QSDA2024 Qlik Sense Data Architect Certification Exam – 2024 Questions and Answers

When retrieving data from a REST API, particularly when the dataset is large or the data is segmented across multiple pages (which is common in REST APIs), the REST Connector in Qlik Sense needs to be configured to handle pagination.

Pagination is the process of dividing the data retrieved from the API into pages that can be loaded sequentially or as required. Qlik Sense's REST Connector supports pagination by allowing the dataarchitect to set parameters that will sequentially retrieve each page of data, ensuring that the complete dataset is retrieved.

Key Steps:

REST Connector Setup: Configure the REST connector in Qlik Sense and specify the necessary API endpoint.

Pagination Mechanism: Use the built-in pagination mechanism to define how the connector should retrieve the subsequent pages (e.g., by using query parameters like page or offset).

In this scenario, the data architect needs to replace the SupplierID in the Orders table with the corresponding SupplierName from the Suppliers table, and the desired output should be a single table that includes all the order details along with the SupplierName instead of the SupplierID.

Analyzing the Options:

Option A:

Uses a MAPPING LOAD followed by an APPLYMAP to replace SupplierID with SupplierName in the Orders table. However, the table is dropped afterward, which means it won’t produce the required output.

The MAPPING LOAD approach is generally used to map values but is not necessary in this context as we are combining data from two tables directly.

Option B:

This option attempts to LEFT JOIN the Products table with the Suppliers table, but it does not directly address replacing SupplierID with SupplierName in the Orders table.

Additionally, it does not remove the SupplierID after the join, which is essential for the correct output.

Option C:

This option uses a LEFT JOIN with the DISTINCT keyword on the SupplierID field to avoid duplicates. The SupplierName is correctly joined to the Orders table, replacing the SupplierID.

This approach is the most appropriate because it results in a single table containing all order details with the SupplierName instead of the SupplierID.

Option D:

Similar to Option A, but it also introduces an unnecessary renaming step with MAPPING LOAD. It’s redundant and does not improve the solution over Option C.

Correct Script Choice:

Option Cis the correct script because:

It ensures that SupplierName replaces SupplierID in the Orders table using a LEFT JOIN.

The DISTINCT keyword is applied to the SupplierID field to prevent duplicate rows during the join.

The result is a single table containing the required information with SupplierName in place of SupplierID.

References:

Qlik Sense Join Operations: Using the correct JOIN type and ensuring proper deduplication (with DISTINCT if necessary) is key to merging tables in Qlik Sense.

When dealing with a database that is continuously updated with new records, updates, and deletions, an efficient data load strategy is necessary to minimize the load time and keep the Qlik Sense data model up-to-date.

Explanation of Steps:

Load the existing data from the QVD:

This step retrieves the already loaded and processed data from a previous session. It acts as a base to which new or updated records will be added.

Load new and updated data from the database. Concatenate with the table loaded from the QVD:

The next step is to load only the new and updated records from the database. This minimizes the amount of data being loaded and focuses on just the changes.

The new and updated records are then concatenated with the existing data from the QVD, creating a combined dataset that includes all relevant information.

Create a separate table for the deleted rows and use a WHERE NOT EXISTS to remove these records:

A separate table is created to handle deletions. The WHERE NOT EXISTS clause is used to identify and remove records from the combined dataset that have been deleted in the source database.

In the script provided, there are two tables being loaded inline: Table_A and Table_B. The script uses the Join function to combine Table_B with Table_A based on the common field Field_1. Here’s how the join operation works:

Table_Ainitially contains three records with Field_1 values of 01, 01, and 02.

Table_Bcontains two records with Field_1 values of 01 and 03.

When Join(Table_A) is executed, Qlik Sense will perform an inner join by default, meaning it will join rows from Table_B to Table_A where Field_1 matches in both tables. The result is:

For Field_1 = 01, there are two matches in Table_A and one match in Table_B. This results in two records in the joined table where Field_4 and Field_5 values from Table_B are repeated for each match in Table_A.

For Field_1 = 02, there is no corresponding Field_1 = 02 in Table_B, so the Field_4 and Field_5 values for this record will be null.

For Field_1 = 03, there is no corresponding Field_1 = 03 in Table_A, so the record from Table_B with Field_1 = 03 is not included in the final joined table.

Thus, the correct output will look like this:

Field_1 = 01, Field_2 = AB, Field_3 = 10, Field_4 = 30%, Field_5 = 500

Field_1 = 01, Field_2 = AC, Field_3 = 50, Field_4 = 30%, Field_5 = 500

Field_1 = 02, Field_2 = AD, Field_3 = 75, Field_4 = null, Field_5 = null

In the script provided, the alt() function is used to handle various date formats. The alt() function in Qlik Sense evaluates a list of expressions and returns the first valid expression. If none of the expressions are valid, it returns the last argument provided (in this case, '31/12/2022').

Step-by-step breakdown:

The alt() function checks the Date field for three different formats:

YYYYMMDD

YYYY/MM/DD

DD/MM/YYYY

If none of these formats match the value in the Date field, the default date '31/12/2022' is assigned.

Values in the Date field:

20210131: Matches the first format YYYYMMDD.

2020/01/31: Matches the second format YYYY/MM/DD.

31/01/2019: Matches the third format DD/MM/YYYY.

9999: Does not match any of the formats, so the alt() function returns the default value '31/12/2022'.

To meet the requirements of displaying the current year's total sales in a way that responds to user selections, the correct approach involves using both SET and LET statements to define the necessary variables in the data load editor.

Explanation of Option C:

SET vCurrentYear = Year(Today());

The SET statement is used here to assign the current year to the variable vCurrentYear. The SET statement treats the variable as a text string without evaluation. This is appropriate for a variable that will be used as part of an expression, ensuring the correct year is dynamically set based on the current date.

LET vCurrentYTDSales = '=SUM({$<Year={'$(vCurrentYear)'}>} [Sales Amount])';

The LET statement is used here to assign an evaluated expression to the variable vCurrentYTDSales. This expression calculates the Year-to-Date (YTD) sales for the current year by filtering the Year field to match vCurrentYear. The LET statement ensures that the expression inside the variable is evaluated, meaning that when vCurrentYTDSales is called in a chart or KPI, it dynamically calculates the YTD sales based on the current year and any user selections.

Key Points:

Dynamic Year Calculation: Year(Today()) dynamically calculates the current year every time the script runs.

Responsive to Selections: The set analysis syntax {$} ensures that the sales totals respond to user selections while still focusing on the current year's data.

Appropriate Use of SET and LET: The combination of SET for storing the year and LET for storing the evaluated sum expression ensures that the variables are used effectively in the application.

When developing an application that summarizes Qlik Sense usage by company employees and also gathers usage metrics for other systems, the data architect needs to ensure they have the correct access to sensitive data. The following roles are crucial:

IT Security Director:Responsible for the security of IT systems and data. They would ensure that the data architect has the appropriate permissions to access usage metrics and other system data securely.

Human Resources Director:They manage employee-related data, including employment records that might be necessary for matching employee IDs with usage metrics. This access is crucial for correlating usage data with specific employees.

Qlik Sense Administrator:This individual has administrative rights over the Qlik Sense environment and can grant access to usage data within Qlik Sense, ensuring that the architect has the necessary data to analyze.

Given the need to securely and correctly handle sensitive data, including employee usage metrics across multiple systems,Option Aincludes all the appropriate contacts for access and permissions.

In this scenario, users of a published app report incomplete visualizations, but the data architect is unable to replicate the error. This issue affects only one team, suggesting that the problem is related to how data is being restricted or filtered for that specific team.

Section Access: This is a security feature in Qlik Sense that controls user access to specific data within an app. If Section Access is misconfigured, it can restrict access to more records than intended, leading to incomplete visualizations for certain users or teams.

Restricting Too Many Records: If the Section Access is too restrictive, it might limit the data available to the affected users, causing the visualizations to display incomplete information. This could explain why the data architect, who likely has full access, cannot replicate the issue.

In this scenario, the company needs to analyze daily sales data from different countries and also measure customer satisfaction of products as reported on a social media website. This suggests that the data is likely coming from different sources, including possibly an API or a web service (social media website).

TheQlik REST Connectoris the appropriate tool for this job. It allows you to connect to RESTful web services and retrieve data directly into Qlik Sense. This is especially useful for integrating data from various online sources, such as social media platforms, which typically expose data via REST APIs. The REST Connector enables the extraction of large datasets from these sources, which is necessary given the requirement to produce 30 reports with an average of 20,000 rows each.

Microsoft SQL Serveris not suitable for fetching data from web services or social media platforms.

Qlik GeoAnalyticsis used for mapping and geographical data visualization, not for connecting to RESTful services.

Mailbox IMAPis for connecting to email servers and is not applicable to the data extraction needs described here.

Thus,Qlik REST Connectoris the correct answer for this scenario.

In the scenario provided, the data architect needs to load two tables (Budget and Sales) without creating a synthetic key, while ensuring that expressions like Sum([Budgeted Sales]) are calculated correctly.

Here is a breakdown of the options:

Option A (Outer Join):This option uses an outer join between the Sales table and the Budget table. While this approach will combine the tables based on the common fields (Year and Region), it will result in a single table that contains all fields from both tables. This approach prevents the creation of a synthetic key and retains all records from both tables, ensuring that all budgeted and actual sales data is available. As a result, calculations like Sum([Budgeted Sales]) will work correctly.This is the correct solution.

Option B (Concatenate):This option uses concatenate, which combines the tables by stacking them on top of each other as if they were one table. This approach will not prevent synthetic keys and could cause issues with calculations since Budgeted Sales and Actual Sales would be in the same column, leading to incorrect aggregation results.

Option C (Separate Load):This option simply loads the tables separately without any join or concatenation. While this will not create a synthetic key, it will result in two separate tables in the data model. Without any connection between these tables, calculations involving both Budgeted Sales and Actual Sales will not work correctly.

Option D (Inner Join):This option uses an inner join, which will combine only the records that match in both tables based on Year and Region. While this approach avoids synthetic keys, it may exclude records that do not have a corresponding match in both tables, potentially leading to incomplete data.

Given the requirements to avoid synthetic keys and ensure correct calculations,Option A (Outer Join)is the most appropriate approach. It ensures all relevant data is included and that the data model remains free from synthetic keys, while also allowing accurate calculations.

In the scenario, two tables (OrderDetails and Customers) are being loaded into the Qlik Sense data model, and these tables are related via the fields CustomerID and CustomerKey. The goal is to ensure that the relationship between these two tables is correctly established in Qlik Sense without creating synthetic keys or data inconsistencies.

Option A:Renaming CustomerKey to CustomerID in the OrderDetails table ensures that the fields will have the same name across both tables, which is necessary to create the relationship. However, renaming is done using AS, which might create an issue if the fields in the original data source have a different meaning.

Option B and C:These options use AUTONUMBER to convert the CustomerKey and CustomerID to unique numeric values. However, using AUTONUMBER for both fields without ensuring they are aligned correctly might lead to incorrect associations since AUTONUMBER generates unique values based on the order of data loading, and these might not match across tables.

Option D:This approach loads the tables with their original field names and then uses the RENAME FIELD statement to align the field names (CustomerKey to CustomerID). This ensures that the key fields are correctly aligned across both tables, maintaining their relationship without introducing synthetic keys or mismatches.

In the scenario where the data model is built with a composite key (keyYearMonthCustNo) to resolve synthetic keys, the following outcomes occur:

Sales and Budget Data Integration:

The composite key ensures that each combination of Year, Month, and Customer is uniquely represented in the combined Sales and Budget data.

During data selection (e.g., when a specific month is selected), Qlik Sense will show all the customer names that have either Sales or Budget data associated with that month.

Resulting Data View:

For the selected month, customers with sales records will display their Sales data. However, if the corresponding Budget data is missing, the Budget column will contain null values.

Similarly, if a customer has a Budget but no Sales data for the selected month, the Sales column will show null values.

Validation Outcome:When the data architect selects a month, they will see the following:

Customer Names and Sales recordsfor the selected month, where the Sales column will have values and the Budget column may contain null or non-null values depending on the data availability.