SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers: For All Database Developers and Developers Administrators

For those who are bashing this book for its lack of depth - READ THE TITLE! This is not intended as a far-reaching analysis of the SQL Server Engine or a how-to on become a more adept SQL Ninja. The purpose of this book is to prepare you for common questions that come up in job interviews for SQL Developers, Admins, Analysts and Report masters. It does exactly what it sets out to - I know, because it was a significant component to me landing the offer of my dreams.Regardless of how much you work with SQL Server there are numerous little details that either get forgotten or may not have been acquired in the first place. Pinal and Vimod address a pretty comprehensive list of questions with brief yet thoroughly accurate responses that will increase a candidate's confidence when it comes to the in-depth challenges of a technical interview. In my case, for instance, being able to say that a TRUNCATE command is "minimally logged" as opposed to "unlogged" (a common misconception) separated me from the pack - a detail that was clarified directly from the book.This book won't make up for any lack of whiteboard skills (such as writing out queries or designing schemas). You still will have to show your stuff on your own there. I was amazed, however, at the sheer number of questions that came directly out of the book. I knew the gist of the answers for the most part on my own, but Pinal and Vimod helped form my responses in a coherent, confident way. If you are serious about preparation for a career in SQL Server, this book should be an arrow in your quiver.

I was expecting to learn a lot more from each topic. I understand that this is for interviews, but even then I need todemonstrate some deeper understanding of each topic. An interviewer is also likely to be aware of this book andwould dig deeper to test the understanding.What I enjoyed was: each topic ended with a url for more details on Pinal's blog. This is awesome.What I didn't dig as much: where a bit more depth was required, they referred the reader to the Joes 2 Pros book.So I'd recommend to get the Joes2Pros book, or another book.

Started off quite good for the first 1/3 of the book.However there were continual references of "If you wish to learn more, read Joes 2 Pros", so the book came across as more of an advertisement.Then that turned into simply copy & pastes of his Blog that you can read for free.I am highly doubtful anyone would be asked these questions during an interview.I'd have rated it 2 out of 5 if it was not so cheap.

Love it

Like reading a shrewd politician answering reporters - it tries to cover all the angles to make no mistake and yet no original thoughts or point of view. Nothing in depth. It was written to sell other books and websites. So it constantly refers to those places. The actual contents are minimum and unclear. If I use this for an interview, I would be doomed.I read the "High Performance MySQL" at the same time, a much better book.

The book costs about 4 dollars (the book is printed in India) and is sold for an astronomical sum in the US. The contents of the book are very good and should be used by consultants to brush up their SQL before going for an interview. I just hate the cost part.

Covers basic interview questions.Does not go deep into the answers for some tricky questions. Ideal for 1st or 2nd interview for any aspiring SQL Server DBA/Developer. I mostly gift this book to my students.[...]

Excellent source for preparing for interviews and gain knowledge of SQL Server. Keep up good work and thank you for the book

Pinal Dave is the best of the best. I enjoy his articles very much, this is a pretty useful ebook.

Great guide lots of info here from SQL basics to data warehousing , highly recommended for anyone interested in Microsoft SQL server stack

Very good.

good

Excellent book.