SSRS Real Time Interview Questions And Answers Pdf

1. What are Data-Driven Subscriptions?
Answer: Reporting Services provides data-driven subscriptions so that you can customize the distribution of a report based on dynamic subscriber data. Data-driven subscriptions are intended for the following kinds of scenarios: Distributing reports to a large recipient pool whose membership may change from one distribution to the next. For example, distribute a monthly report to all current customers. Distributing reports to a specific group of recipients based on predefined criteria. For example, send a sales performance report to the top ten sales managers in an organization.

2. What are the Types of SSRS?
Answer: The types of SSRS Training are given below:

  1. Parameterized reports
  2. Linked reports
  3. Snapshot reports
  4. Cached reports
  5. Ad hoc reports
  6. Clickthrough reports
  7. Drilldown reports
  8. Drillthrough reports
  9. Subreports

3. What are the Drilldown Reports?
Answer: Drilldown reports initially hide complexity and enable the user to toggle conditionally hidden report items to control how much detail data they want to see. Drilldown reports must retrieve all possible data that can be shown in the report. For reports with large amounts of data, consider drill through reports instead.

4. What is Cached Report?
Answer: A cached report is a saved copy of a processed report. Cached reports are used to improve performance by reducing the number of processing requests to the report processor and by reducing the time required to retrieve large reports. They have a mandatory expiration period, usually in minutes.

5. What are the Drillthrough Reports?
Answer: Drillthrough reports are standard reports that are accessed through a hyperlink on a text box in the original report. Drillthrough reports work with the main report and are the target of a drill through action for a report item such as placeholder text or a chart. The main report displays summary information, for example in a matrix or chart.

Actions defined in the matrix or chart provide drill-through links to reports that display greater details based on the aggregate in the main report. Drillthrough reports can be filtered by parameters, but they do not have to be. Drillthrough reports differ from subreports in that the report does not display within the original report, but opens separately. They differ from clickthrough reports in that they are not autogenerated from the data source, but are instead custom reports that are saved on the report server. They differ from drill-down reports in that they retrieve the report data only for the specified parameters or for the dataset query.

6. What Are Parameterized Reports? What Are Cascading Parameters In Ssrs Reports?
Answer: Reports that accept parameters from users to fetch and report data conditionally are known as parameterized reports. When you have multiple parameters in a report and values of different parameters are dependent and populated dynamically based on the value of parent parameters, it’s known as a cascading parameter.

7. What Are Advantages Of Ssrs Or Why We Should Use Ssrs?
Answer: The SQL Server Reporting Services or SSRS has some Advantages. Such:

  • It is faster and cheaper.
  • Efficient reporting access to information residing in both Oracle and MS SQL Server databases.
  • No need for expensive specialist skills.
  • The default report designer is integrated with Visual Studio .NET so that we can create an application and its reports in the same environment.
  • The security is managed in a role-based manner and can be applied to folders as well as reports.
  • Once parameters are defined, the UI for these parameters is automatically generated.
  • Subscription-based reports are automatically sent by mail to the users.

8. What Are The Limitations/drawbacks Or Ssrs 2008 R2?
Answer: The SSRS 2008 R2 has some limitations. Some limitations are given below:

  • There is no print button. In order to print need to export excel, PDF or others format.
  • It is very hard to debug expression or custom code.
  • Its does not use page number or total pages in the report body.
  • Don’t support rounding rectangle.
  • There is no way to pass values from sub-reports to the main report.
  • It is not possible to insert a sub-report into the page header or page footer.
  • Page header creates extra spaces in the next pages.

9. What Are The Limitations In Ssrs On Sql Server Express Edition?
Answer: Microsoft offers reporting services free as part of SQL Server Express with Advanced Services edition. But it has the following limitations:

  • Management Studio cannot be used to administer a report server.
  • Report Models will not be available.
  • Report Builder is not available.
  • Caching, History, and Delivery of Report is not available.
  • SQL Server agent is not available.
  • No scheduling is possible.
  • The remote server database is not available for Report Data Source (Local SQL Server is an only option,).
  • We cannot store the report server database on a remote server (it has to be local only).
  • Reports can be rendered only in Excel, PDF, Image formats only.
  • Reporting Services will not be able to use more than 1 GB of RAM.
  • No Subscriptions (Standard and Data-Driven) can be made.
  • Can not be integrated with Share Point.
  • Can not implement Role-based security.
  • Only named instances are supported.
  • Scale-out Report Servers will not be available.

10. Mention what are the new features in SSRS?
Answer: New features in SSRS includes

  • Excel File Export: The files can be exported into Excel file formats, earlier only XLS files were only exported
  • Data Alerts: The new data alerts allow to create alert threshold which is evaluated on a user-defined schedule, also there is data alert manager for alerting administrators
  • Power View: With the new RDLX file format, power view is a new interactive Business Intelligence feature
  • These are the new features included, apart from these, if you are using SSR on SharePoint it gives additional benefits like drag and drop ad hoc reporting and sending e-mails when data changes.

11. Can We Run Reporting Services With Sql Server Express Edition, Which Is A Free Version Of Sql Server?
Answer: Yes we can. SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services support Reporting Services. There is a free version.

12. What is Rendering?
Answer: Rendering is a process of converting the report layout and report data into a specific file format. You can render reports into different formats such as HTML or Excel spreadsheets or PDF files. 

13. What is drill-down and drill-through in SSRS?
Answer: Drill-down is a mechanism of decomposing summarized information to a detailed level. Drill-through is a mechanism of decomposing the problem by drilling information generally using more than one report.

  • Further Reading
  • Further Reading

14. What is Snapshot Report?
Answer: A report snapshot is a report that contains layout information and query results that were retrieved at a specific point in time. Unlike on-demand reports, which get up-to-date query results when you select the report, report snapshots are processed on a schedule and then saved to a report server. When you select a report snapshot for viewing, the report server retrieves the stored report from the report server database and shows the data and layout that were current for the report at the time the snapshot was created.

Report snapshots are not saved in a particular rendering format. Instead, report snapshots are rendered in a final viewing format (such as HTML) only when a user or an application requests it. Deferred rendering makes a snapshot portable. The report can be rendered in the correct format for the requesting device or Web browser.
Report snapshots serve three purposes:

  • 1. Report history: By creating a series of report snapshots, you can build a history of a report that shows how data changes over time.
  • 2. Consistency: Use report snapshots when you want to provide consistent results for multiple users who must work with identical sets of data. With volatile data, an on-demand report can produce different results from one minute to the next. A report snapshot, by contrast, allows you to make valid comparisons against other reports or analytical tools that contain data from the same point in time.
  • 3. Performance: By scheduling large reports to run during off-peak hours, you can reduce the processing impact on the report server during core business hours.

15. How To Deploy The Report?
Answer: We can deploy the SSRS report in three ways.

  • Using Visual Studio: In visual studio, we can directly deploy the report through solution explorer by providing the report server URL in project properties at Target Server URL. As our choice, this will deploy the entire project or single report as.
  • Using Report Server: We can directly go to the report server and deploy the report by browsing the report from the disk location of the server.
  • Creating the Utility: SQL Server provides the facilities to Create a customize utility to deploy the report.

16. What is the RDL file?
Answer: RDL stands for Report Definition Language. When we save a report then than the file is saved as ReportName.rdl. It is an XML file. This RDL file is used for deploying the report to the report server.

17. Difference between Logical Page and Physical Page in SSRS?
Answer: Logical page breaks are page breaks that you insert before or after report items or groups. Page breaks help to determine how the content is fitted to a report page for optimal viewing when rendering or exporting the report. The following rules apply when rendering logical page breaks: Logical page breaks are ignored for report items that are constantly hidden and for report items where the visibility is controlled by clicking another report item.

Logical page breaks are applied on conditionally visible items if they are currently visible at the time the report is rendered. Space is preserved between the report item with the logical page break and its peer report items. Logical page breaks that are inserted before a report item push the report item down to the next page. The report item is rendered at the top of the next page. Logical page breaks defined on items in table or matrix cells are not kept. This does not apply to items in lists.

18. Explain what are the different stages of Report Processing?
Answer:Different stages of Report Processing includes

  • Compile: It analyzes expressions in the report definitions and saves the compiled intermediate format internally on the server
  • Process: It runs dataset queries and combines intermediate format with data and layout
  • Render: It sends a processed report to a rendering extension to tell how much information fits on each page and create the page report
  • Export: It exports the reports to a different file format.

19. What is SharePoint Integrated Mode?
Answer: In SharePoint integrated mode, the report server runs in a Windows Sharepoint Services or Office SharePoint Server server farm. With this, you can locate, view, manage, and secure reports in the library.

20. What Is Rs.exe Utility?
Answer: Rs.exe utility is used for deploying the report on the report server. It is built-in with the report server and can be customized. 

21. What Are The New Features Of Sql Server 2008 R2 Reporting Service?
Answer: The SQL Server 2008 R2 has introduced a lot of new features. Some of them are given below:

  • New Report Types – Table, Matrix, List, Chart, and Subreport
  • Some New Tools is added to report designer Toolbox
  • Report Data Panel – built-in page numbers
  • Report Builder 3.0

22. What is a dataset and what are the different types of datasets?
Answer: A dataset is similar to a query definition, which is executed when the report is executed. Datasets are of two types: Shared and Embedded. An embedded dataset is private to the report in which it exists and shared datasets can be shared across reports.
Further Reading.

23. What are Cascaded Parameterized Reports?
Answer: Cascaded Parameterized Reports are reports that use multiple parameters in them.
However, some parameters will depend on other parameters for their values or value sets. The order of parameters can change the optimization of the report. For example, if we have a customer parameter that has a million results it can be filtered by first having the gender parameter, which will cut the customer parameter results in half. For example, we have a subcategory parameter but its values aren’t populated until the category parameter is chosen.

24. What are the differences between Push and Pull Delivery Methods?
Answer: With the Pull delivery method, the user is accessing the file from the Report Manager themselves. With the Push delivery method, the reports are automatically delivered to the user. 

25. Filter Information In The Query Or To Use Filters In The Dataset?
Answer: From a performance perspective, it is better to use parameters because they let SSRS pull filtered data from the data source. In contrast, when you use filters, the queries retrieve all data and then filter the information in an additional step.

26. How Do You Configure A Running Aggregate In Ssrs?
Answer: You can use the RunningValue function to configure a running aggregate.

27. Mention what are the three command-line utilities and what are their primary functions?
Answer: The three command-line utilities include

RsConfig.exe: It is used to determine the connection properties from the SSRS instance to the Report Server database
RsKeyMgmet.exe: It executes scale-out deployment set-up and encryption key operations
Rs.exe: It executes Report server Script files which can perform management operations and report deployment.

28. Can You Use A Stored Procedure To Provide Data To An Ssrs Report?
Answer: Yes, you can use a stored procedure to provide data to an SSRS report by configuring the dataset to use a stored procedure command type. However, your stored procedure should return only a single result set. If it returns multiple result sets, only the first one is used for the report dataset.

29. What Is The Main Purpose Of A Report Parameter?
Answer: The main purpose of a report parameter is to add interactivity to your reports, letting users change the reported behavior based on the options they select.

30. SQL Server Reporting Services vs. Crystal Reports?
Answer: Crystal reports are processed by IIS while SSRS have a report server. Caching in Crystal reports is available through cache server. On the other hand, caching in SSRS is available for Report history snapshots. Crystal reports have standards and user-defined field labels. SSRS allows only user-defined field labels.

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