9 Splunk Interview Questions

To help you ace your interview for a Splunk position, make sure you understand the Splunk platform and can articulate it effectively to your interviewer. Use these nine Splunk interview questions and answers to help increase your self-assurance and ability to stand out from the crowd with your responses.

Splunk 101

Splunk is a software platform that is frequently used for real-time monitoring, searching, analysis, and visualisation of machine-generated data. It is a robust utility that can help businesses efficiently manage their IT, security, and compliance operations. It can identify data patterns, generate metrics, and aid in problem diagnosis. 

Splunk can process unstructured, semi-structured, or infrequently structured data. Performing data analysis and studying the findings can help you harness the power of this data, which can further assist in creating useful dashboards, tags, and reports for your business. Thanks to the emergence of big data technology, Splunk can process big data from diverse sources—including machine data—and apply analytics on it.

Common Splunk interview questions for 3 career tracks

If you're interested in an AI career, the Splunk career offers many specialities. To assist customers in gathering, analysing, and taking action on data from various sources, Splunk is an enterprise software provider that offers both software and services. Splunk architect, administrator, developer, security engineer, and data analyst are examples of the available job positions. We will briefly discuss the first three and give you sample questions you can expect in your interview.

Splunk architect

The Splunk architect supports operations tasks and designs, as well as develops and implements the Splunk infrastructure. Additionally, your company will count on you to manage dashboards and visualisations across your company. To implement Splunk's future state for the client, the Splunk architect is responsible for designing and carrying out these modifications. You will collaborate closely with team members to provide comprehensive architecture solutions that meet the client's requirements and future needs and ensure best practices are followed.

1. What are the major components of Splunk architecture?

What they're really asking: Do you know about Splunk’s basic architecture?

This is one of the common Splunk interview questions asked of candidates who want to be a Splunk architect. The interviewers want to understand your knowledge of Splunk architecture and its components through this question.

The interviewer does not want a bookish definition from you. They need to know your understanding of components like the search heads, indexer, forwarder, and deployment server. They want to understand how you will employ the components in your work. What is the best use of each component? 

This question lets you tell the interviewers about your expertise and experience in each component and how you have used similar operations in previous projects or roles. 

Other forms this question might take:

• What is Splunk architecture and its components?

• Explain the workings of Splunk.

• What do you understand by Splunk Architecture?

2. What is Splunk?

What they're really asking: How well-versed are you about the organisation and its major applications?

This is a very simple question, yet your answer can greatly impact your selection. Splunk is the “Google” of machine-generated data used to analyse, search, monitor, and report. 

With this question, the interviewer is trying to understand your perspective on this statement and how well you understand Splunk's role in the industry. 

Ensure you have read about the organisation, its goals, major area of work, and what sets Splunk apart from other organisations. How does each component play a specific role? What are the uses of Splunk in enterprises? These kinds of Splunk interview questions not only allow interviewers to judge your technical knowledge, but they also want to know your ideas and point of view about Splunk. 

Other forms this question might take:

• What is the significance of Splunk?

• Define Splunk

• Why do we need Splunk?

3. What are search factor and replication factor?

What they're really asking: Have you studied the details of Splunk?

The search factor and replication factor are elements of the clustering technology involved in Splunk. The search factor is a part of the search head cluster, and both the search and replication factors are part of the indexer cluster. The interviewer wants to know your knowledge about these terminologies. It is always a good idea to read and learn about the basic terminologies of Splunk.

Ensure you know the answers to questions like: What is the search factor? What is the replication factor? What are the clustering techniques used in Splunk? How can these factors help you?

Other forms this question might take:

• Differentiate between the search factor and replication factor.

• Is there any difference between the search and replication factors?

• What is the relation between the search factor and the replication factor?

Splunk administrator

A Splunk administrator controls the hardware and software components of a Splunk installation. In this role, you are responsible for establishing, managing, and resolving any issues with the entire system. The Splunk administrator will exhibit responsible corporate behaviour and work with others to maximise the use of resources. This includes two-way communication of pertinent and timely information. To grant access to the product and technical teams, provide the best solution possible, and foster feature innovation based on customer feedback, one must collaborate across the entire Splunk organisation.

1. Why choose Splunk over open-source options?

What they're really asking: What do you know about Splunk and its benefits?

This is one of the Splunk interview questions that can easily trick an interviewee. You need to mention all the benefits of Splunk in the industry for machine-data analysis, various IT procedures, security operations, etc. 

This question requires a thorough knowledge of Splunk's scope and various other industry competitors. Ensure that you mention how Splunk stands out from other software. 

Elaborate on Splunk's specific features, such as its components, easy-to-understand user-friendly interface, and the amount of data it can manage. 

Other forms this question might take:

• How is Splunk better than other software?

• Can you mention the difference between Splunk and other leading software?

• Why is Splunk a better alternative for machine-learning data handling?

2. Mention the search commands used in Splunk.

What they're really asking: As an admin, can you handle, sort, and analyse data?

In these Splunk interview questions, the interviewer seeks your understanding of each search command for your job role and the users. Search commands answer one important aspect that they help in searching data. 

Try to frame your answer with examples like how the search commands like abstract, addtotals, accum, filldown, typer, rename, and anomalies can help your search. Also, discuss how these commands make the user experience easy and effective. 

Other forms this question might take:

• What are the roles of the search commands in Splunk?

• Name any three search commands you find useful in Splunk.

• What are the different search commands in Splunk?

3. What are the important config files in Splunk?

What they're really asking: Do you know config files?

This is one of the technical Splunk interview questions. The question is short and simple. You need to let the interviewer know that you have good knowledge of the concept of configuration files. 

Some of the major config files in Splunk are props.conf, transforms.conf, server.conf, inputs.conf, and indexes.conf. As an interviewee for the Splunk admin role, you need to mention the roles of each config file and why you consider that one important. 

This question allows you to share any past project or job experience in which you have utilised similar files and created a new function.

Other forms this question might take:

• Name a few config files in Splunk

• What are the config files used in Splunk?

• What is the role of config files in Splunk?

Splunk developer

Splunk developers are experts in scripting and fundamental web design. In this role, you would be in charge of creating sophisticated visualisations, making Splunk apps, personalising Splunk dashboards, and integrating external systems into practice. You will also be in charge of solution development and full-cycle maintenance. Workload management, architecture, implementation, design, and estimation are among the principal duties of a Splunk developer engineer.

1. What is the difference between the Splunk app and add-on?

What they're really asking: What do you understand about an app and add-on?

When you apply for the Splunk developer job, the interviewer expects you to know the Splunk app and its add-on features.

The basic idea is that the Splunk app is a complete record of all the reports, fields, dashboards, and so on. When you eliminate the visual components of the app's reports and dashboards, it is said to be the Splunk add-on. 

You need to explain the app and add-on concepts comprehensively. Your answer should not be the standard definition of the two things; it should be from a developer's viewpoint. 

Other forms this question might take:

• Is a Splunk app different from a Splunk add-on?

• What sets the Splunk app apart from the Splunk add-on?

• As a developer, what do you think is the difference between the Splunk app and the Splunk add-on?

2. How does Splunk work?

What they're really asking: What is the workflow of the data in Splunk software?

The Splunk workflow mainly involves forwarder, indexer, and search head. Sometimes, a fourth component, the deployment server, is also used. You need to know the function of each component and how and where it works in Splunk's work. 

This question allows you to share any experience using any of the components. As a developer, you need to know the different forwarders that can be used. What is the role of an indexer? What are the purposes of the search head? What happens when there is a larger amount of data? 

Other forms this question might take:

• How is data processed in Splunk?

• Describe the step-by-step process of Splunk

• Explain the working of Splunk

3. Name the different versions of Splunk

What they're really asking: How well-versed are you with Splunk’s services?

As an applicant for a job role as a Splunk developer, the interviewer expects you to know the two Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud versions. As of March 2020, Splunk Light (Splunk's free version) is no longer available. 

Your answer should detail the different features of the three versions. For example, Splunk Enterprise is used to search, analyse, and visualise data in large enterprises. Splunk Cloud is a software (SaaS) service that includes additional features such as APIs and SDKs. 

These kinds of Splunk interview questions for a development role expect an answer to how the versions differ at the development level. What can you add to these? What ideas do you have for creating any new features or versions?

Other forms this question might take:

• How many versions of Splunk are available? 

• Explain the versions of Splunk.

• What are the features of the different versions of Splunk?

Tips for your interview

Splunk interview questions can include many technical questions and test your technical and managerial skills. Here are some tips for you to prepare well for the interview and excel in it: 

• Learn about the Splunk configuration field, architecture, indexers, and other technical aspects.

• Increase your understanding of Splunk's products and challenges. 

• Research the company and the role. 

• Check the job description to make sure you have the necessary knowledge and skills. 

• Outline your greatest accomplishments and provide supporting documentation. 

• View Splunk interview questions.

Get ahead of the crowd with Splunk certifications.

The value you provide to an employer can be increased by obtaining Splunk certification. The Splunk certification programme includes training for the Splunk developer, administrator, and architect, among others. Consider these options to help you increase your skills and be job-ready:

• Splunk Enterprise Certified Administrator: Gain experience with Splunk Enterprise's day-to-day administration. You'll be equipped with the skills to manage licences, indexers, and search heads, configure the Splunk platform, monitor it, and get data into it. This will allow you to oversee and maintain the Splunk Enterprise environment in your company.

• Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect: Learn how to plan, collect, and size data for a distributed deployment using best practices, as well as the Splunk deployment methodology. Additionally, you'll be able to manage and troubleshoot a typical deployment with clustered search heads and indexers.

• Splunk Certified Developer: Utilise the Splunk Web Framework to create apps. This certification will equip you with the skills to create and package apps, REST endpoints, drill-downs, advanced behaviours, and visualisations. You will be able to plan and design elements with confidence.

Next steps

With Spunk Specialisations and courses on Coursera, you can increase your confidence during a Splunk interview. Consider taking a course now to explore the options for Splunk search experts, knowledge managers, and instructors.