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Kickstarter Interview Questions

Kickstarter 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

Write a function n_frequent_words that returns the top N frequent words and their frequencies, and state its run-time

Get Top N Frequent Words

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

String Shift

Given a list of integers, and an integer N, write a function to find all combinations that sum to the value N.

Sum to N

Write a query to select the top 3 departments with at least ten employees and rank them according to the percentage of their employees making over 100K in salary.

Employee Salaries

Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department

2nd Highest Salary

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

Empty Neighborhoods

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

Closest SAT Scores

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

Subscription Overlap

Machine Learning

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

Encoding Categorical Features

How do we give each rejected applicant a reason why they got rejected?

Rejection Reason

How would you build a job recommendation feed?

Job Recommendation

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

Bank Fraud Model

Lasso vs Ridge

Probability

First to Six

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

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

Given three uniform(0,4) random variables, what is the probability that the median of them is greater than 3?

Median Probability

Product Sense & Metrics

How would you investigate a decline in the average number of comments per user?

Decreasing Comments

Where and how could you promote Instagram through Facebook

Promoting Instagram

How can we measure the success of a 30-day free trial in acquiring and retaining new Netflix users

Netflix Retention

How would you measure the success of Facebook Groups

Group Success

What would you investigate to diagnose what's happening?

WAU vs Open Rates

<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>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>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>Given a <code>employees</code> and <code>departments</code> table, select the top 3 departments with at least ten employees and rank them according to the percentage of their employees making over 100K in salary.</p>

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

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

<p><code>employees</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>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>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>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

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

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>percentage_over_100k</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>

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

<tr>
<td><code>number_of_employees</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

A/B Testing

<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>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>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>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

<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>


<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>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?

2000 cards

<p>Let’s say we’re comparing two machine learning algorithms. In which case would you use a bagging algorithm versus a boosting algorithm? </p>

<p>Give an example of the tradeoffs between the two.</p>


<p>In machine learning, when would you use a bagging algorithm over a boosting algorithm?</p>


In machine learning, when would you use a bagging algorithm over a boosting algorithm?

Bagging vs. Boosting

In which case would you use a bagging algorithm versus a boosting algorithm

Bagging vs Boosting

<p>Suppose your company needs to cut costs due to an economic downturn. During a coffee break, you hear a rumor that a lot of money goes to employees who don’t do their work, and you decide to find out if the rumor is true.</p>

<p>Given two tables: <code>employees</code> and <code>projects</code>, find the sum of the salaries of all the employees who didn’t complete any of their projects.</p>

<p>Clarification:</p>

<p>We will consider a project unfinished if it has no end date (its <code>End_dt</code> is <code>NULL</code>).</p>

<p>Given this, we’ll say an employee didn’t finish any of their projects when:</p>

<ul>
<li>They were assigned at least one project.</li>
<li>None of their projects have an <code>End_dt</code>.</li>
</ul>

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

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

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

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>id</th>
<th>salary</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>INTEGER</td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>projects</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>employee_id</th>
<th>project_id</th>
<th>Start_dt</th>
<th>End_dt</th>
</tr>
</thead>

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

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>total_slack_salary</th>
</tr>
</thead>

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


Find the total salary of slacking employees.

Slacking Employees Salaries

<p>Given a table called <code>user_experiences</code>, write a query to determine the percentage of users that held the title of <code>&#34;Data Analyst&#34;</code> immediately before holding the title <code>&#34;Data Scientist&#34;</code>.</p>

<p>Immediate is defined as the user holding no other titles between the <code>&#34;Data Analyst&#34;</code> and <code>&#34;Data Scientist&#34;</code> roles.</p>

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

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

<p><code>user_experiences</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>position_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

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

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

<tr>
<td><code>user_id</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>percentage</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


User Experience Percentage

<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>Write a Python function called <strong><code>max_profit</code></strong> that takes a list of integers, where the i-th integer represents the price of a given stock on day i, and returns the maximum profit you can achieve by buying and selling the stock.</p>

<p>You may complete, at most, two complete buy/sell transactions to maximize profits on a stock.</p>

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

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">prices</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">4</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">max_profit</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">prices</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">-&gt;</span> <span class="mi">6</span>
</span></span></code></pre>

<p>Explanation:</p>

<pre><code>Buy on day 4 (price = 0) and sell on day 6 (price = 3): profit = 3 - 0 = 3.
Then buy again on day 7 (price = 1) and sell on day 8 (price = 4): profit = 4 - 1 = 3.
Total profit: 3 + 3 = 6.
</code></pre>


Find the maximum profit from at most two stock buy/sell transactions

Maximum Profit

<p>Over budget on a project is defined when the salaries, prorated to the day, exceed the budget of the project.</p>

<p>For example, if Alice and Bob both combined income make 200K and work on a project of a budget of 50K that takes half a year, then the project is over budget given 0.5 * 200K = 100K &gt; 50K.</p>

<p>Write a query to forecast the budget for all projects and return a label of <code>&#34;overbudget&#34;</code> if it is over budget and <code>&#34;within budget&#34;</code> otherwise.</p>

<p><em>Note: Assume that employees only work on one project at a time.</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>projects</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>title</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>state_date</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

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

<tr>
<td><code>budget</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>departments</strong> 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><code>employee_projects</code> table</p>

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

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

<tr>
<td><code>employee_id</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>title</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

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


Write a query to forecast each project's budget and label it overbudget or within budget

Over-Budget Projects

<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>Let’s say you want to test the close friends feature on Instagram Stories.</p>

<p>How would you make a control group and test group to account for network effects?</p>


<p>What could be a potential risk when Facebook segments the metrics of the user interface change by market or demographic groups?</p>

What could be a potential risk when Facebook segments the metrics of the user interface change by market or demographic groups?

Network Experiment Design I

<p>What is the primary metric that Facebook should monitor if it decides to make the user interface of its posting feature more like Instagram's?</p>

What is the primary metric that Facebook should monitor if it decides to make the user interface of its posting feature more like Instagram's?

Network Experiment Design II

<p>If Facebook changes its user interface to mimic Instagram's, which adverse effect should they anticipate and monitor?</p>

If Facebook changes its user interface to mimic Instagram's, which adverse effect should they anticipate and monitor?

Network Experiment Design III

How would you make a control group and test group to account for network effects

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

Download Facts

<p>Given a string, find the first non-repeating character in it and return its index. If it doesn’t exist, return -1.</p>

<p>Example questions:</p>

<p>Consider a string where all characters are lowercase alphabets.</p>

<p><strong>Example 1:</strong></p>

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

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">s</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;helloworld&#39;</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">first_uniq_char</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">s</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">-&gt;</span> <span class="mi">0</span>
</span></span></code></pre>

<p>In the string ‘helloworld’, the first non-repeating character is ‘h’, which is at index 0.</p>

<p><strong>Example 2:</strong></p>

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

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code><span class="line"><span class="cl"><span class="n">s</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;concussion&#39;</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">first_uniq_char</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">s</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">-&gt;</span> <span class="mi">4</span>
</span></span></code></pre>

<p>In the string ‘concussion’, the first non-repeating character is ‘u’, which is at index 4.</p>


This problem involves finding the first non-repeating character in a given string. The solution involves iterating over the string and keeping track of the frequency of each character. The first character that has a frequency of 1 is the first non-repeating character.

Find the First Non-Repeating Character in a String

<p>Given a table of <code>transactions</code> and <code>products</code>, write a function to get the <code>month_over_month</code> change in revenue for the year 2019. Make sure to round <code>month_over_month</code> to 2 decimal places.</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><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>month_over_month</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Write a function to get the month_over_month change in revenue for 2019 rounded to 2 decimal places

Month Over Month

<p>Let’s say that you’re the PM on Google Maps.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>How would you improve Google Maps?</p></li>

<li><p>What metrics would you check to see if your feature improvements are successful?</p></li>
</ol>


Google Maps Improvement

<p>How would you explain what a p-value is to someone who is not technical?</p>


<p>What does a p-value in a statistical test represent?</p>

What does a p-value in a statistical test represent?

P-value to a Layman I

<p>In a statistical test, how does a low p-value (less than 0.05) influence our decision about the null hypothesis?</p>

In a statistical test, how does a low p-value (less than 0.05) influence our decision about the null hypothesis?

P-value to a Layman II

Explain what a p-value is to someone who is not technical

P-value to a Layman

<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>


<p>Given the tables <code>users</code> and <code>rides</code>, write a query to report the distance traveled by each user in descending order.</p>

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

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

<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>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>rides</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>passenger_user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

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

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


Distance Traveled

<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 Allstate. Allstate is running <code>N</code>  online ads right now. The table <code>ads</code> contains all those ads, ranked by popularity via the <code>id</code> column (e.g., the entry with <code>id = 1</code> is the most popular, etc.).</p>

<p>Create a subquery or common table expression named <code>top_ads</code> containing the top 3 ads (by popularity) and return the number of rows that would result from the following operations</p>

<ol>
<li><code>ads INNER JOIN top_ads</code></li>
<li><code>ads LEFT JOIN top_ads</code></li>
<li><code>ads RIGHT JOIN top_ads</code></li>
<li><code>ads CROSS JOIN top_ads</code></li>
</ol>

<p><em>Note: Please make the <code>join_type</code> column in your output have the values <code>inner_join</code>, <code>left_join</code>, etc. for each of their respective join types</em></p>

<p><em>Note: Please return only one query with each number in a different row</em></p>

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

<p><strong>Input:</strong></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>join_type</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

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


Create top_ads with the top 3 ads and return the row counts for inner, left, right, and cross joins with ads

Size of Joins

<p>You are about to get on a plane to Seattle. You want to know if you should bring an umbrella. You call 3 random friends of yours who live there and ask each independently if it’s raining. Each of your friends has a <sup>2</sup>⁄<sub>3</sub> chance of telling you the truth and a <sup>1</sup>⁄<sub>3</sub> chance of messing with you by lying. All 3 friends tell you that “Yes” it is raining.</p>

<p>What is the probability that it’s actually raining in Seattle?</p>


<p>What is the <strong>main</strong> difference between the Frequentist and Bayesian methods of probabilistic analysis?</p>


What is the **main** difference between the Frequentist and Bayesian methods of probabilistic analysis?

Calculate Moving Average	SQL	Easy
Predict Customer Churn	Machine Learning	Medium
A/B Test Significance	Statistics	Medium
Optimize Query Performance	SQL	Hard
Feature Importance Analysis	Machine Learning	Medium
Clean Missing Data	Python	Easy
Neural Network Architecture	Deep Learning	Hard
Calculate Cohort Retention	SQL	Medium
Bayesian Probability	Statistics	Easy
Recommend Similar Products	Machine Learning	Hard

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