Join events and transactions to find retention rate

Last updated: January 6, 2026

Quick Overview

Write a query joining events and impressions to produce the combined retention rate.

Palo Alto Networks
Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Data Scientist
Palo Alto Networks
January 6, 2026
Data Scientist
Onsite
Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Easy

27

5

1,811 solved


Write a query joining events and impressions to produce the combined retention rate.

Data manipulation questions at Palo Alto Networks test your ability to work with real-world datasets. This Onsite question evaluates your SQL proficiency, understanding of data modeling, and ability to derive insights from raw data.

What the Interviewer Expects
  • Write syntactically correct SQL with proper JOIN and WHERE clauses
  • Use GROUP BY and aggregate functions appropriately
  • Handle NULL values correctly in your queries
  • Explain the query execution plan at a high level
Key Topics to Cover
Common Table Expressions (CTEs)
Subqueries and correlated subqueries
Aggregate functions and GROUP BY
Window functions (ROW_NUMBER, RANK, LAG, LEAD)
Data cleaning and transformation
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
  • Can you rewrite this without using subqueries?
  • How would you handle slowly changing dimensions in this scenario?
  • What indexes would you create to support this query?
  • How would you validate the correctness of your query results?
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