SSIS Interview Questions

Introduction to SSIS Interview Questions And Answers

Microsoft SISS, also known as SQL Server Integration Services, is a data migration and integration tool that runs on the Microsoft Windows platform. A better version of Data Transformation Services (DTS) is SSIS. It is a quick & versatile data warehousing system used for data extraction, loading, and transformation like aggregating, cleaning, merging data, and other data-related activities.

If you are looking for a job related to SSIS in 2023, you must prepare for the interview questions. Keeping this in mind, we have designed the most common SSIS interview questions and answers to help you get success in your interview. Though every SSIS interview is different and the job scope is also different, we can help you with the top SSIS interview questions and answers, which will help you take the leap and succeed in your SSIS interview.

A list of 2023 SSIS Interview Questions mostly asked in an interview are as follows:

Part 1 – SSIS Interview Questions And Answers (Basic)

1. What is SQL Server Integration Services?

Answer:
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a platform for integrating different enterprise-level applications and transformation solutions. Integration services provide complex business solutions to meet business requirements. The different types of complex business solutions include transferring files, sending messages in response to incoming events, data warehouse applications, data mining, data cleaning operations, and updating SQL Server objects or entities. SSIS is also an Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) tool which performs data transformation operations.

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a key component of SQL Server Database Software that carry out different data migration operations. SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) provides programming features and extensibility options to develop customized models for transforms and tasks. SSIS has various features, such as connections, event handlers, tasks, variables, etc.

2. What are the important components of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)?

Answer:
The main and important components of SQL Server Integration Services are SSIS runtime engine, data flow pipeline engine, SSIS object model, and SSIS windows service. The runtime engine provides management of the workflow of a package. The data flow pipeline engine offers the transformation of data from source to destination and in-memory transformations.

The integration services architecture contains integration services, which will be available in SQL Server Management Studio Software to monitor and manage the SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages. The Integration Services object model contains application programming interfaces (API). It gives access to the command-line utilities, custom applications, and Integration Services tools.

The Integration Services runtime layout contains packages, runs packages, and provides support for breakpoints, configuration, connections, logging, and transactions all of which can be saved. The data flow tasks will encapsulate the data flow engine. The in-memory buffers of the data flow engine move data from the source location to the destination location

Part 2 – SSIS Interview Questions And Answers (Advanced)

3. What is a Checkpoint in SSIS?

Answer:
A Checkpoint stores the failures in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages which provides a checkpoint capability to restore the failed package by terminating the failed jobs and resuming with the next ones by providing fault recovery capability. In the Checkpoints header, the properties window provides the Checkpoint File Name, Check Point Usage, and Save Checkpoints. The complete path is mentioned in Checkpoint File Name, where the package variables and completed task logs are stored. Check Point Usage is used to restart at the point where the last task failure occurs.

To implement checkpoint behavior set checkpoint save to true. Checkpoints are mostly used to restart the failure of SSIS packages. It is essential to configure Checkpoints in an SSIS package. A checkpoint can be generated or enabled by using the properties configuration. The checkpoint file is examined by checking the checkpoint element that contains the package id. Whenever an SSIS package starts, SSIS searches and loads for a checkpoint file and reads all the configuration or properties details.

4. What are the different flows in SSIS?

Answer:
Data Flow and Control Flow are the different flows in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). The data flow engine will execute the data flow task, which moves or transfers the data between sources and their destinations. By adding a data flow task into the package, control will provide the Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) tool feature. A data flow contains a minimum of one data flow component.

A typical data flow component contains extracting data from sources and transforming data to destinations that can be modified and data loading at destinations. An execution plan will be provided at the data flow engine at the time of execution. The Bulk processing feature can be utilized instead of data flow tasks to insert the bulk data into the SQL Server Database. A Control Flow provides the path for the execution of the workflow of tasks to be carried out. A looping concept is an example of the Control flow execution method.

Data Flow provides the data transformation from the source destination, In contrast, Control flow defines the way of data flow logically. Every SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package contains a control flow with at least one data flow optionally. The control flow elements are of three types: containers in packages that provide structures, functionality providing tasks, and precedence constraints. The integration services architecture gives the option of nesting the containers too.

5. What are the different types of transformations?

Answer:
Different transformations include Business Intelligence Transformations, Split and Join Transformations, Row Transformations, Row-Set Transformations, and Miscellaneous Transformations. Along with those noted above, there is also custom transformation and numerous other subtypes of SSIS transformation.

The transformations are the main components of the Dataflow tasks that transform the data from source feeds to destinations in the desired formats or structures as required. The main advantage of transformations is they have in memory and do not require any elaborations in the SQL scripts. There are also Synchronous and Asynchronous Transformations which are useful for concurrent transformations.

Data Conversion Transformations and Derived Columns are Synchronous transformations where the data flows into memory buffers during the transformation process, and the same buffer reaches out. Asynchronous Transformations cause the blockage of data flow, which is of two types, namely partially blocking transformations and fully blocking transformations. These two are significant transformations in SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS).

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