit friends and family to
assist you.
Useful material: 4career.net/free-ebook75-interview-questions-and-answers

Interview questions and answers free pdf download

Page 27 of 30

Tip 5: Ask questions

Do not leave the interview without
ensuring that you know all that you
want to know about the position. Once
the interview is over, your chance to
have important questions answered has
ended. Asking questions also can show
that you are interested in the job. Be
specific with your questions. Ask about
the company and the industry. Avoid
asking personal questions of the
interviewer and avoid asking questions
pertaining to politics, religion and the
like.
Ref material: 4career.net/25-questionsto-ask-employers-during-your-jobinterview

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Page 28 of 30

Tip 6: Follow up and send a thank-you note

Following up after an interview can
help you make a lasting impression and
set you apart from the crowd.
Philip Farina, CPP, a security career
expert at Manta Security Management
Recruiters, says: "Send both an email as
well as a hard-copy thank-you note,
expressing excitement, qualifications
and further interest in the position.
Invite the hiring manager to contact you
for additional information. This is also
an excellent time to send a strategic
follow-up letter of interest."
Ref material: 4career.net/top-8interview-thank-you-letter-samples

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Interview questions and answers free pdf download

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