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Microstrategy Interview Questions and Answers

Updated Mar 19, 2019

What is Microstrategy?

Microstrategy is an enterprise data warehousing application. It supports interactive scorecards, dashboards, alerts, data visualization and the functionality of automated reporting. The Microstrategy mobile application also supports business intelligence.
    
What are the benefits of Microstrategy?

The benefits of Microstrategy are as follows:

  • It is used to monitor information, and develop reports in real time. Knowledge of database programming is not required.
  • By using the Microstrategy Web, online access to data is easy. Searching for data is also user-friendly.
  • Users can easily modify reports through the Microstrategy Office version, using the Microsoft Office. 
  • Users can access the software through a mobile application compatible on most devices and operating systems.

How to use Microstrategy?

The different uses of Microstrategy are:

  • Business analysts use the software for predictive analysis and data mining. This is done to develop business reports.
  • It has a huge library of more than 200 OLAP, financial and mathematical data analytics functions, which help the data scientists to derive KPIs for businesses.
  • Used by data scientists for data parsing and wrangling.
  • Data analysts use built-in tools for data visualization.
  • Live data can be monitored in real-time through easy to make dashboards.

How to create a dashboard in Microstrategy?  

The steps to create a dashboard in Microstrategy are as follows:

  • Click on Create on the left side of the Microstrategy web application. Then click on New Document.
  • Select a dashboard template when prompted.
  • After selecting the blank dashboard, unlock it from the Options.
  • Right click on the padlock symbol, click on Properties and Formatting. From Properties window uncheck the locked check box.
  • Hit on OK to make the Dashboard ready to use.

What is lookup table in Microstrategy?    

In Microstrategy, the lookup tables represent the attributes. Using the description tables and Ids, the attribute information is stored. If information about a single attribute is stored, the table is called normalized. If information about multiple attributes is stored, the table is called denormalized. This storage depends on the selection of the physical schema.

What is narrowcast server in Microstrategy?

MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server is a delivery server that shares business information to the end users through email, SMS, printers, mobile devices, and file services. It consists of a Subscription Portal and a Delivery Engine that can be installed on one or more machines. Based on one’s requirement, the delivery service and information transmission service can be developed.

What is metadata in MicroStrategy?

Metadata in Microstrategy is a database that contains the information about the Microstrategy objects. Information about application objects, schema, and configuration objects are present here. The project settings and data warehouse information are also present here.

What is metrics in MicroStrategy?   

Mathematical operations and calculations performed on data are called metrics in Microstrategy. Based on certain values of some columns, these metrics depict average, division or summation results in a column. The built-in functions of Microstrategy are utilized for performing calculations on business data. The different types of metrics are:

  • Simple metrics
  • Nested metrics
  • Compound metrics
  • Derived metrics

What are the VLDB properties in Microstrategy?     

The Microstrategy SQL that has been generated can be customized using the VLDB properties. Based on these VLDB (Very Large Data Base), the Intelligence server manages the query optimization, calculations, and metrics. These properties govern the working of the Analytical and SQL Engine, which have a significant influence on the business reports. The different levels where the VLDB properties can be set are:

  • Attribute level
  • Report level
  • Database instance level

What are the attributes in MicroStrategy?

In Microstrategy, the entities are represented using the attributes. These are usually identified through a unique ID inside the database or data warehouse. These work as the column headers in the database. The different types of attributes are:

  • Simple attribute
  • Implicit attribute
  • Derived attribute
  • Compound Key attribute

How to create a derived attribute in MicroStrategy?

A derived attribute in Microstrategy has a value that is decided by the combination of two or more columns. The derived attribute can be developed based on an object. The steps to create such an attribute:

  • Make a dataset consisting of the necessary objects.
  • Create the derived attribute by adding the dataset in the reporting services document.
  • Add the attribute in the document grid.

What is an implicit attribute in Microstrategy?    

An implicit attribute is developed at the application level and it does not physically exist in the database. It has its own expression. As it has a constant value, it is not usually saved in a column or table. An implicit expression is required for creating such an attribute.

What is a compound attribute in MicroStrategy?    

A compound attribute in Microstrategy is where more than one column is made the ID column. Therefore, more than one column is needed to identify that compound attribute distinctively. The presence of a compound key relationship is depicted when a compound attribute is created.

What is the attribute role in Microstrategy?   

In Microstrategy, the attribute roles are one of the most popular features. The attribute role is a schema modelling practice where two or more attributes are created using the same lookup table. These attributes may not return any data when they are put in the same report.  Attribute roles are specified using the following ways:

  • Aliasing the table
  • Automatic recognition of the attribute roles

What is data blending in MicroStrategy?

Data blending is used to join two sets of data on a dashboard or a document. During this process nonshared attributes are Cartesian joined and shared attributes are outer joined.

What is the difference between primary and secondary dataset in MicroStrategy?

A primary dataset is used to display all the values in a particular dataset. Any dataset added to the dashboard becomes a primary dataset. In a particular dashboard, they can be more than one.

For a document having many datasets, the join behaviour of each one of them can be primary or secondary. It is an additional dataset where the elements will be present even if they appear in the primary dataset.

What is a joint child in MicroStrategy?       

Some unrelated attributes can create certain attributes when they are intersected. These are called joint child attributes. A joint child is also a process through which Microstrategy tackles its composite keys.

What is data wrangling in MicroStrategy?     

Data wrangling is the process of analyzing the data and drawing important conclusions from it to support a business strategy or cause. Through Microstrategy, the data can be cleaned by filtering the required information, removing duplicate data and whitespaces. The whole process is carried out through the Wrangle Your Data page.

How many types of metrics in MicroStrategy?   

The different metric types are:

  • Simple metrics
  • Nested metrics
  • Compound metrics
  • Derived metrics
  • Conditional metrics
  • Transformation metrics

How to compare string in Microstrategy?

In Microstrategy, a string can be compared using the LIKE operator. If the string matches the pattern specified, True is returned, otherwise false is returned.
Alternatively, the Equal operator can also be used to compare two strings. If the string matches the pattern specified, True is returned, otherwise false is returned.


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