Calculate DAU/MAU ratio per user

Last updated: December 15, 2025

Quick Overview

Write a query to compute DAU/MAU ratio grouped by region, handling edge cases like nulls and duplicates.

Microsoft
Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Data Scientist
Microsoft
December 15, 2025
Data Scientist
Take-home Project
Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Medium

185

7

4,105 solved


Write a query to compute DAU/MAU ratio grouped by region, handling edge cases like nulls and duplicates.

Microsoft asks this during the Take-home Project because data engineering skills are critical for the role. You should be comfortable with complex joins, window functions, CTEs, and performance optimization.

What the Interviewer Expects
  • Use advanced SQL features: window functions, CTEs, subqueries
  • Write efficient queries that avoid common performance pitfalls
  • Handle complex data transformations with multiple joins and aggregations
  • Discuss indexing strategy and query optimization
  • Address data quality issues: duplicates, missing values, outliers
Key Topics to Cover
Common Table Expressions (CTEs)
Subqueries and correlated subqueries
Index optimization and query performance
Aggregate functions and GROUP BY
Pandas vectorized operations and groupby
How to Approach This
  1. Clarify the schema and expected output format before writing queries.
  2. Use CTEs (WITH clauses) to break complex queries into readable steps.
  3. Consider window functions (ROW_NUMBER, RANK, LAG, LEAD) for ranking and sequential analysis.
  4. Watch for NULLs, duplicates, and edge cases in JOINs and GROUP BY.
  5. For pandas, prefer vectorized operations over row-by-row iteration.
Possible Follow-up Questions
  • How would you validate the correctness of your query results?
  • What indexes would you create to support this query?
  • How would you handle slowly changing dimensions in this scenario?
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