SAP is big these days. Designed in 1972 in Germany, SAP is a wonderful ERP which is loved by large organisations worldwide. According to SAP, in the Q1 of 2018, customer acquisition grew by 43% against previous year. This directly means that more workforce would need to be hired. This makes writing about top SAP interview questions all the more important.
To be more precise, SAP says the growth in demand for mid-level SAP professionals has grown by 34.8% this year. The trend is expected to grow further.
When a candidate sits in the SAP certification exam, he is likely to score high. That is because of familiarity with the exam patterns and frequently asked SAP questions. However, an interview is a different ball game altogether. SAP interview questions can be intriguing, and at times puzzling too.
In this article, we have set out to list down some of the most frequently asked SAP interview questions for you. So, if you heading towards a SAP interview anytime soon, it would be great to read through this list of most frequently asked SAP Interview Questions and their answers.
Q1 Explain an ERP?
Ans: You can easily expect a technical interview start with this question but generally so only for freshers. Freshers are tested for theory and concepts more than their experienced peers.
ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning is a computer-based resource used to manage a company’s resources efficiently. It links various departments together and gathers their data in a consolidated way to help manage all workflow and coordination
Q2 Is there any other ERP in the market?
Ans: Yes, of course, there are a plenty of them. Microsoft Dynamics, PeopleSoft, Siebel, JD Edwards, Baan are a few examples. Each of these ERPs has different advantages. Apart from these, there are various other lesser known ERPs and many SMEs tend to use them because of the cost factor.
Q3 Why did you choose a career in SAP?
Ans: An ERP is the backbone of any large organisation. Without using an ERP, the functioning of these organisations is bound to suffer. I had always dreamt of working in an MNC and since SAP is at the top of the ERP market, it was a no-brainer to choose it. SAP is said to have 140,000+ installations and 25+ specific business solutions.
Seemingly very easy, such SAP interview questions are asked to understand the market awareness of the candidate.
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Q4 What are the different modules in SAP and which one have you chosen and why?
Ans: There are around 25 modules in SAP but the most popular ones are Financial Accounting, Controlling, Treasury, Human Resources, Sales & Distribution, Materials Management, Plant Maintenance, Business Warehousing, Production Planning, Quality Management and many more.
Now, if you are answering SAP Basis interview questions or SAP Security interview questions, you need to talk about them. You need to inform the interviewer about your interest in the module. Be genuine here, there is no right and wrong answer.
Q5 Does SAP have its own database management tool?
Ans: SAP is an application that uses databases provided by other servers like Oracle, or SQL Server. The software provided by SAP gives more power to the user.
Q6 In SAP, how many simultaneous sessions can you have?
Ans: This is a very common SAP interview question. It helps the hiring manager determine the level of hands-on exposure a person has with SAP applications. The answer to this is that a user can have 6 simultaneous sessions at one time for one client.
Q7 What is a NetWeaver and what are its uses?
Ans: In order to run multiple products from mySAP suite, an integrated platform is used. This platform is called NetWeaver. It helps all these applications run on a single instance.
A wonderful use of using NetWeaver is that you can access SAP data using the web, and in a rare, case you can also use it from mobile. This means saving costs on training clients.
Q8 Give a brief about Meta Data, Master Data and Transcation Data?
Ans: business information. This key business information includes customer information, employee materials etc. On the other hand, data which relates to day to day transactions is called transaction data.
Q9 What is the difference between OLAP and Data Mining?
Ans: OLAP which is the short name given to, Online Analytical Processing is a reporting tool. It is used to understand data schema, composition facts, and dimensions.
Data Mining, on the other hand, is a process. It is used to analyse data for consistent patterns and even some systematic relationships between different variables.
Q10 What do you know about different variables in SAP? If yes, mention a few of them?
Ans: In order to set the parameters of a query in SAP, variables are used. Variables do not work unless queries are entered in the workbook. There different types of variables, needless to say, that they all have different applications. Some commonly applied ones are text, hierarchies, hierarchy nodes, formulas, processing types, characteristics variable etc
Q11 Do you know AWB?
Ans: At this stage, the interview is going to get a bit complex. Whether it be SAP security interview questions or SAP basis interview questions, SAP interview questions do get harder as the interview gains momentum. Although true with all interviews, it is important that a candidate shows wit and composure when stress rises in the room.
AWB is generally a name given to Administrator Workbench. It is used for monitoring, maintaining and controlling the processes connected with data staging. Apart from this, it is also used for processing all business information warehousing.
Q12 Define BEX?
Ans: BEX or Business Explorer allows end users to locate reports. BEX has the components BEX analyser, Bex Map and BEX Web. This allows them to view reports, analyse information and execute queries as well. These queries can be saved in the BEX browser.
Q13 What is the importance of ODS in BIW?
Ans: An ODS is an object that serves to store debugged and other consolidated transaction data on a document level. An ODS helps to define a consolidated dataset from single or multiple sources. Such datasets can be evaluated with the help of Infoset queries or even bex queries.
ODS objects can be updated with a delta update to other ODS object or InfoCubes, within the same system or even across systems. Data in ODS objects are stored in transparent flat database tables.
Q14 What is the primary difference between Domain and Data Element?
Ans: Data Element is an intermediate object that is placed between domain and table type. Domain, on the other hand, defines the attributes like type, possible value range and length.
Q15 What are the different layers in R/3 system?
Ans: There are three main layers in R/3 system;
- Presentation Layer
- Database Layer
- Application Layer
Q16 What is an extended star schema?
Ans: A common question in SAP interviews, the star schema is an amalgam of fact tables and dimension tables. Separate tables are used to store master data and these tables have reference to characteristics in dimension tables. Exactly these separate tables are called extended star schema.
Q17 What are the different types of source systems in SAP?
Ans: The four main types of source systems in SAP are:
- SAP BW
- Flat Files
- SAP R/3 Source System
- External Systems
Q18 What is the most important benefit of reporting with BW?
Ans: While comparing BW and R/3, it is clear that BW helps in better reporting. This is due to the fact that BW uses OLAP or data warehouse concepts for analysis and storage. On the other hand, R/3 is more useful in transaction processing. BW thus makes a similar form of analysis easier and this is the main benefit of reporting with BW.
Q19 What is an Extractor?
Ans: Extractors are data retrieval mechanisms. They lie in the SAP source system. It is used to fill the extract structure of a data source with data obtained from the source system datasets of SAP.
Q20 What are pooled tables?
Ans: Pooled tables is a simple concept, they are used to store and control data. When many pooled tables are united, they form a table pool. The difference between pooled tables and tabled pools is that table pool is a table on a database in which all the records of some specifically assigned pooled tables are stored. So pooled tables come within the purview of table pool.
It might seem like SAP interview questions at times are too easy to answer. But in reality, many people miss very obvious answers due to the pressure of the interview. In this article, we have tried to list the most frequent SAP interview questions in order to make you more comfortable for an interview.
Q21 Are of aware of the three main stages of data mining?
Ans: There are three main stages of data mining, which include, initial exploration, model building and finally deployment.
Q22 What is the way to create a table in a given data dictionary?
Ans: It is done in three easy steps. First, you need to create domains that define data type, field length, and range. Then you move to create data elements which clarify the properties and type for a data field. Finally, you move on to creating tables.
Q23 What does a .sca file mean?
Ans: SAP Component Archive or .sca file is used to deploy Java components, pathes or other java related developments. They are in the form of .sca, .sda, .war or .jar.
Q24 What are the most common transport errors that you can come across?
Ans: There are numerous transport errors, but the most common ones in occurrence are:
- Return Code 4
- Return Code 8
- Return Code 12
- Return Code 18
Q25 What does an update type with reference to a match-code ID mean?
Ans: Whenever the data in base tables of a match-code ID gets changed, it needs updating. In this instance, the update type tells us about the time when the match-code needs updating and also clarifies how to do it. Another important function of the match-code is that it defines the method which is to be used for building match-codes.
Concluding Notes on Most Asked SAP Interview Questions
In any technical position, while theory and clear concepts are vital for freshers applying for job roles, practical and applied concepts are important for an experienced candidate. From amongst many SAP interview questions for experienced candidates, a lot of them will be related to your previous project and roles. So, be prepared.
SAP has many modules and as such SAP BASIS interview questions or SAP Security interview questions or the SAP interview questions of any other SAP module will be different. But the list of questions here is a general one fit for all modules. Do go through these questions once again if you are to sit in an SAP interview session anytime soon.
