Author: learnersreference

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AWS interview questions and answers


1) Which AWS storage is used for long term data storage and archival? How sensitive information can be securely stored in this service?
Glacier is the long term archival storage used for data backup and archival on cost efficient basis. AWS glacier is a longterm data archival solution. Amazon Glacier is an extremely low-cost storage service that provides service as low as $0.004 per gigabyte per month also keeping it secure, durable, and flexible storage for data backup and archival. Glacier vault lock can be used to store information that are compliance sensitive and needs to be stored securely. In glacier with vault lock feature the regulatory and compliance data can be stored in immutable format as this data is write once read many called WORM format. Technically information stored in glacier is 99.99% durable. This is possible by storing data in multiple facility and multiple devices within each facility. In addition to all the advantages mentioned above this is least expensive option to store data meeting the requirements
2) Can AWS glacier be used for CDN?
Nope. AWS is long term archival and backup solution and this is not CDN from AWS
3) Is there a restriction on DNS naming convention on this amazon S3 bucket name in US regions?
All bucket names comply with DNS naming conventions. These conventions are enforced in all regions except for the US East (North Virginia) region
4)

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Oracle dba real time scenarios interview question and answer


1) What is an active session pool?
It is a type of resource allocation method. We can set a maximum allowable number of concurrent sessions within any consumer resource group.All sessions that are beyond the maximum limit are queued for execution after the freeing up of current active sessions.
2) What is an Automatic consumer group switching?
It is a type of resource allocation method.Using this method,we can specify that a user session be automatically switched to a different group after it runs more than a specified number of seconds.The group that the session should switch to is called as switch group,and the time limit is the switch time.The session can revert to its original consumer group after e end of the top call,which is defined as an entire PL/SQL block or a separate SQL statement.
3) What is cancelling SQL and terminating sessions?
It is a type of resource allocation method.By using CANCEL_SQL or KILL_SESSION as the switch group,we can direct a long-running SQL segment or even an entire session to be cancelled or terminated.
4) What is a Parallel Degree Limit?
It is a type of resource allocation method.We can use this method to specify the limit of the degree of parallelism for an operation.
5) What is a resource plan directive?
It is an element of database resource manager.It links a resource plan to a specific resource consumer group
6) How will you get details on SGA and PGA from v$ views?
We can get to know the size of SGA (System Global Area) components and PGA (Program Global Area) components using sql query. We can query the v$ dynamic performance views to get more information about the memory structure of the oracle instance.
SQL> column component format a30;
SQL> column current_size format 999999999;
SQL> column min_size format 999999999;
SQL> column max_size format 999999999;
SQL> select component,current_size,min_size,max_size from v$sga_dynamic_components;
COMPONENT CURRENT_SIZE MIN_SIZE MAX_SIZE
—————————— ———— ———- ———-
shared pool 327155712 327155712 327155712
large pool 8388608 8388608 8388608
java pool 8388608 8388608 8388608
streams pool 0 0 0
DEFAULT buffer cache 452984832 452984832 452984832
KEEP buffer cache 0 0 0
RECYCLE buffer cache 0 0 0
DEFAULT 2K buffer cache 0 0 0
DEFAULT 4K buffer cache 0 0 0
DEFAULT 8K buffer cache 0 0 0
DEFAULT 16K buffer cache 0 0 0
COMPONENT CURRENT_SIZE MIN_SIZE MAX_SIZE
—————————— ———— ———- ———-
DEFAULT 32K buffer cache 0 0 0
Shared IO Pool 0 0 0
ASM Buffer Cache 0 0 0
14 rows selected.
SQL> select name,value from v$pgastat where name in(‘maximum PGA allocated’,’total PGA allocated’);
NAME VALUE
—————————————————————- ———-
maximum PGA allocated 115508224
7) Why does desc index command does not work?
It is possible to obtain information on the object structure using the SQL command DESC.We can get to know the structure of a table using the command desc tablename
SQL> desc learnersreference_t;
Name Null? Type
—————————————– ——– —————————-
USERNAME NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
USER_ID NOT NULL NUMBER
CREATED DATE
I tried describing an index using the command DESC indexname. I got the following error.
SQL> desc learnersreference_i;
ERROR:
ORA-04043: object learnersreference_i does not exist
I wondered why this happened as I’ve already created an index with this name. So,I tried creating an index with this name.
SQL> create index learnersreference_i on learnersreference_t(user_id);
create index learnersreference_i on learnersreference_t(user_id)
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00955: name is already used by an existing object
Again this created a problem with an error saying that the object exists which is contradictory. So, I tried creating index on another column
SQL> create index learnersreference_i_new on learnersreference_t(user_id);
Index created.
Again tried DESC indexname command and got the same error
SQL> desc learnersreference_i_new;
ERROR:
ORA-04043: object learnersreference_i_new does not exist
Thus I concluded that DESC indexname command always returns the error ORA-04043: object object_name does not exist
8) What is a cursor? Why do I need it?
If you are a oracle newbie developer, experienced oracle developer the first important concept in the code is going to be cursor.
9) What is real time use of a cursor?
To put it simple, when we have a select statement output (set of ros usually more than one row) to be processed in a PL/SQL code, cursor usually comes into picture.
10) How do I start using a cursor?
A cursor is declared in the declaration section as a variable in PL/SQL. Here is the simple cursor syntax :
Cursor cursor_name is select colname from tables where condition;
begin
for rec in cursor_name
loop
perform operations….
end loop;
end;
This makes the processing of set of records very simple, easy and efficient.
11) What jobs can be scheduled using scheduler in an oracle database?
Oracle Scheduler lets us schedule jobs in database. In OS cron can be used to schedule jobs. Following are some jobs that can be scheduled :
1) Gathering table and index statistics- Keeping statistics of tables, indexes up-to-date is essentially important for best database performance. As a best practice weekly full backup should happen after statistics collection is completed to have a best performing backup. This is a job that can be scheduled using dbms_Scheduler
2) Executing database monitoring scripts – With current OEM need for oracle monitoring has become GUI based. However, adhoc monitoring scripts can be created and scheduled using dbms_Scheduler
Batch jobs
Replication jobs
3) Running daily backups – RMAN backups can be created as scripts and scheduled to run on daily, weekly, hourly basis as needed
4) Index rebuild – If the schema data changes too often, indexes become stale owing to b-tree issues. As such index rebuild becomes mandate. This can be scheduled as monthly job
5) Month end reports – Reporting is creation of csv, text files using utilities like utl_file that creates and writes reports onto location specified using utl_file_dir These jobs can be automated using scheduler
12) You connect to the database and query v$pwfile_users. What does this mean?
In oracle database we can create users and grant sysdba and sysoper privileges. It is interesting to know that when an user connects to the database with sysoper privilege, and when we query the user, PUBLIC is displayed.
SQL> select * from v$pwfile_users;
USERNAME SYSDB SYSOP SYSAS
—————————— —– —– —–
SYS TRUE TRUE FALSE
SQL> create user test1 identified by test1;
User created.
SQL> grant sysoper to test1;
Grant succeeded.
SQL> create user test2 identified by test2;
User created.
SQL> grant sysdba to test2;
Grant succeeded.
SQL> connect test1/test1 as sysoper
Connected.
SQL> show user
USER is “PUBLIC”
SQL> connect test2/test2 as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> show user
USER is “SYS”
SQL> select * from v$pwfile_users;
USERNAME SYSDB SYSOP SYSAS
—————————— —– —– —–
SYS TRUE TRUE FALSE
TEST1 FALSE TRUE FALSE
TEST2 TRUE FALSE FALSE
13) What is Oracle Database Vault?
Oracle Database Vault is a security solution from oracle corporation. It restricts access to certain areas of the database.Even users with administrative privileges have restricted access.This fine-grained access control protects the database from super-privileged users.
14) Where can we use Oracle Database Vault?
Oracle Database Vault can be used to protect standalone database instance,Oracle Real Application Cluster(RAC)
What are the components of Oracle Database Vault?
Oracle Database Vault has the following components:
1) Oracle Database Vault Access Control Components
2) Oracle Database Vault Administrator (DVA)
3) Oracle Database Vault Configuration Assistant (DVCA)
4) Oracle Database Vault DVSYS and DVF Schemas
5) Oracle Database Vault PL/SQL Interfaces and Packages
6) Oracle Database Vault and Oracle Label Security PL/SQL APIs
7) Oracle Database Vault Reporting and Monitoring Tools
15) What is Oracle Database Vault Access Control Components made of ?
It is formed of the following components that helps us manage security for the database instance.They are:
1)Realms
2)Command Rules
3) Factors
4) Rule sets
5) Security Application roles
16) What is a realm?
A realm is a functional grouping of database schemas,objects and roles that must be secured.After grouping we can use realms to control the use of system privileges to specific accounts or roles. This provides fine-grained access control.
17) What is a command rule?
A command rule is a special rule created to control how users can execute almost any SQL statement.This includes SELECT,ALTER SYSTEM,DDL and DML statements.
18) Do command rules work alone?
No.They work with rule sets to determine whether or not a statement is allowed.
19) What is a factor?
A factor is a named variable or a attribute such as user location,database IP address,or session user,which oracle database vault can recognize and secure.
20) What is the use of a factor?
We can use factors for activities such as authorizing database accounts to connect to the database or creating filter logic to restrict the visibility and manageability of data.
21) What is an identity?
Each factor can have one or more identities.An identitiy is the actual value of a factor. A factor can have several identities depending on the factor retrieval method or its identity mapping logic
22) What is a rule set?
A rule set is a collection of one or more rules that we can associate with a realm authorization, command rule, factor assignment, or secure application role.
23) What are the possible evaluations of a rule set?
The rule set evaluates to true or false based on the evaluation of each rule it contains and the evaluation type (All True or Any True).
24) What is a rule within a rule set?
The rule within a rule set is a PL/SQL expression that evaluates to true or false.
25) Can rules be reused?
We can have the same rule in multiple rule sets.
26) What are secure application roles?
A secure application role is a special Oracle Database role that can be enabled based on the evaluation of an Oracle Database Vault rule set.
27) What are the steps taken to secure database using Oracle database vault access control component?
1) Create a realm composed of the database schemas or database objects that we want to secure. 2) We can further secure the realm by creating rules, command rules, factors, identities, rule sets, and secure application roles.
3) We can run reports on the activities these components monitor and protect.
28) What is a Oracle database vault administrator(DVA)?
Oracle Database Vault Administrator(DVA) is a Java application that is built on top of the Oracle Database Vault PL/SQL application programming interfaces (API).
29) What is the use of DVA?
1) DVA allows security managers who may not be proficient in PL/SQL to configure the access control policy through a user-friendly interface.
2) Oracle Database Vault Administrator provides an extensive collection of security-related reports that assist in understanding the baseline security configuration.
3) These reports help to point out deviations from this baseline.
30) What is Oracle Database Vault Configuration Assistant (DVCA)?
It is a command-line utility that is used to perform maintenance tasks on Oracle Database Vault Installation.
31) What are the Oracle Database Vault schemas?
Two major schemas of oracle database vault are DVSYS and DVF
32) Give details on DVSYS schema:-
DVSYS schema stores objects needed to process Oracle data for Oracle database vault.This schema contains the roles,views,accounts,functions, and other database objects that the Oracle Database Vault uses
33) Give details on DVF schema:-
The DVF schema contains public functions to retrieve (at run time) the factor values set in the Oracle Database Vault access control configuration.
34) Give details on Oracle Database Vault PL/SQL Interfaces and Packages :-
Oracle Database Vault PL/SQL Interfaces and Packages are collections that allow security managers,application developers to configure security policy.The PL/SQL procedures and functions allow general database accounts to operate within the boundaries of the access control policy in the context of a given database session.
35) How LogMiner Utility works?
LogMiner reads the redo log files and puts the extracted contents into the v$LOGMNR_CONTENTS view.We can query the v$LOGMNR_CONTENTS view to obtain information about the transaction we’d be interested in.The information in redo logs is in the form of internal object identifier and data is in hexadecimal form.
Oracle recommends that we provide logMiner with access to the data dictionary so it can translate the contents of the reolog file into a form we can readily understand.
We can provide LogMiner with access to the data dictionary in three different ways :
1) We can extract data dictionary to a flat file
2) We can have a dictionary snapshot placed in the redo logs
3) We can do away with the extraction of the data dictionary and direct logMiner to use the online data dictionary
36) What are the database objects supported in latest version of Oracle database?
Oracle database the relational database management system supports RDBMS as well as object RDBMS objects. To start with it supports tables, indexes, views, index organized tables, clustered tables, java, stored procedures, functions, triggers, synonyms, database link, sequences, materialized views to name a few
Tables – Basic object that stores information . Table is composed of rows and columns
Views – A query stored in database admin tables called data dictionary. This doesnt consume any space and is executed on the fly
Indexes – Increase performance by storing reference to table rows
Index organized tables – Tables and indexes created together
Cluster – Some common columns are shared among tables. This forms cluster of tables
Synonym – An alias to database object
Materializd views – stores database object and has view basics. This forms basics of datawarehousing. Lets look at it in detail
java – The programming code stored in database
procedure – An business logic written in pl/sql language that a database understands.PL/SQL is oracle specific. Procedure implements a business logic and doesnt return any value
function – Pl/SQL program unit that returns a value
trigger – a database object that gets executed when a particular database event like logon,logoff etc happen. Triggers can trigger before or after an event
Database Link – This database object establishes connection and helps in sharing information among two different databases
Index-Organized (IOT) Table – Index-Organized (IOT) Table is a table whose physical storage is organized like an index.IOT stores data according to the primary key defined on tha table (sorted order).
37) What parameters are needed for dynamic service registration/automatic service registration?
The init.ora file or SPFILE should contain the following parameters for automatic service registration:
1) SERVICE_NAMES(eg:hr.us.sity.com)
2) INSTANCE_NAME (eg: hr)
38) What if we don’t specify the value of SERVICE_NAMES?
If we don’t specify the value of SERVICE_NAMES parameter it defaults to the global database name
100) What is a global database name?
A global database name is a combination of DB_NAME and DB_DOMAIN parameters
39) How to retain case-sensitivity in Oracle database?
While we create objects in an Oracle database, we specify object names. Oracle database object names are case-sensitive. SQL*PLUS , SQL Developer tools will automatically convert lower case letters to upper case letters. If the name is specified within double quotes, case is retained.
As a summary object names in Oracle database are case sensitive
SQL> create table case (“today’s date” date);
Table created.
SQL> create table “case” (today date);
Table created.
SQL> select table_name from dba_tables where table_name=’case’;
TABLE_NAME
——————————
case
SQL> select table_name from dba_tables where lower(table_name)=’case’;
TABLE_NAME
—————————–
CASE
case
40) How is data coded in oracle database?
A character set is a defined encoding scheme for representing characters as a sequence of bits.Data stored in the database must be coded into a character set.Oracle is independent of the operating system character set. It is shipped with its own character set.A character set consists of defined number of distinct characters. The number of characters that a character set can represent is limited by the number of bits the character set uses for each character
A single-byte character set will use only one-byte (8bits) per character.A multi-byte character set uses one,two,three bits per character.Oracle s default character set is seven bit ASCII or seven-bit EBCDIC
Oracle 10g ships with more than 250 character sets
41) Give details on tables and their relationship to segments in an oracle database :-
Table is the database object used to store information in the form of rows and columns. We can create tables in a schema and dba_extents can be used to obtain information about the tables.
SQL> create table sys.new(today date);
Table created.
SQL> select tablespace_name,file_id,extent_id,block_id,blocks,bytes from dba_extents where owner=’SYS’ and segment_name=’NEW’;
TABLESPACE_NAME                   FILE_ID  EXTENT_ID   BLOCK_ID     BLOCKS
——- ———- ———- ———- ———-
BYTES
———-
SYSTEM                                  1          0      87576          8       65536
In Oracle database tables can be created in a schema. They are stored in form of segments. By default these tables are heap-organized tables.
42) What is the use of archiver process in an oracle database?
Archives the online redo log files to the archiving destination
There can be n archiving destinations – LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST parameter
Archives are used to restore and recover the database upon crash/failure
Database can be run in ARCHIVE/NOARCHIVE mode .It is a Safety measure
ARCHn processes depending on the number of archival destinations
How to fix ORA-16018: cannot use LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST with LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n or DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST?
I tried configuring the flash recovery area. First step in creating the flash recovery area is to set the value of log_archive_dest parameter. It is essential to set the value of db_recovery_file_dest before setting the value of log_archive_dest
SQL> alter system set log_archive_dest=’ ‘;
alter system set log_archive_dest=’ ‘
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02097: parameter cannot be modified because specified value is invalid
ORA-16018: cannot use LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST with LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_n or
DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
SQL> alter system set db_recovery_file_dest=”;
System altered.
SQL> alter system set log_archive_dest=”;
System altered.
It is GRANT PROCEDURE Not GRANT PACKAGE:
To create a package in a user’s schema the privilege needed is CREATE PROCEDURE. I had a misconception that it must be CREATE PACKAGE. I wanted to share this information with you all
SQL> connect sys/password as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> grant create package to user;
grant create package to user
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00990: missing or invalid privilege
SQL> grant create procedure to practice;
Grant succeeded.
SQL> connect user/password
Connected.
SQL> create or replace package test_package as
2 procedure set_test;
3 end;
4 /
Package created.
43) How to create Table With LONG Datatype Column?
Tables are the basic objects used to store information in the form of rows/records in a database. We can create a table with one or more column of many different data types. LONG is one such datatype. It is an extended version of the most popular varchar2 data type with a maximum size of 2GB. IT is deprecated and is available in Oracle database 11g version for backward compatability. Here is an example of creating table with LONG datatype column
SQL> create table test_LONG(
2 id number,
3 testlong LONG);
Table created.
SQL> insert into test_LONG values(10,’LONG Value example’);
1 row created.
SQL> desc test_LONG;
Name Null? Type
—————————————– ——– —————————-
ID NUMBER
TESTLONG LONG
Flashback Drop feature is automatically enabled in Oracle Database 10g
44) What is a statement level read consistency in an oracle database?
Statement-level read consistency is the default.All the data that a query sees come from a single point in time. Query will see consistent data
In simple terms, SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE statements will see the commited data. Any commits in due course will not affect the transaction which has already started
45) How to fix ORA-02421: missing or invalid schema authorization identifier?

I tried creating a schema with authorization and got the following error. Sequence of steps and fix have been discussed here
SQL> create schema authorization play;
create schema authorization play
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02421: missing or invalid schema authorization identifier
SQL> create user play identified by play;
User created.
SQL> grant create session to play;
Grant succeeded.
SQL> connect play/play
Connected.
SQL> create schema authorization play;
Schema created.

46) What is use of bitmap index?

Bitmap index is widely used in case of true or false scenarios like gender column. In addition it provides best performance in case of read only operations in systems like datawarehousing. However, benefits of bitmap index is application based

47) What does ORA-00928: missing SELECT keyword mean?
I tried joining two tables using UNION set operator and got this error. This is because I used a wrong syntax. Result set of two select statements can be combined together using an Union set operator
SQL> select * from t1 union t2;
select * from t1 union t2
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00928: missing SELECT keyword

This change in syntax fixed the problem.
SQL> select name from t1 union select location from t2;
NAME
———-
globe
learnersreference

48) When does ORA-01950: no privileges on tablespace ‘SYSTEM’ occur?
I created an user, granted him create session, create table privilege. Now I connected to the user schema and tried creating a table. By default if no tablespace is assigned to an user he is assigned space in default tablespace. In such case it is necessary to specify the user quota in this default tablespace. Altering the user and allocating him quota in the default tablespace fixed the issue.
SQL> create user temp identified by temp;
User created.
SQL> grant create session to temp;
Grant succeeded.
SQL> grant create table to temp;
Grant succeeded.
SQL> connect temp/temp;
Connected.
SQL> create table test(id int primary key,name varchar2(10));
create table test(id int primary key,name varchar2(10))
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01950: no privileges on tablespace ‘SYSTEM’

SQL> alter user temp quota unlimited on system;
User altered.
SQL> connect temp/temp
Connected.
SQL> create table test(id int primary key,name varchar2(10));
Table created.

49) How to collect html output form Oracle database tables?
Oracle database offers an easy sql*plus option to generate html output from sql prompt
set markup html on
spool output.html
select * from dual;
spool off
set markup html off
The above command does produce output in html format
Utilities like UTL_FILE does create output in csv, text format
50) What is the use of oratab file in an oracle database environment?
The file located in /etc/ on Linux and most of the UNIX systems, /var/opt/oracle/ in a solaris environment is the control file that is made use of by tools like database configuration assistant DBCA, database upgrade assistant DBUA. This file lists the databases that are installed on a particular server environment. In case of conflicts during a new database install or upgrade, check this file and edit this manually to comment or remove entries to fix conflicts
51) You are using DBUA to upgrade a database from 10.2.0.5 to latest 12c. Will this automatically update the COMPATIBLE parameter value?
Yes. As far as the upgrades are concerned the database in 10.2.0.5 version will have COMPATIBLE value set to 11.0.0 for upgrade purpose and this is taken care of automatically
52) You are using DBUA to upgrade a database from 10.2.0.4 to latest 12c. Will this automatically update the COMPATIBLE parameter value?
The DBUA will not change the COMPATIBLE parameter and we need to manually make this change by setting COMPATIBLE to 12.1.0 for the database to utilize all 12c features
53) When is max_string_size set to extended?
By default oracle database 12c supports 32KB for datatypes like VARCHAR2,NVARCHAR2,RAW. To store over 4000 bytes this parameter value needs to be set to extended
54) Your 12c database is in open mode. You want to set max_String_size to EXTENDED. How will you do that?
For this changes to happen the database should be in upgrade mode. If database is in open mode, get a maintenance window and perform the following steps
Shutdown the database using immediate option. This is default in most cases
shutdown immediate;
export ORALCE_SID=value – Linux and unix systems
set ORACLE_SID=value – In windows systems
Log into database using an user with sysdba privilege
sqlplus ‘/ as sysdba’
Bring back database in upgrade mode
startup upgrade pfile=’specify location of this file’;
Change the value of max_String_size
Alter system set MAX_STRING_SIZE=EXTENDED;
Run the utl32k.sql script. This script needs to be run as an user with SYSDBA privilege. As we already logged in like that proceed further
$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utl32k.sql
Shutdown the database and startup the database in normal mode
shutdown immediate;
startup;
Make sure there are no invalid objects
select * from dba_objects where status<>‘VALID’;
select * from dba_objects where status=’INVALID’;
Make sure the above command returns No Rows
55) What are the possible values of max_string_size?
This parameter can take one of the two values – STANDARD, EXTENDED
56) You have set the value of max_String_Size to EXTENDED. Can you change it back to standard?
Once set max_string_size can’t be changed back to STANDARD. This parameter sets storage value of datatypes and this will have an impact
57) You are in process of performing an upgrade and see that there is low space in fast recovery area. DBUA tool is being used for upgrade purpose. How can you fix this issue?
During the process of upgrade it becomes necessary to monitor the space usage in fast recovery area. Also, check the alert.log file for errors related to space issues. As a first step to avoid space issues the database needs to be set to NOARCHIVELOG mode before upgrade. In case you still get space issues in fast recovery area during database upgrade using DBUA follow these steps:
export ORALCE_SID=value – Linux and unix systems
set ORACLE_SID=value – In windows systems
Log into database as sysdba user
sqlplus ‘/ as sysdba’
Increase the size of fast recovery area as follows :
alter system set db_recovery_file_dest_size=50g; (this is a new sample size. set values accordingly)
58) What are the uses of v$sysaux_occupants.move_procedure procedure?
As the name suggests this component is used for moving purpose like :
a) The procedure may be used for some components to relocate component data to the SYSAUX
tablespace from its current tablespace
b) The procedure may be used for some components to relocate component data from the SYSAUX
tablespace to another tablespace
59) How is the service registration performed with listener?
The service registration with oracle net listener is taken care of by the process monitor PMON process of each and every database instance as they get installed in an oracle server
60) Which commands are used to perform backup and restore of ASM metadata?
Using commands md_backup and md_restore ASM metadata is backedup and used for restore and recovery regularly. This information comes handy during restore and recovery of a failed diskgroup. RMAN backup can be used in combination with the md_restore command to perform the restore and recovery of a failed disk group
61) One of the default tablespaces in a pluggable database is corrupt. Does this demand complete database restart?
No. The corrupt tablespace of the pluggable database can be made offline
62) In your oracle database unified auditing has been enabled. Which oracle component is audited by default?
By default oracle RMAN the recovery manager is audited once the unified auditing option is enabled
63) Your container database runs in ARCHIVELOG mode with some pluggable databases. The SYSAUX tablespace of the root container goes corrupt. How to perform restore and recovery of the SYSAUX tablespace?
Perform the following steps to bring back SYSAUX tablespace online:
a) Take the corrupt SYSAUX tablespace offline
b) Restore the datafile from last VALID backup
c) Apply the archived reso logs to make it consistent
d) Bring back the SYSAUX tablespace online
64) In your oracle database you have enabled multiprocess multithreaded architecture. What advantage do you get from this feature?
Once the multiprocess multithreaded architecture is enabled it brings the following benefits:
a) Improved parallel execution performance
b) Reduced CPU utilization
c) Reduced virtual memory utilization
65) You have defined global partitioned B-tree indexes in a large heap table that you would like to move to a new tablespace with minimal impact. What happens to the indexes after this move?
Once the partitions are moved, global indexes must be manually rebuilt

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Blockchain Interview Questions


1) What are the many different types of blockchain?
Blockchain can be one of the following three categories:
Public blockchain
Private blockchain
Consortium blockchain
2) Is blockchain a transactional database?
Blockchain is a diversified database used to store data that works on peer-to-peer network concept rather than transactional database that works on integrity constraint concept. Blockchain is not a database technology like oracle, sql server, mysql, mongodb, postgres etc instead this is a network of servers/computers/machines that are used to store records and all these records are visible to all of the peer machines in this network
3) What is a nonce in a blockchain environment?
This is a random 32 bit number that is 4 byte in size. This random number is used only once in blockchain. This unique number is used to create a hash in a blockchain environment. As this is random this is non iterative and not a fixed number. The nonce is present in each and every node in a blockchain environment
4) What nodes form part of ethereum network?
Ethereum network is comprised of two types of nodes namely light-weight node,full node.
5) What is a ethereum network?
This is a public blockchain network. All decentralized peer-to-peer applications and organizations run with ethereum network as base
6) What are the major projects going under hyperledger umbrella?
Following are the projects going under the umbrella
a) Fabric
b) Burrow
c) Iroha
d) Indy
e) Sawtooth
7) How is cryptocoin price decided?
This is determined by demand and supply cycles.It is the market dynamics that determines coin price.As with normal economics id demand is more and supply is less price is high and viceversa
8) Is blockchain a web technology?
Nope. Blockchain is not a web technology but rather a network of computers/servers/machines that store records and the records retained are visible to all in the network
9) What are the implementations of distributed blockchain?
The implementations of distributed blockchain are primarily used a virtual currency. The implementations include Bitcoin,Ethereum etc. Bitcoin is having a public ledger whereas ethereum is used to create smart contracts
10) Is ripple a implementation of distributed blockchain?
Nope. Ripple is an payment, settlement system used by banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges to transact money globally using an unique distributed consensus mechanism
11) What is bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the first implementation of distributed blockchain having a public
12) How many cryptocurrencies are in existence now?
More than 1000 cryptocurrencies are available based on blockchain technology having distributed ledger
13) What are the tasks of minors in a blockchain transaction?
Minors perform range of tasks including initiate transactions, confirm the transactions
14) What is the unique task of minors?
Though minors can initiate a transaction like an user they can also confirm a transaction. Minors are the only ones who can verify the transaction and henceforth this is a major task of minors
15) In a blockchain implementation nodes are users. Can any user initiate a transfer in a blockchain environment?
Yes. Any users can initiate a transfer. As far as verification goes only minors can verify transactions
16) Is smart contract constant with ethereum?
Nope. Ethereum smart contracts can be programmed as per the needs. Ethereum makes use of the cryptocurrency ether
17) What are the uses of ether?
Ether is the cryptocurrency used by ethereum. This is used for paying general transaction and services associated with ethereum smart contracts. It is also used to buy gas. This is again used to pay for computation within the EVM
18) What is nonrepudiation?
This is a main assurance in an ethereum network wherein there is an assurance that someone cannot deny something.It This is a random 32 bit number that is 4 byte in size. This random number is used only once in blockchain. This unique number is used to create a hash in a blockchain environment. As this is random this is non iterative and not a fixed number. The nonce is present in each and every node in a blockchain environment
19) What makes blockchain technology more secure?
Decentralization makes it more secure. It makes it impossible to corrupt all the miners at the same time owing to de-centralization.High-end cryptographic techniques like RSA and miner’s proof of work to enhance security make this possible
20) What are some tasks that make use of blockchain technology?
Following are some of the tasks that make use of blockchain technology :
Track digital assets
Create Secure ledger
Store immutable data objects
Create a public ledger visible to all
21) How many etheres are given as a reward for solving a mathematical puzzle in a ethereum blockchain?
In ethereum 5 etheres are given as reward for solving a mathematical puzzle
22) Has ethereum blockchain been hacked atleast once?
Nope. Ethereum blockchain has never been hacked. However, the smart contract had vulnerability
23) Give details on what is a blockchain client :-
Blockchain client is a software that :
a) Verifies the transaction
b) Executes the blockchain protocol logic
c) Has the responsibility for generating the transactions as per the instructions
d) Is being used by nodes and miners to connect to the blockchain network
24) What is the cryptocurrency used in ethereum network? What is its use?
It is the ether that is being made use of by ethereum network. It becomes necessary to be paid for every operation performed in a ethereum blockchain for which ether is used
25) What is a hash rate?
The speed at which a compute is completing an operation in a bitcoin code is referred to as hash rate.
26) What hashrate is better during mining?
Higher hasrate is recommended

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Puppet Interview Questions


Puppet is the most popular software configuration tool that forms part of any interview starting from fresher, middle level to experienced IT professionals owing to migration to Devops culture. Here are useful interview questions that will help you with preparation
1) Which operator can convert an array into a comma separated list of arguments?
A.*(splat)
2) While writing a new class named mongodb::master which module path should contain definition class?
The class modules and codes reside in the manifests directory. mongodb/manifests/master.pp
3) For running mcollective commands which user will you make use of?
Make use of user peadmin
4) Who can issue mcollective commands as they control the puppet master?
Make use of user peadmin
5) In which directory of the module structure does the test function written to test functionality of the application reside?
It resides in the directory examples
6) Which is a control expression of an unless statement?
Make use of undef values
7) Mcollective makes use of ports to accept inbound traffic connection requests from puppet agents. Which port is being made use of for this purpose?
Any host used to invoke commands must be able to reach MCollective on this port. The PE Console accepts HTTPS traffic from end-users on this port 61613
8) You have monolithic installations. In which port does puppetdb accept incoming traffic?
In port 8081
9) What are the many different ways in which you can apply puppet manifests to the nodes?
Make use of one of the following methods :
a) Using Hiera
b) Puppet Enterprise Console
c) Include in manifests/site.pp
10) What kind of operands are accepted on either side of chained arrows?
a) Resource declarations
b) Resource references
c) Resource Collectors
11) You have to create complex expressions in resource collectors. Which of the operators can be used for this purpose?
We can make use of anyone of the following operators :
a) and
b) or
c) !=
12) As per puppet language style guide what should a comment explain?
It should explain why of the code
13) What is proper format of comments as per puppet guide?
As per puppet language style guide comments must be hash and not /* */
14) Which command is used to view all certificates waiting to be signed?
Make use of the command puppet cert list -a
15) Which status is invalid in puppet reporting in the Puppet::Transaction::Event?
The status ready is not a valid status
16) Can a resource have multiple namevars?
Yes. There can be
17) [master] environmentpath = $codedir/override_environments:$codedir/environments Is this a valid reference for the code directory?
Yes. This is a valid reference for the code directory
18) How will you make use of mcollective to trigger a puppet run on all your CentOS linux nodes?
Using command mco puppet runonce –wf operatingsystem=CentOS
19) How will you make use of fact option in puppet?
In puppet enterprise the fact option is to be used with with fact option –wf (or) -F
20) What is a fact in puppet enterprise?
It is a standard puppet facts available in puppet manifests
21) Which attributes do you need to make use of to make exec command Idempotent?
We need the following attributes:
a) unless
b) onlyif
c) creates
22) Which are valid statements of the producing and consuming service?
a) produces
b) consumes
c) export
23) Which operators take precedence in puppet?
The operator ! takes precedence
24) Which mcollective subcommand is the general purpose client that can invoke actions from any MCollective agent plugin ?
Make use of command rpc
25) Does variant datatype accept undef type as a parameter that will lead to resulting datatype match the undef?
Yes . It does
26) Give details on some catalog statements :-
a) realize
b) include
c) require
d) contain
27) Which key types are accepted by priority lookup in hiera 3.x?
a) top-level lookup keys
b) qualiqed keys
28) Which abstract datatype will not match undef default?
It is scalar datatype
29) Which abstract datatype will match undef default?
It includes datatypes like the ones below :
a) variant
b) data
c) any
d) vector
30) You have been asked to install puppetlabs-apache module from another module repository. Which command would you make use of for this purpose?
Using command puppet module install –module_repository http://dev-forge.example.com puppetlabs-apache
31) Which categories does appear in the report of Puppet::Util::Metric object?
a) resources
b) events
c) time
d) changes
32) Which component is not a component of the mcollective orchestration internals?
It is the rpc
33) Which component is a component of the mcollective orchestration internals?
a) mco
b) pe-actiemq
c) pe-mcollective
34) In $facts hash which variables are available?
It is the variable $clientversion
35) Which $facts hash variable has current version of puppet agent information and are available as top-score variable as well?
It is the variable $clientversion

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Oracle interview questions and answers for freshers


1) You want to upgrade your database to 12c version. Which upgrade script will you make use of?
Starting 12c upgrade catctl.pl can be used for upgrade purpose. This is a new script instead of catupgrd.sql from 12c onwards
2) In 12c upgrade can we still make use of catupgrd.sql?
Yes. It is possible to make use of catupgrd.sql in 12c upgrade with two rules to be taken into consideration :
a) Specify PARALLEL=NO as follows :
@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/catupgrd.sql PARALLEL=NO
b) Once this script run completes catuppst.sql script must be run manually
3) Is is necessary to manually run capuppst.sql script after running catctl.pl for upgrade purpose?
No need. Only if catupgrd.sql is used this script needs to be run manually
4) What is the default parallelism while running catctl.pl script?
This script runs with default parallelism of 4. This value can be changed using option -n. If set to 0 this script runs in noparallel aka serial mode. The maximum value of -n can be upto 8
5) You want to collect spool and log files while running catctl.pl script. Which option can be used for this purpose?
Make use of option -l to specify spool and log files
6) You are starting to perform a database upgrade and startup using normal open mode instead of startup upgrade mode. Can you proceed with upgrade?
Nope. For performing database upgrade the startup upgrade option must be made use of. In addition to bringing up database in maintenance mode this mode automatically handles certain system parameter values needed for upgrade. Some other things that gets done in startup upgrade includes :
a) Restricts logon to as sysdba sessions. So, a normal user can’t connect to database by mistake
b) Disables system triggers
c) Performs additional operations that prepares environment for the upgrade
d) Suppresses ORA-00942 error for drop table statements that get generated during upgrade
e) Makes sure only genuine errors are recorded in the logfile
7) When do you make sure upgrade is successful?
Check the upgrade log files and make sure there are no ORA- and PLS- errors to ensure that this is successful upgrade. However, this is first level checking that is done after upgrade
8) After an upgrade completes which scripts will you run to recompile invalid objects?
Once the upgrade completes check the dba_objects view and make sure there are no errors :
select owner, object_name, status from dba_objects where status<>’VALID’;
select owner, object_name, status from dba_objects where status=’INVALID’;
Once you find some invalids run the scripts :
@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utlrp.sql
@$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utluiobj.sql
9) What does the oracle release numbers indicate?
When you start handling an environment be it test or production the major question that comes into picture happens to be question about which release the current database is running upon now. Typically this is a five digit number separated by dots
First Number – Major version of the database
Second is the maintenance release number
Third position is applicable only for application server release number
Fourth is the major patch release number
Fifth is the platform-specific release number
10) What happens when we apply a patch set update the PSU to an oracle database?
Application of a PSU changes the last digit (i.e) the fifth digit in the oracle release number
11) You plan to apply a major patch release that changes the fourth digit in an oracle release number. Can you install it on the fly?
Nope. For applying the major patch release say from 12.1.0.1.0 to 12.1.0.2.0 we need to install oracle software in a separate oracle home directory
12) What is an indirect upgrade in an oracle database environment?
It is also called as migration wherein the oracle software versions are not updated as opposed to data being extracted and migrated to latest database version. This is not an easy upgrade method as a direct upgrade using DBUA the graphical tool used for upgrade purpose
13) What is the advantage of indirect upgrade?
One major advantage is that it provides the ability to easily rollback to an older database. The source database is kept intact in this method which in most cases minimizes outage window. In case of failure the rollback process involves just starting up the old database service and listener in case DB was brought down during upgrade making it simple
14) What are the scenarios that demand using migration the indirect upgrade method?
There are some situations that demand the usage of migration like some situations below
a) Used for application testing. Mainly when the database changes are done and application needs to be tested with database this is used
b) Only chosen objects have been changed in database that does not demand full upgrade
c) The database is in very old version that the upgrade path is not supported. This demands data migration
d) The upgrade does not come with outage downtime window
e) The hardware server needs to be changed during upgrade
f) The Operating system needs to be changed during the upgrade
g) We want to minimize the downtime needed for upgrade
15) What are the indirect upgrade methods (or) migration methods supported by oracle database 12c?
Following are some of the migration methods supported by oracle database 12c:
a) Data pump tool can be used for migration. This tool has been introduced from Oracle 10g version. As far as traditional version goes exp/imp tools can be made use of. This is a preferred tool is the server migration, hardware migration is performed (or) versions where direct migration is not supported
b) CREATE TABLE AS SELECT method using database link can be used that creates tables and copies data from source to destination database
c) A major method that helps in reducing downtime happens to be transportable tablespaces a feature of datapump. This demands source database version to be 11.2.0.3 or higher
d) Advanced products like dataguard, oracle golden gate if available can help with online database upgrade
16) What is the issue with using CREATE TABLE AS SELECT method for migration?
One practical issue happens to be no support for datatype like LONG. There are several other restrictions that make this not a preferred method of migration
17) You are performing upgrade using transportable tablespaces. The target platform endianness is different than source platform. What needs to be done to fix this?
Convert datafile using RMAN to perform migration
18) Can you perform database upgrade in archivelog mode with flashback database enabled?
Though it is possible it is not recommended. The first step in upgrade is to bring down the database in shutdown immediate mode, mount the database and disable archive logging using alter database noarchivelog, open it and use it for upgrade purpose. This is a major step to avoid performance issues that can occur during upgrade in archivelog mode
19) Is there an advantage of performing upgrade in archivelog mode with flashback enabled?
Yes. In case of error during upgrade it is possible to rollback database to an earlier state using flashback logs and guaranteed restore point
20) To which location are the DBUA log files and scripts written by default?
By default DBUA log files and scripts are written to $ORACLE_BASE/cfgtoollogs/dbua/db_unique_name/upgradeN directory
21) What is use of upgrade logs?
They can be used to fully understand the upgrade process, look for errors and fix issues in case the DBUA is used for upgrade and screen is stalled during process of upgrade

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HL7 Message Interview Questions


1) In the segment attribute tables what information is provided in the column labeled OPT?
Whether the field is required, optional, or conditional in a segment
2) When a datatype contains more than one component, its components are separated by what separator? Which is defined in the MSH-2 field of each message instance?
Using component separator
3) The ADT message type is used to transmit information related to patients. What does ADT represent?
Admission, discharge, transfer
4) Can a trigger event be associated with more than one message type?
A message type can always be associated with more than one trigger event
5) Which segment is used for sending notes and comments
Using segment NTE
6) With which systems can we make use of HL7 though it is not explicity supported by HL7?
a) store and forward
b) Internal broadcast
c) data broadcast facilities
7) In MSH segment what does the field MSH-9 represent?
MSH-9 field contains message type, trigger event, message structure ID
8) In MSH segment what does the field MSH-5 represent?
It represent Receiving application
9) Which message segment is used to determine whether to process the message as defined in HL7 rules?
It is the MSH-11 the processing ID that does take care of this
10) When square brackets appear around the name of a segment [](or around a group of segment names) what does this mean?
It means that segment or group is optional
11) What does an abstract message definition include?
Interrelationship and format
12) What message constituents can be changed as per HL7 version compatibility rules?
a) optionality of message constituent
b) repetability of message constituent
13) Does HL7 confirm to ISO elements?
HL7 does not confirm to ISO defined elements of the OSI seventh level
14) What are the different network architectures used to run HL7?
HL7 can be run on different network architecture such as DECNET, SNA and TCP/IP
15) Does HL7 address transmission errors?
HL7 standard address how transmission errors should be dealt with
16) What does 7 in HL7 represent?
The 7 in HL7 refers to the seven-layered Open System Interconnection (OSI) model
17) In the segment attribute tables what information is provided in the column labeled LEN?
Maximum number of characters that one occurrence of the datafield may occupy
18) What datatype is the following field |^500^-^600| ?
The datatype is SN structured numeric
19) Which datatype allows for the transmission of an identifier, check digit, identifier type and assigning facility ,having ten components?
This is datatype CX extended composite ID with check digit
20) Which escape sequence represents sub-component separator?
It is represented by the escape sequence T
21) What acknowledgement code should a system return as an accept acknowledgement if the message cannot be accepted because of a sequence number error?
Making use of acknowledgement code CE
22) In ERR segment what does the field ERR-5 represent?
It represents Application error code
23) What are the communication environment capabilities assumed by HL7 standard?
a) Error free transmission
b) Character conversion
c) Message length
d) Secured Network area
23) Which healthcare application areas are included as part of the HL7 environment?
a. Patient administration
b. Order Entry
c. Financial Management
d. Observation Reporting
e. Master files and indexes
24) For primitive point-to-point connectivity what is mode of transfer of HL7 messages?
It is transmitted using RS-232
25) What best explains HL7 table?
HL7 table is a set of values defined and published by HL7
26) What does Batch trailer segment aka BTS represent?
BTS represents the end of batch
27) What is the name of atomic unit of data transferred between HL7 systems?
It is called as message
28) Give the meaning of escape sequences E,F,S :-
E – escape separator; F – field separator; S- component separator
29) What is scheduling transaction set?
Scheduling transaction set is defined using request, query and unsolicited transaction messages
30) In the segment attributes table of the HL7 standard which is not a possible designation of optionality for a field within a segment?
Z is associated with some trigger event or some other fields. Hence the Z is user defined
31) Using the default encoding what should be at the end of each HL7 segment?
ASCII character 13 the carriage return
32) In BSH segment what does the field BSH-5 represent?
It represents Batch receiving application
33) What is the datatype used to transmit DICOM image?
A DICOM image could be transmitted in an element of the ED Encapsulated Data datatype
34) What is an unsolicited message?
An unsolicited message is a transaction that is generated by some type of event that occurred at a semi-random time, and was not solicited by receiver
35) What is a trigger event?
A trigger event specifies the context of a certain transaction , in many cases the reason for being
36) If the field definition calls for a field to be broken into components what rules are used?
a) If more than one component is included they are separated by the component separator
b) Components that are present but null are represented by the characters “”
c) Components that are not present at the end of a field need not be represented by component separators
37) In HL7 conformance what degree of optionality does an implementable profile allow within message content?
An implementable profile eliminates all optionality
38) How is a continuation pointer segment represented?
It is represented using DSC
39) With the positive accept acknowledgement is there a need to resend message?
No need to resend message
40) What is the scope of HL7?
HL7 covers scope of message between application systems starting with message specification, proper communication environment in form of network, talking of systems using triggering events
41) In ERR segment what does the field ERR-2 represent?
It represents the error location
42) Give details on HL7 datatype Hierarchic designator (HD)?
a) The HD enables the transmission of information for any site to act as an assigning authority(on a local or user-defined basis) even if it technically does not have the right to issue new ID’s within an identification scheme
b) HDS which have defined third components(defined UID types) must contain a value in the second component that is unique within the series of ID’s defined by the third component
43) Give some details of designations of optionality in HL7 :-
a) R- Required
b) O – Optional
c) C- conditional on the trigger event or on some other fields
d) B – left in for backward compatibility with previous versions of HL7
44) What are ADT trigger events concerned with?
a) Single objects such as admit event that creates a message that contains data about a single person/account
b) Relationships between more than one object like merge event that specifies patient or account merges
c) collection of objects that may have no specific interrelationships (eg. A record oriented location-based query, whose response contain data about a collection of inpatients who are related temporarily by local geography)
45) What is true regarding maximum length of a field in HL7?
a) The maximum length of the data field shall be expressed as a number
b) If the maximum length needs to convey the notion of a very large number, the number 65536 should be displayed to alert the user
46) Give details on trigger events in HL7 :-
a) One to many relationship exist between message 7 trigger event
b) More than one trigger event may be associated with a message
c) Trigger events are allowed at several different levels of data granularity and inter-relationships
47) Name the environments that supports robust transport level but do not meet high level requirements :-
TCP/IP, DECNET & SNA
48) What Trigger event should be used to transmit the opening of an account, when accounts start and end date span a period greater than any particular visit or to create a new account without notifying of patients arrival?
Make use of trigger event P01
49) What is the use of segment fragmentation/continuation using the ADD segment?
a) The segment being continued is ended at an arbitary character position and terminated with the standard segment terminator(carriage return)
b) The following segment is the ADD segment. All characters after the ADD and field separator(“|”) are logically part of the preceding segment. All succeeding consecutive ADD segments contribute characters to the ANY segment until a non ADD segment is found
c) Unless some explicit agreement exists between systems, a receiving application should not infer semantic meaning from the placement of the ADD segment
50) What are the parts of a message?
a) element
b) component
c) field
51) In the segment attributes table of the HL7 standard which are all possible designation of optionality for a field within a segment?
a) R – required
b) B – left for the sake of backward compatibility with previous version of HL7
c) O – Optional
d) C – conditional. Associated with some trigger event or some other fields
52) In the segment attributes table of the HL7 standard which are all possible designation of mandatory for a field within a segment?
Z – This is user defined
53) Which datatypes are provided by the HL7 for the purpose of transmitting date and time information?
i. DT
ii. TM
iii. DR
54) What is TS?
The two-component datatype that combines the representations of DT and TM , allows precision to be represented explicitly is known as TS
55) What is purpose of user authentication credential segment (UAC)?
a) Provides user authentication credentials
b) A kerberos service ticket, SAML assertion
56) Which datatype is a single component that allows a 4-digit year and optional 2-digit month and further optional 2-digit day?
DT – It is the data data type that offers this flexibility
57) Which segment provides additional information about the software products used as a Sending Application?
SFT
58) Which datatype allows the transmission of a controlled vocabulary value as either a code or an identifier?
Using datatype HD
59) Which datatype is used in fields that contain character data and display markup?
TX – Text datatype
60) What does a HL7 communication environment provide?
HL7 standard assumes communications environment will provide
a.error free transmission
b.character set conversion
61) What are Master files in a HL7 environemnt?
The set of common reference files that exist in an open-architecture healthcare environment that are being used by one or more application systems
62) What is the purpose of using a DSC continuation pointer segment ?
a) QRY/DSR – original mode display query- immediate response (event Q01)
b) QRY/QCK – deferred query (event Q02)
c) DSR/ACK – deferred response to a query (event Q03)
d) ADT/ACK – register a patient(event A04)
e) UDM/ACK – unsolicited display update message (event Q05)
63) Give some details on HL7 fields :-
a) A field is a string of characters
b) When fields are transmitted, they are sent as character strings
c) A field may exist as populated,non-populated,null state
64) Upon receipt of a message, when original acknowledgement rules are used, the protocol software in the responding system validates it against what all criteria?
a) The value in message type is one that is acceptable to the receiver
b) The value in msh-12 version id is acceptable to the receiver
c) The value in msh-11 processing id is appropriate for the application process handling the message
65) What is true regarding the maximum length of field in HL7?
a) The maximum length of datafield shall be expressed as number
b) If the maximum length needs to convey the notion of a very large number, the number 65536 should be displayed to alert the user
66) What is true about message construction using standard HL7 encoding rules?
a) segments must be constructed in the order defined for the message
b) the first three characters of the segment must be segment ID code
c) the MSH can redefine the segment terminator
67) What datatype is used for transmitting coded values in a single component from user-defined tables?
Using datatype IS
68) Which character is suggested HL7 sub-component separator?
Make use of &
69) Which is suggested HL7 component separator?
Using ^
70) Which character is the suggested HL7 escape characters?
Using \
71) What is the use of MSH-9?
MSH-9 is used by receiving system for recognize data segments, recognizes application to which the message needs to be routed
72)

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Oracle RAC DBA Interview Questions


1) What is Oracle RAC?
Oracle RAC stands for Real Application cluster. It is a clustering solution from Oracle Corporation that ensures high availability of databases by providing instance failover, media failover features.
2) Mention the Oracle RAC software components:-
Oracle RAC is composed of two or more database instances. They are composed of Memory structures and background processes same as the single instance database. Oracle RAC instances use two processes GES(Global Enqueue Service), GCS(Global Cache Service) that enable cache fusion.Oracle RAC instances are composed of following background processes:
ACMS—Atomic Controlfile to Memory Service (ACMS)
GTX0-j—Global Transaction Process
LMON—Global Enqueue Service Monitor
LMD—Global Enqueue Service Daemon
LMS—Global Cache Service Process
LCK0—Instance Enqueue Process
RMSn—Oracle RAC Management Processes (RMSn)
RSMN—Remote Slave Monitor
There is a single storage that is accessed by two are more of these instances
3) What is single point of failure?
SPOF stands for Single Point Of Failure.Every component in the system must have redundancy incorporated in it.Failure of a single component may lead to failure of entire system.
Components include – power supplies, hardware, storage disks, OS, database,applications.
Oracle Clustering provides solution to avoid SPOF (single Point Of Failure).
4) What is need of clustering solution?
In todays market data is considered to be the most precious asset of an organization. Database is the data repository. Customers need data on a 24×7 basis which demands the servers hosting database to be up and running all the time. As a protection against server failure due to media failure(Failure in server hardware) or instance failure(database failure) clustering solutions have been developed.
5) What is GRD? How does this help with cache fusion?
GRD stands for Global Resource Directory. The GES and GCS maintains records of the statuses of each datafile and each cached block using global resource directory.This process is referred to as cache fusion and helps in data integrity.
6) Give Details on Cache Fusion:-
Oracle RAC is composed of two or more instances. When a block of data is read from datafile by an instance within the cluster and another instance is in need of the same block,it is easy to get the block image from the instance which has the block in its SGA rather than reading from the disk. To enable inter instance communication Oracle RAC makes use of interconnects. The Global Enqueue Service(GES) monitors and Instance enqueue process manages the cahce fusion.
7) Give Details on ACMS:-
ACMS stands for Atomic Controlfile Memory Service.In an Oracle RAC environment ACMS is an agent that ensures a distributed SGA memory update(ie)SGA updates are globally committed on success or globally aborted in event of a failure.
8) What is clustering?
Clustering is a High availability solution.Clustering makes physically separate servers appear as a single server to the end user.Clustering provides scalability at all level – OS, Storage, database, Applications, hardware.Clustering makes the application available 24x7x365.
9) Give details on GTX0-j :-
The process provides transparent support for XA global transactions in a RAC environment.The database autotunes the number of these processes based on the workload of XA global transactions.GLOBAL_TXN_PROCESSES setting specifies the initial number of GTXn background processes per instance. This process is seen only in RAC environments. The range of value for GLOBAL_TXN_PROCESSES can be from 1 to 20 and there is no definite need to set this parameter. The number of processes needed is decided by oracle database automatically and is tuned on demand
10) Give details on LMON:-
This process monitors instance membership in a RAC encironment, detects isntance transitions, reconfigures GES and GCS resources as needed. This is called Global Enqueue Service Monitor Process primarily used for managing global resources
11) Give details on LMD:-
As LMON is for monitoring global enqueue services, this is global enqueue services daemon process. This process manages incoming remote resource requests within each instance. LMD0 particularly processes incoming enqueue request messages. IT controls access to global enqueues
12) Give details on LMS:-
This process is called as Global Cache service process.This process maintains statuses of datafiles and each cahed block by recording information in a Global Resource Dectory(GRD).This process also controls the flow of messages to remote instances and manages global data block access and transmits block images between the buffer caches of different instances.This processing is a part of cache fusion feature.
13) Give details on LCK0:-
This process is called as Instance enqueue process.This process manages non-cache fusion resource requests such as library and row cache requests.
14) Give details on RMSn:-
This process is called as Oracle RAC management process.These processes perform manageability tasks for Oracle RAC. Tasks include creation of resources related Oracle RAC when new instances are added to the cluster.
15) Give details on RSMN:-
This process is called as Remote Slave Monitor.This process manages background slave process creation and communication on remote http://learnersreference.com/ instances. This is a background slave process.This process performs tasks on behalf of a co-ordinating process running in another instance.
16) What components in RAC must reside in shared storage?
All datafiles, controlfiles, SPFIles, redo log files must reside on cluster-aware shred storage.
17) What is the significance of using cluster-aware shared storage in an Oracle RAC environment?
All instances of an Oracle RAC can access all the datafiles,control files, SPFILE’s, redolog files when these files are hosted out of cluster-aware shared storage which are group of shared disks.
18) Give few examples for solutions that support cluster storage:-
ASM(automatic storage management),raw disk devices,network file system(NFS), OCFS2 and OCFS(Oracle Cluster Fie systems).
19) Give details on oracle rac lkdebug utility:-
LKDEBUG is an oracle supplied utility.LKDEBUG is integrated with ORADEBUG utility.To use LKDEBUG we must login with SYSDBA system privilege.
LKDEBUG is used to obtain information about the current state GCS and GES structures in the instance.
To obtain information on LKDEBUG options issue the following command
SQL> ORADEBUG LKDEBUG HELP
20) What is an interconnect network?
an interconnect network is a private network that connects all of the servers in a cluster. The interconnect network uses a switch/multiple switches that only the nodes in the cluster can access.
21) How can we configure the cluster interconnect?
Configure User Datagram Protocol(UDP) on Gigabit ethernet for cluster interconnect.On unix and linux systems we use UDP and RDS(Reliable data socket) protocols to be used by Oracle Clusterware. Windows clusters use the TCP protocol.
22) Can we use crossover cables with Oracle Clusterware interconnects?
No, crossover cables are not supported with Oracle Clusterware interconnects.
23) What is the use of cluster interconnect?
Cluster interconnect is used by the Cache fusion for inter instance communication.
24) How do users connect to database in an Oracle RAC environment?
Users can access a RAC database using a client/server configuration or through one or more middle tiers ,with or without connection pooling.Users can use oracle services feature to connect to database.
25) What is the use of a service in Oracle RAC environment?
Applications should use the services feature to connect to the Oracle database.Services enable us to define rules and characteristics to control how users and applications connect to database instances.
26) What are the characteristics controlled by Oracle services feature?
The characteristics include a unique name, workload balancing and failover options,and high availability characteristics.
27) Which enable the load balancing of applications in RAC?
Oracle Net Services enable the load balancing of application connections across all of the instances in an Oracle RAC database
28) What is a virtual IP address or VIP?
A virtual IP address or VIP is an alternate IP address that the client connections use instead of the standard public IP address. To configure VIP address, we need to reserve a spare IP address for each node, and the IP addresses must use the same subnet as the public network.
29) What is the use of VIP?
If a node fails, then the node’s VIP address fails over to another node on which the VIP address can accept TCP connections but it cannot accept Oracle connections.
30) Give situations under which VIP address failover happens:-
VIP addresses failover happens when the node on which the VIP address runs fails, all interfaces for the VIP address fails, all interfaces for the VIP address are disconnected from the network.
31) What is the significance of VIP address failover?
When a VIP address failover happens, Clients that attempt to connect to the VIP address receive a rapid connection refused error .They don’t have to wait for TCP connection timeout messages.
32) What are the administrative tools used for Oracle RAC environments?
Oracle RAC cluster can be administered as a single image using OEM(Enterprise Manager),SQL*PLUS,Servercontrol(SRVCTL),clusterverificationutility(cvu),DBCA,NETC
33) How do we verify that RAC instances are running?
Issue the following query from any one node connecting through SQL*PLUS.
$connect sys/sys as sysdba
SQL&gt;select * from V$ACTIVE_INSTANCES;
The query gives the instance number under INST_NUMBER column, host_:instancename under INST_NAME column.
34) What is FAN?
Fast application Notification as it abbreviates to FAN relates to the events related to instances,services and nodes.This is a notification mechanism that Oracle RAC uses to notify other processes about the configuration and service level information that includes service status changes such as,UP or DOWN events.Applications can respond to FAN events and take immediate action.
35) Where can we apply FAN UP and DOWN events?
FAN UP and FAN DOWN events can be applied to instances,services and nodes.
State the use of FAN events in case of a cluster configuration change?
During times of cluster configuration changes,Oracle RAC high availability framework publishes a FAN event immediately when a state change occurs in the cluster.So applications can receive FAN events and react immediately.This prevents applications from polling database and detecting a problem after such a state change.
36) Why should we have separate homes for ASM instance?
It is a good practice to have ASM home separate from the database home (ORACLE_HOME).This helps in upgrading and patching ASM and the Oracle database software independent of each other.Also,we can deinstall the Oracle database software independent of the ASM instance.

37) What is the advantage of using ASM?
Having ASM is the Oracle recommended storage option for RAC databases as the ASM maximizes performance by managing the/storage configuration across the disks. ASM does this by distributing the database file across all of the available storage within our cluster database environment.
38) What is rolling upgrade?
It is a new ASM feature from Database 11g. ASM instances in Oracle database 11g release(from 11.1) can be upgraded or patched using rolling upgrade feature. This enables us to patch or upgrade ASM nodes in a clustered environment without affecting database availability.During a rolling upgrade we can maintain a functional cluster while one or more of the nodes in the cluster are running in different software versions
39) Can rolling upgrade be used to upgrade from 10g to 11g database?
No,it can be used only for Oracle database 11g releases(from 11.1) and upwards
40) State the initialization parameters that must have same value for every instance in an Oracle RAC database:-
Some initialization parameters are critical at the database creation time and must have same values.Their value must be specified in SPFILE or PFILE for every instance.The list of parameters that must be identical on every instance are given below:
ACTIVE_INSTANCE_COUNT
ARCHIVE_LAG_TARGET
COMPATIBLE
CLUSTER_DATABASE
CLUSTER_DATABASE_INSTANCE
CONTROL_FILES
DB_BLOCK_SIZE
DB_DOMAIN
DB_FILES
DB_NAME
DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST
DB_RECOVERY_FILE_DEST_SIZE
DB_UNIQUE_NAME
INSTANCE_TYPE (RDBMS or ASM)
PARALLEL_MAX_SERVERS
REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORD_FILE
UNDO_MANAGEMENT
41) Can the DML_LOCKS and RESULT_CACHE_MAX_SIZE be identical on all instances?
These parameters can be identical on all instances only if these parameter values are set to zero.
42) What two parameters must be set at the time of starting up an ASM instance in a RAC environment?
The parameters CLUSTER_DATABASE and INSTANCE_TYPE must be set.
43) Mention the components of Oracle clusterware:-
Oracle clusterware is made up of components like voting disk and Oracle Cluster Registry(OCR).
Shared storage is needed for voting disk (quorum disk). Voting disk can be stored on a raw device or a clustered file system.Voting disk can be stored in Oracle ASM and redundancy level can be set to high
Gives details on node membership – Nodes currently available within the cluster
Ocssd uses voting disk to determine which nodes join and leave the cluster. So voting disk is known as CSS(cluster synchronization services) voting disk
In oracle 10.2 and above, 3 copies of voting disks are created by default. Voting disks can be mirrored
Odd number of voting disk needs to be maintained – recommendation from oracle
44) What is a CRS resource?
Oracle clusterware is used to manage high-availability operations in a cluster.Anything that Oracle Clusterware manages is known as a CRS resource aka cluster ready services. Some of the CRS resources are oracle RAC database, ASM instances, database services, listeners, VIP addresses, ASM diskgroups, application processes. Configuration and status of these resources that are managed by oracle clusterware is tracked by clusterware. It is interesting to note that clusterware infrastructure management is automated in the sense that the status of these resources are checked at periodic intervals, resources are restarted for fixed number of time if they fail
45) What is the use of OCR?
Oracle clusterware manages CRS resources based on the configuration information of CRS resources stored in OCR(Oracle Cluster Registry).
46) How does a Oracle Clusterware manage CRS resources?
Oracle clusterware is a mandate software that needs to be installed in each and every server that form part of RAC cluster. They are installed in their separate oracle homes that are not shared. Oracle clusterware manages CRS resources based on the configuration information of CRS resources stored in OCR(Oracle Cluster Registry).
47) Name some Oracle clusterware tools and their uses?
OIFCFG – allocating and deallocating network interfaces
OCRCONFIG – Command-line tool for managing Oracle Cluster Registry
OCRDUMP – Identify the interconnect being used
CVU – Cluster verification utility to get status of CRS resources
48) What are the modes of deleting instances from ORacle Real Application cluster Databases?
We can delete instances using silent mode or interactive mode using DBCA(Database Configuration Assistant).
49) How do we remove ASM from a Oracle RAC environment?
We need to stop and delete the instance in the node first in interactive or silent mode.After that asm can be removed using srvctl tool as follows:
srvctl stop asm -n node_name
srvctl remove asm -n node_name
We can verify if ASM has been removed by issuing the following command:
srvctl config asm -n node_name
50) How do we verify that an instance has been removed from OCR after deleting an instance?
Issue the following srvctl command:
srvctl config database -d database_name
cd CRS_HOME/bin
./crs_stat
51) How do we verify an existing current backup of OCR?
We can verify the current backup of OCR using the following command : ocrconfig -showbackup
52) What are the performance views in an Oracle RAC environment?
We have v$ views that are instance specific. In addition we have GV$ views called as global views that has an INST_ID column of numeric data type. GV$ views obtain information from individual V$ views.
53) What are the types of connection load-balancing?
There are two types of connection load-balancing:server-side load balancing and client-side load balancing.
54) What is the difference between server-side and client-side connection load balancing?
Client-side balancing happens at client side where load balancing is done using listener.In case of server-side load balancing listener uses a load-balancing advisory to redirect connections to the instance providing best service.
55) Give details on srvm_trace:-
Oracle RAC (Real Application Cluster) SRVM_TRACE environment variable is an oracle RAC (Real Application Cluster) environment variable from Oracle
It is used in the debugging on Oracle RAC (Real Application Cluster) utility srvctl.
56) Give the usage of srvctl:-
srvctl start instance -d db_name -i “inst_name_list” [-o start_options]srvctl stop instance -d name -i “inst_name_list” [-o stop_options]srvctl stop instance -d orcl -i “orcl3,orcl4” -o immediatesrvctl start database -d name [-o start_options]srvctl stop database -d name [-o stop_options]srvctl start database -d orcl -o mount
57) What is an OCRCHECK utility?
An ocrcheck utility is a diagnostic tool used for diagnosing OC(Oracle Cluster Registry) Problems.This is used to verify the Oracle Cluster Registry(OCR) integrity.
58) What does an ocrcheck display?
The OCRCHECK utility displays the version of the OCR’s block format, total space available and used space, OCRID, and the OCR locations that we have configured.
59) How does ocrcheck perform integrity check?
OCRCHECK performs a block-by-block checksum operation for all of the blocks in all of the OCRs that we have configured. It also returns an individual status for each file as well as a result for the overall OCR integrity check.
60) Give a sample output of ocrcheck utility:-
Sample of the OCRCHECK utility output:
Status of Oracle Cluster Registry is as follows :
Version : 2
Total space (kbytes) : 262144
Used space (kbytes) : 16256
Available space (kbytes) : 245888
ID : 1918913332
Device/File Name : /dev/raw/raw1
Device/File integrity check succeeded
Device/File Name : /dev/raw/raw2
Device/File integrity check succeeded
Cluster registry integrity check succeeded
61) Where does an ocrcheck utility create a log file?
OCRCHECK creates a log file in the directory CRS_home/log/hostname/client.
How can we change the amount of logging?
To change amount of logging, edit the file CRS_home/srvm/admin/ocrlog.ini.
62) What is scalability?
Scalability ensures that performance should remain good irrespective of increase in workload.Infrastructure scalability starts from hardware (physical server), OS, storage, database and ends with application
Clustering solution provides scalability as it makes physically seperate servers appear as a single machine to the end user.
Scalability can be of two types:
Vertical scalability – Based on the workload the server size needs to be increased like adding mroe memory, more CPU, hard disk etc
Horizontal scalability – Instead of going for single expensive hardware, some projects can be supported with horizontal scalability wherein lots of less expensive server hardware is purchased, they are given private interconnect and to end user they appear as single server. Resources are shared and this forms basics of RAC architecture
63) What is oracle RAC hardware requirement?
A typical Oracle RAC implementation needs the following hardware:
i) Two or more physical servers – This is basics of cost cutting. Henceforth, usually low cost x-86 servers are used for the implementation
ii) Networking across these servers
iii) storage shared by these servers
iv) Linux flavors like RHEL, Oracle Linux is commonly used for RAC implementation. Still windows is supported
64) What is the difference between user accounts grid and oracle?
Starting oracle 11gR2 oracle clusterware is integrated with oracle ASM and is available as grid infrastructure. OS user grid owns the grid infrastructure that includes clusterware as well as oracle ASM instance. Oracle RAC database owner is oracle user. This is same as oracle user that is used in stand-alone installations
65) Can Cluster verification utility be Downloaded for free?
Cluster verification utility popularly called the cvu is the utility that comes as an integral part of oracle clusterware. CVU is very helpful using installation and configuration of oracle clusterware and oracle RAC (Real application cluster).It is useful during various phases of installation starting from initial hardware setup to final stages of installation and configuration.We can download and use the CVU along with the Oracle RAC 10g and 11g versions. It is available for free from the oracle website
66) Give details on oracle RAC database datafiles :0
All data belonging to the database are stored in objects like tables, indexes, data dictionary, compiled PL/SQL code
Only one copy of datafile stored on shared storage the central location can be accessed by all instances in the RAC environment same as a single-instance database
Datafiles are not mirrored. Redundancy provided at storage level to prevent loss of datafiles. In 10.1 versions and above redundancy can also be achieve using ASM
67) You have a 32-bit laptop and you want to install oracle database RAC there. Can you do so?
I invoked the Oracle Universal Installer and tried installing and creating RAC databases in my Windows 7 laptop. I’ve installed vmplayer and created virtual machines with Ubuntu OS in them. I just invoked the RAC installation option in my Windows 7 OS. I got an error. I expected the Detail to be – OCR not installed. It requires that Oracle clusterware software must be installed and configured properly for the Oracle RAC to be installed successfully. To my surprise I had a different issue which said Oracle Database RAC can be installed only in 64-bit operating system
68) What is a voting disk?
A voting disk is a file that manages information about node membership.
What are the administrative tasks involved with voting disk?
Following administrative tasks are performed with the voting disk :
1) Backing up voting disks
2) Recovering Voting disks
3) Adding voting disks
4) Deleting voting disks
5) Moving voting disks
How do we backup voting disks?
1) Oracle recommends that you back up your voting disk after the initial cluster creation and after we complete any node addition or deletion procedures.
2) First, as root user, stop Oracle Clusterware (with the crsctl stop crs command) on all nodes. Then, determine the current voting disk by issuing the following command:
crsctl query votedisk css
3) Then, issue the dd or ocopy command to back up a voting disk, as appropriate.
Give the syntax of backing up voting disks:-
On Linux or UNIX systems:
dd if=voting_disk_name of=backup_file_name
where,
voting_disk_name is the name of the active voting disk
backup_file_name is the name of the file to which we want to back up the voting disk contents
On Windows systems, use the ocopy command:
ocopy voting_disk_name backup_file_name
What is the Oracle Recommendation for backing up voting disk?
Oracle recommends us to use the dd command to backup the voting disk with aminimum block size of 4KB.
How do you restore a voting disk?
To restore the backup of your voting disk, issue the dd or ocopy command for Linux and UNIX systems or ocopy for Windows systems respectively.
On Linux or UNIX systems:
dd if=backup_file_name of=voting_disk_name
On Windows systems, use the ocopy command:
ocopy backup_file_name voting_disk_name
where,
backup_file_name is the name of the voting disk backup file
voting_disk_name is the name of the active voting disk
How can we add and remove multiple voting disks?
If we have multiple voting disks, then we can remove the voting disks and add them back into our environment using the following commands, where path is the complete path of the location where the voting disk resides:
crsctl delete css votedisk path
crsctl add css votedisk path
How do we stop Oracle Clusterware?When do we stop it?
Before making any modification to the voting disk, as root user, stop Oracle Clusterware using the crsctl stop crs command on all nodes.
How do we add voting disk?
To add a voting disk, issue the following command as the root user, replacing the path variable with the fully qualified path name for the voting disk we want to add:
crsctl add css votedisk path -force
How do we move voting disks?
To move a voting disk, issue the following commands as the root user, replacing the path variable with the fully qualified path name for the voting disk we want to move:
crsctl delete css votedisk path -force
crsctl add css votedisk path -force
How do we remove voting disks?
To remove a voting disk, issue the following command as the root user, replacing the path variable with the fully qualified path name for the voting disk we want to remove:
crsctl delete css votedisk path -force
What should we do after modifying voting disks?
After modifying the voting disk, restart Oracle Clusterware using the crsctl start crs command on all nodes, and verify the voting disk location using the following command:
crsctl query css votedisk
When can we use -force option?
If our cluster is down, then we can include the -force option to modify the voting disk configuration, without interacting with active Oracle Clusterware daemons. However, using the -force option while any cluster node is active may corrupt our configuration
What does file management in oracle RAC involve?
File Management In Oracle RAC (Real Application Cluster) involves managing datafile,redo log file to name a few
Give details on datafile management in RAC :-
Datafiles store the database data and hence are the critical resources.
Datafiles are stored in a disk that is accessible by all the instances of the RAC i.e they are stored in shared storage.
Every instance in the cluster has to verify its access to datafile.Also it is equally important that they are they access the same version of the datafile. We can use the following command:
SQL> ALTER SYSTEM CHECK DATAFILES;
It is important to perform this integrity check after tasks like :
1) Tablespace addition
2) Tablespace deletion
3) Tablespace status change from offline/online to viceversa
4) Addition and deletion of datafiles
Whenever a datafile recovery is performed the first instance to start the cluster in RAC performs the datafile recovery.All instances start and verify their access after that.
Give details on Redo Log File Management in RAC :-
Each instance has its own online redo log groups.
To add a redo log group to a specific instance, specify the INSTANCE clause on the ALTER DATABASE ADD LOGFILE statement.
If we do not specify the instance when adding the redo log group,the redo log group is added to the instance to which you are currently connected.
Each instance must have at least two groups of redo log files. We must allocate the redo log groups before enabling a new instance with the
SQL> ALTER DATABASE ENABLE INSTANCE instance_name ;
When the current group fills, an instance begins writing to the next log file group.If our database is in ARCHIVELOG mode,then each instance must save filled online log groups as archived redo log files that are tracked in the control file.During database recovery, all enabled instances are checked to see if recovery is
needed. If we remove an instance from your Oracle RAC database, we should disable the instance so it is does not have to be checked during database recovery
In a RAC environment how will you update the OCR with new spfile location?
Make use of srvctl utility command
srvctl modify database -db database_name -p ‘location_of_spfile’
How will you start a database in a RAC environment?
Using the srvctl command we can start the database in an Oracle RAC environment as follows :
srvctl start database -db database_name
You are making use of an Oracle restart configuration. You try to start the single instance using srvctl -i instancename but get an error. Why is that so?
It is because srvctl -i instancename option is not supported here

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Digital marketing interview questions


Digital marketing is comprised of many major components. This starts with creation and marketing of content relevant to business called content marketing, email marketing, SEO marketing, social media marketing, PPC marketing to name a few.
Is it possible to achieve real great results with real good marketing both online and offline. Now, lets take the major component of digital marketing content marketing and see how accountability does add real value to get best results.
To put it in simple terms, lets consider a newbie who starts a blog today. They will have lots of questions. To start with they will think how frequently should I create new posts and post it in the blog. If they choose to apply the principle of accountability creating atleast one original, unique, good quality, search engine optimized psot per day will help them keep themselves class apart and stay ahead of competitors.
As such it is the accountability that helps them develop blogging as a habit that will help them grow their blog with constant, consistent effort
When can I start my digital marketing?
Digital marketing also called as internet marketing should start even before launch of business
1) Create your unique, content rich blog
2) Post at a minimum 100+ great quality, unique posts. This may take from 1 to 3 months (depending on your frequency of blogging). We recommend 45 days time to achieve this task
3) Create a email subscription on day 1. I’ve insisting this because it is the real tool to build a user base achieve success in long run
4) Think about an affordable promotional offer. Best promotional offer will be a free e-book, newsletter etc
5) Add the promotional offer to your website
6) Perform search engine optimization following simple SEO tips
7) Now your website is ready. This is equivalent to Version 1 of a product (say a piece of software)
8) Now make use of affiliate marketing to promote your blog/website
How can you go branded online in 3 minutes?
An entrepreneur aspires to build a brand. Brand recognition comes with proper online presence. Every business be it service, product manufacturing, retail needs online presence. The web spider binds us together and help us acquire business in less than 2 minutes. Business online builds good reputation.
At the beginning it might sound scary to figure out how you can take your business online. Many web design companies quote hefty amount that makes you hesitant to proceed further with launching your business online.
To help you all with launching your business online lets give easy instructions that will help you take your brand online
1) Register a domain – This can be as low as $1. This can be done with popular hosting providers like Godaddy. A reputed brand in itself, that has been in existence for more than a decade, godaddy always stands class apart with their quality of service, uptime, availability. Our recommendation would be to register a domain with godaddy. As a new year bonanza enjoy this exclusive offer from Godaddy for learnersreference.com members. This offer doesn’t last longer. Don’t miss it
2) Get a proper hosting account – Again godaddy helps you get 100% uptime. We have been using it for more than 6 years without any problem. Also, godaddy offers lots of interesting hosting plans that includes as low as $1 per month for single website , shared hosting, dedicated VPS hosting and many more
If you are looking to pull more traffic there are popular web hosting providers like siteground that does a fantastic job
3) Choose a very very easy to use CMS – You can install wordpress that comes extermely handy. When you make use of godaddy you can install at the click of a mouse. Most of the hosting providers do offer cpanel option , wordpress installer that helps in blog install in less than 2 mins
4) Create an email subscriber list – This is the primary thing that you should really focus on starting day 1. For a beginner I recommend Google’s feedburner that comes 100% free. All you need is a valid gmail account. Once you have a gmail account log into www.feedburner.google.com, create a feed, create an email subscription list, add to website and start retaining visitors as customers
What to expect from professional digital media marketing?
World is going digital and number of internet users grow day by day. With this growing base it becomes mandatory for every business to go digital to retain their market share.
In the past if the website belongs to reputed brand, this will automatically pull traffic. However,with current internet demography it goes over and beyond owning a website. As such a professional is expected to include some of the essential ingredients
1) About us page with brief history of business
2) Contact Us page
3) Blog with news updates on business. This can even include press releases provided the company has gone public
4) Shopping cart of the business sells products. This will be selling of products online by themselves in addition to listing bands in common e-commerce websites like amazon.com etc
5) Social accounts – This includes official business page in social networks like facebook, twitter, linkedin, googleplus, pinterest to name a few. Many firms employ social media manager on part-time as well ass full-time basis to manage their social accounts
Once the product is ready to be launched into market, SEO also called search engine optimization plays a prominent role in helping business find a prominent online business space. Now, comes the digital media marketing
What is digital media marketing?
This includes all efforts and activities that helps business grow in online space. It is essentially composed of following components
1) Content Marketing – This is a good old concept that had been in place offline all these years. Essential media business on news paper , magazines can be considered real good examples of content marketing. In digital media space, content is the king and a content rich website wins over others. Content marketing starts with creation of original, unique, good quality articles that are relevant, evergreen and is usually provided as articles in business websites. To create professional content training in content marketing comes really handy.
Content marketing has grown from blog content marketing until upto video blogging (i.e) creation and publication of good quality, relevant videos in youtube the best video streaming website with millions of user base. Firms hire people who have natural tendency for writing and this is a good freelancing career option for many
2) Email Marketing – Once a content is created it needs to reach relevant userbase. This comes in form of feedburner feeds, newsletter that automates the sharing of posts published on a particular day to relevant audience. Email marketing also involves mailing marketing emails to current users, prospective customers etc. This can be done with professional email marketing training as well
3) SEO – Search engine optimization is the heart and soul of online business. Learn the strategies that helps google spider index your articles and push this to top slot. Training in SEO typically involves finding relevant keywords, creating good quality content, using proper post titles, adding proper tags to make the content grow
4) Social Media Marketing – There is a overlap of social media marketing with above mentioned marketing. This involves marketing business in social media like facebook, twitter, linkedin etc. Also this becomes a platform to interact directly with audience. Professional training is offered on social media marketing as well
Look for professional training in digital media marketing in full as well as in modules

How will you create content with full interest for best success?
Content creation and media marketing are the core pillars upon which online branding and success of any business depends on. It would be better to focus on productivity while creating content for digital media marketing
1) Use desktop sticky notes – The bright beautiful sticky notes from windows is a boon for any goal setter. Write simple goal in sticky notes before going to bed. It would be interesting if you write one goal in one stick note. This will be writing down one thing in one piece of paper
2) Pick one topic while creating post- Pick a random sticky note and start creating post on this. If you dont know what to blog the first line of your blogpost can be same as title of the post. This is to overcome boredom during blogging.
3) Fast blogging with mistakes agreeable – Don’t interrupt your thoughts. Write down whatever does pop-up. Don’t focus on spelling mistake. This is like running in treadmill. Once done, drink a glass of water and check for spelling mistakes. Correct this, highlight needed areas, post it
4) Automate all your social media publishing – I use free Jetpack wordpress plugin for this purpose. I’ll discuss in detail about this plugin. This automatically publishes to all social media and takes this cumbersome task off your shoulder
5) Google likes perseverance – As part of SEO google always expects fresh, evergreen content. Hence, creating new content as well as keeping existing content up-to-date are critically important. From google analytics pick top posts, maintain an excel on top posts, note down the ones that cna be enhanced – say if you write on plugins, there can be enhancements, new releases etc. this means that you improve your posts that has top spot. This will make google believe that you are perfect at maintaining your content and will be given preferential treatment

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SAFE MLO NMLS Exam Practice Tests Free

SAFE MLO NMLS Exam Practice Tests for free will serve as educational resource to help you pass your upcoming exams
1) You have invited realtors to atted your seminar on new mortgage products. You serve refreshments to the realtors. Is this a violation of RESPA?
a) Yes
b) No
Answer : a
Explanation : According to RESPA educational interactions such as webinar (or) seminar is permissible, exchange of reasonable promotional items such as flyer talking about enw products is permissible. The refreshment is an item outside the scope and is an item of value that should not be offered or exchanged between mortgage brokers and realtors. Realtors are potential referral sources and this is a violation of RESPA
2) What is a higher-priced mortgage loan?
a) A loan with higher APR than a Average prime offer rate
b) A loan with lower APR than a Average prime offer rate
c) A loan with higher APR than a 30-year fixed loan
d) A loan with lower APR than a 30-year fixed loan
Answer : a
3) Is a bridge loan with a loan term of 12 months or less an eclusion from higher-priced mortgage loan?
a) Yes
b) No
Answer : a
4) You are planning to purchase a single-family home vailing higher-priced home loan option. Is this excluded in purchase list of higher-priced mortgage loan?
a) Yes
b) No
Answer : b
Explanation : Exclusions include construction loan, bridge loans with loan terms of 12 months or less, reverse mortgages, HELOC
5) Which among the following is a consumer protection statute passed by the U.S Congress in 1974 to help consumers become better shoppers for settlement services and eliminate kickbacks and referral fees that increases cost of settlement services?
a) TILA Act
b) RESPA Act
c) SOX Act
d) HIPAA Act
Answer : b
Explanation : Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act does take care of this requirement and helps consumers with home purchase
6) Which among the following items are included in RESPA completed application definition? Choose all that apply?
a) Borrowers name
b) Borrowers monthly income
c) Borrowers tax for past two years
d) Borrowers property details in a place outside USA if any
e) Borrowers SSN to obtain credit report
f) Property address
g) Estimate of value of the property
h) Loan Amount
Answer : a,b,e,f,g,h
7) Can a reverse mortgage payment money be used for a purpose of wedding expense?
a) Yes
b) No
Answer : a
Explanation : Reverse mortgage money can be used for any purpose
8) What does rescinding the loan mean?
a) Borrower should auction his personal belongings against home foreclosure
b) Borrower should break into his retirement fund including 401k, IRA to settle foreclosure
c) Borrower can void the loan as if it was never made
d) None of the above
Answer : c
9) You see an mortgage advertisement that says FHA financing available, 100% Veteran loan VA financing available, easy monthly payment option available. IS this a violation of TILA advertising terms ?
a) Yes
b) No
Answer: b
10) If the loan repayment tenure provides equal monthly payments as long as borrower lives and continues to occupy the home as a primary residence what is this called?
a) Fixed loan
b) Reverse mortgage Home equity Conversion Mortgage (HECMs)
c) VA Loan
d) FHA Loan
Answer : b
11) As per TILA REg Z new disclosures how well in advance is it required to notify before closing if there is a estimated figure change?
a) 3 days
b) 4 days
c) 5 days
d) 6 days
Answer : a
12) Which is a fixed-rate mortgage that offers borrowers a limited opportunity to reduce the interest rate one time during the course of the loan under certain conditions?
a) Variable option mortgage
b) ARM mortgage
c) Reduction option mortgage
d) FHA mortgage
Answer : c
13) The borrowers loan is current. The mortgage servicer is required to remove PMI on a high-risk loan. At what LTV can the mortgage servicer do this?
a) 80%
b) 77%
c) 100%
d) 78%
Answer : b
Explanation : As per the homeowners protection act (HPA), once the high-risk loan reached LTV of 77% the mortgage servicer should automatically remove PMI provided the borrower’s loan is in current standing
14) You are processing a FHA fixed-rate loan. The borrower wants to know details on whether they need to pay MIP. What is your answer?
a) A borrower availing FHA loan is required to pay MIP every month in form of monthly payments for a minimum of eleven years or the life of the loan based on the loan’s original LTV
b) The borrower is required to pay MIP for three years only
c) The borrower is not required to pay MIP in a FHA loan
d) Borrower need not have to pay MIP in 30year fixed FHA loan
Answer : a
15) A mortgage broker gets a business deal from a title insurance company. The title insurance company sends a computer system to the mortgage broker. The mortgage broker is processing loans and uses this business computer system to transmit information to the title insurance company. Is it legally acceptable as per RESPA?
a) Yes they are not at fault
b) Only title insurance company is at fault
c) Only mortgage broker is at fault
d) both mortgage broker and title insurance company are at fault
Answer : d
Explanation : As per RESPA computer is a thing of value that is used for business purposes which is unacceptable
16) A mortgage broker got a referral from a title insurance company. He sends a thank-you note to the title insurance company for referring a client. IS this violation os RESPA?
a) Yes. the mortgage broker is at fault
b) Yes. The title insurance company is at fault
c) Both are at fault
d) None of them are at fault as a thank-you note does not constitute a thing of any value
Answer : d
17) What is the value of a lenders title policy ?
a) It is 50% the amount of loan
b) It is less than amount of loan
c) It is equal to the amount of loan
d) None of tha above
Answer : c
18) A lender asks a borrower to obtain title insurance. Why is that?
a) A lender’s title policy is issues following an extensive title search by the insurance company. This consitutes reasonable assurance that title is clear and any losses from calims on title will be reimbursed. This policy amount is equal to loan amount
b) This policy can be marketed by lender
c) The claims can be made in case of theft in home
d) None of the above
Answer : a
19) Who is having oversight and supervisory authority over loan originators that does participate in NMLS, conduct background checks, write rules and regulations?
a) A state legislature
b) A federal legislature
c) A state licensing agency
d) Attorney at law
Answer : c
20) The title insurance company requests a mortgage lender to have his fee waived for a specific client. In return they offer to refer more clients in future. Who if any have violated RESPA here?
a) Both of them
b) None of them
c) Title company
d) Mortgage lender
Answer : a
Explanation : As per RESPA a thing of value comes into picture as soon as one of them has offered something of value. This is violation
21) The borrower family have been qualified for a loan amount of $250000 at two point broker fee. What is the dollar amount of the broker fee?
a) 5000
b) 500
c) 50000
d) 50
Answer : a

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HL7 Interview Questions


1) A message is sent by sending application. When new MSH segment is constructed in response to original message by responding application what are the rules used to create initial message? i. In particular MSH-7 date/time of message and MSH-10 message control ID refers to the response message; they are not echoes of the fields in the initial message ii. MSH -5 receiving application, MSH-6 receiving facility, MSH-11 processing id contains codes that are copied from MSH-3 sending application, MSH-4 sending facility and MSH-11 processing ID in the initial message
2) What components are ignored while receiving HL7 messages and converting their contents to data values? Ignore segments, fields, components,sub-components and extra repetitions of field that are present but were not expected
3) What happens while receiving HL7 messages and converting their contents to data values?
a) Ignore segments, fields, components, sub-components and extra repetitions of field that are present but were not expected
b) Treat fields and components that are expected but were not included in a segment as not present
c) Treat segments that were expected but are not present as consisting entirely of fields that are not present
4) What is the name of the delimiter that is defined in the second field of the MSH segment?
Encoding characters
5) In original mode, which acknowledgement code is returned by the receiver if the originating message passes original syntactic validation but then is not processed successfully?
AE the Application Error code is returned
6) In original mode , which acknowledgement code is returned by the receiver if the originating message has an invalid value for message type, version ID , or processing control ID?
AR the Application Reject
7) In original mode which acknowledgement code is returned by the receiver if the originating message is processed successfully?
Application Accept AA
8) The four characters of MSH-2 contain the following four delimiters component separator, repetition separator, sub-component separator, escape character always in what order?
Component separator, repetition separator, sub-component separator, escape character
9) What does a message profile contain?
A message profile contains the definition of the transmitted data
10) In the field definition calls for a field to be broken into components what rules are used?
Following rules are used:
a. If more than one component is include they are separated by the component separator
b. Components that are present but null are represented by the characters “”
c. Components that are not present at the end of a field need not be represented by component separator
11) What is the encoding character in the following message segment given below
MSH|^~&|MegaReg|UABHospC|ImgOrdMgr|UABImgCtr|20010529090131-0500||ADT^A01|01052901|P|2.3.5 ?
The second segment in a message segment MSH-2 is the encoding character `^~&`
12) Give details on HL7 technical correction rules :-
Set of HL7 technical correction rules determine the technical corrections that can be applied between versions of HL7. IT gets done on a case-by-case basis.
Technical correction is possible in one or more of the following scenarios
1) Spelling corrections
2) Errors from external table imports like transcription errors
3) Examples with mistakes in prior versions of HL7
4) Problem (or) issues with descriptions
5) If there is an inconsistency between segment attribute table and field narrative it needs correction
6) Problem with section reference
13) What is HL7 RIM?
HL7 RIM is the abbreviation of Reference Information Model (RIM). HL7 version 3 is the latest version of HL7. Information on latest RIM from HL7 is documented in its normative editions latest being 2012
14) What happens when we delete the anchoring segment of the segment group?
All information in repeating segment group is deleted
15) What is a HL7 abstract message definition?
HL7 Control chapter deals with the set of generic rules that do apply to all messages. These rules are not confined to specific messages as such. These rules form basics of message construction, the type of data to be sent with each of them, the inter-relationship among messages. As these rules are pure application layer rules the level 7 rules this is also called abstract message definition
They form basics of constructing messages that applications particularly in a healthcare setup do make use of to interact with each other
16) Which segment allows for greater descriptions of erraneous conditions?
ERR segment
17) What is the purpose of FTS ?
FTS the file trailer segment defines the end of a file
18) Can we associate the trigger event with more than once with message type?
Yes, we can do that. A message type can always be associated with more than one trigger event
19) What are the many different parts of a message?
a) element
b) datatype
c) field
d) component
20) What is a trigger event?
Trigger event is a real world event that triggers the messages between systems in healthcare. HL7 is a standard. All others form part of message
21) The ORU message type is used to transmit information related to patients. What is transmitted using ORU message type?
Observation results
22) What are the responsibilities of HL7 standard in a software implementation?
HL7 takes care of data security, interface engine
23) What messages (or) message constituents can be changed?
Field datatype, data type component, descriptive text name of messages are the message constituent that can be changed
24) Which are the components of HD datatype?
Universal ID type, Universal ID, Namespace ID
25) Is Name of coding system component of HD datatype?
Nope
26) What can’t be changed as per HL7 compatibility rules?
segment group name
27) What can be changed as per HL7 compatibility rules?
Messages, message constituents
28) Which are basic type of messages defined in scheduling transaction set?
Request transaction, query transaction, unsolicited transaction
29) What is a trigger event?
An event in the real world of healthcare which creates the need for data to flow among systems
30) What is covered in HL7 message definitions?
a) adding messages
b) adding message constituents
c) changing messages
d) changing message constituents
31) In MSH what does the field MSH-6 represent?
Receiving facility
32) Which of the following fields from MSH segment have unique identifier used to relate the message response to the initial message?
MSH-10 message control ID
33) In MSH segment what does the field MSH-11 represent?
Processing ID
34) With what is a message type associated?
A message type in HL7 is associated with more than one trigger event
35) What are the capabilities expected to be provided by communication environment while integration using HL7?
Error free transmission, character conversion, message length
36) What are the modes of acknowledgement in HL7?
a. Application ACK
b. Accept ACK
37) What is the meaning of segments R,B,O,C?
Here is the meaning of many different segments :
R- required
B – left for the sake of backward compatibility with previous version of HL7
O – Optional
C- conditional
38) How many segments can a HL7 message contain. What is maximum limit?
120 is the maximum number of segments that a HL7 message can have
39) Which segment in HL7 contains the message control ID to be used by receiving system in message acknowledge segment MSA?
MSH-10 is the field that contains the message control ID. This field can be number or any other identifier. This is used to uniquely identify the message. It is used by receiving system to be used with MSA
40) Which segment defines number of batches contained in a file ?
FTS-1 is the file batch count segment. It is the field that contains details on number of batches contained in a file
41) When square brackets appear around the name of a segment [](or around a group of segment names) what does it mean?
It means that segment or group is optional
42) Given the following abstract message definition take the following example of an HL7 message of type ORM in response to the ADT message and check if it conforms to the AMS ?
Nope. Message control id is the different as that for the ADT or ACK message examples
43) You have been asked to choose between dedicated proprietory interface vs HL7. What advantages/disadvantages can you think of?
Dedicated proprietary interface scope becomes easy whereas HL7 scope definition is not easy. However in long run it is the best solution. Dedicated proprietory interface can be targeted to environment in which it operates. Dedicated proprietory interface can be optimized in its operating environment. HL7 interface has a broad scope and require more effort to define and constrain, but upon clearly defining scope it becomes easy to implement, maintain and extend
44) In response to a specific query which messages are not sent from an user or an application?
Unsolicited messages are not sent in response to a query from an user or application
45) What is the scope of HL7?
HL7 is a standard and its scope starts with specification of messages between application systems, determining communication environment including protocols like TCP/IP and triggering events. Specification of messages between application systems. Communication environment. Triggering events
46) In MSH segment what does the field MSA-4 represent?
Expected sequence number
47) In MSH segment what does the field MSH-3 represent?
Sending application
48) What is the use of MSH-25 segment?
Receiving network address
49) Which segment allows for unambiguous identification of a patient using one or more identifiers?
PID the Patient Information segment
50) Which field in message segment points to the location of message definition in the standard?
The MSH-9 segment is used for this purpose
51) In OSI model in which level of OSI does HL7 operate?
The seventh layer Application layer. HL7 operates on 7th layer the application layer
52) Give name of a standard that defines a series of predefined logical formats of packaging healthcare data in the form of messages to be transmitted among computer application systems :-
HL7 standard from hl7.org is designed to help application systems talk to each other. Starting with healthcare it has started gaining popularity among financial systems as well
53) What is purpose of A01 event?
A01 is basically used to trigger events related to patient admission. Some if its usage includes :
a) The pharmacy system that a patient has been admitted
b) The nursing system that the patient has been admitted
c) The finance system of the start of billing period
54) Which segment is mandatory in HL7 message?
The mandatory segment happens to be MSH
55) Give some optional segments in a HL7 message :-
ZAA,NTE, DSC
56) What does FTS signify?
FTS signifies the end of field
57) How do you know if a message is encoded using a different character set in a localized environment e.g French, German?
Choose answer:
The character set to be used can be specified in the MSH segment MSH-18
58) In enhanced mode which acknowledgement code is returned by the receiver if the originating message passes original syntactic validation but then cannot be accepted for same reason say for example the value of sequence number is invalid?
The code returned is CE the commit error
59) Which one among these escape sequences represents start highlighting?
Make use of the escape sequence H
60) An EKG waveform could be encoded in which of the following HL7 datatypes?
Using ED – Encapsulated Data
61) What is the specified maximum field length for a field of datatype IS?
20
62) In the segment attribute tables what information is provided in the column labeled DT?
The basic building block used to construct or restrict the contents of a data filed
63) In the segment attribute tables what information is provided in the columns labeled RP/#?
This represents whether the field may repeat
64) In ERR segment what does the field ERR-3 represent?
HL7 Error code
65) What does field ERR-11 represent in ERR segment?
Override reason code
66) Which datatype allows for the transmission of a name plus an identifier, identifier type, internationalization information, and the timestamp of some action and has 24 components?
PPN the performing person timestamp
67) Encoding Characters field is a part of which segment?
It is part of segment MSH
68) Patient arrivals at an ER is an example of which event?
This is an unsolicited event
69) Give details on some HL7 events :-
a. swap patients
b. unsolicited transmission of an observation message
c. delete person information
d. query sent for deferred response
70) Is application acknowledgement a HL7 event?
Nope
71) When transfer of information is initiated by the application that does not deal with the triggering event wha tis it called?
Query/response mode
72) Choose the escape sequence that represents escape character?
The escape character is E
73) HL7 operates at which OSI layer?
It operates at the Application level. HL7 is the application layer protocol and operates at seventh layer in HL7
74) What does BTS and FTS represent?
Batch trailer segment is BTS and FTS is field trailer segment
75) In MSH segment what does the field MSH-14 represent?
It represents Continuation Pointer
76) In ERR segment what does the field ERR-10 represent?
It represents Override type
77) In ERR segment what does the field ERR-6 represent?
Application Error parameter
78) In BH segment what does the field BSH-4 represent?
It represents Batch sending facility
79) What is meaning of ERR-1 in error segment ERR?
It represents Error code and location
80) What are the advantages/disadvantages of either using a dedicated , propreitory interface and an interface using HL7?
a) A dedicated, propreitory interface can be targeted and optimized to the environment in which it operates
b) HL7 interfaces are broader in scope and require more effort to define and constrain , but when well-defined are easier to implement, maintain, extend
81) Which escape sequence represents hexadecimal data?
This is represented by the escape sequence Xddd…
82) Scheduling transaction set is defined using what basic type of messages?
Scheduling transaction set is defined using request, query and unsolicited transaction messages.Request transaction, query transaction, unsolicited transaction
83) Which messages are not sent in response to a specific query from user or an application?
Unsolicited updates are not sent in response to a specific query from an user or an application
84) When the transfer of information is initiated by application system that deals with the triggering event, what is the transaction termed as?
Unsolicited update
85) In ERR segment what does the field ERR-4 represent?
Severity
86) Which datatype accommodates short data of 200 characters or less and contains printable characters except for the delimiter characters?
ST the string data type
87) How would you encode a price of $xUSA in HL7 message?
|x^USD|
88) Which is the most commonly used money datatype in HL7?
Using MO
89) Which escape sequence that represents subcomponent separator?
It is using escape sequence T
90) What datatype accommodates a code value, code text and the name of the coding system in which the value is defined?
CE
91) What segment in HL7 is used to represent date/time that the sending system created the message ?
MSH-7 is the field that contains details on date/time at which the sending system created the message. The timezone specified in here if any will be the default timezone
92) Which numeric datatype is used for transmitting test or observation results ,and permits multiple vectors to be delimited by the repetition separator?
The numeric datatype is NA
93) hat datatype is used for transmitting coded values in a single component from HL7 defined tables?
Using ID
94) Which numeric datatype is used for expressing qualified clinical results and ranges for example : |^300^-^400| which would indicate a value in the range of 300 to 400?
It can be represented using datatype NM
95) Which datatype is used to transmit patient identifier and its scope?
CX the extended composite ID with check digit
96) What are the parts of a message?
a) element
b) component
c) field
97) What is a trigger event in HL7?
Trigger event is a real world event that triggers the messages between systems in healthcare
98) Is it possible to plug and play with HL7?
a) No as there is lack of a common data model
b) No as it deals with message specifications only
c) No as there exists a lack of process conformity with vendors. Due to this conformance has to be separately defined as per site negotiations. Also there is lack of negotiations within vendor
99) What is an array in HL7?
Objects grouped together and have a notable relationship among each other are called as arrays
100) Which datatype is used in HL7 for the transmission of basic geographic address data ?
Make use of datatype XAD