Business Interview Questions

I would explain to the stakeholder that the purpose of the Business Requirements elicitation meeting was designed to identify the business need not to design the solution.

Great answer and exactly right!

nice!!

Being told to calculate profit is always a tricky scenario, especially for an analysts perspective. You want to be clear about the profit they actually want calculated. Remembering that profit, in base form, is going to represent anything after that break even point. Simply put, as the owner, your salary is going to be configured into the operating costs. So, let's say your operating cost is 100k a year and this includes your salary, then any dollar made after 100k is "profit". However, this does not totally detail other forms of profit, such as economic profit. This is where you are measuring and analyzing missed and made opportunities versus the profit you brought in. So, one issue you could foresee in your revenue stream is that carrying a 5th product may increase opportunity costs, but potentially the 5th item causes the 4th item to sell at a higher rate as they're often sold in conjunction. Studies show, for example, that a person that buys a beach volleyball is not likely to buy a volleyball net. But those that buy a beach volleyball are 3x as likely to buy a portable air pump. I don't mean to over think it, but you'll notice there's four items that are being sold. You own a business that is contingent about the seasons of the year, which there are also four. To me this speaks directly to the significance of weather in your business and this is not something the employer would want you to miss. Issues in revenue streams here would be a lack of product adjustment due to weather. To me, in an instance like this, if an employer asks you such a soft, information less question, you are doing yourself a disservice if you do not start asking them questions about what they want. Be sure to clarify if they're asking you to calculate profit or forecast profit.

From an analyst’s perspective, simply being told to calculate profit can be a tricky demand, especially in an interview setting. You want to be clear about the profit they actually want calculated. Remembering that profit, in base form, is going to represent anything after the break-even point. Simply put, as the owner, your salary is going to be configured into the operating costs. So, let's say your operating cost is 100k a year, and this includes your salary, then any dollar made after 100k is "profit". However, this does not totally detail other forms of profit, such as economic profit. This is where you are measuring and analyzing missed and made opportunities versus the profit you brought in. So, one issue you could foresee in your revenue stream is that carrying a 5th product may increase operating costs; but potentially, the 5th item causes the 4th item to sell at a higher rate as they're often sold in conjunction. Studies show, for example, that a person that buys a beach volleyball is not likely to buy a volleyball net. But those that buy a beach volleyball are 3x as likely to buy a portable air pump. I don't mean to over think it, but you'll notice there's four items being sold. You own a business that is contingent upon the seasons of the year (also four). To me this speaks directly to the significance of weather in your business and this is not something the employer would want you to miss. Issues in revenue streams here would be a lack of product adjustment due to weather. To me, in an instance like this, if an employer asks you such a soft, information less question, you are doing yourself a disservice if you do not start asking them questions about what they want. Be sure to clarify if they're asking you to calculate profit or forecast profit. Also, any time someone asks you what issues could arise in revenue streams, immediately think SWOT. Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Always think SWOT when heading into any BA or PM position. It will quickly allow you to analyze almost any situation.

I described a simple statement: Select (Name all columns from tables or use * for all) From (table name(s)) Where (any conditions, join statements ect) Group By / Order By to sort or aggregate the data

SELECT for which columns to include in the result, (tables must be present in the FROM clause), can also include aggregates like COUNT(), SUM(), AVG() FROM for which tables to select rows/attributes from WHERE which is used to filter rows based on a given criteria with comparisons (=, !=, , and keywords LIKE and BETWEEN), INNER JOIN and LEFT/RIGHT OUTER JOIN to combine data across multiple tables ORDER BY DESC/ASC to specify ordering of a specific column name GROUP BY to group data based on the tables passed HAVING to filter rows based on an aggregate used in the SELECT statement that cannot be used with the WHERE clause

I analyzed the output of all the machines on our factory sales floor and determined what the bottleneck machines were. I put in a request to purchase more of the bottleneck machines. The new machines alleviated the bottleneck in production, drastically speeding up the total output of the factory in the process.

So is this a kind of Leadership Principle questions? Thank you for sharing your experience. Wondering have you tried Rooftop Slushie for your interview prep? I saw some posts similar with your experience - which are really useful for me so far. rooftopslushie.com

I explained how a clustered index was in sequential physical order on disk and a non clustered index used pointers or a hash table for index lookup. I started to explain the advantages/disadvantages of each index type but the two guys interviewing me just seemed so confused and lost. I think I would have been better of simply saying "it makes lookup faster".

I explained how a clustered index was in sequential physical order on disk and a non clustered index used pointers or a hash table for index lookup. I started to explain the advantages/disadvantages of each index type and how I would use them.

Inner Join returns values where the key between the two tables are the same, and values are present in both tables. Outer Join returns the Values from both tables, based on the key, even if there is not any data the joining table. If not value is available, then NULL is returned for that specific Row Data based on the Key

Specified in the WHERE clause, joins simply combine data from multiple tables in the result. INNER JOIN, the most common, returns the rows for which the given ON condition is satisfied for both tables. LEFT/RIGHT OUTER JOIN statements return all the rows from the specified table regardless if there is a match in the unspecified table, with the matching rows specified in the ON condition in the unspecified table.

To do time estimations on the change request and then you swap something that is in scope for the change being requested.