Cloud - VII

We did a word count using Apache Hive on Cloudera QuickStart VM 5.12 here. In this post, we will repeat the same word count using Apache Hive but on AWS EMR. Amazon Elastic MapReduce or AWS EMR is a managed Hadoop framework that can be easily deployed swiftly to process large amounts of data across dynamically scalable Amazon EC2 instances. You can also run open source tools and popular distributed frameworks such as Apache Hive, Apache Spark, Apache HBase, Presto, and Apache Flink in Amazon EMR, and interact with data in other AWS data stores such as Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, and Amazon Redshift.

We will use Amazon S3 to store our Hive queries, input data, and also the output result from Hive queries on Amazon EMR. In S3, we have created a bucket called emr-example--bucket having three folders: code, input and output. code folder will house all the hive queries. input folder will contain the data file called blue_carbuncle.txt containing the text on which we will attempt the word count. Results of the Hive queries will be outputted to the output folder. The bucket and folders are shown below:

The first paragraph in the data file, blue_carbuncle.txt, is shown below:

 

The data file, blue_carbuncle.txt, is placed in input folder:

The Hive queries is shown below:

create external table text (line string) location '${INPUT}/input';

insert overwrite directory '${OUTPUT}/result1/' select word, count(*) from(select explode(split(line,'\\s')) as word from text) z group by word;

They are the same from the previous post expect for the "location" part in the first query and "insert overwrite directory" part in the second query. They are in a single file called hive1.q under code folder:

The output folder is empty as no Hive queries have been run so far. Now, we can go ahead and run the Hive queries on the data file by spinning up a Amazon EMR on the fly. Frankly, I enjoyed the experience as I never thought setting up a Hadoop cluster will be so much of a breeze. So, now onto Amazon EMR:

Click on Create cluster button. In the next screen, only add a EC2 key pair if you already have, else, take the defaults. Click on Create cluster to launch a cluster comprising 1 m5.xlarge master node and 2 m5.xlarge core nodes:

The cluster will take a few minutes to launch. Once launched, click on steps tab and Add step button to add the details to run Hive query:

 

In the Add step window, add the values as follows:

After setting the values for Script, Input and Output locations, click Add button to kick off the Hive query on the cluster. Once the Hive query has run, we get Completed in Status:

Navigate to S3 to see result:

Download the file, 000000_0 and see the contents:

The contents are the same like in the last post. This concludes the post on Amazon EMR

Cloud - VI

In this post, we take a look at AWS Lambda, a good example of serverless compute. As with any serverless application, there is no need to manage any servers and related server activities like OS installation, patching, etc. Scaling is handled automatically in that AWS Lambda code is triggered in response to an event. If more events occur, then, for each event, AWS Lambda code is executed. Similarly, if lesser events occur, lesser corresponding amount of AWS Lambda code are executed. If no events occur, no Lambda is executed. Billing for Lambda is for the number of times the code is executed and code execution time in multiples of 100 milliseconds.  We will see a few simple examples on AWS Lambda below.

After logging into Management Console, call AWS Lambda, click on Create Function:

We will not write any code from scratch. Instead, we will borrow code from an existing blueprint. In the next window, after clicking Use a blueprint, using the filter under Blueprints, bring up hello-world-python blueprint. Select it and click Configure:

Under Function name, enter FirstLambda. Select Create a new role with basic Lambda permissions under Execution role. Observe the code and click Crate Function at the bottom of the page:

Click on Save button. Then, click on Test button to the left of Save button. In the Configure test event window, replace value1 to Hello, world! and enter LambdaEvent under Event name and click Create button at bottom:

Once the event test event details are saved, click on Test button:

The results can be seen below:

Click on Details to see more details:

See the results output that is in line with the code. Click on Monitoring to see CloudWatch metric details:

Then, click on View logs in CloudWatch:

Click on the only record under Log Streams to see more details:

Create a second function using existing role as shown below:

Then, click Create Function at bottom of page. Default code generated is shown below:

Modify the code to include context properties as shown below including handler name:

Then, click Test to configure Text event details:

Then, save and test the function. Results are shown below:

Execution results are shown below:

This concludes the introduction to AWS Lambda

Cloud - V

In the fifth and final post on questions for AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam, we see the last set of questions for preparation towards AWS Cloud Practitioner accreditation. The answers to the last post are given at the start of the post followed by the last batch of questions. The answers to these questions follow these questions. These questions may be helpful for preparation of other AWS Certification Exams as well

Answers to questions in last post are given below:

46. d

47. a

48. b

49. d

50. c

51. d

52. a

53. b

54. c

55. a,c,d

56. a,b,d

57. c

58. a

59. b

60. a

The next set of questions are:

61. __________ is a fast, reliable, fully-managed graph database service that makes it easy to build and run applications that work with highly connected datasets

a) Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

b) Amazon Neptune

c) AWS Storage Gateway

d) Amazon Elastic File System

62. An easy way to get an idea of the costs incurred for moving to AWS Cloud Services is:

a) Use Simple Monthly Calculator at https://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html

b) Call AWS Region Representative and check with him

c) Call up local AWS Data Center and set up a meeting

d) Use AWS Cost Management

63. __________ is a AWS product with which we can add user sign-up, sign-in, and access control to web and mobile apps quickly

a) AWS Device Farm

b) AWS AppSync

c) Amazon Cognito

d) AWS Amplify

64. Using __________ one can create and publish interactive dashboards to deliver insights to users in an organization

a) AWS Device Farm

b) Amazon Pinpoint

c) AWS Batch

d) Amazon QuickSight

65. Amazon Elastic Block Store, Amazon Elastic File System, Amazon FSx for Lustre and Amazon FSx for Windows File Server are associated with

a) design

b) storage

c) compute

d) networking

66. __________ is a free AWS service that simplifies the billing for multiple accounts by setting up a single payment method for all the accounts in an organization through consolidated billing

a) AWS Budgets

b) AWS Cost & Usage Report

c) AWS Cost Explorer

d) AWS Organizations

67. When Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances are used, upto __ percent over equivalent capacity purchased in an On-Demand model may be realized

a) 45

b) 60

c) 75

d) 90

68. __________ is a service that monitors applications and automatically adjusts capacity to maintain steady, predictable performance at the lowest possible cost

a) AWS Auto Scaling

b) Elastic Load Balancing

c) Amazon Elastic File System

d) Amazon ElastiCache

69. Which of the following load balancers are related to Elastic Load Balancing in AWS: (Choose all that apply)

a) Classic Load Balancer

b) Advanced Load Balancer

c) Network Load Balancer

d) Application Load Balancer

70. __________ gives complete control over virtual networking environment, including selection of IP address range, creation of subnets, and configuration of route tables and network gateways

a) Amazon CloudFront

b) Amazon Virtual Private Cloud

c) AWS PrivateLink

d) AWS Cloud Map

71. When Amazon EC2 Spot Instances are used, upto __ percent over equivalent capacity purchased in an On-Demand model may be realized

a) 45

b) 60

c) 75

d) 90

72. Advantages offered by Amazon EC2 Dedicated Host include: (Choose all that apply)

a) instance running on different physical servers

b) saving money on existing server-bound licensing costs

c) rotating license usage between multiple instances

d) meeting compliance and regulatory requirements

73. __________ are best recommended for steady-state applications and customers are confident of running EC2 for periods as one or three years:

a) Dedicated Hosts

b) On-Demand Instances

c) Reserved Instances

d) Spot Instances

e) A judicious combination of above

74. Visibility of sockets, cores, and host ID are characteristics of which EC2 type:

a) Dedicated Hosts

b) On-Demand Instances

c) Dedicated Instances

d) Reserved Instances

e) Spot Instances

75. __________ gives 24x7 access to the AWS DDoS Response Team and protection against DDoS related spikes in Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), Amazon CloudFront, and Amazon Route 53 charges

a) AWS Shield Standard

b) Amazon GuardDuty

c) AWS Shield Advanced 

d) Amazon Inspector

Answers to the above questions are:

61. b

62. a

63. c

64. d

65. b

66. d

67. c

68. a

69. a,c,d

70. b

71. d

72. b,d

73. c

74. a

75. c

All the best for AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam ...

Cloud - IV

In the fourth post on Cloud topic, we see the next bunch of questions towards AWS Cloud Practitioner accreditation. The answers to the last post are given at the start of the post followed by the next set of questions. These questions may be helpful for preparation of other AWS Certification Exams as well

Answers to questions in last post are given below:

31. c

32. d

33. a

34. b

35. d

36. a

37. c

38. b

39. a

40. d

41. b

42. b

43. d

44. c

45. c

The next set of questions are:

46. __________ is an interactive query serverless service that makes it easy to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL

a) Amazon Glue

b) Amazon Aurora

c) Amazon Redshift

d) Amazon Athena

47. __________ comprises the most comprehensive set of AWS cost and usage data available, including additional metadata about AWS services, pricing, and reservations

a) AWS Cost & Usage Report

b) AWS Budgets

c) AWS Expense Report

d) AWS Forecast Report

48. __________ allows a user to run code without provisioning or managing servers paying only for compute time

a) AWS Fargate

b) AWS Lambda

c) Amazon Lightsail

d) AWS Outposts

49. __________ can be used to collect, process, and analyze real-time, streaming data to obtain timely insights and also react quickly to new information

a) Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose

b) AWS Lake Formation

c) Amazon CloudSearch

d) Amazon Kinesis

50. __________ to detect anomalous behavior in your environments, set alarms, visualize logs and metrics side by side, take automated actions, and troubleshoot issues

a) AWS Systems Manager

b) AWS Config

c) Amazon CloudWatch

d) AWS Service Catalog

51. __________ is a fast content delivery network (CDN) service that securely delivers data, videos, applications, and APIs to customers globally with low latency, and high transfer speeds

a) Amazon VPC

b) AWS PrivateLink

c) AWS Direct Connect

d) Amazon CloudFront

52. __________ is an online resource to reduce cost, increase performance, and improve security by optimizing AWS environment

a) AWS Trusted Advisor 

b) AWS OpsWorks

c) AWS License Manager

d) AWS Auto Scaling

53. __________ makes it easy to establish a dedicated network connection from customer premises to AWS to reduce reduce network costs, increase bandwidth throughput, and provide a more consistent network experience than regular Internet-based connections

a) AWS Global Accelerator

b) AWS Direct Connect

c) AWS PrivateLink

d) Amazon Route 53

54. Which of the following does not contribute to Amazon RDS cost:

a) Number of database instances

b) Database characteristics

c) Inbound data transfer

d) Clock hours of server time

55. The three modes of accessing data in Amazon S3 Glacier are:

a) Standard

b) Non-Standard

c) Bulk

d) Expedited

e) Immediate

56. Which of the following are valid cost saving measures using reservations? (Choose all that apply)

a) Amazon ElastiCache Reserved Nodes

b) Amazon RDS Reserved Instances

c) Amazon Athena Reserved Nodes

d) Amazon Redshift Reserved Nodes

e) Amazon Simple Queue Service Reserved Instances

57. __________ lets customers view and manage a select set of resources to support incident response while on-the-go

a) AWS Management Console 

b) AWS Command Line Interface

c) AWS Console Mobile Application

d) Amazon CloudWatch

58. Under the Shared Responsibility Model, Amazon is responsible for security of the cloud while the customer is responsible for security in the cloud

a) True

b) False

59. Using which AWS product can we send notifications in the form of SMS and emails?

a) Amazon SWF

b) Amazon SNS

c) Amazon SQS

d) Amazon MQ

60. __________ is the industry leading cloud-native big data platform, allowing teams to process vast amounts of data quickly, and cost-effectively at scale

a) Amazon EMR 

b) Amazon CloudSearch

c) Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

d) AWS Lake Formation

Answers in next post ...

Cloud - III

The third segment of series on Cloud sees the next batch of questions towards towards AWS Cloud Practitioner accreditation that is the first of the Amazon Certification credentials series.The answers to questions in last article are also mentioned.  These questions may be helpful for preparation of other AWS Certification Exams as well

Answers to questions in last post are given below:

16. c
17. a,c,e
18. b,c,d
19. b
20. a,b,c,d
21. b
22. a,b,d,e
23. d
24. c
25. a
26. d
27. c
28. b
29. a,c,d,e
30. b,d

The next set of questions are below:

31. __________ is an email sending service designed to help digital marketers and application developers send marketing, notification, and transactional emails

a) Amazon SNS
b) Amazon SQS
c) Amazon SES
d) Amazon SMS

32. Which is a fast, scalable data warehouse that makes it simple and cost-effective to analyze all your data across your data warehouse and data lake and provides high performance using massively parallel query execution, and columnar storage on high-performance disk

a) Amazon Glue
b) Amazon Athena
c) Amazon QuickSight
d) Amazon Redshift

33. __________ is a service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud and is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers

a) Amazon EC2
b) Amazon EMR
c) Amazon SWF
d) Amazon SQS

34. __________ is a highly available, durable, secure, fully managed pub/sub messaging service that enables you to decouple microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications

a) Amazon SQS
b) Amazon SNS
c) Amazon SES
d) Amazon SMS

35. __________ is a fully managed, multiregion, multimaster, key-value and document database with built-in security, backup and restore, and in-memory caching for internet-scale applications

a. Amazon ElastiCache
b. Amazon Neptune
c. Amazon Aurora
d. Amazon DynamoDB

36. __________ is a secure, durable, and extremely low-cost storage service for data archiving and long-term backup and is designed to deliver 99.999999999% durability

a. Amazon S3 Glacier
b. Amazon S3
c. Amazon Elastic File System
d. Amazon Elastic Block Store

37. __________ is a data transfer service at exabyte scale

a. AWS Snowball
b. AWS Snowball Edge
c. AWS Snowmobile
d. AWS Server Migration Service

38. __________ is a MySQL and PostgreSQL compatible relational database engine that combines the speed and availability of high-end commercial databases and is up to five times faster than standard MySQL databases and three times faster than standard PostgreSQL databases

a. Amazon Neptune
b. Amazon Aurora
c. Amazon DynamoDB
d. Amazon ElastiCache

39. __________ is a managed cloud service that lets connected devices easily and securely interact with cloud applications and other devices.

a. AWS IoT Core
b. AWS IoT Button
c. AWS IoT 1-Click
d. AWS IoT Analytics

40. __________ is a cost efficient, easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud and supports different database engines

a. Amazon Neptune
b. Amazon DynamoDB
c. Amazon Timestream
d. Amazon RDS

41. __________ is an object storage service that offers industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, performance and durability of 99.999999999%

a) AWS Snowball
b) Amazon Simple Storage Service
c) AWS Storage Gateway
d) Amazon Elastic File System

42. __________ gives developers and systems administrators an easy way to create and manage a collection of related AWS resources, provisioning and updating them in an orderly and predictable fashion.

a. AWS Systems Manager
b. AWS CloudFormation
c. AWS Config
d. AWS OpsWorks

43. __________ is a web service that records AWS API calls for your account and delivers log files containing details of the identity of the API caller, the time of the API call, the source IP address of the API caller, the request parameters, and the response elements returned by the AWS service

a. AWS Trusted Advisor
b. Amazon CloudWatch
c. AWS Config
d. AWS CloudTrail

44. __________ is a fully-managed platform to easily build, train, and deploy machine learning models at any scale

a. Amazon Translate
b. Amazon Polly
c. Amazon SageMaker
d. Amazon Transcribe

45. __________ is a tool that can be used to review the state of workloads and compares them to the latest AWS architectural best practices

a. AWS Trusted Advisor
b. AWS License Manager
c. AWS Well-Architected Tool
d. AWS Systems Manager

Answers in next post ...

Cloud - II

Into the second part of series on Cloud, we look at the next batch of questions. The questions in this article and series of posts are oriented more towards AWS Cloud Practitioner accreditation that is the first of the Amazon Certification credentials series.The answers to questions in last article are also mentioned.  These questions may be helpful for preparation of other AWS Certification Exams as well

Answers to previous post are given below:

1. a,c,d

2. a,c,e

3. b,d,e

4. a,b,c,e

5. c

6. c,d

7. b

8. b

9. c,d,e

10. a

11. a,d

12. a,b,c,d,e

13. a

14. a,b,c,d

15. a,b

The next batch of questions are below:

16. Which of the following is not a pillar of AWS Well-Architected Framework? 

a) Performance Efficiency

b) Security

c) Availability

d) Operational Excellence

e) Reliability

17. The fundamental drivers that form the basis for AWS costing are: (Choose all that apply)

a) outbound data transfer

b) inbound data transfer

c) storage

d) design

e) compute

18. Which of the following characteristics are associated with AWS Pricing? (Choose all that apply)

a) Pay only per user

b) Pay-as-you-go

c) Pay less by using more

d) Save when you reserve

19. Using AWS Free Tier, any AWS user can access all of the AWS services and gain free hands-on-experience

a) True

b) False

20. Which of the following are design principles of the AWS Cloud? (Choose all that apply)

a) Loose Coupling

b) Caching

c) Scalability

d) Automation

e) Open Source

21. An important customer is planning to deploy their custom auction application on EC2 for the first time. They believe that it will attract millions of hits but have no data to back their claim. Which of the following EC2 instances would you recommend?

a) Dedicated Hosts

b) On-Demand Instances

c) Reserved Instances

d) Spot Instances

e) A judicious combination of above

22. Non-free Pricing Models for EC2 instances comprise: (Choose all that apply)

a) Dedicated Hosts

b) On-Demand Instances

c) Provisioned Instances

d) Reserved Instances

e) Spot Instances

23. Which of the following offers the most favourable pricing for Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances:

a) Partial Upfront

b) Prorated Upfront

c) No Upfront

d) All Upfront

24. AWS Batch, AWS Fargate, AWS Lightsail and AWS Lambda are associated with

a) design

b) storage

c) compute

d) networking

25. Lift-and-shift is a migration approach that comprises moving on-premise software applications to cloud with minimal changes

a) True

b) False

26. Which of the following offers the most favorable pricing for EC2:

a) Dedicated Hosts

b) On-Demand Instances

c) Reserved Instances

d) Spot Instances

27. _________ is a highly available and scalable cloud Domain Name System (DNS) web service. 

a) AWS PrivateLink

b) AWS Direct Connect

c) Amazon Route 53

d) AWS Transit Gateway

28. Which of the following is a fully managed pub/sub messaging service:

a) Amazon SQS

b) Amazon SNS

c) Amazon SWF

d) Amazon MQ

29. Which of the following database instance types are supported by RDS: (Choose all that apply)

a) MySQL

b) DB2

c) Oracle

d) MariaDB

e) Aurora

30. Spot instances are best suited for applications that: (Choose all that apply)

a) involve serverless compute

b) have no scheduled run times

c) can be load balanced using ELB

d) are very compute intensive to run 

Answers in next post ...

Cloud - I

I am truly delighted to be writing on another important topic: Cloud Computing. In the first post on this topic, we start with sample questions for AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam. The questions in this article and following posts are oriented more towards AWS Cloud Practitioner credential that is the first of the AWS Certifications series. These questions may be helpful for preparation of other AWS Certification Exams as well

1. What are the different Cloud Computing models? (Choose all that apply)

a) Infrastructure as a Service
b) Network as a Service
c) Platform as a Service
d) Software as a Service
e) Hardware as a Service

2. Advantages of Cloud Computing are: (Choose all that apply)

a) Focus on organization's business rather than IT infrastructure
b) Better control of on premise IT hardware
c) Benefits from economies of scale by cloud deployment
d) Huge investment of capital expenditure on data centers
e) Increased speed and agility of IT operations

3. Different Cloud Computing Deployment Models are: (Choose all that apply)

a) Social 
b) Private
c) Domain
d) Hybrid
e) Public

4. Amazon Web Services product offerings includes areas as: (Choose all that apply)

a) mobile
b) IOT
c) networking
d) availability zone set up
e) security

5. Each Amazon Region has at least __ Availability Zone(s)

a) 4
b) 3
c) 2
d) 1

6. Content delivery with lower latency is achieved by: (Choose all that apply)

a) Dedicated Amazon Servers
b) Superfast Amazon network
c) Edge Locations
d) Regional Edge Caches

7. The AWS S3 pricing is the same across the globe

a) True
b) False 

8. Long-term contracts are one of the significant benefits of Amazon Cloud Services

a) True
b) False

9. Three ways to access AWS are by using:

a) Logging into AWS servers in nearest Availability Zone
b) Logging into AWS servers in nearest Edge Location
c) AWS Management Console
d) AWS Command Line Interface
e) AWS Software Development Kits

10. AWS Shared Responsibility Model is related to

a) Security and Compliance
b) Pay-as-you-go Pricing
c) Lift-and-Shift
d) AWS Replication Strategy
e) AWS High Availability

11. Benefits of Serverless Model include: (Choose all that apply)

a) Automated High Availability
b) Automated Functional Programming
c) Full control of Cluster Provisioning
d) Flexible Scaling

12. Amazon EC2 Instance type families are: (Choose all that apply)

a) Compute optimized
b) Storage optimized
c) Accelerated computing
d) General purpose
e) Memory optimized

13. AWS Regions are connected to AWS Global Network with a 100 Gbps intercontinental network 

a) True
b) False

14. Different components of AWS Global Infrastructure are: (Choose all that apply)

a) AWS Availability Zones
b) AWS Data Centers
c) AWS Regions
d) Points of Presence

15. The advantages that Cloud offers to IT personnel are: (Choose all that apply)

a) Increased speed and agility
b) Try out innovations
c) Manual configuration of hardware devices onto racks
d) Full visibility into AWS Data Centers

Answers in next post ...

Drones - I

It has been a few months since my last post on Tableau. In this post, we introduce a new label, Drones. For a while I was wondering if I should post articles on Drones under IOT label. Finally, I decided to create a new label for Drones. While I would love to create content on Drones to be more generic, our main focus will be on Quadcopters only. The reason is quite simple: Quadcopters are a good way to start learning about drones and its applications. 

Let us understand a few terminology in Drone parlance. A Rotorcraft is an aircraft that flies using the lift generated by a rotor system. A rotor system is a combination of rotor blades and a control system that facilitates the generation of  lift for flight. The simplest Rotorcraft is a Helicopter that has only one rotor. A Quadcopter on the other hand has four such rotors.

In the first article on Drones, we will look at different applications and potential uses of Drones. The applications and uses can be classified under three broad areas:

1) Recreational Uses
2) Industrial Uses
3) Military Uses
4) Other Uses

Recreational Uses:

a) Photography and Videography: Drones have found wide acceptance among the photographer community for getting aerial shots both in still photography and videography. I guess majority of the Drones are used in this area only

b) Hobby Supporting Vehicle: Drones can be used to support covering sport events, provide support to gardening and hunting activities

c) Drone Racing: It is an emerging sport where participants fly Drones using FPV. FPV is First Person View meaning that the pilot flying the Drone is allowed to see only what the Drones can see using a camera on Drone with live feed to pilot

d) Drone Show: Using 1500 Drones, Intel put up a Drone Show last year. It can be viewed here

e) Drone as Toy: Drones are quite popular as toys. Toy drones can be as small as fitting into one's palm with easy flight control so that children can take to flying drones easily


Industrial Uses:

a) Healthcare: Drones can be used for delivery of blood samples, blood sachet, emergency kits / medication, first aid kits, organs, emergency food and water supplies for disaster relief

b) Real Estate: During project execution, work in progress can be monitored by drones. After project is complete, Drones can be used as promotional aid to showcase the completed project

c) Shipping & Delivery: Drones can be used for used for delivering small to medium sized packages. and pizzas

d) Security: Drones can be used to monitor any highly secure zone or to navigate to highly secure zone in case of any security breach

e) Transportation: Drones can used to transport humans. Drone cabs can save time as the flights will be along straight lines. A clip showing such an application is here

f) Media: Journalists can leverage Drones for covering live events as sports events, political rallies, etc. While there are privacy concerns, there is no denial in the fact that with Drones, reporting on the field will be more rich in terms of images, live feeds, and more immersive in content

g) Films: Drones have been used to capture aerial shots in many films. Drone shots provide amazing content. More information can be seen here

h/) Mining: Drones can be used to ensure that no human personnel are around blast sites. They can also be used for safety around mining equipment and complex road network around mines. Wherever tunnels are used, they can be used to detect poisonous gases and help prevent human losses

i) Space: NASA is planning to use Drones for exploration of Moon and Mars in areas that cannot be accessed by rover

j) Warehouse Management:  Drones can scan bar code on a pallet in a warehouse much faster than a human. Also, time can be saved if Drones are used for managing inventory in a warehouse

k) Mobile Network: Drones can be used to amplify mobile signals if they carry mobile network transmitters. This can improve the signal quality and reliability. More details are here. A similar usage is also improving radio communication using Drones

l) Internet Connectivity: Drones can used to improve internet connectivity in areas that are inaccessible. An example can be seen here

m) Advertising: Drones can be used for aerial advertising, banner advertising for promotion and marketing campaigns


Military Uses:

a) Border Patrol: Drones are being used for border patrolling by countries to prevent illegal border crossing, securing border, smuggling and drug related activities

b) Bomb/IED/Landmine Detection: Basically, the Bomb/IED/Landmine detecting unit is a payload mounted on a Drone. This Drone can then fly to the suspect location and help in preventing loss of human lives

c) Taking out enemies: Drones are being increasingly used in war to gain asymmetric advantage. UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) or Drones equipped with missiles are being used in air-to-ground strikes against enemy targets. A Drone in this category recently finished a trans-Atlantic flight

d) Reconnaissance: Drones can be used for military reconnaissance in war to bolster tactical advantage. Such Drones are equipped with technology for monitoring troop movement, provide threat alerts, along with transmission of high definition images in real time during day or night

Other Uses:

a)  Monitor Hazardous Situations: Drones can used to monitor and provide information in hazardous situations involving natural calamity as volcano activity, forest fires or in an area which is not human friendly. Volcano monitoring can be seen here

b) Weather Monitoring: Different sensors that monitor temperature, humidity, etc can be attached to a Drone to monitor weather

c) Farming and Agriculture: Drones can been used for planting, crop spraying, crop monitoring, soil and field analysis. Drones can also be used for tree planting to fight deforestation as seen here

d) Search and Rescue Missions: Drones can be used as inexpensive vehicles in Search and Rescue missions

e) Law and Order Enforcement: Drones have aerial advantage and can monitor ground level activity as a riot or traffic disruption and help in bringing any undesirable situation under control

f) Mapping / Surveying: Drones offer the most comprehensive near ground aerial mapping capability. For complete flight path control, Drones can be also programmed to do a complete sweep of the area to be mapped in a step-wise fashion. Once the images are captured, detailed maps and 3D models can be created. Such maps can be used in areas as solar energy, roof inspection, etc

g) Preserving Heritage Sites: Drones can help in preserving heritage sites as it can capture visual features of the site using terrestrial and aerial photography. The data collated can be used to build a 3D model of the site

h) Navigator Aid for Visually Impaired: Drones can be used to provide navigation support to visually impaired folks using sending audio signals and other means

i) Sports / Fitness Aid: Drones can provide excellent feedback about an athlete's physical activity on the field as they are not limited by the angle of the shot. Drones can also be programmed to follow the owner who is jogging, swimming, etc and provide live feedback for any improvement in the training regimen

In the near future, we will see more innovative uses of Drones. This concludes the first post on Drones ...

Tableau - X

This will be the last post on questions for Tableau Certification. In all, there are a total of 150 questions across 10 posts. I am pleased to inform that I have completed the Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification. The best part about this certification is that it has no expiry

Like in last 9 posts, the questions in this article are oriented more towards Desktop Specialist accreditation that is the first of the Tableau Desktop Exams series. However, these questions may be helpful for preparation for other Tableau Certification Exams as well

Answers to previous post are given below:

121. a,b
122. b,c,d
123. a,b,c,d
124. a,c,d
125. d
126. a
127. b
128. a,c
129. d
130. b,c
131. a,d
132. b
133. a,c,d
134. b
135. a

The last batch of questions are below:

136. Legend highlighting can be used to to draw users' attention on specific marks in a view

a) True
b) False

137. Two modes of highlighting are

a) Default highlighting
b) One-way highlighting
c) Two-way highlighting
d) Three-way highlighting

138. The steps to creating a visual group does not involve: (Choose all that apply)

a) Click on paperclip icon
b) Select marks in view
c) Click View Data icon in Data Pane
d) Describe Sheet... using Worksheet menu

139. Continuous fields in below list are: (Choose all that apply)

a) 1970
b) June
c) Q3
d) Week 1, 2013

140. Size property on Marks card gives the user to control size of Shapes in view

a) True
b) False

141. Multiple copies of same dashboard suited to each device have to be created for viewing on different mobile devices:

a) True
b) False

142. Multiple URLs of same dashboard have to be created for viewing on different mobile devices:

a) True
b) False

143. Parameters are constant values that can replace variable values in calculations, filters, and reference lines or bands

a) True
b) False

144. It is not possible to prefix a currency field with a custom currency notation like EUR in a sheet

a) True
b) False

For all the below questions, use data file:

145. With the available data, the Manager contributing to maximum returns is:

a) Chris
b) Erin
c) Sam
d) William

146. With the available data, the percentage of returned orders is

a) 2.51%
b) 0.24%
c) 1.04%
d) 3.45%

147. The combination of Dimensions: Region, Product Category, and Product Sub-Category that contributed to 5th highest sales for the entire period is:

a) East, Technology, Telephones and Communication
b) Central, Technology, Telephones and Communication
c) East, Furniture, Chairs & Chairmats
d) West, Technology, Telephones and Communication

148. Create a sheet with States versus Sales showing the lowest 5 states by Sales and another sheet with States versus Product Base Margin. Then, create a dashboard with both these sheets. The state having third largest Sales has ______ largest Product Base Margin

a) first
b) second
c) third
d) fourth

149. Two states that are diametrically opposite to each other but having the top sales are: (Choose all that apply)

a) Texas and Washington
b) Florida and Washington
c) New York and California
d) California and New York

150. The least quantity has been ordered by:

a) Michigan
b) Wyoming
c) Delaware
d) North Dakota

The answers to above questions are below:

136. a
137. b,c
138. c,d
139. a,d
140. a
141. b
142. b
143. b
144. b
145. d
146. c
147. a
148. b
149. c,d
150. c

This concludes the last of this series

Wishing All Luck for Tableau Certification!!!

Tableau - IX

The questions in this article and series of posts are oriented more towards Desktop Specialist accreditation that is the first of the Tableau Desktop Exams series. However, these questions may be helpful for preparation for other Tableau Certification Exams as well

Answers to previous post are given below:

106. a
107. b
108. b,c
109. a,b,c
110. d
111. a,d
112. a,b,c,d
113. a,c,d
114. d
115. c
116. a
117. a,b,c,d
118. b
119. d
120. b,c,d

The next set of questions are below:

121. Which of the following are relevant to a measure: (Choose all that apply)

a) They are numeric and measurable quantitative values
b) They can either be discrete or continuous
c) They cannot be aggregated
d) They affect level of detail in view

122. Which of the following are relevant to a dimension:  (Choose all that apply)

a) They do not affect the level of detail in a view
b) They can either be discrete or continuous
c) They are qualitative in nature
d) They can be use to segment data

123. A date function like DATEDIFF can be used to calculate: (Choose all that apply)

a) Difference between two dates in terms of weeks
b) Difference between two dates in terms of days
c) Difference between two dates in terms of years
d) Difference between two dates in terms of months

124. A .tds datasource file contains information about: (Choose all that apply)

a) connection details
b) measures data
c) default field properties like formats, sort order, etc
d) sets, bins, groups, calculated fields

125. Which of the following can have aliases: (Choose all that apply)

a) Measure Values
b) Measures
c) Date Field
d) Discrete Dimension
e) Number of Records

126. It is possible to print a workbook as PDF

a) Yes
b) No

127. Adobe Acrobat should be installed for a view to printed as PDF

a) Yes
b) No

128. Which of the following is not a table calculation or is not obtained by a calculated expression: (Choose all that apply)

a) Percentile 50
b) Difference
c) Variance
d) Percentage of Cell

129. If we wish to see the percentage of each component in a stacked bar as a percentage, the computation has to be at the level of:

a) Table (across)
b) Table (down)
c) Table
d) Cell

130. Dropping the Number of Records on the Rows Shelf contributes to: (Choose all that apply)

a) 2 marks
b) The same number of Marks if Number of Records is dropped on the Column Shelf
c) 1 mark
d) 3 marks

131. If Tableau perceives that there is a field that can be assigned a Geographical role: (Choose all that apply)

a) It automatically adds Latitude and Longitude under Measures
b) It automatically adds Latitude and Longitude under Measures only if data is about states
c) It automatically adds Latitude and Longitude under Measures only if data contains cities
d) The Latitude and Longitude though not part of data are called Latitude (generated) and Longitude (generated)

132. While setting up a Filter, the result of  filter condition set up on General tab and Wildcard tab is equivalent to:

a) the filter conditions are acted upon by an or operator
b) the filter conditions are acted upon by an and operator
c) the filter conditions and acted upon by minus operator
d) the filter conditions are acted upon by an or followed by an or operator

133. It is possible to invoke external URLs from Dashboards in Tableau but: (Choose all that apply)

a) When a URL is called from a Web Page object embedded in a dashboard, the URL is rendered within the dashboard
b) When a URL is called from a Web Page object embedded in a dashboard, the URL is rendered in an external browser
c) When a URL is called from a Web Page object embedded in a dashboard, this object can be set up as a floating object
d) When a URL is called as part of action, the URL is rendered in an external browser

134. Continuous fields add headers to a sheet and discrete fields add axes to a sheet

a) Yes
b) No

135. Format Font can be used to format font on Worksheet, Pane, Header, etc

a) Yes
b) No

Answers in next post ...

Tableau - VIII

The questions in this article and series of posts are oriented more towards Desktop Specialist accreditation that is the first of the Tableau Desktop Exams series. However, these questions may be helpful for preparation for other Tableau Certification Exams as well

Answers to previous post are given below:

91. d
92. a,c
93. a,b,c,d
94. c
95. b
96. a
97. d
98. b
99. d
100. a
101. b
102. a
103. b
104. d
105. c

The next set of question are given below:

106. Dimensions that are of type date can be discrete or continuous

a) True
b) False

107. Dimensions of type string or boolean can be continuous

a) True
b) False

108. Dimensions can be aggregated as: (Choose all that apply)

a) Sum
b) Count (Distinct)
c) Maximum
d) Median

109. The Summary Card can be invoked on a sheet by: (Choose all that apply)

a) Using Worksheet menu
b) Using Show/Hide Cards menu
c) Right Clicking on a sheet and selecting Summary
d) Using Analysis menu

110. The default number of properties on a Marks Card is:

a) 6
b) 4
c) 3
d) 5

111. A story can contain: (Choose all that apply)

a) Worksheets

b) Workbooks

c) Stories

d) Dashboards

112. One can navigate a story using: (Choose all that apply)

a) Caption boxes

b) Numbers

c) Dots

d) Arrows only

113. The device types supported by Tableau are: (Choose all that apply)

a) Desktop

b) Laptop

c) Tablet

d) Phone

114. The Phone Models supported by Tableau are: (Choose all that apply)

a) Motorola

b) LG

c) Google

d) Nexus

115. Rearrange Layout is an option that occurs under which device preview:

a) Laptop

b) Browser

c) Phone

d) Mobile

116. It is possible to create views that are phone-specific in Tableau

a) True

b) False

117. Tableau provides the author of a worksheet the capability to set fonts on: (Choose all that apply)

a) Title

b) Header

c) Tooltip

d) Pane

118. Tableau does not provide the feature to ________ a text in the font feature

a) underscore

b) strike through

c) italicize

d) bolding

119. Reversed, Border and Include Totals are associated with ______ property on Marks Card

a) Shape

b) Tooltip

c) Label

d) Color

120. Using Parameters, one can dynamically replace constant values in: (Choose all that apply)

a) Groups

b) Filters

c) Reference Bands

d) Calculations

Answers in next post ...

Tableau - VII

The questions in this article and series of posts are oriented more towards Desktop Specialist accreditation that is the first of the Tableau Desktop Exams series. However, these questions may be helpful for preparation for other Tableau Certification Exams as well

Answers to previous post are given below:

76. d
77. a
78. c
79. b
80. b,d
81. c
82. a
83. c
84. b
85. d
86. a
87. c
88. b
89. d
90. c

The next batch of question are given below:

91. Which of the following is not a valid member of Marks card?

92. Context filters can be used to: (Choose all that apply)

a) improve performance
b) improve deployment across the enterprise
c) act as a dependent filter
d) help in testing of sheets

93. Which of the following are valid Dashboard actions? (Choose all that apply)

a) Highlight
b) Go to URL
c) Change Set Values
d) Filter

94. It is possible to disaggregate measures in Tableau by

a) Setting the data type of a measure to default
b) Using Replace References on Measure values
c) Using Aggregate Measures under Analysis
d) Setting Percentage Of to None under Analysis

For all the below questions, use data file:

95. The Profit Ratio for Corporate Segment for 2012 is

a) 0.1626
b) 0.1526
c) 0.2471
d) 0.1497

96. If we create a histogram of Sales showing the number of Sales using bin size $2500, the number of bins having a single member is

a) 7
b) 8
9) 9
d) 10

97. If we create a histogram of Sales showing the number of Sales using bin size $2000, the number of bins having 4 members is

a) 1
b) 2
9) 3
d) 4

98. If we create a histogram of Sales showing the number of Sales using bin size $2000, the number of bins having 2 members is

a) 1
b) 2
9) 3
d) 4

99. If we create a histogram of Sales showing the number of Sales using bin size $2000, the Profit of bins having second highest members is

a) 261964
b) 184938
9) 136243
d) 295579

100. Which customer contributed to maximum Sales in October 2010?

a) Nina Home Kelly
b) Luis Kerr
c) Penny Leach
d) Sally Liu

101. For Region South, the least profitable Product Sub-Category contributed to the highest Sales

a) True
b) False

102. For regions South and East put together, the least profitable Product Sub-Category contributed to the second highest Sales

a) True
b) False

103. What is the number of regions in which at least two Product Categories are above the Overall Average Profit?

a) 1
b) 2
c) 3
d) 4

104. The Region having the second highest median of Quantity ordered new for the different Product Categories is

a) Central
b) West
c) South
d) East

105. The percentage of Sales of products ordered with High and Critical Priority for Customer Segments Home Office and Small Business is

a) 12.83
b) 15.95
c) 17.41
d) 16.93

All luck to solving ...