MDM Match and Merge Rules 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the difference between a 'manual merge' and an 'auto-merge' in Informatica MDM?
- Manual merge uses SQL directly on the Hub Store; auto-merge uses the SIF API
- Manual merge requires a data steward to approve the merge in a workflow; auto-merge occurs automatically when the score exceeds the auto-merge threshold (Correct answer)
- Manual merge is performed during batch jobs only; auto-merge runs in real-time only
- Manual merge creates a new golden record; auto-merge updates an existing one
Correct answer: Manual merge requires a data steward to approve the merge in a workflow; auto-merge occurs automatically when the score exceeds the auto-merge threshold
Auto-merge fires automatically when the match score exceeds the auto-merge threshold, while manual merge routes the potential duplicate pair to a data steward via Merge Manager for human approval.
Question 2: In Informatica MDM, which table stores the cross-reference records that link a golden record to its contributing source system records?
- _MTT (match token table)
- _STRP (staging table)
- _XREF (cross-reference table) (Correct answer)
- _DUP (duplicate table)
Correct answer: _XREF (cross-reference table)
The _XREF table for each base object stores cross-reference rows that associate each source system record with the golden record it contributes to.
Question 3: What is the effect of enabling 'Allow Remerge' on an Informatica MDM base object?
- It allows batch match to re-evaluate previously auto-merged records for additional merges (Correct answer)
- It prevents any unmerge operations on the base object
- It forces all merges to go through manual review regardless of score
- It copies all cross-references to a backup table before merging
Correct answer: It allows batch match to re-evaluate previously auto-merged records for additional merges
When Allow Remerge is enabled, the batch match process can merge records that have already been auto-merged, enabling further consolidation as new data arrives.
Question 4: In Informatica MDM, what is a 'survivorship rule' and when is it applied?
- A rule that determines which source system's value survives when the golden record is assembled after a merge (Correct answer)
- A rule that purges records older than a configurable retention period
- A rule that controls which match columns are evaluated first in the rule set
- A rule that governs how match tokens are regenerated after a source record update
Correct answer: A rule that determines which source system's value survives when the golden record is assembled after a merge
Survivorship rules (part of trust configuration) determine which source system cell value 'wins' and is written to the golden record when records from multiple sources are merged.
Question 5: Which Informatica MDM match column match type is best suited for comparing fields like Social Security Numbers that must match exactly?
- Fuzzy
- Edit Distance
- Exact (Correct answer)
- Soundex
Correct answer: Exact
Exact match type requires character-for-character equality between the two values, making it appropriate for structured identifiers like SSNs, account numbers, or dates.
Question 6: During Informatica MDM real-time match (SIF ExecuteMatchAndMerge), which match rule sets are evaluated?
- All rule sets regardless of their 'Enable Real-Time Match' setting
- Only rule sets that have the 'Enable Real-Time Match' flag set to true (Correct answer)
- Only the rule set with the highest priority number
- Only exact-match rule sets; fuzzy rule sets are skipped in real-time
Correct answer: Only rule sets that have the 'Enable Real-Time Match' flag set to true
Only match rule sets explicitly configured with 'Enable Real-Time Match' set to true are evaluated during real-time SIF match operations.
Question 7: What is the function of the 'Minimum Match Score' parameter in the Informatica MDM SIF SearchMatch API call?
- It sets the auto-merge threshold for the returned candidates
- It filters out candidate records whose match score falls below the specified value before returning results to the caller (Correct answer)
- It specifies the minimum number of match columns that must agree to return a candidate
- It defines the minimum number of records the search must return before raising an error
Correct answer: It filters out candidate records whose match score falls below the specified value before returning results to the caller
Minimum Match Score acts as a post-scoring filter in SearchMatch, returning only candidate records that achieve at least the specified score to the calling application.
MDM Match and Merge Rules 4
What is the difference between a 'manual merge' and an 'auto-merge' in Informatica MDM?