MS BI Interview questions book covering SSRS SSIS SSAS interview questions and answers

Recently one of my blog readers asked me a query, whether I know of any book that provides interview questions and answers related to SSIS , SSAS and SSRS i.e MS BI related topics. Candidate who posted this question has/had prepared for the interview, but wanted such book to gain confidence for appearing interviews. I felt that I would discuss this topic in the form of a post, rather than replying in the form of a comment, as I find many of my blog readers sending me queries through email or in the form of comment, specifically for interview related topics.

Firstly, to answer this question straight, there is no book dedicated to MS BI interview questions. Now the question comes that how to get a mock interview session or how to evaluate oneself to test whether you are ready for a MS BI interview. Here are a few steps that should help you prepare for the same.

1) Bank on your area of expertise : As I always say, no interview is a generalized interview. You need to be very thorough in your area of expertise and prepare in accordance to the role that you are targeting. If you are appearing as an MDX / Cube developer, preparing thoroughly in T-SQL won't add much value. Even if you score passing marks in that area, that won't impact your selection as your interviewer should be sensible enough to understand that you would rarely work in that area. So instead of concentrating your energies in all the areas (unless you are targeting an architect / MS BI Tech Lead role), concentrate your energy on your area of strength.

2) Mock Test / Practice Test questions : Many certification exams books like Self Paced Training Kit , Exam Cram and others come with a lot of practice questions (approx min 300 questions) which are scenario based. For example, self paced training kit book from microsoft press comes with a practice test software and lots of practice questions in each area of MS BI. And when you appear this practice exams, based on your performance, it would also recommend the areas where you need improvement. One additional benefit of such tests is that your vocabulary (theoretical knowledge) would improve a lot.

3) Theory of Top 5 : One more theory that you can use is pick up top 5 hardest questions in SSIS , SSAS and SSRS. Start with it and try to figure out the maximum questions you can ask from the start-up question. For ex, "What is an Execution Tree in SSIS" and from this question I can ask another question "How can I find number of trees in my package" , "What are blocking and non-blocking transformations" etc. If you are able to score 70% in all these areas, you have a great probability of crossing the interview. In summary, think like an interviewer to appear for an interview.

4) Community Service : Confused, how this is going to help for interview preparation / gaining confidence to appear for an MS BI Interview ? By community service I mean, join MSDN SSIS / SSAS / SSRS forums and spend around a month addressing various questions. You would generally get a feel of how good are you at addressing regular technical issues.

5) Prepare your Notes : The moment you start preparing for your interview, keep collecting your questions. After spending around a month or two and following the above 4 steps, you would have collected decently large number of questions instead of wandering from website to website for interview questions.

I am of the opinion that create your own book, instead of depending or searching for books related to interview questions. I have not appeared for any job interviews from the past 3.5 years, but when I would start looking out for a change, I would definitely practice this theory :-)