Join transactions and rides to find conversion rate

Last updated: August 6, 2025

Quick Overview

Write a query joining transactions and sessions to produce the combined conversion rate.

Palantir
Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Data Scientist
Palantir
August 6, 2025
Data Scientist
Technical Screen
Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
Easy

104

9

1,579 solved


Write a query joining transactions and sessions to produce the combined conversion rate.

Palantir asks this during the Technical Screen 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
  • 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
Aggregate functions and GROUP BY
Subqueries and correlated subqueries
Pandas vectorized operations and groupby
NULL handling and COALESCE
Data cleaning and transformation
Window functions (ROW_NUMBER, RANK, LAG, LEAD)
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 this if the data was spread across multiple databases?
  • 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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