| 1 | How do you combine a TRY CATCH block with a transaction to ensure the database is properly rolled back if an error occurs partway through? SQL Server › Error Handling with TRY CATCH | SQL Server | Error Handling with TRY CATCH | Intermediate |
| 2 | What types of errors cannot be caught by a TRY CATCH block in SQL Server? SQL Server › Error Handling with TRY CATCH | SQL Server | Error Handling with TRY CATCH | Intermediate |
| 3 | How would you build a centralized, reusable error logging procedure that captures detailed error information whenever it is called from within a CATCH block? SQL Server › Error Handling with TRY CATCH | SQL Server | Error Handling with TRY CATCH | Advanced |
| 4 | How does a TRY CATCH block work in SQL Server, and why is it useful? SQL Server › Error Handling with TRY CATCH | SQL Server | Error Handling with TRY CATCH | Beginner |
| 5 | What error information functions are available inside a CATCH block to help you understand what went wrong? SQL Server › Error Handling with TRY CATCH | SQL Server | Error Handling with TRY CATCH | Beginner |
| 6 | How do nested TRY CATCH blocks work, and when would you use them in a complex stored procedure? SQL Server › Error Handling with TRY CATCH | SQL Server | Error Handling with TRY CATCH | Advanced |
| 7 | What is the difference between using THROW and RAISERROR to raise a custom error in SQL Server? SQL Server › Error Handling with TRY CATCH | SQL Server | Error Handling with TRY CATCH | Intermediate |
| 8 | What is the try/catch/finally pattern's 'finally' block used for, and how does it behave with async/await? Node.js › Error Handling | Node.js | Error Handling | Intermediate |
| 9 | How does a try catch block work in PHP, and how do you catch and handle a specific exception that might be thrown? PHP › Error & Exception Handling | PHP | Error & Exception Handling | Beginner |
| 10 | How do you properly handle errors that occur during an asynchronous operation using a try catch block combined with async and await? Flutter › Dart Asynchronous Programming (Future & async/await) | Flutter | Dart Asynchronous Programming (Future & async/await) | Intermediate |
| 11 | How would you design a stored procedure to handle a complex business process involving multiple steps, proper error handling, and transaction management together? SQL Server › Stored Procedures & Functions | SQL Server | Stored Procedures & Functions | Advanced |
| 12 | How would you write a T-SQL script that combines variables, control flow, and error handling together to perform a robust, multi step administrative task? SQL Server › T-SQL Fundamentals & Syntax | SQL Server | T-SQL Fundamentals & Syntax | Advanced |
| 13 | How do you configure a job step to automatically retry if it fails, rather than immediately marking the entire job as failed? SQL Server › SQL Server Agent & Job Scheduling | SQL Server | SQL Server Agent & Job Scheduling | Intermediate |
| 14 | How do you use a SAVE TRANSACTION savepoint within a larger transaction to allow partial rollback of just a portion of the work? SQL Server › Transactions & ACID | SQL Server | Transactions & ACID | Intermediate |
| 15 | How do you check whether a transaction is currently active and view its properties within a session? SQL Server › Transactions & ACID | SQL Server | Transactions & ACID | Intermediate |
| 16 | What error does an application receive when its transaction is chosen as a deadlock victim, and how should the application respond? SQL Server › Deadlocks | SQL Server | Deadlocks | Intermediate |
| 17 | How would you design a complex SQL Server Agent job with multiple steps that need to run conditionally based on the success or failure of previous steps? SQL Server › SQL Server Agent & Job Scheduling | SQL Server | SQL Server Agent & Job Scheduling | Advanced |
| 18 | What is dynamic SQL, and why would you need to build and execute a SQL statement as a string rather than writing it directly? SQL Server › Dynamic SQL | SQL Server | Dynamic SQL | Beginner |
| 19 | What is a transaction in SQL Server, and why is grouping multiple statements into one important? SQL Server › Transactions & ACID | SQL Server | Transactions & ACID | Beginner |
| 20 | What is a trigger in SQL Server, and what kinds of events can cause one to run automatically? SQL Server › Triggers | SQL Server | Triggers | Beginner |
| 21 | What is T-SQL, and how does it relate to standard SQL? SQL Server › T-SQL Fundamentals & Syntax | SQL Server | T-SQL Fundamentals & Syntax | Beginner |
| 22 | How do you prevent a recursive common table expression from running forever if the underlying data accidentally contains a circular reference? SQL Server › Common Table Expressions (CTEs) | SQL Server | Common Table Expressions (CTEs) | Intermediate |
| 23 | What is a check constraint, and how do you use one to enforce a specific business rule at the database level? SQL Server › Constraints (Primary Key, Foreign Key, Check & Unique) | SQL Server | Constraints (Primary Key, Foreign Key, Check & Unique) | Intermediate |
| 24 | What are the basic steps required to declare, open, use, and properly clean up a cursor? SQL Server › Cursors | SQL Server | Cursors | Intermediate |
| 25 | How do you debug a dynamic SQL statement when it fails or does not produce the expected results? SQL Server › Dynamic SQL | SQL Server | Dynamic SQL | Intermediate |
| 26 | What is a deadlock, and how does SQL Server automatically handle one when it occurs? SQL Server › Isolation & Locking | SQL Server | Isolation & Locking | Intermediate |
| 27 | How do you test and verify that a linked server connection is working correctly after it has been configured? SQL Server › Linked Servers | SQL Server | Linked Servers | Intermediate |
| 28 | How do you safely test a MERGE statement before running it against real production data? SQL Server › Merge Statement (Upsert) | SQL Server | Merge Statement (Upsert) | Intermediate |
| 29 | How do you configure a SQL Server Agent job to send an email alert if it fails? SQL Server › SQL Server Agent & Job Scheduling | SQL Server | SQL Server Agent & Job Scheduling | Intermediate |
| 30 | How do you use output parameters in a stored procedure to return a value back to the calling code, in addition to or instead of a normal result set? SQL Server › Stored Procedures & Functions | SQL Server | Stored Procedures & Functions | Intermediate |
| 31 | What is the difference between an implicit and an explicit transaction in SQL Server? SQL Server › Transactions & ACID | SQL Server | Transactions & ACID | Intermediate |
| 32 | Why should triggers generally be designed to handle multiple affected rows at once rather than assuming only a single row was changed? SQL Server › Triggers | SQL Server | Triggers | Intermediate |
| 33 | How do you capture detailed information about deadlocks that are happening on a server so you can investigate their root cause? SQL Server › Deadlocks | SQL Server | Deadlocks | Intermediate |
| 34 | How would you add a new constraint to an existing table that already contains data, especially if some existing rows might violate that constraint? SQL Server › Constraints (Primary Key, Foreign Key, Check & Unique) | SQL Server | Constraints (Primary Key, Foreign Key, Check & Unique) | Advanced |
| 35 | How would you validate that a value stored in a column actually contains well formed JSON before allowing it to be inserted or updated? SQL Server › JSON Support in SQL Server | SQL Server | JSON Support in SQL Server | Advanced |
| 36 | How would you troubleshoot a transactional replication setup where a subscriber has stopped receiving new changes entirely? SQL Server › Replication | SQL Server | Replication | Advanced |
| 37 | How would you design an Extended Events session to monitor for a very specific, hard to reproduce issue, such as intermittent deadlocks, in a production environment? SQL Server › SQL Server Profiler & Extended Events | SQL Server | SQL Server Profiler & Extended Events | Advanced |
| 38 | How do nested and recursive triggers work in SQL Server, and what precautions should be taken to avoid unexpected behavior or infinite loops? SQL Server › Triggers | SQL Server | Triggers | Advanced |