Data Manipulation (SQL/Python) Interview Questions
Practice 656 real Data Manipulation (SQL/Python) interview questions for 2026. Covers companies like Meta, Amazon, TikTok, DoorDash, and Capital One. Real questions from actual interviews with detailed solutions — designed for focused interview preparation for data analysts, data scientists, and data engineers who must move fluidly between SQL and Python during live screens and take-home tasks. These questions emphasize practical skills: writing correct, efficient SQL (joins, GROUP BY, window functions, CTEs, NULL handling, and performance-aware predicates) and idiomatic Python/Pandas solutions (vectorized transforms, merges, reshaping, datetime handling, and robust data-cleaning). Interviewers evaluate correctness, edge-case reasoning, runtime and memory tradeoffs, reproducibility, and clear communication of assumptions. Expect timed whiteboard-style queries, pair-programming in a shared editor, and take-home notebooks. To prepare, practice translating SQL ↔ Pandas, explain results aloud, time-box exercises, test edge cases, and review common pitfalls such as NULL semantics, grouping logic, off-by-one errors, and inefficient joins.

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Train and analyze a classifier
Given a labeled dataset for binary classification, implement an end-to-end Python solution to train and analyze a classifier. Tasks: ( 1) perform EDA ...
Pivot daily users and revenue by platform
You are given transaction-level data and need daily aggregates by platform. Input (Pandas DataFrame) df with columns: - file_date (DATE or string pars...
Find top category by video time spent
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Write SQL for monthly spend and ratios
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Compute article-type diversity per user and histogram
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Write SQL to compute signup and retention lift
You are analyzing an A/B test for a marketing campaign that offers a free 1‑month trial. Assume all timestamps are in UTC. Tables experiment_assignmen...
Debug and harden trial-assignment Python code
You are given the following simplified Python snippet used to assign users and trigger a 1‑month free trial: """ import random, datetime, requests def...
Write SQL for call analytics
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Use pandas to aggregate, pivot, and label
Given two pandas DataFrames, write code to: (1) merge and aggregate revenue; (2) produce a 2x2 pivot; (3) compute per-state counts with value_counts, ...
Write SQL for seller and vehicle metrics
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Implement vectorized NumPy ops and explain broadcasting
Implement vectorized NumPy code for: (a) computing pairwise cosine similarity between two real-valued matrices X (shape n×d) and Y (shape m×d) without...
Write SQL for video-call recipients and FR activity
Given the schema and samples below, write ANSI‑SQL to answer both questions. Assume dates are stored in UTC. Today is 2025-09-01, so “yesterday” is 20...
Write SQL and Python for transaction analytics
You are given user and transaction data. Part A (SQL): Use a join and window functions to answer the prompts below using the following schema and samp...
Write Call Analytics SQL Queries
Assume you are given two tables. Table: calls - call_id BIGINT - sender_id BIGINT - receiver_id BIGINT - call_time TIMESTAMP - pickup VARCHAR -- value...
Write SQL using HAVING and window functions
Context You work on fraud analytics. Assume the following schema (PostgreSQL-like types): transactions - txn_id BIGINT (PK) - merchant_id BIGINT - use...
Find recommended friend pairs by shared songs
You work on a music app and want to recommend “friend” connections based on listening similarity. Assume the following tables (all timestamps are in U...
Debug SQL join that drops rows
You’re analyzing Home Improvement retail transactions to understand sales of Mulch during promotions. After joining multiple tables, your final result...
Detect sessions and gaps using SQL LEAD
Write a single ANSI-SQL query that (a) assigns per-user session_ids when the gap between consecutive events exceeds 30 minutes, (b) computes session_s...
Aggregate D1 retention cohorts in SQL
Today is 2025-09-01. Using SQL (optionally outline a pandas approach too), compute daily engagement and D1 retention for the last 7 days (2025-08-26 t...