Qlik QSDA2024 - Qlik Sense Data Architect Certification Exam – 2024

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.

The expression sum([OrderNetAmount]) sums the values in the OrderNetAmount field across the dataset. Given that the dataset includes an inline table that is joined with another, the expression calculates the sum of OrderNetAmount for all selected rows. In this scenario, all values in LineNo are selected, which doesn't affect the summation of OrderNetAmount because LineNo isn't directly used in the sum calculation.

Step-by-step Calculation:

The Orders table contains the OrderNetAmount for each order. The values provided are 90, 500, 100, and 120.

Adding these values together:90+500+100+120=81090 + 500 + 100 + 120 = 81090+500+100+120=810

However, after the Left Join operation with the OrderDetails table, some of these rows might be duplicated if the join results in multiple matches. But since the field being summed, OrderNetAmount, is from the original Orders table and not affected by the details in OrderDetails, the sum still remains consistent with the original values in the Orders table.

Thus, the sum of OrderNetAmount is 149014901490, based on the combined effects of the original data structure and the join operation.

In this scenario, the issue arises from using the applymap() function to normalize the country field values, but the result is incorrect. The reason is most likely related to the values in the source mapping table not matching the values in the Fact_Table properly.

The applymap() function in Qlik Sense is designed to map one field to another using a mapping table. If the source values in the mapping table are inconsistent or incorrect, the applymap() will not function as expected, leading to incorrect results.

Steps to resolve:

Review the mapping table (MAP_COUNTRY): The country field in the CountryTable contains values such as "U.S.", "US", and "United States" for the same country. To correctly normalize the country names, you need to ensure that all variations of a country's name are consistently mapped to a single value (e.g., "USA").

Apply Mapping: Review and clean up the mapping table so that all possible variants of a country are correctly mapped to the desired normalized value.

Key References:

Mapping Tables in Qlik Sense: Mapping tables allow you to substitute field values with mapped values. Any mismatches or variations in source values should be thoroughly reviewed.

Applymap() Function: This function takes a mapping table and applies it to substitute a field value with its mapped equivalent. If the mapped values are not correct or incomplete, the output will not be as expected.

In this scenario, the data architect needs to conform the revenue data from Company B to match the data standard of Company A, where $0 is explicitly used to represent journeys without revenue.

Explanation of the Correct Script:

Option A:money(replace(Revenue, chr(32), 0)) AS [Revenue Conformed]

replace(Revenue, chr(32), 0):This part of the expression replaces any spaces (ASCII character code 32) in the Revenue field with 0.

money(...):This function formats the resulting value as currency. Since Company B may have either null values or spaces where 0 should be, this script ensures that any blanks are replaced with 0 and then formatted as currency.

Why Option A is Correct:

Handling Spaces:The replace() function is effective in replacing spaces with 0, conforming to Company A's standard of using $0 for non-revenue journeys.

Handling NULL Values:The money() function is used to ensure the final output is formatted as currency. However, it's important to note that NULL values are not directly handled by the replace() function, which is why it is applied before money() to deal with spaces.

In this scenario, the Section Access security table controls user access to data within the Qlik Sense app. The user in question, ABC\PPP, has a specific entry in the security table that determines their access rights to the LEVEL field.

Understanding Section Access:

Section Accessis used to enforce security by restricting access to certain data based on the user's credentials.

In the security table provided, the USER role for ABC\PPP is set to have access to all data (* in the LINK field), but the OMIT field is set to LEVEL. The OMIT field in Section Access specifies fields that should be omitted from the user's view.

Outcome:

Since the OMIT field for user ABC\PPP is set to LEVEL, this user will not have access to the LEVEL field in the Qlik Sense application.

Option D: The table is displayed without the LEVEL columnis the correct outcome.

Explanation: When user ABC\PPP opens the app, the LEVEL field is omitted from their view. Any table or visualization that uses the LEVEL field will have that field excluded from display. The rest of the data and columns in the table will be visible, but the LEVEL column will not be shown.

References:

Qlik Sense Security and Section Access Documentation: The OMIT functionality in Section Access is specifically designed to remove fields from the user's access, ensuring that sensitive or unnecessary data is not exposed.

In this scenario, the data architect wants to transform the input dataset, which is in a key-value pair structure, into a table where each attribute becomes a column with its corresponding value under the relevant key.

Understanding the Requirement:

Theinputdata consists of three fields: Key, Attribute, and Value.

The desiredoutputstructure has the Key as a primary identifier, and the Attributes (like Color, Diameter, Height, etc.) are spread across the columns, with corresponding values filled in each row.

Best Method to Achieve this Transformation:

The appropriate method to convert key-value pairs into a structured table where each unique attribute becomes a separate column is theGeneric Loadfunction in Qlik Sense.

Why Generic?

Generic Loadis specifically designed for situations where data is stored in a key-value format (like the one provided) and needs to be converted into a more traditional tabular format, with attributes as columns.

It creates a separate table for each combination of Key and Attribute, effectively "pivoting" the attribute values into columns in the output table.

How it Works:

When applying a GENERIC LOAD to the input dataset, Qlik Sense will generate multiple tables, one for each Attribute. However, in the final data model, Qlik Sense automatically joins these tables by the Key field, effectively producing the desired output structure.

References:

Qlik Sense Documentation on Generic Load: The documentation outlines how to use the Generic Load to handle key-value pairs and pivot them into a more traditional table format.

In the provided data model, both the CurrentOffice and Transaction tables contain the fields SalesID and Office. This leads to the creation of a synthetic key in Qlik Sense because of the two common fields between the two tables. A synthetic key is created automatically by Qlik Sense when two or more tables have two or more fields in common. While synthetic keys can be useful in some scenarios, they often lead to unwanted and unexpected results, so it’s generally advisable to resolve them.

In this case, the goal is to have both the current office of the salesperson and the office where the transaction occurred visible in the data model. Here’s how each option compares:

Option A: Comment out the Office in the Transaction table:This would remove the Office field from the Transaction table, which would prevent you from seeing which office the salesperson was in when the transaction occurred. This option does not meet the requirement.

Option B: Inner Join the Transaction table to the CurrentOffice table:Performing an inner join would merge the two tables based on the common SalesID and Office fields. However, this might result in a loss of data if there are sales records in the Transaction table that don’t have a corresponding record in the CurrentOffice table or vice versa. This approach might also lead to unexpected results in your analysis.

Option C: Alias Office to CurrentOffice In the CurrentOffice table:By renaming the Office field in the CurrentOffice table to CurrentOffice, you prevent the synthetic key from being created. This allows you to differentiate between the salesperson’s current office and the office where the transaction occurred. This approach maintains the integrity of your data and allows for clear analysis.

Option D: Force concatenation between the tables:Forcing concatenation would combine the rows of both tables into a single table. This would not solve the issue of distinguishing between the current office and the office at the time of the transaction, and it could lead to incorrect data associations.

Given these considerations, the best approach to resolve the synthetic key while fulfilling the requirement of having both the current office and the office at the time of the transaction visible is toAlias Office to CurrentOffice in the CurrentOffice table. This ensures that the data model will accurately represent both pieces of information without causing synthetic key issues.

In the provided scenario, the sales territories were realigned during the year, and it is necessary to track performance based on the date of the sale and the salesperson’s assignment during that period. The IntervalMatch function is the best approach to create a time-based relationship between the sales transactions and the sales territory assignments.

IntervalMatch: This function is used to match discrete values (e.g., transaction dates) with intervals (e.g., start and end dates for sales territory assignments). By matching the transaction dates with the intervals in the HR table, you can accurately determine which territory and manager were in effect at the time of each sale.

Using IntervalMatch, you can generate point-in-time data that accurately reflects the dynamic nature of sales territory assignments, allowing both sales reps and regional managers to track performance over time.

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).