Top SAP Hana Interview Questions and Answers (2023 Edition)

SAP HANA is an in-memory computing engine that supports high-performance business analytics applications. SAP HANA is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) functional module that includes a front-end modelling studio for creating applications for managing servers and implementing load-control strategies.

SAP SE, headquartered in Germany, is a multinational software corporation and a leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems worldwide. It offers the cloud service HANA (High-performance Analytic Appliance). Knowledge of SAP's cloud technologies might help you land a career in the tech industry. This article contains a collection of potential SAP HANA interview questions and some sample answers to assist you in getting ready for your interview.

We have categorized SAP Hana interview questions and answers into 3 parts for a better understanding:

SAP Hana Interview Questions For Freshers
SAP Hana Interview Questions For Experienced
SAP HANA FAQs
SAP HANA Recruitment Process
SAP HANA Leadership Principles
Tips To Crack SAP HANA Interview

SAP Hana Interview Questions and Answers For Freshers

1. Explain in lay terms what SAP HANA is.

HPE, IBM, and Dell, to name a few, all utilise SAP HANA, and they all have products and services optimised for the software. One of the most often used analytical tools is SAP HANA.

SAP HANA, developed by the German software company SAP, is an in-memory database platform that performs high-speed data analysis by accessing and processing data directly from RAM rather than the hard disc or solid-state drive. This expedites the processing of large data sets by allowing other applications to utilise them. A petabyte of data may be stored in memory, yet the system will still provide its findings in under a second.

2. Can you provide insight into the normalisation and de-normalization processes?

Data normalisation is the procedure used to eliminate duplicate entries in a database. Typically, this is accomplished by dividing the table into subsections. This guarantees honesty. By contrast, de-normalization involves accounting for redundant data to boost the efficiency of complicated queries.

3. What are some of SAP HANA's features?

The SAP HANA capabilities include:

Multi-Model Processing: SAP HANA can store and handle a wide variety of data, including graphical representations, tabular data, and even papers.
Hybrid Processing: HANA is versatile enough to serve as a transactional or analytical database. It supports the simultaneous processing of both queries on the same data source.
App Development Tools: Several application development tools, including Eclipse and Web IDE, come standard with SAP HANA. Administrators may simplify the architecture of their unique applications by using the programming languages that work best for them.

4. What is the price tag for SAP HANA?

SAP HANA licence fees are calculated on a per-gigabyte basis. When providing an estimate for SAP HANA, SAP considers additional factors, such as the current market pricing of competing databases. The final cost is contingent on the specific requirements of each organisation. When deciding whether or not to use SAP HANA, it is important to consider aspects like execution demands, flexibility, scalability, and whether or not you need or want complete control over the instance.

5. Explain how SAP HANA deployments might differ.

When deciding how to implement SAP HANA, businesses have three choices.

On-Premise: In an on-premises deployment, users can get a signature file with minimal effort by purchasing a key from the SAP Support website.

Cloud: Public and private clouds are the two main categories of cloud architecture. Those migrating licences to the public cloud would follow the same procedures as those maintaining installations on-premises.
One of the three major cloud computing providers—Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform—would host the SAP HANA cloud instance. On the other hand, private cloud implementations allow customers to licence an SAP HANA database on a cloud of their choosing. It is acceptable for the company renting SAP HANA to house a restricted server physically or to host it through a third party.

Hybrid or Two-Leveled: Companies use on-premise and cloud SAP HANA deployments in two-tier setups. Among the many reasons this would be useful is the exploration of full-cloud deployment in the future while maintaining an existing on-premises setup.

6. Do you believe companies must spend much yearly on database management?

This is exactly accurate, yes. However, how well a user executes this strategy is crucial. Information management is a multi-faceted process with several essential steps. With a reliable tool, managing the database is a manageable task. Much work may be simplified, and many good results can be easily generated if a company considers a strong tool like SAP HANA.

7. Explain why SAP HANA is helpful.

SAP HANA is widely acknowledged to be more than merely a database for storing and providing information.

The top six benefits of a fully functional SAP HANA system are as follows:

Big Data Can Be Handled Easily: SAP HANA allows you to manage massive amounts of data from any source. Incorporating unstructured data types such as predictive, text, spatial, event streams, and time series is made possible by SAP HANA's built-in machine learning and state-of-the-art analytic capabilities.
Gain Access to Real-Time Data: HANA's in-memory technology significantly shortens the time required to produce the most thorough reports. You may analyse data in near real-time using HANA's enhanced business intelligence features, allowing you to make considerably more informed business choices.
Scalability: When memory is low, SAP HANA uses dynamic tiering to move less often accessed data to disc and keep frequently accessed data in RAM. This is not only a cost-effective strategy for managing massive amounts of data, but when combined with HANA's advanced compression and columnar storage, it may result in a data footprint reduction of three to five times.
Only Trusted Reference: SAP HANA's ability to consolidate your transactional and analytical data into a single platform is a clear and straightforward benefit. We can save ourselves the trouble of fixing several independent data inconsistencies by relying on a single, trusted data repository.
Modularity and adaptability: As one of the most flexible data solutions, SAP HANA may be used in various cloud environments, including public, private, and hybrid ones. It supports transactional, analytical, and other mixed-use data processing.

8. To what end do organisations today require an RDBMS tool?

Information management is crucial. Data now plays an essential part in the accomplishment of nearly every firm. Decisions, partnerships, new business launches, overcoming competition, quality enhancements, and so on may all benefit from data. Many additional factors also make it essential for the company's success that this be accomplished properly. Therefore, it is necessary to manage data appropriately.

9. Which SQL command increases data visibility?

The DCL benefits system makes this easy to accomplish. Considerations for Choosing a Relational Database Management System. Certain factors do bear more weight than others. Each company may have unique requirements. Following is a list of some of the most important elements.

We need it to be suitable and relaxing.
There needs to be the option to add compatibility for other formats.
There shouldn't be any restrictions on processing data.
The data management platform must have enough privacy and security features, such as predetermined filters.
The total equipment costs.
Needs in terms of configuration and upkeep.

10. Can you save two kinds of relational data in SAP HANA?

Users can save the following two types of information:

Row Store
Column Store.

The two have little to no difference, so that customers may pick the best for them.

11. Explain the benefits that SLT replication may provide to any audience.

The SLT Replication can be linked with the most available HANA studios.

12. What kinds of benefits can efficient database administration provide to businesses?

Users are given the freedom to generate long-term outcomes through data management.
Several data-related problems may be easily avoided.
The information may be sorted into manageable chunks and accessible quickly.
Good data management aids in the creation of reports, the writing of papers, and the facilitation of other work across departments.

13. Briefly describe the architecture of SAP HANA.

Built-in C++, SAP HANA runs on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Multiple other servers make up the SAP HANA database, however the Index Server is essential. The SAP HANA database is made up of Names Server, Indexes Server, Statistics Server, XS Engine, & Preprocessor Server.

14. In SAP, what exactly is a text table? For what purpose would one create a table of text?

Table A is a text table of table B since its key is identical to that of table B's key plus an additional language key field (field of data type LANG). As a result, important Table B items may also appear in Table A in other languages.

The goal of using Text Join to retrieve the image based on the user's session language is clear. Once we enforce the text join in SAP HANA, the system will automatically determine the user's language and return a translation of the definition into that language.

15. Is SAP HANA exclusive to SAP servers?

SAP and non-SAP applications work well on the platform; however, the specifics depend on the chosen licence. Only SAP applications are supported by the SAP HANA Runtime Edition. These programmes allow tasks to be carried out on an "application level." When deciding on an SAP HANA Full-Use Licence, this is different. This gives businesses access to the full range of features the system offers. Database-level operations are also feasible.

The SAP HANA platform is suitable for use with non-SAP software. HANA supports various standards, including the widely known SQL programming language. Therefore, more advanced ABAP programming skills are needed. Creating, maintaining, and reading tables without using ABAP is possible. Last, SAP HANA supports SAP UI5, a framework for building custom apps with Fiori-inspired user interfaces well-suited to enterprise use.

SAP Hana Interview Questions For Experienced

16. Describe the distinction between a HANA variable and an input parameter.

To filter data, WHERE clauses make use of variables that are stored in columns. They need only use the data found in the associated Columns. HANA's performance is unaffected by varying conditions. Input parameters provided by the user drive the execution. You may only sometimes want a variable to act as a simple data filter for a view. You'd also like to handle customer input and provide dynamic data based on the user's choices. The use of Input Parameters allows for this to happen.

17. Explain what the SAP HANA persistent layer does.

The data in SAP HANA is stored in an in-memory computing engine, so there's no waiting for backups to be completed. To prevent data loss during a system crash or power outage, the persistence layer copies nonvolatile data from the hard drive and stores it safely.

18. Exactly what SAP HANA Modelling Studio functions does it serve?

One of its initial actions is to determine what kind of tables will be saved in HANA. The modelling studio is also responsible for choosing the appropriate Metadata. It handles all the data services required for importing information from the warehouse or other sources. Its sole purpose is to control communication between ERP instances. All the data services available for usage in models are within the confines of the modelling studio. The studio takes care of any further modelling within SAP HANA.

The modelling studio also oversees and controls all activities related to the encoding process.

19. How well-versed are you in the rules governing transformations?

In essence, they are the rules that control the source table. This set of guidelines is crucial to the success of all activities on the table. The management of some replication procedures also falls under certain guidelines' purview.

Explain how the Data Preview differs from the Raw Data regarding the distinction between Distinct values and Analysis.

Data in its rawest form, with all properties and numbers shown in a tabular format.
Unique Attributes are a graphical representation of all attributes and associated data.
In terms of analysis, it graphically represents all metrics and qualities.

20. Does the government's SAP HANA system support MPI?

Multi-Core Central Processing Units provide for significantly faster programme execution.

In addition, HANA's column-based storage makes it simple to utilise several CPU cores simultaneously for accelerated processing.

In column storage, data is already organised vertically. This means that it is easy to perform actions on many columns simultaneously. If several columns need to be probed or aggregated, each task can be delegated to its CPU core. Operations on a single column can also be parallelized by slicing it into several smaller pieces that many processing cores can perform. The SAP HANA database allows for fast, parallel query processing.

21. How many distinct varieties of Input parameters are there?

There are a few different kinds of Input parameters accepted.

Currency: This is used when the end user requests a currency exchange and must specify a starting and ending coin.
Date: Used for receiving user-provided dates via a calendar-style input field.
Static List: This is useful to provide the user with a fixed list of options.
Attribute Value: When an Input Variable has this type, it acts like any other Variable.

You don't have to provide an Input Variable type if none of the above applies. It can be ignored if desired.

22. What are some of HANA's compression options?

Encoding by Run-Length
Coding by clusters.
Definition encoding.

23. What are some of the most significant advantages users of SAP HANA's SLT Replication will enjoy?

It's a triggered method, so end-users won't have to fret over how the switch will affect the source system. Users may easily ensure filtering and transformation even if the data amount is substantial. Users may also be certain that their data is being replicated in real-time. Users may easily verify numerous source systems to a single HANA-based solution. The inverse is also a viable option.

24. Is there a way to prevent SAP HANA from storing irrelevant data, and what difficulties can it cause?

Users often have to wade through irrelevant data that does not affect the current activity. It can significantly impact the correctness and dependability of data processing in general and slow down data processing speeds. Users can temporarily halt replication, solving the problem of holding unnecessary data. Users must stop any ongoing scheme-related operations in the system to suspend the image temporarily.

25. How well-versed are you in the HANA's Master Controller Role?

It's a control system that may be used in many contexts. It only ensures that the system's logging tables are created and initiated the same. The master controller can also be used to generate the synonyms. This method can also be used to update the administrative databases. This method may also be used to load the entire table.

26. Explain how SAP HANA uses the Transaction Manager and the Session.

The transaction manager makes it easy to keep track of all database transactions, both those that have been completed and those that are still in progress. When a transaction is rolled back or committed, the users are informed. This ensures that the storage engines function without a hitch.

27. Do you understand the different forms of data dependence?

It's nothing more than being able to modify the relevant schema definition at one level without having that change propagate to higher levels.

28. How does one go about processing a SQL statement?

The statement is put into operation in light of the relevant transaction. The user must initiate a new session at the start of each transaction. This may take some time, but it will ultimately pay off.

29. Explain the concept of redundant data.

The same information is called "data redundancy" in the computer world. Snatching up the extra money slows down database operations and adds unnecessary expense.

30. How would you characterise a database management system?

In its most basic form, a database management system (DBMS) is a collection of related applications that allow users to effectively store, retrieve, recover, and manage their data.

SAP Hana Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

31. How do I best prepare for an interview with SAP HANA?

Here are some more details to remember:

Use SAP HANA meticulously.
Create a profile for your academic credentials.
Showcase your knowledge and skills.
Avoid discussing money.

To conclude, I'd want to emphasise the importance of doing so.

32. Just what is this mysterious "Data Definition Language"?

These are the SQL instructions that provide the framework within which information persists. In most cases, users don't need anything special to ensure that any modifications they make to the data will be stored.

33. In SAP HANA, what role does the Persistence Layer play?

It's a crucial component of SAP HANA that comes into play later. Users of HANA, which contains its computational engine, must access data without first backing it up. It is important to retain a backup of the same since it might cause problems during a power outage. This buffer layer saves the day and guarantees no data loss.

34. Why can't I install the Business Suite/ERP 6.0 on IMDB/HANA like I did NetWeaver BW?

It has yet to progress sufficiently to support even the most fundamental corporate applications. Technology-wise, running the Business Suite on IMDB is now feasible, and SAP has already tested the migration of several large datasets onto IMDB.

35. Is it hard to learn SAP HANA?

Any novice may learn the basics of SAP HANA. While opportunities in SAP Hana are plentiful, finding the appropriate one might take a lot of work. You should have extensive knowledge of SAP HANA, SQL, and Analytics. Understanding HANA will be facilitated by familiarity with conventional databases and their features.

36. What kinds of computers need to run SAP HANA?

This enterprise server runs SUSE Linux.

37. How Can I Protect My Sap Hana Login?

Passwords are the primary means through which access to an SAP Hana database is restricted. However, a password is typically needed at the command line to connect and run a batch or SQL script. This makes the credentials accessible to everybody. A unique key associated with a single user can be generated to prevent this. The username and password are hidden from view by entering that key.

38. Data provisioning in Sap Hana Studio; what does it entail?

To access Data Provisioning in SAP Hana, go to SAP Hana Modeller Perspective.

SAP HANA Recruitment Process

Online test- As part of the SAP hiring process, there is an online test with 25 questions about general knowledge and two or three questions about code. The online test is the first round of selection. On the test, you will be asked questions about your ability to do maths and think logically and about code.

1. The Technical Interview - There are two rounds of expert interviews in the SAP hiring process. Questions at a professional interview cover things like SQL, C, C++, Java, Data Structures, Operating Systems, etc.

2. Interview With a Manager - One interview with a boss in the SAP Recruitment Process will be conducted. The questions in the management round are based on unique ideas about current events. In this round, the reporter is trying to figure out your thoughts, so be careful how you answer.

3. The HR Interview - The HR interview is the last step in the SAP Recruitment Process. This discussion aims to see if the candidate fits in with the company's work. General questions about HR will be asked to see how well you can communicate and do your job.

SAP HANA Leadership Principles

In the events as a leader, one of the most difficult lessons we learned was that there is no easy way to create a high-functioning team. We have discovered that while skill is vital, an unbeatable work ethic and a desire to make a difference are more crucial when making recruiting decisions.

The importance of getting to know individuals, discovering their motivations, and playing to their strengths was another lesson we picked up. This is the point at which things go beyond the bounds of one's experience and into the realm of one's true ability. Suddenly, it's clear which team members might benefit from being challenged outside their comfort zones or how someone with an unconventional background would flourish in a certain position.

Putting forth the effort to create relationships is only sometimes convenient, but it's the only way to guarantee success when putting up a team. When you have a winning team, you can do anything.

Tips To Crack SAP HANA Interview

The more your familiarity with the organisation conducting the interview, the more likely you are to answer their questions correctly. The goals and objectives of the organisation, as well as its profile, key individuals, history, and recent accomplishments, are all essential pieces of knowledge to have stored away in your memory.
Present yourself honestly and objectively so the interviewer understands your skills and experience.
Human resources professionals want applicants who can demonstrate their honesty and integrity by responding truthfully to all questions.
Take some time to listen and go through your response. As a result, you come out as someone who carefully considers your options.
Get ready to field some challenging behavioural queries. A candidate's capacity for managing tasks and assets will be put to the test by these inquiries.
Maintain your educational nature while also making the interview more of a discussion. Make the interviewer feel included by providing context for your replies wherever possible.
Avoid delivering vague responses and instead, focus on providing precise information. In interviews, prospective employers value specific overestimations.
Character counts a lot. Establishing rapport with the interviewer can help you immensely. Working in an organisation requires you to speak often with other employees. Thus, your social skills are crucial.
Explain your thought process aloud if you're given a challenge to tackle. The interviewer will gain insight into your methodical thought process this way.
Think about how you can contribute to the organisation in ways that go beyond the requirements of your position. Candidates that can persuade the interviewer of their value to the organisation beyond the requirements listed in the job description are frequently given more favourable treatment.
Without question, employers place a high value on a candidate's academic credentials and test scores; nevertheless, they also put a premium on his demonstrated ability to make sound decisions, communicate effectively, work well with others, set and achieve goals, and manage his time effectively.

SAP Hana Interview Questions