Top 14 SAP BI Interview Questions

1. What is SAP BI?

SAP BI is a component of SAP’s NetWeaver called Business Intelligence. It has a platform and tool set that provides solutions that help companies to manage their results and has components to make simulations for predicting future possibilities.

2. List down the important areas and activities in SAP BI.

SAP BI consists of six important areas and activities, they are:

• Planning and Analyzing – These two activities will be performed by using the data that is stored in data warehouse
• Data Warehouse – The functionalities of data warehouse include the collection, integration, and management of the overall organization’s data
• Broadcast publishing – It holds the responsibility of broadcasting (sending) the necessary information to an organization’s employees with the aid of fax, email etc.
• Security – The SAP BI security takes care of securing all confidential data. For instance; securing the access to SAP logon tickets from portal
• Performance – The performance of an organization is monitored and optimized
• Reporting – BI uses the respective tools for the purpose of reporting in excel, web-browser etc.

3. Define table partition.

In order to manage the efficiency of the applications, table partitioning is done to manage a bulk amount of data. The partitioning will be carried out based on OCALMONTH and OFISCPER. The table portioning is classified into two types such as:

• Logical partitioning and
• Database partitioning

4. Define Infocube and how do you create an Infocube?

Infocube is defined as a data storage area which is structured as the star schema. Infocubes will have two tables like E table and F (Fact) table. The attributes needed to create an Infocube are 1 fact table, dim table and dim Ids. 4 dimensions and different dim tables that are linked with dim IDs will surround the fact table. The combined data can be found in the cubes with respect to the data.

5. Explain the features of Multi-providers in SAP BI.

The Multi-provider that has a set of date from number of info-providers and avails it for the purpose of reporting has the following features:

• With the support of union operations, the multi-providers are connected to one another
• Only info-providers acts as the source for an entire data i.e. Multi-providers are devoid of any data
• In the case of any relevant reporting info-providers in association with the multi-providers are the objects or views
• Number of info-providers can be used by multi-providers to run reports

6. Write down the various transaction codes for process chain.

• Process chain maintenance (RSPC)
• Process chain display (RSPC1)
• The monitoring of daily process chains (RSPCM)
• Checking out logs for process chains (RZ20)

7. What are the different data target administration tasks?

There are five important types of data target administration tasks, they are:

• Index generating
• Deleting index
• The completion of target data deletion
• Infocube compression activity
• The construction of database statistics etc.

8. What is the difference between primary index and secondary index?

A primary index is an index on a set of fields that includes the unique primary key for the field and is guaranteed not to contain duplicates. A Secondary index is an index that is not a primary index and may have duplicates.

9. What are variable types in SAP?

• Characteristic Value
• Hierarchy nodes
• Text
• Formula
• Hierarchy

10. What is the difference between SAP BW and SAP BI?

BW refers to SAP BW which is SAP Data Warehouse. Up to version 3.5, BW is being called by the name SAP BW. From version 7.0 onwards, the name has been changed to SAP BI. BI refers not just Data Warehouse, but a complete set of products provided by SAP to build a Business Intelligence system.

BW refers to SAP BW which is SAP Data Warehouse. Up to version 3.5, BW is being called by the name SAP BW. From version 7.0 onwards, the name has been changed to SAP BI. BI refers not just Data Warehouse, but a complete set of products provided by SAP to build a Business Intelligence system.

11. What is a bit map?

A bit map (often spelled “bitmap”) defines a display space and the color for each pixel or “bit” in the display space.

12. What is a key capability of SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for Microsoft Office?

Analyze BW data in Microsoft Excel

13. What is a binary tree?

A binary tree is a method of placing and locating files (called records or keys) in a database, especially when all the data is known to be in random access memory (RAM). The algorithm finds data by repeatedly dividing the number of ultimately accessible records in half until only one remains.

14. What is the benefit of implementing data warehousing for reporting and analysis?

To consolidate and harmonize data from multiple systems and applications.