Reporting services interview questions?

I've been tagged to do the technical interviews for a mid-level report writer
using SSRS 2005 against a SQL 2000 server. I'm a DBA and wrote up some
questions off the top of my head, but I'm killing the candidates with them.
Although I think they are reasonable questions I have to suspect that I could
be aiming too high. Unfortunately I have nobody else to bounce them off of.
Can anyone suggest a source of questions to use? I've seen articles on DBA
questions, but not for report writers.I teach MSSQL and have done tech interviews in the past. If you want to
e-mail me privately, I can make some suggestions, and tell you what I think
of your questions.
Alain Quesnel
alainsansspam@.logiquel.com
www.logiquel.com
"Byron" <Byron@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:934F8144-60E4-4CCB-BEBA-7C488938AEC6@.microsoft.com...
> I've been tagged to do the technical interviews for a mid-level report
> writer
> using SSRS 2005 against a SQL 2000 server. I'm a DBA and wrote up some
> questions off the top of my head, but I'm killing the candidates with
> them.
> Although I think they are reasonable questions I have to suspect that I
> could
> be aiming too high. Unfortunately I have nobody else to bounce them off
> of.
> Can anyone suggest a source of questions to use? I've seen articles on
> DBA
> questions, but not for report writers.|||On Dec 5, 8:29 pm, "Alain Quesnel" <alainsanss...@.logiquel.com> wrote:
> I teach MSSQL and have done tech interviews in the past. If you want to
> e-mail me privately, I can make some suggestions, and tell you what I think
> of your questions.
> Alain Quesnel
> alainsanss...@.logiquel.com
> www.logiquel.com
> "Byron" <By...@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:934F8144-60E4-4CCB-BEBA-7C488938AEC6@.microsoft.com...
> > I've been tagged to do the technical interviews for a mid-level report
> > writer
> > using SSRS 2005 against a SQL 2000 server. I'm a DBA and wrote up some
> > questions off the top of my head, but I'm killing the candidates with
> > them.
> > Although I think they are reasonable questions I have to suspect that I
> > could
> > be aiming too high. Unfortunately I have nobody else to bounce them off
> > of.
> > Can anyone suggest a source of questions to use? I've seen articles on
> > DBA
> > questions, but not for report writers.
Generally speaking, your questions should be geared toward the
specifics of the position you are hiring for. Normally, the ideal
candidate should have some VB.NET experience coupled with SQL Server/T-
SQL development experience and Reporting Services. Since SSRS is a
reporting tool/software, some questions should be given to contrast
and compare Crystal Reports (and other mainstream reporting software)
with SSRS. Also, have the candidate give some basic expression syntax
(i.e., iif, switch, datepart, etc, etc) since they are along the lines
of VB.NET. If the person in the position will need to know integration
of SSRS in applications, a few questions related to URL rendering of
reports and utilizing the ReportingServices Web service in an ASP.NET
application should be thrown in. Also, knowledge about the report
viewer control should be questioned. Dependent report parameters might
be another area of questioning. Also, performance tuning in SQL Server
in general could be useful. Hope this sheds a little light.
Regards,
Enrique Martinez
Sr. Software Consultant