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Top 23 Tableau Interview Questions and Answers

09/Sep/2021 | 7 minutes to read

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Here is a List of essential Tableau Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers and mid level of Experienced Professionals. All answers for these Tableau questions are explained in a simple and easiest way. These basic, advanced and latest Tableau questions will help you to clear your next Job interview.

Tableau Interview Questions and Answers

These interview questions are targeted for Tableau developers. You must know the answers of these Tableau interview questions to clear an interview. We have compiled this list of basic and advanced Tableau questions from interview experience of experienced professionals. We have a separate document for Tableau Admin interview questions.

1. What is Tableau?

Tableau is a fast growing visual analytics Platform. It provides an easier way to represent data in graphical or pictorial form using dashboards. Tableau is transforming the way we use to understand data and use the data to solve business problems. The mission of Tableau is to empower the people and organizations to be more data-driven. For more visit What is Tableau.

2. What is the need of context filters in Tableau?

Context filters can be defined as categorical filters that work as independent filters and a filter is considered as a dependent filter when it processes the data that is passed through the context filter. Context is used to:
  • Improve Performance: If you are working with a large data source or applying many filters, queries can be slow. So this is the place where you can apply context filters for better performance.
  • Create a dependent numerical or top N filter: When you want to select only interested data, implement a context filter and then apply any numeric or Top N filter to select the records.
For more visit Context Filters.

3. In which order does Tableau execute the filters?

Tableau performs the operations on view in a specific order that is known as Order of Operations. Tableau executes the filters as per below order.
  • Extract filters
  • Data source filters
  • Context filters
  • Filters on dimensions
  • Filters on measures
For more visit Filtering Order of Operations.

4. When do you need to implement User Filter and Row Level Security (RLS)?

When you have a workbook that you want to share on Tableau Server or Tableau Online, by default View data is visible by all users who have access to that published workbook. But you can override this behavior by applying a filter that specifies which user can see that data rows in the view and you do not have to create a separate view for each user.
A User Filter restricts access to data based on the users attribute such as user role. When you restrict access to data in this way is known as Row Level Security (RLS). For more you can visit Restrict the access at the Data Row Level.

5. How will you differentiate Filter and Parameter?

Parameters are workbook variables which can replace constant values in filters or calculations. A Parameter can be a date, number string etc. A Parameter works at workbook level while Filters are worksheet specific. Parameters are specific to workbook level and Filters are specific to data source. When you want to apply filters across multiple data sources then you must use parameters not filters. For more visit Create Parameters in Tableau.

6. What are the different ways to combine the data in Tableau?

Tableau offers multiple ways to combine the data from multiple sources as follows.

  • Relationships are the default, dynamic and flexible way to combine the data for desired analysis in Tableau.
  • Joins are a static way to combine data from two tables and it can cause data loss or data duplication if tables are at different levels of detail.
  • Blends are completely different from relationships and join as they never combine the data instead they directly query each data source.
  • Unions are used to append the data rows from one table to another table.

7. What is Data Blending in Tableau?

Data Blending in Tableau is a process or technique that is used to combine the data from more than one data source. Data Blending takes the data from a secondary data source and combines it with the primary data source to display in the view. Data blending in Tableau is implemented on a sheet-by-sheet basis and useful when you want to combine published data sources.
For more you can visit Data Blending in Tableau.

8. Differentiate Blends and Joins in Tableau.

Both Blends and Joins are used to combine the data from multiple data sources. But they come with few differences as below.

  • Joins are used when you want to combine the data from two or more tables based on some common column value across similar row structures. Blends work differently, they query each data set independently and then perform aggregation to visualize the data in the view.
  • Unlike Blends, Joins need proper data to perform join operations if data tables are at different levels.
  • Blends has capability to handle the data with different levels of details and can work with published data sources while Joins can not.
For more visit Joins vs Blends.

9. How will you decide between Data extracts vs. live connections in Tableau?

There are many points that need to be considered before selecting any one of them.
  • Data Extracts are the snapshots of original data which are optimized for aggregation operations and you can save them locally. Live connections are connection strings to the original data source meaning you will perform all operations on actual data. So Data extracts provide faster results for large data sets as compared to live connections.
  • Live connections provide real-time updates for any changes in data source in Tableau while Extracts are the snapshots so you need to refresh the extract for any updates in data source.
  • Live connections depend on the database so always do not provide fast performance whereas Extracts are optimized for fast performance.
  • Live connections have many other factors that need to be considered like network speed, custom SQL, traffic on the network etc. Data extracts do not have such kinds of things.
For more visit Live connections vs Extracts.

10. What are the advantages of Extracts in Tableau?

Extracts come with many advantages because they have
  • Large data sets support - You can create an extract of data which has billions of rows.
  • Performance Improvement - You can experience better performance when using extracts instead of working with views with connections to other data sources.
  • Support for additional functionality - When original data does not support some functionality such as counting distinct. then extracts help to take the advantage of Tableau functionality.
  • Capability of offline access to the data - When original data is not available then you can use Tableau Desktop to work with data that is saved locally by extracts.
For more visit Extracts in Tableau.

11. Differentiate Relationships vs Joins in Tableau.

Relationships and Joins are used to combine the data from multiple data tables for desired analysis of data. But both differ in various ways as below.
  • Relationships are a dynamic, flexible way to combine the data whereas Joins are more static.
  • Venn diagram icons are used to display joins between physical tables whereas Relationships can be displayed using flexible noodles between logical tables.
  • To combine the data using relationships you need to select matching fields between tables whereas using Joins you need join clauses and join types.
  • When fields are at different levels of detail, Joins may duplicate aggregate values but in case of relationships aggregate values are unique when performance options are set to many-to-many.
  • Relationships keep unmatched measured values whereas Join may drop them.
  • Relationships do not require to select join types but automatically create the Joins during analysis based on the used fields.
For more visit Relationships vs Joins.

12. What are LOD expressions? What is the syntax to create LOD expressions?

LOD Expressions allow you to compute the values at visualization and data source level. LOD expressions also known as Level of Detail Expression . However LOD expressions offer more control on the level of granularity (the level of detail of the data stored in a table) you want to compute. LOD expressions can be performed at any level including - less granular level (EXCLUDE), more granular level (INCLUDE), completely independent level (FIXED) and Table-Scoped level.
A LOD Expression can be created as per below syntax. 

{[FIXED | INCLUDE | EXCLUDE] <dimension declaration> : <aggregate expression>}
For more visit LOD Expressions.

13. Explain the different types of LOD Expressions.

14. What is Hyper API? Explain the use of .hyper files in Tableau.

15. Differentiate .twb and .twbx files.

16. Explain the Tableau Architecture.

17. What is the use of tiles in Tableau Dashboard.

18. Explain some commonly used date functions in Tableau.

19. Explain different types of Charts and Graphs in Tableau.

Some General Interview Questions for Tableau

1. How much will you rate yourself in Tableau?

When you attend an interview, Interviewer may ask you to rate yourself in a specific Technology like Tableau, So It's depend on your knowledge and work experience in Tableau.

2. What challenges did you face while working on Tableau?

This question may be specific to your technology and completely depends on your past work experience. So you need to just explain the challenges you faced related to Tableau in your Project.

3. What was your role in the last Project related to Tableau?

It's based on your role and responsibilities assigned to you and what functionality you implemented using Tableau in your project. This question is generally asked in every interview.

4. How much experience do you have in Tableau?

Here you can tell about your overall work experience on Tableau.

5. Have you done any Tableau Certification or Training?

It depends on the candidate whether you have done any Tableau training or certification. Certifications or training are not essential but good to have.

Conclusion

We have covered some frequently asked Tableau Interview Questions and Answers to help you for your Interview. All these Essential Tableau Interview Questions are targeted for mid level of experienced Professionals and freshers.
While attending any Tableau Interview if you face any difficulty to answer any question please write to us at info@qfles.com. Our IT Expert team will find the best answer and will update on the portal. In case we find any new Tableau questions, we will update the same here.