Recently, I am preparing for a data position in North America and have successively participated in data-related interviews with many major companies, covering DA/DS and other directions. This time Meta The SQL interview is highly representative in its overall structure and examination methods: unified business background, continuous multiple questions. Rather than simply examining SQL syntax proficiency, this round focuses more on the assessment of business abstraction capabilities and data analysis ideas.
Interview overview
- Company：Meta
- Post: Data-related positions (biased towards DA/DS)
- Form：Online video interview
- Language:Chinese
- Duration: Approx. 35 minutes
- Content:
- SQL multiple questions
- Unified business scenario (Shop Visibility)
- Partial indicator design in the second half + SQL implementation
Meta SQL classic test questions sharing
Question1: Users with Many Searches
Question difficulty: easy
Count the number of users who made more than 5 searches in August 2021.
Table structure: fb_searches
| Field name | Type |
|---|---|
| Age_group | Text |
| Date | Date |
| search_id | bigint |
| search_query | Text |
| User_id | bigint |
Problem solving ideas
sql
SELECT count(user_id) AS result
FROM
(SELECT user_id,
count(search_id) AS august_searches
FROM fb_searches
WHERE date BETWEEN '2021-08-01' AND '2021-08-31'
GROUP BY user_id) a
WHERE august_searches > 5
Question2: Number of Conversations
Question difficulty: Medium
Count the total number of distinct conversations on WhatsApp. Two users share a conversation if there is at least 1 message between them.
Multiple messages between the same pair of users are considered a single conversation.
Message_date
| Field name | Type |
|---|---|
| Message_date | Date |
| Message_id | bigint |
| Message_receiver_id | Text |
| message_sender_id | Text |
| message_time | Text |
Problem solving ideas
WITH all_conversation_combinations AS
(SELECT message_sender_id AS user1,
message_receiver_id AS user2
FROM whatsapp_messages
UNION SELECT message_receiver_id AS user1,
message_sender_id AS user2
FROM whatsapp_messages)
SELECT COUNT(*) AS number_of_conversations
FROM all_conversation_combinations
WHERE user1 < user2
Question3:
Question difficulty: Hard
Meta/Facebook’s web logs capture every action from users starting from page loading to page scrolling.
Find the user with the least amount of time between a page load and their scroll down.
Your output should include the user id, page load time, scroll down time, and time between the two events in seconds.
Table structure: facebook_web_log
| Field name | Type |
|---|---|
| Action | Text |
| Timestamp | Timestamp without time zone |
| User_id | bigint |
Problem solving ideas
WITH cte AS
(SELECT user_id,
load_time,
scroll_time,
duration::TIME AS duration
FROM
(SELECT t1.user_id,
t1.timestamp AS load_time,
t2.timestamp AS scroll_time,
t2.timestamp - t1.timestamp duration
FROM facebook_web_log t1
JOIN facebook_web_log t2 ON t1.user_id = t2.user_id
WHERE t1.action = 'page_load'
AND t2.action = 'scroll_down'
AND t2.timestamp > t1.timestamp )sq
),
rank_cte AS
(SELECT *,
rank() OVER (ORDER BY duration) AS rnk
FROM cte)
SELECT user_id,
load_time,
scroll_time,
duration
FROM rank_cte
WHERE rnk = 1Why do I look for Programhelp in advance this round?
In fact, before preparing for this round of Meta, I have clearly felt a change: the data position/SQL interviews at major North American companies are becoming more and more like "real-time games" rather than static questions. Many questions are not difficult in themselves, but they will be constantly asked and the conditions will be constantly tightened. If the current thinking goes astray, it is easy to get lost in the interview. In this case, relying solely on AI or post-mortem review is of very limited help. It was also at this stage that I came into contact with Programhelp Interview assistance , and finally successfully got the offer.
