Top 14 SAP HANA Interview Questions

1. What is SAP HANA?

SAP HANA Enterprise 1.0 is an in-memory computing appliance that combines SAP database software with pre-tuned server, storage, and networking hardware from one of several SAP hardware partners. It is designed to support real-time analytic and transactional processing.

2. What are the technical components that make up HANA?

• SAP In-Memory Database 1.0
• SAP In-Memory Computing Studio
• SAP Host Agent 7.2
• SAPCAR 7.10
• Sybase Replication Server 15
• SAP HANA Load Controller 1.00
• SAP Landscape Transformation 1

3. What are potential uses cases of SAP HANA?

• Monitoring and optimization of energy use
• Detection of security and fraud
• Reporting and forecasting of profitability
• Retail merchandising and supply chain optimization
• Monitoring and optimizing of telecommunications network

4. What are the major business benefits of SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA?

• Smarter business innovations
• Rethink business processes
• Faster business processes
• Allow real-time planning, execution, reporting, and analytics on live data
• Simpler business interactions
• Provide real-time business insights

5. Where can I find current information on SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA on an ongoing basis?

You can find the current information and the latest versions in at the SAP’s official website, www.saphana.com (or) www.sap.com/suiteonhana

6. SAP HANA is an in-memory database. Justify

SAP HANA stores the necessary data in RAM (main memory) rather than on a hard disk. By using the main memory SAP HANA, a combination of hardware and software processes massive amount of real-time data.

The pivotal functionality of SAP HANA is real-time analytics besides deploying and developing real-time applications.

7. What is the language used to develop SAP HANA program and mention the operating system supported by SAP HANA?

The SAP HANA database is developed using C++ and at present, the operating system supported by SAP HANA is SUSE Linux Enterprise Server x86-64 (SLES) 11 SP.

8. Describe the difference between column based and row based approach.

Though SAP HANA is particularly optimized for column-based approach, it also supports row-based approach.

9. Why materialized aggregates are not recommended in HANA?

The activities such as data-intensive operations, additional complex calculations and functions will be managed by in-memory storage of SAP HANA database. Therefore, there is no need for materialized aggregates. In fact, it has some benefits such as simplified application logic, simplified data model and a higher level of concurrency.

10. List down the factors responsible for the fast operation of SAP HANA?

SAP HANA is fast because of the following factors,

• In-memory
• Row and Column database
• Massively parallel processing
• Calculation Engine

11. What are the components of SAP HANA database architecture?

Here are the components of SAP HANA database architecture,

• Index server
• Persistence layer
• Preprocessor server
• Name server
• Statistic server
• Session and Transaction manager
• XS Engine

12. What are the different types of modeling views and engines available in HANA?

Types of modeling views

• Analytic view
• Calculation view
• Attribute view

The three major types of engines in HANA are,

• OLAP engine (used of analytic views)
• Join engine (used for attribute views)
• Calculation engine (used for calculation views)

13. Write about the types of packages in HANA.

There are two types of packages in HANA such as Structural package and Non-structural package.

Structural package has sub-packages but not repository objects whereas Non-structural package contains both sub-packages and repository objects.

14. Mention the types of Schemas in HANA?

The three types of Schemas in HANA, they are:

• SLT derived schema
• User-defined schema