BigData / Tableau Interview Questions
What are the Rows, Columns, and Marks shelves used for?
These three shelves are where the actual structure of a Tableau view is defined — everything else is refinement on top of what you place here.
- Rows shelf: fields placed here define what appears down the vertical axis (or as separate rows in a table).
- Columns shelf: fields placed here define what appears across the horizontal axis (or as separate columns).
- Marks card: controls how each data point is drawn — its mark type (bar, line, circle, map, etc.), color, size, label, detail, and tooltip content.
Columns: [Order Date] (continuous, by month) Rows: SUM([Sales]) Marks: Color = [Region], Mark type = Line
The combination of what's on Rows/Columns (which sets up the axes/grid) and what's configured on the Marks card (which sets up the visual encoding) is really the entire "language" of building a Tableau chart — almost every visualization type is just a different arrangement of these three areas.
What does the Marks card control?
What does placing a field on the Columns shelf typically define?
More Related questions...
