Keep Customers without a Referee or Referred by Someone Other Than Two
Quick Overview
Return customer names when referee_id is not2, or when no referee is recorded. A NULL referee_id represents no referral and must be retained. No row ordering is required.
Keep Customers without a Referee or Referred by Someone Other Than Two
Company: Google
Role: Software Engineer
Category: Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Difficulty: easy
Interview Round: Other
### Problem
Return customer names when referee_id is not 2, or when no referee is recorded. A NULL referee_id represents no referral and must be retained. No row ordering is required.
### Tables
Table: `Customer`
```text
+-------------+---------+
| Column Name | Type |
+-------------+---------+
| id | int |
| name | varchar |
| referee_id | int |
+-------------+---------+
In SQL, id is the primary key column for this table.
Each row of this table indicates the id of a customer, their name, and the id of the customer who referred them.
```
### Example
```text
Customer (id,name,referee_id): (1,Ada,NULL), (2,Bo,2), (3,Cam,1)
Output (name): (Ada), (Cam)
```
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Include customers whose referee is absent or differs from the excluded ID.
- Return one name for each qualifying customer, including repeated names.
- Handle the case where no customer qualifies.
### Follow-up Questions
- How would the condition change if more than one referee ID needed to be excluded?
- How would you return the qualifying counts for each referee?
Overview: Return customer names when referee_id is not2, or when no referee is recorded. A NULL referee_id represents no referral and must be retained. No row ordering is required.
Return customer names when referee_id is not 2, or when no referee is recorded. A NULL referee_id represents no referral and must be retained. No row ordering is required.
Tables
Table: Customer
+-------------+---------+
| Column Name | Type |
+-------------+---------+
| id | int |
| name | varchar |
| referee_id | int |
+-------------+---------+
In SQL, id is the primary key column for this table.
Each row of this table indicates the id of a customer, their name, and the id of the customer who referred them.