interview questions

I know this is 'off the wall'. I have to come up with a couple interview
questions for a client to determine if an applicant is qualified technically
to do the job in ACCESS. The task will be to combine several databases and
datasources into one usable database. Preferably with a frontend/backend.
Do any of you have any suggested questions that you would pose to an
applicant?
--
Thank you in advance for your assistance. It is greatly appreciated.

I think you need more than a 'couple of questions'. I'd suggest more like
15-20. And there is not much point in us suggesting questions unless you know
the answers too.

"G" wrote:

I know this is 'off the wall'. I have to come up with a couple interview
questions for a client to determine if an applicant is qualified technically
to do the job in ACCESS. The task will be to combine several databases and
datasources into one usable database. Preferably with a frontend/backend.
Do any of you have any suggested questions that you would pose to an
applicant?
--
Thank you in advance for your assistance. It is greatly appreciated.

On Dec 14, 2:43 pm, mscertified wrote:
I know this is 'off the wall'. I have to come up with a couple interview
questions for a client to determine if an applicant is qualified technically
to do the job in ACCESS.

I think you need more than a 'couple of questions'. I'd suggest more like
15-20. And there is not much point in us suggesting questions unless you know
the answers too.

TIC: Don't forget the 'qualitative' ones e.g.

Q. What would you name a table that models anything you like here?
A. anything they like here so long as the first three letters are
tbl.

Q. An Access database has a TEXT column that is constrained by
validation rule to be one of three possible values, the widest being
17 characters. What is the defined width of the column as seen in
Table Design view?
A. 50 characters wide.

etc etc

Jamie.

--

ok, thanks anyway
--
Thank you in advance for your assistance. It is greatly appreciated.


"mscertified" wrote:

I think you need more than a 'couple of questions'. I'd suggest more like
15-20. And there is not much point in us suggesting questions unless you know
the answers too.

"G" wrote:

I know this is 'off the wall'. I have to come up with a couple interview
questions for a client to determine if an applicant is qualified technically
to do the job in ACCESS. The task will be to combine several databases and
datasources into one usable database. Preferably with a frontend/backend.
Do any of you have any suggested questions that you would pose to an
applicant?
--
Thank you in advance for your assistance. It is greatly appreciated.

Well, I'll give it a go.

To me, the most important thing is that they understand database DESIGN.
Access as an application generator is easy enough to learn on their own if
they have a good understanding of table design. Design your tables right,
and you have an easy time with your app. Design them wrong, and you are
constantly creating work-arounds to fix things that should have been done
right the first time.

Several questions I use:

1) Q: What is a Primary Key.
A: It is a special kind of index whose value cannot be Null and must be
unique for each record. Primary keys can be either single fields or
composed of multiple fields. If composed of multiple fields, it is still a
single primary key. There is no such thing as multiple primary keys in a
table.

2) Q: Should an Autonumber field be used as a Primary Key? Why or why not?
A: There is no single correct answer for this, but I listen for the
reasoning. Opinions vary on this topic, but if they say No, they'd better
have a pretty convincing answer for me. In most cases, autonumber fields
make perfectly good primary keys. However, I know experienced developers
(including MVPs) who do not advocate autonumber fields for primary keys.
Valid reasons, IMO, include the fact that autonumber field sometimes get
confused and assign values previously assigned, and a primary key in Access
creates a clustered index, which may not be the best indexing scheme for
your table. Invalid reasons are dogmatic like: "my college prof said to
only use natural keys".

3) Q: How do you define Relationships in Access?
A: Relationships are defined in the Relationship window by clicking a
dragging the primay key field of one table to the corresponding foreign key
of another table. The Referential Integrity checkbox MUST be clicked,
although the Cascade options do not.
Note: I've had people proudly tell me that they never use the Relationship
Window or never set up Referential Integrity. If you don't do those things,
you don't HAVE relationships and are not using the power of a relational
database.

4) Q: What is a one-to-many relationship?
A: This is where a single record in a table is related to one or more
records in another table based on a primary-key/foreign-key.

5) Q: How do you create a Many-to-Many relationship in Access?
A: You cannot create a M:M relationship directly in Access. You must first
create a "linking" table (it can be called other things as well), which has
as foreign keys, the primary keys of the other two tables. Then you create
a One-to-Many relationship between each of the tables and the linking table
where the linking table is on the "many" side of both.

6) Q: What is Normalization?
A: Normalization is a methodology or process for removing as much redundant
data from the database as possible, while at the same time insuring that the
data will be able to be reassembled as needed. There are many stages of
normalization (call Normal Forms). Most developers agree that the minimum
level of normalization is the Third Normal Form (3NF) and that level is
acceptable for most database applications.
Note: Many people may not have a text-book definition of normalization
memorized, but have a pretty firm grasp of how to create a normalized
database.

7) Q: Given a new project, how would you go about developing it.?
A: Again, there is no one right answer here, but the answer they give will
tell you whether they've actually ever developed a database. One thing I
look for is an indication they sit down and develop their table structure
*first*.

There are no doubt more, and you could ask a LOT more about Access
specifically, but these questions, to me, are key to whether the person
either can develop (or can be trained to develop) Access database
applications.


--
--Roger Carlson
MS Access MVP
www.rogersaccesslibrary.com


"G" wrote in message
...
I know this is 'off the wall'. I have to come up with a couple interview
questions for a client to determine if an applicant is qualified
technically
to do the job in ACCESS. The task will be to combine several databases and
datasources into one usable database. Preferably with a frontend/backend.
Do any of you have any suggested questions that you would pose to an
applicant?
--
Thank you in advance for your assistance. It is greatly appreciated.

"Jamie Collins" wrote in message
...
On Dec 14, 2:43 pm, mscertified wrote:
I know this is 'off the wall'. I have to come up with a couple
interview
questions for a client to determine if an applicant is qualified
technically
to do the job in ACCESS.

I think you need more than a 'couple of questions'. I'd suggest more like
15-20. And there is not much point in us suggesting questions unless you
know
the answers too.

TIC: Don't forget the 'qualitative' ones e.g.

Q. What would you name a table that models anything you like here?
A. anything they like here so long as the first three letters are
tbl.

I don't use that convention and I have designed quite a few complex
databases.


Q. An Access database has a TEXT column that is constrained by
validation rule to be one of three possible values, the widest being
17 characters. What is the defined width of the column as seen in
Table Design view?
A. 50 characters wide.

How do you know the table designer (or Access Administrator) didn't change
the
default length of a text field or the length of that particular field in the
table?

Tom Lake

On Dec 14, 3:45 pm, "Tom Lake" wrote:
I don't use that [tbl] convention and I have designed quite a few complex
databases.

How do you know the table designer (or Access Administrator) didn't change
the
default length of a text field or the length of that particular field in the
table?

And you call yourself an Access developer?!

Note, as before, I have my T firmly embedded I my C.

Jamie.

--

"Jamie Collins" wrote in message
...
On Dec 14, 3:45 pm, "Tom Lake" wrote:
I don't use that [tbl] convention and I have designed quite a few
complex
databases.

How do you know the table designer (or Access Administrator) didn't
change
the
default length of a text field or the length of that particular field in
the
table?

And you call yourself an Access developer?!

Nah, I call myself Tom.


Note, as before, I have my T firmly embedded I my C.

Sorry! I must've had my H firmly over my E (hands over eyes). I missed it.

Tom Lake

--

When the world hands you a lemon - it had better hand you sugar and water,
too!

On Dec 14, 3:40 pm, "Roger Carlson"
wrote:
Q: What is a Primary Key.
A: It is a special kind of index whose value cannot be Null and must be
unique for each record.

When you ask this question, please then make it clear you mean a
physical PRIMARY KEY rather than a logical key, primary or otherwise.

Q: Should an Autonumber field be used as a Primary Key?
I know experienced developers
(including MVPs) who do not advocate autonumber fields for primary keys.
Valid reasons, IMO, include the fact that autonumber field sometimes get
confused and assign values previously assigned

Erm, but if the Autonumber column contains duplicates then it cannot
have the PRIMARY KEY designation i.e. the PRIMARY KEY must have been
dropped. If there was indeed a bug (and I am in no way suggesting
there is) where a PRIMARY KEY could contain duplicate values then I
don't think Jet's credibility would survive the incident.

Q: How do you define Relationships in Access?
A: Relationships are defined in the Relationship window by clicking a
dragging the primay key field of one table to the corresponding foreign key
of another table. The Referential Integrity checkbox MUST be clicked

No it doesn't! Again, it's down to carefully wording your questions
(in my land you have to be carefully about such things i.e. "We didn't
hire you because we fudged the question" is no defence at the
tribunal). You asked how to define "Relationships" (the capital R
suggests you meant Access Relationships rather than logical
relationships -- I'm assuming these aren't verbal questions), you
didn't specify "Relationships with Referential Integrity enforced" or
"FOREIGN KEYs", did you?

Note: I've had people proudly tell me that they never use the Relationship
Window or never set up Referential Integrity. If you don't do those things,
you don't HAVE relationships and are not using the power of a relational
database.

I never use the Relationship window yet I do have referential
integrity (small R this time: are we still talking about Access
Relationships?). My answer to your question would be, "Put the Access
interface into ANSI-92 Query Mode, create a Query object, open it SQL
VIEW, type

ALTER TABLE ThisTable ADD
CONSTRAINT fk__ThisTable__ThatTable
FOREIGN KEY (key_col1, key_col2)
REFERENCES ThatTable (key_col1, key_col2)
ON DELETE CASCADE
ON UPDATE NO ACTION;

then click the Execute button. Alternatively, navigate the VBE, open
the Immediate Window, type CurrentProject.Connection.Execute "above
sql goes here" return." Is that not a valid answer?

4) Q: What is a one-to-many relationship?
A: This is where a single record in a table is related to one or more
records in another table based on a primary-key/foreign-key.

Relationships in the logical sense (and FOREIGN KEYs for that matter)
do not need to be based on a PRIMARY KEY. This is often the case when
you've used PRIMARY KEY to influence clustering (see you own answer to
an earlier question) and used NOT NULL UNIQUE constraints for the keys
on which FOREIGN KEYs will reference.

Most developers agree that the minimum
level of normalization is the Third Normal Form (3NF) and that level is
acceptable for most database applications.
Note: Many people may not have a text-book definition of normalization
memorized, but have a pretty firm grasp of how to create a normalized
database.

With respect, perhaps you should consult a textbook. 3NF is a
historical anomaly; BCNF is credited with being what 3NF was supposed
to be had someone not messed up the definition. And the textbook I've
got says 5NF is always achievable: my question would be, "What reasons
could exist for not attempting to achieve 5NF in every case?"

Jamie.

--

"Roger Carlson" wrote:

However, I know experienced developers
(including MVPs) who do not advocate autonumber fields for primary keys.
Valid reasons, IMO, include the fact that autonumber field sometimes get
confused and assign values previously assigned,

I'd disregard that reason as that is due to some kind of bug somewhere
in Jet. I've never seen that happen at any of my clients and I don't
see it often in the newsgroups. Also AFAIK that was fixed several
Jet 4.0 SPs ago.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/