Qlik Sense Interview Questions

Architecture of Qlik Sense

Its architecture is designed to support both single-user environments and large enterprise deployments, making it versatile for various business needs. The architecture of Qlik Sense can be understood in several key components:

• Qlik Sense Engine (QSE): The core of Qlik Sense, the engine manages data in-memory and performs all the calculations needed to generate analytics and visualizations. It ensures the responsiveness and speed of data interaction.

• Qlik Sense Apps: Applications or documents that contain data models, visualizations, and sheets. These apps are the workspaces where users interact with their data.

• Qlik Management Console (QMC): This is the central management tool for configuring and managing the Qlik Sense environment. It allows administrators to manage users, apps, data connections, and system settings.

• Qlik Sense Hub: The user interface through which end-users access their applications, create new visualizations, and explore data. The Hub is web-based, making it accessible from various devices.

• Data Load Editor and Scripting: Provides the capability to connect to various data sources, load data into the Qlik Sense environment, and transform it using the Qlik Sense script.

• Qlik Data Connectivity: Qlik Sense can connect to a wide range of data sources, including databases, cloud services, and local files, ensuring that users can bring together data from across their organization.

• Extensions and APIs: Qlik Sense is extensible, allowing developers to create custom visualizations, extensions, and integrate Qlik Sense with other applications using APIs.

Qlik Sense Supports Responsive Design

Qlik Sense supports responsive design by automatically adjusting its visualizations and interfaces to the screen size and orientation of the device being used. 

Associative Data Modeling in Qlik Sense

Unlike hierarchical or query-based models that restrict users to pre-defined paths of analysis, the associative model in Qlik Sense enables users to make any data selection and instantly see the related data across the entire dataset.

• Associative Engine: At the heart of this capability is the Qlik associative engine, which holds all the data loaded into an application in memory. When a user makes a selection, the engine instantly calculates which data is associated and which is not, across the entire data set.

• Green, White, and Gray Selections: Qlik Sense visually indicates the association between data using colors. Green represents selected data, white indicates possible associations (data related to the selection), and gray shows unrelated data (data not associated with the current selection). This visual feedback helps users understand data relationships at a glance.

• Data Discovery: This associative model encourages open-ended exploration and discovery. Users can start their analysis from any point of interest and follow their intuition through the data, uncovering insights that may not have been apparent through a structured query approach.

• No Data Left Behind: Unlike SQL-based queries that filter out data based on the query's conditions, the associative model in Qlik Sense keeps all data available. This means users can explore not just the data that matches their criteria, but also see how that data relates to what has been excluded by their selections.