DatabasesData/ML/AI
OLAP vs OLTP
Also written as OLAP, OLTP
Two opposite database workloads: OLTP handles many small reads and writes for a running application; OLAP scans huge amounts of data to answer analytical questions.
Think of it like
A till versus the end-of-year accounts. Both touch sales, but you'd design very different systems for each.
Junior or senior?
Knowing the distinction is a good fundamentals check.
Senior sounds like
Can explain why running analytics against the production database is a problem, and what they did about it.
Ask them
“Has anyone ever run heavy reporting against your production database? What went wrong?”