Prepare for and practice interview questions from DigitalOcean across topics like Algorithms, Takehome, Python and more.

DigitalOcean Interview Questions

DigitalOcean Interview Guides

Data Structures & Algorithms

Given two sorted lists, write a function to merge them into one sorted list.

Merge Sorted Lists

Find the missing integer from a array of consequtive integers

Find the Missing Number

Find Bigrams

Write a function to create a single dataframe with complete addresses in the format of street, city, state, zip code.

Complete Addresses

Write a function friendship_timeline to generate an output that lists the pairs of friends with their corresponding timestamps of the friendship beginning and then the timestamp of the friendship ending. 

Friendship Timeline

Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department

2nd Highest Salary

Write a SQL query to create a histogram of the number of comments per user in the month of January 2020.

Comments Histogram

Write a query that returns all neighborhoods that have 0 users.

Empty Neighborhoods

Calculate the first touch attribution for each `user_id` that converted.

First Touch Attribution

Write a query to return the two students with the closest test scores and the score difference

Closest SAT Scores

Machine Learning

How would you encode a categorical variable with thousands of distinct values

Encoding Categorical Features

Interpret coefficients of logistic regression for categorical and boolean variables

Coefficients of Logistic Regression

Which model would perform better and why?

Booking Regression

How would you build a job recommendation feed?

Job Recommendation

Write a function calculate_rmse to calculate the root mean squared error from y_pred and y_true

RMS Error

Probability

What is the probability that each subsequent card is larger than the previous drawn card when picking three cards from a shuffled deck of 500 cards

500 Cards

First to Six

What is the probability that it's actually raining in Seattle?

Raining in Seattle

What is the probability that item X would be found on Amazon's website?

Found Item

Compute the expected number of good ads in each scenario and the probability a bad rating came from a lazy rater

Ad Raters

Data Modeling

Design a data warehouse for a new online retailer

Retailer Data Warehouse

Create a schema to keep track of customer address changes

Address Schema

Design a database schema for a Tinder-style dating app and discuss needed optimizations

Swiping App Design

Design a cost-conscious analytics solution to store and query daily Kafka clickstream data with two-year retention

Clickstream Data

System design for a digital classroom service.

Digital Classroom System Design

<p>Let’s say that you work at a bank that wants to build a model to detect fraud on the platform.</p>

<p>The bank wants to implement a text messaging service in addition that will text customers when the model detects a fraudulent transaction in order for the customer to approve or deny the transaction with a text response.</p>

<p>How would we build this model?</p>


<p>Let’s say that you work at a bank that wants to build a model to detect fraud on the platform.</p>

<p>The bank wants to implement a text messaging service that will text customers when the model detects a fraudulent transaction in order for the customer to approve or deny the transaction with a text response.</p>

<p>Which statement is true?</p>


Let's say that you work at a bank that wants to build a model to detect fraud on the platform.

The bank wants to implement a text messaging service that will text customers when the model detects a fraudulent transaction in order for the customer to approve or deny the transaction with a text response.

Which statement is true?

Bank Fraud Model

How would we build a model to detect fraud and text customers to approve or deny fraudulent transactions

<p>You’re a data scientist at Meta working on a feature that helps users discover trending books and understand borrowing behavior across the platform’s digital library.</p>

<p>Every time a user borrows a book, the system logs a <code>borrowed_at</code> timestamp and a <code>returned_at</code> timestamp. The team wants to measure how long books are typically kept, while also flagging which books have large inventories.</p>

<p>Write a SQL query to compute the following metrics for each book:</p>

<ol>
<li><strong><code>avg_borrow_duration_days</code>:</strong> average borrowing duration in days (rounded to 2 decimals)</li>
<li><strong><code>has_over_10_copies</code>:</strong> <code>&#39;Yes&#39;</code> if the book has more than 10 copies available, otherwise <code>&#39;No&#39;</code></li>
</ol>

<p>Only include completed borrows where <code>returned_at</code> is not NULL.</p>

<p>Sort results by <code>avg_borrow_duration_days</code> DESC, then by <code>book_id</code> ASC.</p>

<p><strong><em>Note:</em></strong> <em>Every book that has at least one completed borrow should appear in the output.</em></p>

<h3><strong>Schema</strong></h3>

<p><strong>Input</strong></p>

<p><strong><code>books</code> Table</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>book_id</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>title</td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>copies_available</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong><code>borrows</code> Table</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>borrow_id</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>user_id</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>book_id</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>borrowed_at</td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>returned_at</td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>book_id</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>avg_borrow_duration_days</td>
<td>DECIMAL</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>has_over_10_copies</td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<h3><strong>Example</strong></h3>

<p><strong>Input</strong></p>

<p><strong><code>books</code> Table</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>book_id</th>
<th>title</th>
<th>copies_available</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>Dune</td>
<td>12</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Sapiens</td>
<td>8</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>Clean Code</td>
<td>15</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong><code>borrows</code> Table</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>borrow_id</th>
<th>user_id</th>
<th>book_id</th>
<th>borrowed_at</th>
<th>returned_at</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>101</td>
<td>10</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>2026-01-01 09:00:00</td>
<td>2026-01-06 09:00:00</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>102</td>
<td>11</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>2026-01-10 10:00:00</td>
<td>2026-01-13 22:00:00</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>103</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2026-01-02 12:00:00</td>
<td>2026-01-04 12:00:00</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>104</td>
<td>13</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2026-01-05 09:00:00</td>
<td>NULL</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>105</td>
<td>14</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>2026-01-03 08:00:00</td>
<td>2026-01-10 08:00:00</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>book_id</th>
<th>avg_borrow_duration_days</th>
<th>has_over_10_copies</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>7.00</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>4.25</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>2.00</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Explanation</strong></p>

<p>For book 1, there are two completed borrows. The durations are 5.00 days (Jan 1 → Jan 6) and 3.50 days (Jan 10 10:00 → Jan 13 22:00). The average borrowing duration is (5.00 + 3.50) / 2 = 4.25 days. Since <code>copies_available = 12</code>, the book is flagged as <code>&#39;Yes&#39;</code>.</p>

<p>For book 2, only one borrow is completed (the other has <code>returned_at = NULL</code> and is excluded). The completed duration is 2.00 days. Since <code>copies_available = 8</code>, it is flagged as <code>&#39;No&#39;</code>.</p>

<p>For book 3, there is one completed borrow lasting 7.00 days, and <code>copies_available = 15</code>, so it is flagged as <code>&#39;Yes&#39;</code>.</p>


Write a SQL query to compute the average borrowing duration and identify books with over 10 copies.

Digital Library Borrowing Metrics

<p>How would you handle the data preparation for building a machine learning model using imbalanced data?</p>


Addressing imbalanced data in machine learning through carefully prepared techniques.

Data Preparation for Imbalanced Data

<p>Let’s say we manage a cloud infrastructure platform, and over the last 6 months, we’ve noticed that 20% of our compute nodes consistently sit idle while others run near full capacity.</p>

<p>How would you analyze and address this stranded capacity to improve overall resource utilization?</p>


How would you investigate and resolve persistently underutilized resources in a cloud platform?

Stranded Capacity

Supply Chain

<p>We’re given two tables, a <code>users</code> table with demographic information and the neighborhood they live in and a <code>neighborhoods</code> table.</p>

<p>Write a query that returns all neighborhoods that have 0 users. </p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>users</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>neighborhood_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>neighborhoods</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>city_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


<p>Write a SQL query to select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department.</p>

<p><strong>Note:</strong> If more than one person shares the highest salary, the query should select the next highest salary.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>employees</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>first_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>last_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>salary</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>department_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>departments</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>salary</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


<p>Write a SQL query to create a histogram of the number of comments per user in the month of January 2020.</p>

<p><em>Note: Assume bin buckets class intervals of one.</em></p>

<p><em>Note: Comments that were created outside of January 2020 should be counted in a “0” bucket</em></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>users</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>neighborhood_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>mail</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>comments</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>body</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>comment_count</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>frequency</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


<p>Given the <code>employees</code> and <code>departments</code> table, write a query to get the top 3 highest employee salaries by department. If the department contains less that 3 employees, the top 2 or the top 1 highest salaries should be listed (assume that each department has at least 1 employee). </p>

<p><em>Note: The output should include the full name of the employee in one column, the department name, and the salary. The output should be sorted by department name in ascending order and salary in descending order.</em> </p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>employees</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>first_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>last_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>salary</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>department_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>departments</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output</strong>:</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>employee_nam</code>e</td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>department_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>salary</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Get the top 3 highest employee salaries by department

Top Three Salaries

<p>We’re given a table of product purchases. Each row in the table represents an individual user product purchase.</p>

<p>Write a query to get the number of customers that were upsold, or in other words, the number of users who bought additional products after their first purchase.</p>

<p><em>Note: If the customer purchased two things on the same day, that does not count as an upsell, as they were purchased within a similar timeframe.</em></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>transactions</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>product_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>quantity</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>num_of_upsold_customers</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Write a query to get the number of customers that were upsold

Upsell Transactions

<p>We’re given a table of bank transactions with three columns, <code>user_id</code>, a deposit or withdrawal value (determined if the value is positive or negative), and <code>created_at</code> time for each transaction.</p>

<p>Write a query to get the total three-day rolling average for deposits by day.</p>

<p><em>Note: Please use the format <code>&#39;%Y-%m-%d&#39;</code> for the date in the outout</em></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>bank_transactions</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>transaction_value</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>dt</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>rolling_three_day</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Write a query to get the total three-day rolling average for deposits by day

Rolling Bank Transactions

<p>Write a query to identify customers who placed more than three transactions each in both 2019 and 2020.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>transactions</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>product_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>quantity</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>users</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> 
<strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>customer_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


<p>Which of the following queries will return a list of customers and the total amount they have spent on orders?</p>


Which of the following queries will return a list of customers and the total amount they have spent on orders?

Customer Orders

Write a query to identify customers who placed more than three transactions each in both 2019 and 2020

<p>Given two sorted lists, write a function to merge them into one sorted list.</p>

<p><em>Bonus: What’s the time complexity?</em></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">list1</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">]</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">list2</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">]</span>
</span></span></code></pre>

<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">merge_list</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">list1</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="n">list2</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">-&gt;</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">]</span>
</span></span></code></pre>


<p>You have two sorted lists, one with m elements and one with n elements. What would be the time complexity of merging the two lists via merge sort?</p>


You have two sorted lists, one with m elements and one with n elements. What would be the time complexity of merging the two lists via merge sort? 

Merging Lists Complexity

<p>A team wants to A/B test multiple different changes through a sign-up funnel.</p>

<p>For example, on a page, a button is currently red and at the top of the page. They want to see if changing a button from red to blue and/or from the top of the page to the bottom of the page will increase click-through.</p>

<p>How would you set up this test?</p>


<p>Your team wants to run an AB test on the color (red or blue) and position (top/bottom of the page) of a button that links to a promotion.</p>

<p>How many different variants of the test should you run to see the effect that a red button has on the bottom of the page, if currently the button is blue and on the top of the page.</p>


Your team wants to run an AB test on the color (red or blue) and position (top/bottom of the page) of a button that links to a promotion.

How many different variants of the test should you run to see the effect that a red button has on the bottom of the page, if currently the button is blue and on the top of the page.

A/B Test Variants

Button AB Test

A/B Testing

<p>Given a table of students and their SAT test scores, write a query to return the two students with the closest test scores with the score difference.</p>

<p>If there are multiple students with the same minimum score difference, select the student name combination that is higher in the alphabet. </p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>scores</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>student</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>score</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>one_student</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>other_student</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>score_diff</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


<p>Let’s say that your company is running a standard control and variant AB test on a feature to increase conversion rates on the landing page. The PM checks the results and finds a .04 p-value.</p>

<p>How would you assess the validity of the result?</p>


How would you assess the validity of the result?

Experiment Validity

<p>Given a table of product subscriptions with a subscription start date and end date for each user, write a query that returns true or false whether or not each user has a subscription date range that overlaps with any other completed subscription.</p>

<p>Completed subscriptions have <code>end_date</code> recorded.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>subscriptions</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>start_date</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>end_date</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><code>user_id</code></th>
<th><code>start_date</code></th>
<th><code>end_date</code></th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>2019-01-01</td>
<td>2019-01-31</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>2019-01-15</td>
<td>2019-01-17</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>2019-01-29</td>
<td>2019-02-04</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>2019-02-05</td>
<td>2019-02-10</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><code>user_id</code></th>
<th><code>overlap</code></th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Write a query to return whether each user's subscription date range overlaps with any other completed subscription

Subscription Overlap

<p>Write a query to show the number of users, number of transactions placed, and total order amount per month in the year 2020. Assume that we are only interested in the monthly reports for a single year (January-December).</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>transactions</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>product_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>quantity</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>products</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>price</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>users</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>sex</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>month</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>num_customers</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>num_orders</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>order_amt</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Write a query to show the number of users, transactions, and total order amount per month in 2020

Monthly Customer Report

<p>The schema below is for a retail online shopping company consisting of two tables, <code>attribution</code> and <code>user_sessions</code>.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>The attribution table logs a session visit for each row.</p></li>

<li><p>If <code>conversion</code> is <code>true</code>, then the user converted to buying on that session.</p></li>

<li><p>The <code>channel</code> column represents which advertising platform the user was attributed to for that specific session.</p></li>

<li><p>Lastly the <code>user_sessions</code> table maps many to one session visits back to one user.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>First touch attribution is defined as the channel with which the converted user was associated when they first discovered the website.</p>

<p>Calculate the first touch attribution for each <code>user_id</code> that converted. </p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>attribution</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>session_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>channel</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>conversion</code></td>
<td>BOOLEAN</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>user_sessions</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>column</th>
<th>type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>session_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Example output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><code>user_id</code></th>
<th><code>channel</code></th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>123</td>
<td>facebook</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>145</td>
<td>google</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>153</td>
<td>facebook</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>172</td>
<td>organic</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>173</td>
<td>email</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


<p>Let’s say we have a table with an <code>id</code> and <code>name</code> fields. The table holds over 100 million rows and we want to sample a random row in the table without throttling the database.</p>

<p>Write a query to randomly sample a row from this table.</p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>big_table</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Write a query to randomly sample a row from a big table.

Random SQL Sample

<p>Amy and Brad take turns in rolling a fair six-sided die. Whoever rolls a “6” first wins the game. Amy starts by rolling first.</p>

<p>What’s the probability that Amy wins?</p>


Amy and Brad take turns in rolling a fair six-sided die. Whoever rolls a “6” first wins the game. Amy starts by rolling first.

What’s the probability that Amy wins?

<p>Given an integer <code>N</code>, write a function that returns a list of all of the prime numbers up to <code>N</code>.</p>

<p><em>Note: Return an empty list there are no prime numbers less than or equal to <code>N</code>.</em></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">N</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">3</span>
</span></span></code></pre>

<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">prime_numbers</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">N</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">-&gt;</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">]</span>
</span></span></code></pre>


Given an integer N, write a function that returns all of the prime numbers up to N

Prime to N

<p>Write a function <code>compute_deviation</code> that takes in a list of dictionaries with a key and list of integers and returns a dictionary with the standard deviation of each list.</p>

<p><em>Note: This should be done without using the NumPy built-in functions.</em></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="nb">input</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl">    <span class="p">{</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl">        <span class="s1">&#39;key&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">&#39;list1&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl">        <span class="s1">&#39;values&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">],</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl">    <span class="p">},</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl">    <span class="p">{</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl">        <span class="s1">&#39;key&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">&#39;list2&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl">        <span class="s1">&#39;values&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">34</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">12</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">40</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">9</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="mi">7</span><span class="p">],</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl">    <span class="p">}</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="p">]</span>
</span></span></code></pre>

<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"> <span class="n">output</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s1">&#39;list1&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mf">1.12</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;list2&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mf">14.19</span><span class="p">}</span>
</span></span></code></pre>


Write a function compute_deviation that returns the standard deviation of each list in a list of dictionaries

Compute Deviation

Statistics

<p>Given two tables:  <code>accounts</code>, and <code>downloads</code>, find the average number of downloads for free vs paying accounts, broken down by day.</p>

<p><em>Note: You only need to consider accounts that have had at least one download before when calculating the average.</em></p>

<p><em>Note: round <code>average_downloads</code> to 2 decimal places.</em></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>accounts</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>account_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>paying_customer</code></td>
<td>BOOLEAN</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>downloads</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>column</th>
<th>type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>account_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>download_date</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>downloads</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>download_date</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>paying_customer</code></td>
<td>BOOLEAN</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>average_downloads</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Write a query to find the average downloads for free vs paying accounts by day, rounded to 2 decimals

Download Facts

<p>Tell me about a data project that didn’t go the way you expected. What did you set out to do, what surprised you, and how did you handle it?</p>


Describing a data project and its challenges

Hurdles In Data Projects

Behavioral

<p>Let’s say you work at a file-hosting website. You have information on user’s daily downloads in the <code>download_facts</code> table</p>

<p>Use the window function <code>RANK</code> to display the top three users by downloads each day. Order your data by <code>date</code>, and then by <code>daily_rank</code></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>download_facts</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>date</code></td>
<td>DATE</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>downloads</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>daily_rank</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>date</code></td>
<td>DATE</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>downloads</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Write a query to display the top three users by downloads each day

Top 3 Users

<p>Given a table of <code>transactions</code>, write a query to find the average quantity of each product purchased per transaction each year.</p>

<p>The output should include the year, product_id, and average quantity of the product purchased per transaction that year. The output table should be sorted by year and product_id in ascending order. The value for avg_quantity should be rounded to two decimal places.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong>
<code>transactions</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>product_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>quantity</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>year</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>product_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>avg_quantity</code></td>
<td>DECIMAL</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Find the average yearly purchases for each product

Average Quantity

<p>Given a table with event logs, find the top five users with the longest continuous streak of visiting the platform.</p>

<p><em>Note: A continuous streak counts if the user visits the platform at least once per day on consecutive days.</em></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>events</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><code>Column</code></th>
<th><code>Type</code></th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>url</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><code>Column</code></th>
<th><code>Type</code></th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>streak_length</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Longest Streak Users

<p>Given two strings <code>A</code> and <code>B</code>, write a function <code>can_shift</code> to return whether or not <code>A</code> can be shifted some number of places to get <code>B</code>.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">A</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;abcde&#39;</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">B</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;cdeab&#39;</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">can_shift</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">A</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">B</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="kc">True</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl">
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">A</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;abc&#39;</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">B</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;acb&#39;</span>
</span></span><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">can_shift</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">A</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">B</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="kc">False</span>
</span></span></code></pre>


Write a function can_shift to return whether or not A can be shifted some number of places to get B

String Shift

<p>Given a table of bank transactions with columns <code>id</code>, <code>transaction_value</code>, and <code>created_at</code> representing the date and time for each transaction, write a query to get the last transaction for each day.</p>

<p>The output should include the id of the transaction, datetime of the transaction, and the transaction amount. Order the transactions by datetime.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>bank_transactions</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>transaction_value</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>transaction_value</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Last Transaction

<p>Imagine a deck of 500 cards numbered from 1 to 500. If all the cards are shuffled randomly and you are asked to pick three cards, one at a time, what’s the probability of each subsequent card being larger than the previous drawn card?</p>


<p>Imagine a deck of 2000 cards numbered from 1 to 2000. If all the cards are shuffled randomly and you are asked to pick three cards, one at a time, what’s the probability of each subsequent card being larger than the previously drawn card?</p>


Imagine a deck of 2000 cards numbered from 1 to 2000. If all the cards are shuffled randomly and you are asked to pick three cards, one at a time, what's the probability of each subsequent card being larger than the previously drawn card?

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