Tableau Server Certified Professionals Interview Questions
The Tableau Server Certified Professional exam was officially retired on July 31, 2021.
Tableau Server Certified Professionals are the lifeblood of Tableau support. These experts know everything there is to know about making your Tableau projects a seamless success. So, in order to pass the interview, you must showcase your understanding of the Tableau Server functionality in a single-machine and enterprise arrangement. Moreover, it is highly recommended to be familiar with configuring, monitoring, maintaining, and troubleshooting all features of a production environment.
The questions you’ll most likely be asked in the Tableau Server Certified Professionals interview are those that reveal the most about your personality, strengths and weaknesses, and ability to succeed. So here’s a list of some highly likely questions in the Tableau Server Certified Professionals interviews.
1. What is the purpose of the Tableau server?
Tableau Server is a powerful tool for managing self-service capabilities. You can set up groups and user permissions so that managers can protect access to projects. It helps you give your users more self-service capabilities.
2. Could you explain what a Tableau architecture is?
Tableau Server is designed to connect many data tiers, allowing clients to access their data from mobile devices, web browsers, and desktops. With Tableau Desktop you can easily analyse your company’s data with stunning visualisations that help you find important trends. It’s secure, highly available, and very easy to use.
3. What are the system requirements for Tableau?
According to Tableau’s tech specs page, Tableau Desktop must meet the following minimum requirements:
- MSWindows 7 or newer version (32-bit & 64-bit)
- Microsoft Server 2008 R2 or newer.
- Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Opteron processor or newer.
- 2 GB memory.
- 1.5 GB minimum free disk space.
- 1366 x 768 screen resolution or higher.
4. Can Tableau Server licence be shared?
To access Tableau Online, Permitted Users will need a user ID and password. These credentials are granted to individuals, but not to organisations. Customers will be responsible for ensuring that all Permitted Users keep their passwords confidential.
5. What is a Tableau data source?
Tableau connects to data via a data source. A data source is made up of the following: a data connection that describes what data you want to bring into your workbook; joins that combine your tables into one logical table; and calculations, which are used for creating measures and dimensions.
6. How is data stored in Tableau Server?
When a Tableau Workbook has a connection to a live data source and is published to Tableau Server, it does not store any data on the server. However, if a data extract is used in the workbook, it will be stored on the server.
7. What are the steps to optimise a Tableau Server?
There are five crucial tips for improving Tableau Server’s performance:
- Firstly, using Active Directory from the start
- Second, using functional permissioning
- Understanding and monitoring Tableau Data Extracts
- Constructing a high availability Tableau Server
- Last but not least. iImplementing user filters.
8. What is the simplest way to check my Tableau Server performance?
- Firstly, visit the site you want to enable performance recording for
- Then, click Settings
- Now, select Record workbook performance metrics under the Workbook Performance Metrics
- Finally, click Save
9. Who can add users in Tableau server?
Users of Tableau Server must be added to the server’s user list. There are two ways to add users to your server: You can create a local account or an Active Directory account.
10. How do I manage users in Tableau server?
Sign in first to the Tableau Server. Then, from the site menu, select Manage All Sites and then Users. By default, server administrators can manage users on an individual site. Server administrators can also manage users on multiple sites.
11. How many users can be created in Tableau Server?
The number of users you can create depends on your server license type. For user-based licenses, the license tells you the maximum number of registered users you can have across a range of user-based license types. For core-based licenses, you can create as many users as you want.
12. What is the difference between Tableau Server and Tableau Online?
Tableau Online is a cloud-based version of Tableau Server, which is a central system for storing data and allowing users to share data and visualizations with other users. The difference between the two is that Tableau Online stores data on a central system in the cloud, while Tableau Server stores data on any computer.
13. What is the method followed to clean the Tableau Server?
To clean up files, run the maintenance cleanup command to remove log files older than seven days, temporary files, and optionally, rows from the http_requests table in the Tableau Server repository. It is highly recommended running the cleanup command regularly.
14. What do you know about node failure, and what causes a failed node?
Node failure is a condition that occurs when a node becomes disconnected from the cluster and is unable to communicate with it. Node failure can occur due to a variety of reasons, including hardware failure or software crash, loss of network connectivity or failure to complete state transfer successfully.
15. What is the TSM command line?
The command essentially invokes the terminal state manager (TSM), which in turn controls the ports that are used in the trusted path. TSM performs certain functions, such as executing programs that establish line communication modes and discipline (functions performed by the getty command).
16. How can a Tableau Server be accessed from the browser?
To access Tableau Server from a computer or device in your network, go to the url: http://<computername>. If you are using the default port, then type URL: http://<computername>. However, if you are using a custom port then type url: http://<computername>:<port number>
17. What is the difference between viewer and interactor in tableau?
Interactor are users who log in to the server and can view and interact with published worksheets. Whereas viewers are users who don’t have log-in credentials can only see workbook images, but can’t interact with them. Unlicensed: Unlicensed users can’t sign in to the server.
18. Does Tableau work with PostgreSQL?
With Tableau 2020.4, one can connect to the PostgreSQL 12 (or higher) databases from Tableau. There is also a new JDBC driver for PostgreSQL that supports these connections, but the driver is only required on Windows.
19. When talking about the Tableau Server, what are alerts?
Alerts let you know when something of interest happens on the Tableau Server machine. You can set up alerts to tell you when the server’s disk space is running low and when processes start or stop on the server. These events often indicate that a problem is occurring.
20. Is Tableau Server a cookie-based application?
Tableau Server uses browser cookies to make embedded dashboards work. Sometimes these cookies are blocked by your browser in an effort to protect you (a bit like an overprotective fitness coach). When this happens, dashboards may not load properly.
21. What port does Tableau Desktop use to connect to Tableau Server?
Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder use common ports to send and receive data via the internet. Most computers are already configured to allow communication through these ports, so you do not need to change any settings.
22. What is the simplest way of moving tableau from one server to another?
On the other Tableau Server, sign in to the server, then publish the data source. When publishing, select the Update workbook to use the published data source. Then, under the workbook name, select Publish Workbook to publish it to the other Tableau Server.
23. How do I create a new data source in Tableau Server?
Create a Data Source or Add a New Connection with Clipboard Data
- First, you need to select and copy the data which you wish, to the clipboard
- Then, you must open Tableau Desktop and either select Data > Paste Data as Connection on the data source page, or Paste the data as Data Source
- Finally, select File > Save to get your data source saved.
24. What steps will you undertake to publish data sources in Tableau?
You can make a data source available to other users by publishing it to Tableau Server or Tableau Online. If the data source is in a workbook published to Tableau Server or Tableau Online, then you can make it available by saving it to the server. You can do this only if the data source is in an embedded Excel or text file.
25. What is the easiest way to publish data in Tableau Server?
To publish data, you first need to select the Data menu at the Sheet level, and then you must click on Data. Subsequently, from the Data menu you must select the name of your data source extract and click Publish to Server. Finally, select your options from the Publish Data Source to Tableau Online dialog box, and click Publish.
26. How would you publish a Tableau workbook on a server?
To publish a workbook to Tableau Server, you first need to open the published workbook and then select Share > Publish Workbook. Now, if the Publish Workbook option isn’t appearing on the Share menu, then you need to make sure that a worksheet or dashboard tab is active (not the Data Source tab). Further, if necessary, then sign in to the Tableau Server.
27. Is it possible to automatically refresh data in Tableau?
Yes it is possible. For that you must select the check box for the workbook or data source that you want to refresh. Then you need to select Actions > Refresh Extracts. Now, in the Refresh Extracts dialog, you have to select Schedule a Refresh, and then select the schedule that you want. Finally, if available, you must specify whether you want a full or just an incremental refresh.
28. Can Tableau update automatically?
Yes, and for that you have to press F10 (Option-Command-0 on a Mac) to toggle automatic updates in and out. Further, while the automatic updates are off, you can still update the view by clicking the Run Update button on the toolbar or pressing F9 (Shift-Command-0 on a Mac).
29. Do you know how one can join two Tableau Server data sources?
To join data from two separate databases in the same workbook, you need to drag one or more tables from the left Dataset pane to the Canvas. Then, under Connections, in the left pane, you must click the Add button (in Tableau Web authoring) to then add your second connection to the Tableau data source. Finally, the Cross-database join option will be displayed.
30. Can you elaborate on the difference between published and embedded data sources in Tableau?
Data sources come in two varieties: published and embedded. A published data source contains connection information that is independent of any workbook and can be used by multiple workbooks. An embedded data source contains connection information that is associated with a specific workbook.