1. Initial Screening (HR/Recruiter) Resume review for relevant experience (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.) Basic questions on years of experience, availability, salary expectations High-level check on certifications (OCA, OCP, MCSA, etc.) 2. Technical Phone Screen A hiring manager or senior DBA will probe foundational knowledge: Difference between clustered vs. non-clustered indexes What is normalization? Explain 1NF–3NF How do you handle a slow-running query? Explain ACID properties Backup/recovery strategies (full, differential, transaction log) 3. Technical Interview (Deep Dive) This is the most intensive stage, often with multiple DBAs or engineers:SQL & Query Optimization Writing complex queries (JOINs, CTEs, window functions) Query execution plans and how to interpret them Index design and when NOT to use indexes Database Administration High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) — RAC, Always On, replication, mirroring Backup/restore procedures and RTO/RPO concepts Performance tuning (wait stats, deadlocks, blocking) Security: roles, permissions, auditing, encryption Architecture & Design Capacity planning and storage management Partitioning strategies Replication types (transactional, merge, snapshot) 4. Practical/Hands-On Assessment Some companies give a take-home or live coding test: Write SQL queries from a schema Diagnose a slow query given an execution plan Set up or troubleshoot replication Identify issues in a database design 5. Behavioral Interview Standard competency-based questions: "Describe a time you handled a major database outage" "How do you prioritize tasks during an emergency?" "Tell me about a performance issue you identified and resolved" "How do you communicate downtime to non-technical stakeholders?" 6. Final Round / Panel Conversation with senior leadership or cross-functional teams Discussion of on-call responsibilities, team collaboration Architecture vision and long-term database strategy