Optimize a slow query on sessions
Last updated: September 16, 2025
Quick Overview
A query on sessions is running slowly. Identify the bottleneck and optimize it.
DoorDash
September 16, 2025118
12
204 solved
A query on sessions is running slowly. Identify the bottleneck and optimize it.
This question from DoorDash's Onsite tests practical data skills. The interviewer wants to see clean, efficient queries that handle edge cases like NULLs, duplicates, and large datasets.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Solve complex analytical problems with elegant, readable SQL
- Optimize queries for large-scale datasets with partitioning and indexing
- Use recursive CTEs, lateral joins, and advanced window functions
- Design the data model alongside the query solution
- Discuss trade-offs between SQL and programmatic approaches (Python/pandas)
- Consider the operational aspects: query scheduling, incremental processing
Key Topics to Cover
How to Approach This
- Clarify the schema and expected output format before writing queries.
- Use CTEs (WITH clauses) to break complex queries into readable steps.
- Consider window functions (ROW_NUMBER, RANK, LAG, LEAD) for ranking and sequential analysis.
- Watch for NULLs, duplicates, and edge cases in JOINs and GROUP BY.
- 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?
- How would you optimize this query for a table with 100 million rows?
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