Introduction To SSRS Interview Questions And Answers

Nowadays in this competitive business world, there is the need for having good information. All the companies are filled with lots of information and its growing day by day. So, technology has helped to gather this information and create reports which can be easily understood. This can be achieved by using various business reporting tools in the market, one of the reporting tool used for reporting is SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

SQL Server Reporting Services shortly known as SSRS is a component of Microsoft, which is used to create reports using charts, graphs, maps and other visualization techniques from multidimensional sources. You use SSRS to create, manage, test and deploy reports to the business users. SSRS is one of the components of Microsoft Business Intelligence platform.

So you have finally found your dream job in SSRS but are wondering how to crack the SSRS interview and what could be the probable SSRS interview questions. Every interview is different and the scope of a job is different too. Keeping this in mind we have designed the most common SSRS interview questions and answers to help you get success in your interview.

Below are the top SSRS Interview Questions that are mostly asked in an interview

1. List out some of the important features of SSRS?

Answer:
Below are some of the important features of SSRS that are useful in creating Business Reports:

• The reports can be built by using relational, XML, Excel or multidimensional sources and can recover data from ODBC and OLE DB connection providers.
• In SSRS users can create reports in different forms like tabular, free form, graphical, charts and matrix form
• It also supports web-based features; anyone can interact with report server in web directly and can view reports in web-based applications.
• Any number of ad hoc reports can be created by using graphics, images or external contents and save them in  server.
• All the reports created in the SSRS can be exported in various formats like XML, CSV, TIFF, PDF, HTML and Excel.
• It has the automated option for subscribing reports to user’s mailbox, mobile and shared location.
• It supports Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) programming interface and pluggable architecture.

2. What are the advantages of SQL Server Reporting Services?

Answer:
Below are some of the advantages of SQL Server Reporting Services:

• It is very easy to deploy, as reports are stored in one centralized web server where users can run a report from one place.
• Since SSRS allows exporting reports in various format, it is very easy for further analysis of reports with multiple file format.
• Processing of final reports are faster on relational or multidimensional data.
• Delivery of information to a business organization is faster so it is helpful in providing better decision support.
• There is no need for a specialist to manage SSRS, so no need for expensive specialist skills.
• Business users can interact with information without involving IT professionals.
• Security can be applied to folders as well as reports and is managed in a role-based manner.

3. What are the drawbacks of SQL Server Reporting Services?

Answer:
Even though SSRS is a great tool with many advantages, there are few drawbacks of it, they are:

• SSRS is mainly built for developers, to make use of all the features in SSRS you need to learn SQL code and SSRS functions. It is not understandable to the average business users.
• When you are running a huge report with lots of data, it takes up lots of resource in server.
• SSRS runs only in windows, so many companies who ae not using windows cannot make use of this tool.
• A separate Mobile server is required to run reports in mobile devices.
• There is no option to share values between main reports and sub reports; you can only pass the values from subreport to the main report through parameters.
• You required an expert to debug the expression and custom code.

4. What are the minimum software requirements of SSRS?

Answer:
Below are the list of minimum software requirements of SQL Server Reporting Services:

• Processor: Intel Pentium II or Higher processor
• Operating System: Windows Server 2003 (Standard or Enterprise edition), Windows 2000 or Windows XP professional with Service pack 4 or higher.
• Memory: 256 MB of RAM and 512 MB or more based on requirements.
• Hard Disk: 50 MB for report server, 100 MB for .Net framework, 30 MB for report designer, 145 MB for samples.
• Database: SQL server 2000 with service pack 3 (standard, enterprise and developer edition)

5. List and explain the components of SSRS architecture?

Answer:
Below are the important components of SQL Server Reporting Services:

• Report Builder: In this component, you can make use of report design functionality that is very helpful for creating ad-hoc reports. It serves as a report-publishing tool that executes the report in the client computer.
• Report Designer: It is used to develop simple and complex reports; it is used as a publishing tool.
• Report Manager: All the web based repots can be accessed using this this component.
• Report Server: This is a server that stores the metadata information using SQL server database engine.
• Report Server database: It is used to store metadata, report definition, security settings, data delivery and other information’s.
• Data Sources: SSRS receives the data from relational, XML, Excel and multidimensional data source.

6. What are the core components of SSRS?

Answer:
Below are the three main components of SQL Server Reporting Services:

• Full set of tools: that is used to develop, test, manage and view reports
• Report Server Component: used to process report in various formats like HTML, XML, PDF, Excel, CSV etc.
• An Application programming Interface (API): to integrate with other applications and also to build and manage reports.

7. List out the different type of reports that SSRS creates?

Answer:
Below are the different types of SSRS reports that are created:

• Ad-hoc reports
• Drilldown reports
• Drillthrough reports
• Linked reports
• Sub reports
• Parameterized reports
• Cached reports
• Snapshot reports
• Clickthrough reports

8. What are the different Reporting Life Cycle in SSRS and Explain?

Answer:
There ae three phases in Reporting Life Cycle of SSRS, they are:

• Report Development: This phase involves mainly the developers, here all the reports are designed and developed by report developers
• Report management: This phase involves mainly the Data Base Administrator (DBA), where he has to make sure
  • Only authorized users can access the reports.
  • Optimize the data source performance when executing the report
  • Maintaining the scheduling of reports to users
• Report Delivery: This phase will make sure that the developed and executed reports would reach the business users for decision-making. If any flaws or changes required in reports then it goes back to development phase for the correction or changes.

9. List out and explain some of the command prompt utilities for SSRS?

Answer:
There are many command prompt utilities for SQL Server Reporting Services that can be used to administer report server. These utilities will be automatically installed when you are installing a report server. Below are the list of utilities:

• RSS Utility: The command file is ‘RS.exe’, this supports Native and SharePoint development modes. This is used to perform a scripted operation and also used to deploy the reports on the report server.
• Powershell cmdlets: This supports only SharePoint mode, it will install Reporting SharePoint service and proxy servers, it also provides provisioning and managing of Reporting service application and proxies.
• Rsconfig utility: The command file is ‘rsconfig.exe’, this supports only Native development mode. It is used to configure and manage the report server connection to repository database.
• RsKeymgmt utility: The command file is ‘rskeymgmt.exe’, it supports only Native developer mode. It is an encrypted key management tool used to backup, delete, apply and recreate symmetric keys via command line.

10. List the different types of data sources supported in SSRS?

Answer:
SSRS supports many data sources, below are the list of data sources in SSRS:

• Oracle
• XML
• ODBC
• OLE DB
• SAP BW
• Teradata
• Microsoft SQL server
• Hyperion
• Report Server Model
• Microsoft SharePoint List
• Microsoft Azure SQL DB

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