Real-world SQL Scenario based Interview Questions with Answers

Question 1: Calculate conversion rate for a sales funnel

Tables: events (user_id, event_name, event_date)

Events: signup → product_view → purchase

Requirement: Count users at each stage, compute conversion from signup to purchase

WITH stages AS (
  SELECT user_id,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'signup' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS signup,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'product_view' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS view,
    MAX(CASE WHEN event_name = 'purchase' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS purchase
  FROM events
  GROUP BY user_id
)

SELECT 
  SUM(signup) AS signups,
  SUM(purchase) AS purchases,
  ROUND(100.0 * SUM(purchase) / SUM(signup), 2) AS conversion_rate
FROM stages;

Question 2: Build a monthly retention cohort

Tables: users (user_id, signup_date), logins (user_id, login_date)

Requirement: Cohort by signup month, show retained users by login month

WITH cohort AS (
  SELECT user_id, DATE_TRUNC('month', signup_date) AS cohort_month
  FROM users
),
activity AS (
  SELECT l.user_id, DATE_TRUNC('month', l.login_date) AS activity_month
  FROM logins l
)

SELECT 
  c.cohort_month,
  a.activity_month,
  COUNT(DISTINCT a.user_id) AS active_users
FROM cohort c
JOIN activity a ON c.user_id = a.user_id
GROUP BY c.cohort_month, a.activity_month
ORDER BY c.cohort_month, a.activity_month;

Question 3: Calculate monthly churn rate

Tables: subscriptions (user_id, start_date, end_date)

Requirement: Churned users per month, churn rate = churned / active users

WITH active_users AS (
  SELECT DATE_TRUNC('month', start_date) AS month, COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) AS active_users
  FROM subscriptions
  GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC('month', start_date)
),
churned_users AS (
  SELECT DATE_TRUNC('month', end_date) AS month, COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) AS churned_users
  FROM subscriptions
  WHERE end_date IS NOT NULL
  GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC('month', end_date)
)
SELECT 
  a.month,
  a.active_users,
  COALESCE(c.churned_users, 0) AS churned_users,
  ROUND(100.0 * COALESCE(c.churned_users, 0) / a.active_users, 2) AS churn_rate
FROM active_users a
LEFT JOIN churned_users c ON a.month = c.month
ORDER BY a.month;

Question 4: Calculate Daily Active Users

Table: user_activity (user_id, activity_date)

Requirement: DAU per day

SELECT activity_date, COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) AS dau
FROM user_activity
GROUP BY activity_date
ORDER BY activity_date;

Question 5: Revenue by marketing channel

Tables: orders (order_id, user_id, amount, order_date), users (user_id, channel)

Requirement: Total revenue per channel, monthly breakdown

SELECT 
  DATE_TRUNC('month', o.order_date) AS month,
  u.channel,
  SUM(o.amount) AS revenue
FROM orders o
JOIN users u ON o.user_id = u.user_id
GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC('month', o.order_date), u.channel
ORDER BY month, revenue DESC;

Question 6: Identify returning customers

Table: orders (order_id, customer_id, order_date)

Requirement: Customers with more than one order

SELECT customer_id
FROM orders
GROUP BY customer_id
HAVING COUNT(order_id) > 1;

Question 7: Top product by revenue per month

Table: sales (product_id, amount, sale_date)

WITH monthly_sales AS (
  SELECT 
    DATE_TRUNC('month', sale_date) AS month,
    product_id,
    SUM(amount) AS revenue
  FROM sales
  GROUP BY DATE_TRUNC('month', sale_date), product_id
),
ranked AS (
  SELECT *, RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY month ORDER BY revenue DESC) AS rnk
  FROM monthly_sales
)

SELECT month, product_id, revenue
FROM ranked
WHERE rnk = 1;

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