Calculate retention rate per user

Last updated: September 17, 2025

Quick Overview

Write a query to compute retention rate grouped by date, handling edge cases like nulls and duplicates.

Goldman Sachs
Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Data Scientist
Goldman Sachs
September 17, 2025
Data Scientist
Take-home Project
Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Medium

136

6

4,234 solved


Write a query to compute retention rate grouped by date, handling edge cases like nulls and duplicates.

Data manipulation questions at Goldman Sachs test your ability to work with real-world datasets. This Take-home Project question evaluates your SQL proficiency, understanding of data modeling, and ability to derive insights from raw data.

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
JOIN types and when to use each
Common Table Expressions (CTEs)
Window functions (ROW_NUMBER, RANK, LAG, LEAD)
Subqueries and correlated subqueries
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 handle slowly changing dimensions in this scenario?
  • How would you validate the correctness of your query results?
  • What would you do if this query needs to run every 5 minutes?
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Practice SQL Problems
Sample Answer
Approach

Break the problem into logical steps before writing SQL. Think about: 1. What tables do I need to join and on which keys? 2. What filtering (WHERE) d...

Solution Pattern

```sql WITH filtered_data AS ( SELECT * FROM main_table WHERE condition = 'value' AND date_col >= '2024-01-01' ), aggregated AS ( SELECT ...


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