Prepare for and practice interview questions from Torq.

Torq Interview Questions

Torq Interview Guides

Data Structures & Algorithms

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

Merge Sorted Lists

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

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

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

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

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

Ad Raters

Product Sense & Metrics

How would you measure the success of Facebook Groups

Group Success

How would you verify the claim that Facebook is losing young users and what test metrics would you look at

Losing Users

What would you investigate to diagnose what's happening?

WAU vs Open Rates

How would you measure the success of the Instagram TV product

Instagram TV Success

How would you investigate the drop in Facebook composer posts per user, especially photo posts

Post Composer Drop

<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 we’re launching a new version of the PayPal app, but due to a tight deadline, we don’t have time to run the entire suite of 300 automated test cases before release.</p>

<p>How would you handle this situation?</p>


How would you approach limited testing time before a major app release?

Testing Constraints

A/B Testing

<p>Suppose you are analyzing auto insurance data. You find that in the demographic information for all insurance clients that the marriage attribute column is marked <code>TRUE</code> for all customers.</p>

<p>How would you debug what happened? What data would you look into and how would you find out who is actually married and who is not?</p>


How would you debug why the marriage attribute is marked TRUE for all customers and determine who is actually married

Debug Marriage Data

Analytics

<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 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 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>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 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>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>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>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 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>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>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>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>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 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>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 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>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>A jar holds 1000 coins. Out of all of the coins, 999 are fair and one is double-sided with two heads. Picking a coin at random, you toss the coin ten times.</p>

<p>Given that you see 10 heads, what is the probability that the coin is double headed and the probability that the next toss of the coin is also a head?</p>


Compute the probability the coin is double headed and the probability the next toss is a head given 10 heads

Jars and Coins

<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 <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>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>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>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

Last Transaction

<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

Challenge

<h3>Job Description</h3><div>Job Description<div><p>Are you driven by the challenge of turning complex data into actionable insights? Do you thrive on building scalable data systems that power better decisions and real business impact? If you're ready to lead with purpose and bring data to life, Torq is the place for you.</p><p>We are looking for data engineers and technical leaders who don't just build pipelines and create dashboards—they design systems that solve real business challenges and influence key strategic decisions for our clients.</p><p>At<strong> </strong>Torq, you'll join a collaborative team that takes on complex, high-impact projects. You'll guide clients through the full data lifecycle—from raw ingestion to advanced analytics—and help them unlock the full potential of their data ecosystem.</p><p><strong>What You Could Be Doing </strong></p><p>While every project we work on is different, below is a high-level overview of some of the <span class="long-word">responsibilities/hats</span> you may wear: </p><ul><li>Build strong relationships with data consumers to understand usage patterns and design intuitive, scalable data models.</li><li>Design, develop, and deliver high-quality data pipelines that align with privacy, governance, and performance best practices.</li><li>Build both real-time and batch data integrations from a variety of source systems into cloud-based data lakes and warehouses.</li><li>Develop and maintain ETL/ELT processes and tools to support both streaming and offline analytics.</li><li>Define and implement key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the efficiency, quality, and reliability of data engineering processes.</li><li>Participate in code reviews, promoting clean, maintainable, and well-documented code aligned with engineering best practices.</li><li>Create and maintain data definitions and metadata consistent with data management standards.</li><li>Provide operational support for data integration and transformation workflows in production environments.</li></ul><p><strong>What You Bring to the Table </strong></p><p>When you join our team, you're a consultant first. This means there are core skills we expect out of each of our team members. These include: </p><ul><li>Bachelor's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field</li><li>5+ years of hands-on experience in data warehousing, ETL development, and data modeling (both conceptual and physical) or other related technical & analytical work</li><li>Willingness to work a hybrid schedule (2-3 days per-week onsite)</li><li>Data acquisition & sourcing: APIs, flat files, event streams</li><li>Solid experience with ETL/ELT pipeline development, scripting automation, including performance optimization & data quality assurance <ul><li>Tools like: Python, SQL, Apache Airflow, dbt, Kafka, Terraform, etc.</li></ul></li><li>Strong understanding of data architecture, schema design, <span class="long-word">normalization/denormalization,</span> and data lifecycle management <ul><li>Cloud data platforms: Azure Data Services (preferred), AWS, or Google Cloud Platform </li><li>Data Warehousing: Synapse, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, etc. </li></ul></li><li>Proficient in Reporting Platforms to query large data sets <ul><li>Ex: PowerBI, Tableau, Looker, or similar tools</li></ul></li><li>Familiarity with data governance security, and compliance best practices (Collibra, Unity Catalog, Purview)</li><li>Proficient in SQL and experienced in designing efficient queries for large-scale data sets </li><li>Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders</li></ul><p><strong>In addition, each one of our consultants brings a unique and valuable toolbox of skills with them specific to their practice. Below are some examples of skills we are always looking to add to the team (don't worry – we don't expect you to have all of them, but they are always a plus!): </strong></p><ul><li>Experience with CI/CD pipelines for data solutions using tools like GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or Jenkins</li><li>Exposure to Power BI or other BI tools for data visualization and reporting</li><li>Experience with Delta Lake, Data Mesh, or Lakehouse architectures</li><li>Familiarity with Databricks on Azure</li></ul><p><strong>Benefits and Other Fun Stuff:<br><br></strong>We ask our consultants to be superstars, so we treat them like it. Even better, our perks are designed for employees by our employees. We do this because we believe in delivering a compelling benefits package that puts you at the heart of our rewards.</p><ul><li>Competitive Salary – your bank account will be smiling</li><li>Unlimited PTO – we're serious about that work-life balance thing</li><li>Best-in-class <span class="long-word">health/vision/dental</span> benefits – your health is our priority</li><li>Generous 401K options – take care of your future with us</li><li>Paid Parental Leave - supporting you during life's biggest milestones</li><li>Opportunity to be a key player at a highly reputable, fast-growing consulting firm</li><li>High degree of internal mobility and diverse project opportunities</li></ul><p><em>The salary range for this position considers multiple factors influencing compensation decisions, such as skillset, previous experience, certifications, and various business & organizational requirements. Being hired at or near the top of the range for this role is uncommon, as compensation determinations rely on individual circumstances. Currently, the base salary range is estimated to be between $110,000 and $140,000.</em></p><div><p><em>Torq is an Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.</em></p><p><em>*Note: No visa sponsorship is available for this position, all applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer.</em></p><p></p></div></div></div>

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

Torq Interview Questions

Torq Interview Guides

Torq Interview Questions

Challenge

Torq Opening Jobs

Discussion & Interview Experiences

Discussion & Interview Experiences