The Most Frequently Asked Splunk Interview Questions & Answers [UPDATED 2024]

One thing is certain: using Splunk will alter your business and propel it forward. But, more importantly, do you have what it takes to be a Splunker? If you answered yes, get ready for the toughest job interview you’ve ever had since the competition is fierce. You might begin by reviewing the most frequently asked Splunk interview questions, which are included in this article.

Let’s clarify what the Splunk interview is before we dig into the most often requested Splunk interview questions. Splunk is an American business located in San Francisco, Calif. which manufactures machine-generated data search, tracking, and analysis software via a web-specific interface. Splunk (the product) collects, indexes, and links real-time data in a repository searchable from which graphs, reports, alerts, dashboards, and views may be generated.

By recognizing data trends, delivering data metrics, problem diagnosis, and insight for business operations. Splunk makes machine data accessible across a company. For application administration, security, and compliance as well as corporate and online analytics. Splunk has recently also started building BizOps’ machine learning and data solutions.

It would be worthwhile mentioning that these Splunk interview questions are carefully handpicked by professional hiring managers. But, conducting further research to improve your readiness would be harmless.

The Most Frequently Asked Splunk Interview Questions & Answers

Here are some commonly requested Splunk interview questions for both freshmen and experienced applicants who want to ace their Splunk interview from the first try.

What is Splunk?

Answer: Splunk is like Google for machine data. It is a software/engine that may be useful to search, visualize, monitor, and report on your corporate data. Splunk transforms valuable machine data into strong operational intelligence by giving real-time insight into your data via charts, alerts, and reports, among other things.

What are the Splunk/Splunk architectural components?

Answer: The components of Splunk’s architecture are like the following:

• Search head: gives a graphical user interface for searching.
• Indexer: a program that indexes machine data.
• Forwarder: Sends logs to the Indexer.
• Deployment server: components Mange’s Splunk in a distributed environment

What is a forwarder for Splunk and what are its types?

Answer: There are two Splunk forwarder types as follows:

1. Universal forwarder -Splunk Agent for collecting data locally, neither parsing or indexing the data. Universal forwarder (UF).
2. Heavyweight forwarder (HWF) – Splunk’s full case with advanced functions typically operates as a remote, intermediate forwarder, and potential data filter since data are useful and are not suitable for manufacturing systems.

What is the difference between transaction command and stats?

Answer: The transaction command can in handy in two situations:

To distinguish between two transactions, a unique id (from one or more fields) is insufficient. When identification is in place, such as in web sessions identifiable by cookie/client IP, this is the situation. Time spans or pauses are also useful to split the data into transactions in this scenario. When an identifier is reused, such as in DHCP logs, a specific message may be useful to indicate the start or conclusion of a transaction.

When it’s preferable to examine the events’ raw text together rather than analyzing the individual fields of the events.

In most other situations, stats are preferable because they provide superior performance, especially in a distributed search context. Stats can be useful when there is a unique id.

Tell me how to troubleshoot Splunk performance issues?

Answer: The answer to this question is complex, but in general, interviewers search for the following keywords in a conversation:

• Look for any problems in the splunkd.log file.
• Examine concerns with server performance, such as CPU/memory utilization, disk i/o, and so on.
• Install the SOS (Splunk on Splunk) app and monitor the dashboard for warnings and problems.
• Check the number of saved searches that are presently active and how many system resources they are consuming.
• Firebug is a Firefox extension that you should install. Log into Splunk (using Firefox), open firebug’s panels, then switch to the ‘Net’ panel when it is in place and activated (you will have to enable it). The HTTP requests and answers, as well as the time spent on each, will be obvious on the Net panel. This will at once provide you a lot of information about which queries are causing Splunk to linger for a few seconds and which are not.

Tell the difference between stats and event stats commands?

Answer: The stats command creates summary statistics for all existing fields in your search results and stores them as new fields’ values. The stats command is identical to Eventstats, except that aggregation results are in place inline to each event and only if the aggregate is relevant to that event.

event stats calculate the desired statistics in the same way as stats do, but it aggregates them to the original raw data.

What is Splunk btool or how will you troubleshoot Splunk configuration files?

Answer: Splunk btool is a command-line tool that may be useful to debug configuration file problems or just examine what settings your Splunk Enterprise installation is using in its current context.

What is the difference between search head clustering and search head pooling?

Answer: Both are Splunk capabilities that ensure the high availability of the Splunk search head in the event that anyone’s search head goes down. Search head cluster is a new feature, and search head pooling will take place in future editions. The captain is in charge of the search head cluster, and he also has power over the slaves. The clustering of search heads is more dependable and efficient than the pooling of search heads.

What is the best way to add/onboard folder access records from a Windows system to Splunk?

Answer: The procedures to add folder access logs to Splunk are like the following:

• On a Windows computer where the folder pinned down, enable Object Access Audit using group policy.
• Enable auditing for the folder where you wish to keep track of logs.
• On a Windows computer, install the Splunk universal forwarder.
• To transmit security logs to the Splunk indexer, set up a universal forwarder.

Splunk Interview Question 10: How would you deal with a Splunk license violation notice issue and troubleshoot it?

Answer: Splunk has indexed more data than our paid license quota, resulting in a license violation notice. We need to figure out which index/source type has lately received more data than the average daily data volume. We can look up the available quota for each pool in the Splunk licensing master and find the pool where the violation is occurring. Likewise, we must determine the top source type for which we are receiving more data than normal data once we have identified the pool for which we are receiving more data. When we select the source type, we must locate the outsourcing machine that is generating a large number of logs, as well as the root problem, and troubleshoot appropriately.

At the bottom line, this collection of Splunk interview questions and answers should suffice to get you through your job interview. It’s worth noting that doing more research will improve your odds at passing the Splunk interview. But the question that still repeats itself is how to flawlessly prepare for a job interview?

The conversation about job interview preparation will always drag us to mention Huru. Huru is an AI coach application that uses smart algorithms to evaluate your job interview performance through simulated interviews. These simulated interviews span all conceivable eras and let Huru assess your errors and deal with them appropriately.