Elasticsearch Interview Questions and Answers

Last updated on Feb 06, 2023
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Elasticsearch Interview Questions

Elasticsearch is a real-time and evenly distributed search engine that supports RESTful searching and analysis based upon the Apache Lucene full-text search engine. It has distributed and full-field real-time analytics storage. Along with Logstash and Kibana, Elasticsearch is widely used. In the field of Elasticsearch during the last few years, ’ maximum competition is created. Hence, it becomes mandatory to know the most common Elasticsearch interview questions if you are willing to build a career in this segment. Elasticsearch is broadly used by major platforms. Most important among them are Wikipedia, Netflix, IFTTT, Accenture, Hip chat, Fujitsu, Stack Overflow, and Medium.

Elasticsearch is also document-oriented enables the storage of data and then their indexing so that the content becomes easily searchable. Elasticsearch entirely works over the HTTP interface and JSON documents, and altogether it is developed in Java programming language. It is known that the Elasticsearch server uses the port range around 9200 to 9300. In order to check if the server is running, you just need to type the URL of any corresponding homepage which is primarily followed in reference to the port number. Looking for a reliable piece of information, take a follow-up through these Elasticsearch interview questions.

About Elasticsearch

It is built upon Apache Lucene a full-text search engine
Document orientation stores the data which are structured JSON documents
Text support it supports full-text search indexing to provide faster results
Supports it supports auto-completion and instant results.
APIs Elasticsearch supports restful APIs for the retrieval of data and records
Serves Elasticsearch search the cross-platform
Developed and written in it is developed in Java language
License Apache license 2.0
Developed by Shay Banon
Elasticsearch is also an open source software

Most Frequently Asked Elasticsearch Interview Questions

Here in this article, we will be listing frequently asked Elasticsearch Interview Questions and Answers with the belief that they will be helpful for you to gain higher marks. Also, to let you know that this article has been written under the guidance of industry professionals and covered all the current competencies.

Q11. How to create an Elasticsearch user?
Answer

In order to create an Elasticsearch user, you have to follow the below mentioned steps

  • With the help of Elasticsearch built-in user, log in to 'Kibana.'
  • Follow the management/security and user page
  • Select 'create a new user.'
  • Click over the ‘create new user’ and select "logstash_internal user.
Q12. What is the difference between Elasticsearch and Logstash?
Answer
  • Elasticsearch is the open source search engine platform whereas Logstash is a server-side data processing platform.
  • Logstash can process the data from multiple sources all at once and transforms them accordingly. Elasticsearch, on the other hand, stores the complex entities as JSON documents.
Q13. What are mappings in Elasticsearch?
Answer

The basic outline of the documents or files that are stored in the index is known as mapping. Mapping signifies the data type in the specific fields and format representing the documents and their rules dynamically.

Q14. What are shards? How many shards should Elasticsearch indexes have?
Answer

Shards are the statements or smaller portion of the nodes which manage the data in an index. Actually, this indexing is done in order to overcome the limitations associated with the resources, especially like ram or CPU for the scalability. In order to resolve this, data is fragmented into different portions, which are administered by a different node or Elasticsearch. By default, the Elasticsearch index has 5 shards, which are primary and 1 replica. Thus, in total, each index has 10 shards.

Q15. What is a document in reference to the Elasticsearch? What can basic operations be performed on a document?
Answer

In Elasticsearch a document refers to the row with the relatable database. More or less, they are similar. The major difference among them is that in each document an index can have a variant structure but comprising the same data type for similar fields is required. Whereas, in a document, every field or structure having different data can exist multiple times.

Fields can also contain different documents at the same time. Elasticsearch is a document-oriented search engine platform where the documents are stored in sequence.

  • Documents can be indexed (document updating occurs here)
  • Right after indexing documents can be searched, sort or filtered around
  • Documents can also be retrieved
  • Full-text search or query resolution can also be done with documents.
Q16. What is dynamic mapping in Elasticsearch?
Answer

Dynamic mapping allows the user to index documents without unnecessary configurations for the field name. Rather it will be added automatically through the Elasticsearch with any other predefined custom rules.

Q17. What is Elasticsearch analyzer?
Answer

The constituent of analyzers includes a tokenizer which is preceded by the Char filters and 1 or 0 token filters. On the name of API or any other mapping definition, the analytical module also refers to the analyzers. In Elasticsearch, analyzers are already provided which are ready for the user to apply. Users are also allowed to create custom analyzers and built token filters or characters accordingly.

Elasticsearch interview question on your own to get a better understanding.

Q18. How to enable authentication in Elasticsearch?
Answer

In order to enable the authentication in Elasticsearch, follow the steps-

  • Stop Kibana
  • Stop the Elasticsearch
  • Follow settings and add xpack.security.enabled to the ES_PATH_CONF/ elasticsearch.yml file
Q19. What is REPLICAS in Elasticsearch?
Answer

As Elasticsearch is a full-text distributed search engine, each index in it splits to multiple forms. It comprises five shards and one replica for each specific index. Replica serves the queries as requests, and each of them corresponds to the primary shared in the cluster. When the index is created the number of replicas per index can be defined. They exist in order to provide availability and fault tolerance.

Q20. What is routing in Elasticsearch?
Answer

The determination of document allocation in the specific SHARD is known as routing. Routing gets automatically handled, and the default scheme hashes the document ID and utilizes it in order to find SHARD.

After these basic details on Elasticsearch, let’s move to the Elasticsearch interview questions and their answers.

History

Using the common interface with JSON and HTTP, Shay Banon authored Elasticsearch in Java programming language. In February 2010, Elastic NV developed a stable version of Elaticsearch. Currently, version 7.1.1 is in the market which was released on May 28, 2019.

Advantages
  • Elasticsearch is compatible with any platform
  • It is a Near real-time (NRT) which makes it easily searchable
  • The cluster of Elasticsearch is evenly distributed, which increase its scalability.
  • It supports multiple documents
  • Elasticsearch efficiently deals with the managed documents
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