Updated March 3, 2023
Introduction to Informatica Cloud Interview Questions
With many companies now moving from an on-premise solution to a cloud-based application has seen a recent spike, but it becomes a headache for customers to transfer the data to the cloud. Moving the data into an application like Salesforce is difficult and moving it again to some other cloud application would be daunting. Hence instead, Informatica cloud focusses on moving data between the interfaces. In the list of interview questions, the nits, and bits of the Informatica cloud would be clearer. Informatica Cloud is a cloud offering of Informatica and using a web interface one can get access to development, administration, and monitoring capability. This service provides on-demand integration and platform for ETL (Extract Load and Transform).
Informatica Cloud Interview Questions
In this section, we would look at some questions which are asked widely in interviews. The roles for which these questions are asked primarily belongs to the organization that uses the Informatica tech stack for its cloud services. The role is of a cloud engineer! So without much ado, let us look at the questions.
1. What is Informatica Cloud?
Informatica Cloud is an on-demand integration and ETL platform offering through a web interface so that developers can access development, administration, and monitoring of the tasks through one place in web interface. It enables developers to build solutions which carry out ETL processes between cloud and on-premise solution.
2. What is the main big problem Informatica Cloud is solving? What is the intent of the use of the Informatica cloud?
The main intent of using Informatica Cloud is to solve the data integration problem which is very likely to happen in cases when data is moved from legacy architecture to cloud-based architecture. Using Informatica cloud one can also solve the problem of managing fragmented data lying within and outside the firewall.
3. What is the difference between Informatica Cloud and Informatica PowerCenter?
Informatica Cloud is the web version of Informatica PowerCenter and utilizes the capability of PowerCenter to provide a web-based application for all the functionalities. One of the applications provided by Informatica Cloud is the Cloud designer. Not only that Informatica Cloud has the capability to deliver more advanced data integration capability on the cloud. Some extra features we have on the cloud are, Dynamic Field propagation, where logical rules are used for propagating fields instead of always manually propagating them, the next is about parameterized templates, where a developer can utilize parametrized value so that the mappings can be reused in other scenarios as well.
4. What is a Cloud designer?
Cloud designers can be thought about as a counterpart version of PowerCenter designer. Using Cloud designer, one can easily configure mappings which are theoretically similar to how PowerCenter mappings are configured. In Cloud designers, one can also transform data by using transformation like Expression transformation, Filter transformation, and many such others.
5. What is a transformation in Cloud designer and explain briefly about each of them?
One can use many types transformation to carry out transformation in the data and they are, Expression transformation used for calculations at row level, filter transformation for filtering out data in the flow itself, Joiner transformation to create joins in data and finally the lookup transformation to look at a source, source qualifier, forgetting the relevant data.
6. What are the different mapping areas of Cloud designer?
We have all in all 5 areas and they are:
- Mapping Canvas: In this area, we would configure the map. This area is pretty much similar to the PowerCenter Designer.
- Transformation Palette: The mapping we talked about earlier, are listed down in this area. Either by click or by drag and drop, transformation can be added.
- Properties Panel: All the configuration options related to the mapping or transformation is listed here. In PowerCenter, we had different tabs which did the same tasks.
- Toolbar: All the tools related to saving, canceling, validating, arranging, Zooming in or out are available in this area.
- Status Area: Once we have taken care of all the displays or areas above this area helps in notifying us of the status of the tasks listed. There would be a notification if the mapping has unsaved changes, and if the changes are saved, this area will notify if there is any invalid mapping or not.
7. What is the differentiator in Cloud architecture?
The architecture of the Informatica cloud is built to be multitenant and the web interface is given extra care of UI/UX. The nature of architecture is such that if there is the availability of in house Informatica solutions, one can exploit the heavy advantage of hybrid solution implementation. With this architecture developers can focus on more complex integration steps instead of taking the pain of running a job on the cloud, leaving Informatica Cloud to take care of the job running part.
8. What is Informatica Cloud REST API?
Informatica Cloud REST API gives the capability for accessing information from Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services. Developers can also perform tasks like create, update, delete connections, start and monitor jobs, etc.
9. List some important resources provided by Informatica Cloud REST API.
Some of the widely used resources are:
activity log: The job details of the activity log are returned in this variable.
activityMonitor: The job details of the activity monitor are returned.
connection: The details of the Data Integration connection is returned.
job: A task is started or stopped.
schedule: The details of the schedule is returned. It also helps in creating or updating the schedules.
10. Is there a possibility of having 2 targets in one data synchronization task? Can we create a router kind of transformation for different flow?
There is no possibility of including a router or multiple targets for the data synchronization tasks. Only through 2 ways, it is possible to create a task on the cloud using target and router. The first one is by uploading a previously created XML as a task and the second is by the creation of custom tasks using an integration template.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Informatica cloud is the next step forward for any organization which is trying to get their infrastructure on cloud without having the hassle of moving the data again and for a developer, this is the place to dive deeper. With the questions above, we are sure that it will enhance the understanding and possibly point more ideas during some ad hoc questions asked which can never be prepared! Lastly, best of luck with your interviews.
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