Write PostgreSQL updates with date filters
Company: Circle
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Difficulty: Medium
Interview Round: Take-home Project
Write PostgreSQL statements to:
(
1) update a flight's price and set updated_at correctly;
(
2) upsert a booking record with conflict handling;
(
3) select bookings filtered by a UTC date range using timestamptz without off-by-one errors;
(
4) add appropriate indexes and demonstrate their use with EXPLAIN ANALYZE. Discuss common pitfalls when moving from generic SQL to PostgreSQL, including date/time casting, time zones, text vs citext, and use of immutable/stable functions in indexes.
Quick Answer: This question evaluates competency in PostgreSQL data manipulation, covering updates with correct timestamp handling, upserts with conflict resolution, date-range selection using timestamptz, and index design plus performance analysis with EXPLAIN ANALYZE.