Introduction to Cognos Interview Questions And Answer
Cognos is a Business Intelligence tool developed by an Ontario-based company in Canada that develops business intelligence and performance management software products in which the parent organization is IBM Corporation. IBM Cognos is an analytics solution software that provides interactive business solutions. This is a web-based and reporting as well as an analytical tool which is enterprise software.
So while preparing for a job interview in Cognos. We are sure you want to know the most common 2021 Cognos interview questions and answers that will help you crack the Cognos interview with ease. Below is the list of top Cognos interview questions and answers at your rescue.
Most Asked Cognos Interview Questions and Answers
Following is the list of 2021 Cognos Interview Questions that are mostly asked in an interview:
1. What are the features of the Cognos tool?
Answer:
The Cognos tool’s several features are Templates and Style References, Tabbed Report Output, Dynamic Cubes Hardware Sizing Wizard, Active Report Live Preview, My Data Sets, Extensible Visualization Enhancements, Cube Designer Enhancements, In Memory Aggregates. The Datasets feature allows the users to export the data directly into different formats that will be used to visualize the existing data as per the requirement to study or analyze it.
There are extensible visual enhancements provided by the Cognos tool. The cube designer also contains several new enhancements. Cube Designer also has another new feature that can import the Framework Manager Metadata information. The framework model metadata can be directly imported into the Cube Designer mode.
2. What is a Report Item in Cognos?
Answer:
Reporting is the most important feature of Cognos in the area of the performance management process. It provides the path and way too challenging business intelligence solutions. Reporting can be done using the Tivoli Common Reporting feature provided by the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence version’s business intelligence solutions. A report item is defined as the items added to the report from the package. A report item display as the columns in the list of reports and rows and columns in the crosstab reports section.
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The different reporting types contain Cognos status and trend reports, Opening the Cognos Report Studio portal, Creating a custom Cognos report, Running a Cognos report, Scheduling and emailing a Cognos report, Sharing Cognos reports. The Cognos reports contain the statuses and trending data reports about the Tivoli Storage Manager Server and its clients. Custom Cognos reports can be created by inserting the items from the data source into an empty report. Any existing Cognos report can be opened and viewed by modifying it or using it as the base of a new customized report.
3. What are the gateways used in Cognos?
Answer:
The web communication in the IBM Cognos server usually happens through gateways. There are different types of web gateways provided by the Cognos: CGI, ISAPI, Servlet, Apache mod, where Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a basic gateway. Internet Server Application Programming Interface (ISAPI is used in the Windows environment. Servlet is the best gateway for the application servers those support servlets. Apache mod is the gateway supported by the Apache Servers like Tomcat. The gateway components are managed by using IBM Cognos BI Server.
When the IBM Cognos BI gateway server receives a request, it encrypts the passwords always to ensure security. It also extracts the information required to submit the requests to the IBM Cognos BI server. It passes the requests to IBM Cognos BI Server for dispatching and processing. It also attaches the environment variables into the Web server and also adds a default namespace to the request in order to ensure that the server always authenticates the current user in the correct namespace directory.
4. What is a Query Studio in Cognos?
Answer:
A Query Studio is a reporting tool in Cognos to create simple queries and reports in the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence server. In Query Studio, we can view data, create reports, change reports’ appearance, and work with data in a report. The data can be viewed by connecting to a data source and viewing the data in a hierarchical tree by expanding the query subjects to check the query item’s details. The reports can be created by using the data source, which can be saved and reused. A new report can also be created by opening an existing report and changing it by saving it using a different name.
The appearance of the reports can be changed by improving the layout the reports. For example, a chart can be created by adding a title and specifying text and border styles or by reordering the columns for an easy comparison of data. The data in a report can be worked out by using filters, summaries, and calculations by comparing and analyzing the data and drilling up and drilling down the data to view the related information. To effectively use the Query Studio in Cognos, one should be familiar with the organization’s business operations, procedures, and data. One may also need to be familiar with the other components and architecture of the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence.
5. What are the advantages of the Cognos tool?
Answer:
The advantages of IBM Cognos tools are such as it reduces the maintenance cost due to its complete report coverage and less footprint environment. The results provided are faster in shortening the reports due to its integration and adaptive authoring. Familiar business terms cause this to be more adaptive and able to work. Able to use different types of data representation such as a bar or 3D bar, pie or doughnut, crosstabs, gauge, line, scatter, funnel, waterfall and dot density features. Complex and multiple page creation capabilities using multiple data sources.
All sources have high-performance data access, irrespective of environment, providing high-performance data accessibility, open architecture standards support such as SOAP, WSDL, and XML. Multiple export formats—Excel, Extensible Markup Language (XML), Portable Document Format (PDF), Comma Separated Value (CSV) and Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML), Seamless integration facility by providing automatic delivery reports for the users’ working languages. Also, the features include deploying applications, designing reports, and doing comparative analysis. The business models can be transformed into a reactive model by identifying the possible risks and outcomes by making a thorough analysis using predictive tools.
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