Is there some universal questions I need to answer when interviewing for a SAP Cloud Integration or CPI role. Can I get a dump of questions that I can prepare for. Unfortunately, that is not true there should be a lot of questions that can be asked to evaluate if a candidate is good.
This guide will be useful if you are going to interview potential candidates and also if you are a candidate that is looking for a job. I hope you will not ask the questions listed here, but it could be a start to understanding what is going on and where to proceed.
I created a live video that got a lot of views and comments a long way. That is why I think it is a good topic. So watch the video and pause and try to reflect how you would answer the questions.
Because of that, a live session was created to discuss this further and we shared it below. Moreover, the slide deck used for that session and the top questions surrounding managing your SAP CPI system.
What is important to understand?
- Gather information about if the candidate knows enough on the topic to start implementing projects
- Just technical part of interview, there a lot of other factors
- Depending on the experience a new educated/certificated should get different questions than an experience and also a different salary.
- Have a trusted adviser to help you evaluate if you have limited knowledge in the term
- You will not find a new developer with 5 years of experience in SAP Cloud Integration
Type of questions to ask?
SAP Integration Suite
- What is the main purpose of SAP
- What is the difference between S/4 HANA and SAP ERP
- What is SAP BTP?
- What was the earlier names of SAP Cloud Integration
- What is the difference between API management and Open Connectors
- What is Integration Content Advisor and why is it different from Message Mappings.
- What platform is Cloud Integration running on
SAP Cloud Integration
- What is the difference between an IFlow and a local process.
- How do you connect to the outside world
- How will you handle exceptions if an IFlow fails with an http call
- Why should you use externalized parameters?
- How will you handle mapping documents and why you would map them
Integration development
- When will you use Groovy Script, XSLT or Message Mapping. Bring two documents and ask how to handle mapping between formats
- What is the difference between the different ways to log content (MPL attachments, Persist Message and Data Store)
- How will you process downloads from a web service that provides paginations on a list.
Specific Integration Patterns
Check out the official patterns by SAP.
For experienced developers
- What they learned on the last project
- What would you do different, and what was really good
- If we have this problem [INSERT Problem], how would you solve it.
- Do you have any blogs or samples you can share?
Governance and platform understanding
- How would you handle DevOps
- How do you move the integration content from development to production (hint Figaf)
- What is important
- How do you test the integration (hint Figaf)
- When should we migrate to Cloud Integration
Practical skills
In some cases, you will probably find the need to implement a small iflow. So it does make sense to practice before you join your first interview. I would not hire a new developer that calmed they knew CPI without seeing if they could help me create a small integration.
Need to be something that corresponds to the role level.
Follow-up evaluation and mentoring
- Hiring someone fresh or new educated means you should mentor them. Establish a program to help them grow by giving them feedback on the integration to help them grow
- Get an external evaluation to evaluate your consultants if you don’t have the skill internally.
Learn SAP Cloud Integration
If you want to learn more, I would recommend checking out my SAP CPI Course to get started learning SAP CPI. This is a great place to start understanding how to create integration. It will not help you with all the questions in this.