Top Interview Questions for a Big Data Expert Interview

Big Data has become a part of everybody’s lives these days. Whether you realise it or not but simple activities like listening to music, watching videos, gaming, shopping, or even while ordering food, we leave our digital footprints everywhere. That’s what customizes the feed for you, and you enjoy the content displayed. But behind all of it is a lot of data. There is a need for big data experts in every industry now, and it’s constantly growing.

 

There is a high demand for big data experts, and clearing the job interview is not a piece of cake, so it’s better to be well prepared to improve your chances of getting hired. An ideal choice would be a big data certification, to begin with. You can sign up for the Certified Big Data Expert. The course focuses on the core concepts of Big Data Analytics, including Hadoop, MapReduce, Yarn, Pig, Hive, Spark, and much more. Here are a few key points you must work upon.

 

 

  • Resume

 

You need to ensure that your resume is concise and detail-oriented. An ideal resume would be between 2-3 pages only. It should outline your work history, projects you’ve worked upon, certifications you’ve achieved, and training you’ve attended. Before applying for the relevant job profile, ensure that you have the ‘must-have’ skills that are required. Always recheck your resume for grammatical errors and ensure that all the dates match. After all, you don’t want it to be a runaway.

 

 

  • Communication

 

Your first impression in a big data expert job interview has a lot of weightage. You must exhibit your enthusiasm and convey your intent to work for the organization. Your confidence in yourself and your skills will be tested, so try to remain true to yourself in front of recruiters. It would be best if you are prepared to answer a lot of questions that will come your way. Moreover, please keep an open mind for criticism, as it’ll help you to cope during the interview.

 

Important Interview Questions

Practising and being fluent at a few essential interview questions will go a long way in the knowledge you can display in front of the recruiter.

 

 

  • Can you explain how Big Data is connected to Hadoop?

 

This one is an inevitable question which you might have to answer almost in every interview. So it should be on your fingertips. You must explain elaborately how Hadoop, which is an open-source framework and is used for processing and analyzing complex unstructured data sets for vital insights.

 

 

  • How do you prepare data? What is your approach to it?

 

Clearly, with this question, the employer is trying to test your previous experience in the field. They expect a response that outlines the steps and precautions you take during data preparation. Your reply can begin with why data needs to be prepared in the first place for modelling purposes. Then go on to talk about the model of your choice, and it’s advantages and why you chose it. Moreover, you can talk about unstructured data, transforming variables, outlier values and identifying gaps, etc.

 

 

  • Can you define the terms HDFS and YARN for us? Also, tell us their respective components.

 

For this question, explain that Hadoop’s default storage unit is called HDFS or Hadoop Distributed File System. It stores different types of data. Then you should point out the two components within HDFS. These are the Name Node and Data Node. Name Node contains the specific metadata information for the data blocks present in HDFS. The Data Node generally acts as a substitute for the storage of data.

Then move onto YARN. It’s a synonym for Yet Another Resource Negotiator. YARN provides an environment for the execution of specific processes and also managing resources. It also has two components i.e., the Resource Manager and Node Manager. The resource manager is responsible for allocating resources to respective nodes, and the node manager primarily executes tasks on every data node.

 

  • What are the Edge Nodes in Hadoop?

 

Edge notes act as an interface between the external network and Hadoop. They run multiple client applications and cluster management tools. However, this is just the gist; you should talk about it in detail during your interview because it’s an important question.

 

 

  • Do you know what exactly is ‘indexing’ in HDFS?

 

Tell the recruiter all about how HDFS indexes data blocks depending on their size. Moreover, don’t forget to talk about the end of a data block and how it points to the address of where the next set of data blocks is stored. This is also a standard question that all experienced professionals are asked.

 

 

  • What do you understand from commodity hardware?

 

Just remember that every question is equally important, so answer them all with the same ardor. And even if commodity hardware is something everyone knows about, you should explain that it defines minimal hardware resources that run the Apache Hadoop framework. This will also have to be described in detail.

 

 

  • What do you understand by the term ‘Distributed Cache’?

 

For a big data expert interview, this question will inevitably crop up. As the word suggests, it is a dedicated service provided by the MapReduce framework to cache files whenever it is required. You can always access and read them later in your code. Make sure you read in-depth about it and answer in detail for this one.

 

Apart from these, here is a list of questions you can see through and be prepared to answer if required.

 

  • Can you explain Big Data to us in detail? Also, elaborate on the 4V’s associated with Big Data.
  • Tell us about the core concepts and features of Hadoop.
  • Outline the steps which are followed in deploying a Big Data solution.
  • Why is it that HDFS is suitable only for large datasets?
  • Can you tell us the difference between NFS and HDFS?
  • What do you think is Rack Awareness in Hadoop?
  • Sometimes Name Nodes go down. Tell us the process to recover it.
  • Can you tell us exactly how Big Data analysis contributes to increasing business revenue?

 

 

Conclusion

We hope that these tips and questions will prove to be useful in your Big Data Expert interview. After all, big data is the buzzword for all the good jobs available in the market. A Big Data Expert certification will improve your chances of quick hire. Sign up on Global Tech Council today!