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Free Database Administrator Interview Prep

Database Administrator Interview Questions.

15 practice questions across 13 skills — each with what the interviewer is really listening for. Prepare with intent, not guesswork.

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Free · No signup · Grouped by skill

How to use this page

Don't memorise answers. For each question, read what the interviewer is looking for, then practise answering out loud in your own words with a real example. The notes describe strong answers and common red flags — they are for your prep, not a script.

Database Performance Tuning

1 question

  1. A query that was fast is now slow after data grew. How do you diagnose it?

    Advanced

    What the interviewer is looking for: Strong answers read the execution plan, check for missing or unused indexes, statistics, and full scans, and test changes. Randomly adding indexes without reading the plan is a red flag.

Indexing

1 question

  1. How do you decide what to index, and why can too many indexes hurt?

    Intermediate

    What the interviewer is looking for: Look for indexing based on query patterns and selectivity, and awareness that indexes slow writes and consume storage. Indexing every column is a red flag.

Backup and Recovery

1 question

  1. Walk me through your backup and recovery strategy for a critical production database.

    Advanced

    What the interviewer is looking for: Strong candidates cover full and incremental backups, offsite copies, RTO/RPO, and — crucially — regularly TESTING restores. A backup plan never tested with a real restore is a serious red flag.

SQL

1 question

  1. What is the difference between the isolation levels, and when does it matter?

    Advanced

    What the interviewer is looking for: Look for understanding dirty reads, non-repeatable reads, and phantoms, and the concurrency-versus-consistency trade-off. Not knowing isolation levels exist is a red flag for a DBA.

Database Security

1 question

  1. How do you approach securing a database against both external and internal threats?

    Intermediate

    What the interviewer is looking for: Strong answers use least-privilege access, encryption at rest and in transit, auditing, and patching. Shared admin accounts or unencrypted sensitive data are red flags.

PostgreSQL

1 question

  1. How do you perform a schema change on a large, busy PostgreSQL table without downtime?

    Advanced

    What the interviewer is looking for: Look for awareness of locking, doing changes in safe steps, and using techniques that avoid long locks. A blocking ALTER on a huge table during peak traffic is a red flag.

MySQL

1 question

  1. How do MySQL and PostgreSQL differ in ways that affect your decisions?

    Intermediate

    What the interviewer is looking for: Strong candidates note practical differences in features, extensions, and behaviour, choosing based on needs. Claiming they are interchangeable or that one is universally better is a red flag.

Replication

1 question

  1. How do you set up replication for read scaling and failover, and what are the gotchas?

    Advanced

    What the interviewer is looking for: Look for understanding replication lag, read-after-write consistency, and failover promotion. Assuming replicas are always perfectly in sync is a red flag.

High Availability

1 question

  1. How do you design for high availability so a single node failure does not take you down?

    Advanced

    What the interviewer is looking for: Strong answers cover redundancy, automatic failover, and testing failover, tied to the business's tolerance for downtime. A single point of failure with no failover is a red flag.

Bash

1 question

  1. How comfortable are you scripting routine DBA tasks in Bash or Python?

    Basic

    What the interviewer is looking for: Look for automating backups, health checks, and maintenance to reduce human error. Doing everything manually and repeatedly is a red flag for reliability.

Query Optimization

1 question

  1. A developer's query is bringing the database to its knees. How do you handle it?

    Intermediate

    What the interviewer is looking for: Strong candidates mitigate the immediate impact, then work with the developer to fix the query and prevent recurrence, not just kill it. Blaming developers without helping fix the root cause is a red flag.

Problem-Solving

1 question

  1. How do you approach a database migration or upgrade with minimal risk?

    Advanced

    What the interviewer is looking for: Look for testing in staging, a rollback plan, backups, and a maintenance window with clear comms. Upgrading production with no tested rollback is a red flag.

Technical Documentation

1 question

  1. How do you document database changes and standards so the team stays aligned?

    Basic

    What the interviewer is looking for: Strong answers keep change logs, runbooks, and standards current and accessible. Undocumented ad-hoc changes to production are a red flag.

Behavioural & role-general

2 questions

  1. Tell me about a data-loss scare or incident you handled. What changed afterward?

    Basic

    What the interviewer is looking for: Look for calm response, recovery from backups, and systemic prevention afterward. Claiming nothing ever goes wrong, or panic without process, are red flags.

  2. How do you balance developers' desire for access and change speed with database stability?

    Intermediate

    What the interviewer is looking for: Strong candidates enable teams with safe self-service and guardrails rather than being a pure bottleneck. Either blocking everything or allowing uncontrolled prod access are red flags.

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FAQ

Database Administrator interview: common questions

What questions are asked in a Database Administrator interview?
Database Administrator interviews focus on Database Performance Tuning, Indexing, Backup and Recovery, SQL, Database Security, PostgreSQL. This page lists 15 practice questions grouped by skill, each with a note on what the interviewer is listening for so you can prepare a strong answer.
How should I prepare for a Database Administrator interview?
Work through the questions on this page skill by skill, then check your resume against the Database Administrator required skills with Skilture's free Resume Score to find any gaps before you interview.
Are these Database Administrator interview questions free?
Yes. All 15 questions and preparation notes are completely free and need no signup.