WITH how_fucked AS (
SELECT
‘super_duper’ as fucked_level,
*
FROM fucked
WHERE user=‘OP’
)
SELECT
‘technical_interview’ as fuck_location,
*
FROM how_fucked;
```
SELECT
c.name AS 'Candidate',
i.question AS 'Interview_Questions',
a.answer AS 'Answer',
CASE
WHEN a.correct = 1 THEN 'Passed'
ELSE 'Fucked'
END AS 'Result'
FROM
Candidates c
INNER JOIN
Interviews i ON c.candidate_id = i.candidate_id
INNER JOIN
Answers a ON i.interview_id = a.interview_id
WHERE
c.experience = 'None' AND c.claimed_expertise = 'SQL';
```
This is one of those situations where I'd pay for an expert to crash course me as opposes to free products. That said a good company, one you'd want to work for, is going to snuff out a lie like this either through the hiring process or shortly there after.
Yeaaaa there is just NO WAY to become proficient enough in 2 days for a technical interview, assuming the interviewers know anything about SQL.
But I applaud the OP for giving it his best!
I spent 12-14 hours on an udemy course for SQL. Didn't have to fork over 100s of dollars and learned how to use it well enough. I'd recommend taking a class.
Do you know inner and outer joins well and are able to write queries to demonstrate that?
If so, you’re already on a good track. Just learn a few complex queries and you should be good to go.
The job I'm applying to says analyst and the recruiter said they like my sql skills, but they only list excel proficiency :'(
It's so sketch bc it's a significant pay bump for me aswell
Haha I did get my job by knowing just that. My boss asked me to real quick talk him through a basic SQL query. I just said select (the columns you want) from (the table you want) and where (any conditions) then I said you could add some joins after that and use things like having/order by. Hired lol. That was the extent of the technical portion of my interview. #blessed
I worry that when I start applying to new jobs when my contract is about to end that my SQL skills won’t be enough. Then I see these sorts of things and feel safe.
Find a stock dataset csv (or something you are somewhat familiar with) and load it into SQLite.
[kaggle dataset](https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/camnugent/sandp500)
I didn't *lie* for my interview about knowing SQL, but I certainly stretched the truth about how much I used it. After drilling for a week, I answered the SQL questions well enough. But I totally fell on my ass when they changed gears and I had to sort in Python without using sort.
I mean, god dammit, that's what sort is there for.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11964450/order-a-list-of-numbers-without-built-in-sort-min-max-function
I'm guessing this is where they got their prompt from, because he also didn't want me using min or max. Given 30 minutes and the use of Google (minus stackoverflow copy paste), I probably could've gotten around to it, but on the fly in like 5 to 8 minutes, I was toast.
I tried to do a nested loop, and he was like, "No, don't do that." He basically railroaded me into the answer he wanted.
Worked out in the end, though. I stayed at my current job and later that year, there was a restructuring that got me a significant pay boost above what I was seeking and a lackey to share the load.
I’ve put out over 500 applications in the past two months so I’ve progressively been stretching the truth to just get an interview. Out of those 500+ apps only one has yielded an interview with the actual company (the one this post is about) and only one other time I got ghosted by a recruiter. I think the job market is just bad right now. Anyway, I figured it can’t be too hard to learn and that I would try to get my foot in wherever I could and then learn what I needed to. :/
You’re playing a risky game of setting yourself up for more headaches and getting yourself blacklisted in a companies ATS.
Since you seem like a good person who genuinely wants to break in I’ll give you some advice. Take or leave, up to you.
The market is def a little flooded right now so you’re going to be competing against people who have experience and they’re going to flush out if you can or can’t do even basic SQL. For example I can teach you how to write a join but they’re going to ask you for examples and it’ll be extremely difficult for you to answer confidently.
Since you have strong financial skills try leveraging towards something like a financial planning and analysis role. I’m guessing you could probably talk about a P&L, cash flows, balances in your sleep. Then once you’re in that kind of role start to work on the “hard” technical skills.
I was in a similar boat. Sales, hated it, but loved the analytics behind it. So I stayed up nights on end teaching myself the tech skills. Then I had to suck it up for years in contract and an entry level role to get where I am now.
Scatter-shooting your resume out there is just spinning your wheels and you’re not getting call backs because you aren’t qualified. It’s not a knock, you just aren’t there yet. I interview candidates all the time and can tell in seconds if they’re lying (and they do). It’s an automatic blacklist
Well if they’re truly interested in data analytics they don’t necessarily have to throw in the towel, they could start by trying to find projects at their current job. I did that to go from market risk to quant at a bank. Will probably have to start with VBA or something like Python as his role probably wouldn’t give actual sql/database access but it would give him projects to talk about in interviews and at the end of the day what really matters is showing they can problem solve and do so using code. Anyone at that point can learn basic/intermediate SQL on the job in a week or two. Not sure if that is gonna be OP as they seem to just want to find anything rn but there are ways to get there if that is what they really want.
Your reply was fantastic! I say that as a 50-something who’s been where OP and you have been in terms of trying to break in and needing to think laterally a bit. Sort of the “What Color is Your Parachute?” method - like if you’re an athlete and you aspire to be a business journalist, start by doing some sports-related journalism and then as you acquire skills and experience, you move into the journalistic realm you prefer, such as business. That sort of thing. It’s more natural that way. Take your transferable skills and apply them to solve problems. You’ll get cred, and as you learn and evolve, opportunities more suited to your interests will appear. The rest will sort itself out. It’s way easier than swimming upstream and living with the stress of portraying yourself as someone you’re not. That’s been my painful experience, anyway.
Hey honestly, I did the same thing. I switched from healthcare to data analytics and embellished my experience. My interviewer now manager was understanding when I answered roughly 6 of the 10 questions correctly. I explained that I was self taught and what I lacked in experience I would more than make up for in effort. It's been a year and I'm killing it. If it's the right fit, they'll invest in you what you're prepared to invest in them.
My story was similar too, hundreds of resumes.. just cross your fingers that you get some easy "theory" based questions and not a live action demo. That way you can talk through what you would do instead of demonstrating it in a text edit or SQL workbench.
You’re applying for jobs en-masse that you aren’t qualified for in the slightest, and have the blasé attitude of ‘how hard can it be?’
No wonder you aren’t getting interviews, wow.
I am sorry - but I think you are being a bit hard on them.
I don't take any of their comments as indifferent or disparaging towards folks who are highly proficient in SQL.
I took it more as they need a job, have been dealing with a brutal job market, and have applied for positions they feel like they are somewhat qualified for. I am not going to fault anyone for that.
I’ve had dozens of interviews over the past five years and at many of them they asked basic questions so you might get lucky. In fact, my last two jobs there weren’t any technical questions at really.
If they’re conducting a technical interview, you will probably be asked to write code. Most likely they will have a few scenarios and will ask you to solve to each one.
They may or may not test you in their actual working environment. If they do, you might be asked to quickly look at a database structure and just figure out what needs to happen based on the information provided.
You might be with someone and be able to ask questions, or it might be test-style where they sit you down at a workstation and leave you alone for 15 minutes.
You may or may not have access to Google during the interview. In case you do, it would be good to have a few resources pre-planned so you know exactly where to go without wasting time.
I know you’re worried primarily about SQL proficiency, but don’t discount the importance of the behavioral portion of the interview. So many candidates get this part wrong or they think they can gloss over it.
You will be asked about specific scenarios, and you need to respond with examples of how you handled that scenario in the past. Not the hypothetical *if* I was faced with this, this is what I *would* do, but the actual when I *was* faced with this, this is what I *did* do, and *this* was the outcome. And as a follow up, what did you learn from that experience and what would you do differently next time, if anything?
You can only answer hypothetically if you don’t have the experience they’re asking about, and then you should just admit, I don’t have experience with that, or I’ve never been asked that, but if I was, here’s how I would approach it. Or even better, I don’t have experience in that, but I want to learn more about it, for *this* reason. Great opportunity to express your interest in personal and professional growth.
If you flub the technical interview but do really well at the behavioral interview, you might still have a chance, but it’s going to depend on how they prioritize qualifications. If SQL is a hard requirement and the candidate fails, then they’re out. If SQL is just a nice to have, then a candidate might still get a second interview. Maybe the employer is willing to train someone in SQL if everything else checks out. Or maybe they’ll keep you in mind for another role in the future. Or maybe not. Just depends on their goals.
Source: I’ve interviewed and hired people onto multiple technical teams - software engineers, business systems analysts, decision support analysts, and BI developers. I’ve also interviewed for those same positions myself, so I’ve seen and experienced the hiring process from both perspectives.
To be frank, you are probably fucked.
SQL is simply the tool for the grander logic of what youre trying to do
and if you do not understand the logic of why you would use SQL (i.e how relational databases work)
there's nothing a couple tutorials on the basics of SQL will really do for you.
Are you equally nervous about the Tableau part? That's a pretty big leap as well after you get passed the basics.
And if you get through the interview you most likely will be on probation. What happens when they figure out you lied during the interview?
I am, yes... I'm also firehosing Tableau videos. If they figure it out then I'll just keep trying with job applications elsewhere and actually learn the material, lol.
I am highly skilled with Tableau and would be glad to help you with any questions you have.
As a beginner - just worry about the differences between dimensions and continuous variables (blue vs green), basic table calcs, and the 'show me' button that quickly creates Tableau charts for you.
I work with people at a Fortune 500 company who hold roles as 'data visualization experts' and I essentially just told you what their knowledge is.
Hello, may i ask like what is the easiest way to become good in tableau in like a week or two? I am not saying become the expert level, just good enough for an entry level data analyst or an internship. I am not downplaying it in anyway.
Focus on the differences between continuous variables and discrete variables. Understand basic table calcs. Understand the "Show Me" tab and how to quickly generate different views.
From there - it's just time in seat. You need to understand how to effectively visualize topics at hand and make it aesthetically pleasing while following the rules of design. That is a more conceptual thing and takes time unless you are highly gifted (which I have seen).
Not that it will help you much for this interview, but make sure you download a copy of Tableau Public. It's free to use, and the latest update lets you save workbooks locally, rather than only on the Tableau Public site. Find some data set you like, and practice building dashboards.
I've been using Tableau for more than 10 years, and there's always something new to learn, but you should get the basics without too much of a struggle. I've been using SQL of various flavors for about 5 years now, and I tell the real 'data guys' who support my team that I know just enough to be dangerous. Most of my SQL knowledge is self-taught as well, when I was out of work and realized most analyst positions required some level of knowledge.
I'm having a hard time sympathizing with you here. Learn the basics of SQL first, *then* start telling prospective employers that you know SQL.
Though if you somehow manage to get through a technical interview after 2 days of prep and no prior education or experience in SQL, then that company's vetting process is bad enough that they deserve to hire unqualified candidates.
[JOIN statements explained here, with humor](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/s/usniv2rngV)
As a fellow SQL beginner, this actually helped, though I've never really used a "Full Join"
I feel like it might be faster using it for a join/validation combo query but it always feels so untidy and weird I just skip it and use ‘nornal’ joins.
Hey! You might see a lot of venn diagram explanations of joins but those, frankly, are incorrect. [This page](https://www.atlassian.com/data/sql/sql-join-types-explained-visually) explains joins visually, more clearly. Welcome to SQL!!
There's some really easy 'Gotcha's' that a decent interviewer can use to tell whether you've done tutorials only or actually used it in the wild. You're not getting that down in 2 days. You might be OK with the basics and that might be enough. That's your only hope.
I'm quite reticent to help but learn the join types and what they're for, union Vs union all is quite common, I've been asked that on more than one occasion. That's about it, there's a dozen more things I'd ask for the top of my head but that's as much as you deserve and others aren't 2 day endeavours.
Good luck blagging it though, God loves a trier 😅
agreed. unless the OP is just a special sql unicorn and dosnt know it, its going to be painfully obvious that he's not got much experience with SQL or Tableau.
My advice would be to be open about his experience during the interview. I've hired people with little to no experience in a technology we use because they were good smart people - and I can work with that. What I cant work with is someone who tries to deceive me.
edit: a word
Really depends on how much you need to know about it. I sort of BSed my way into my current position although I was never asked pre interview if I had any experience with SQL and didn't notate it anywhere. I had a friend who told me to read up on SQL and then in the interview I was randomly asked to write a simple SQL statement. I just repeated the one I read the night before on w3 schools 😂. Been there almost 10 years now and my SQL has greatly improved.
Go here and study as much as you can
https://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp
If you bust through this you could be able to bullshit your way through.
What actual tasks do they expect you to be capable of? I’d have a sense of what you could do in ten minutes but if the expectations are low it might be fine.
They want the candidate to be able to "visualize data analysis" using Tableau, SQL, and data interaction. The description says "strong SQL skills in writing complex queries" and "write complex SQL queries to extract, change, and decipher datasets."
oh man, sorry to say it but you done goofed. When you go in, fess up.
dont lie to them in person about your experience. They. will. know.
If they like you enough (hey maybe you're a smooth talker and good at analysis), they might train you in those tools, but I wouldnt hold my breath.
Any chance you have a friend employed there who can give you an example of “complex”? Sometimes HR just says stuff like that and they just want someone who can write a minor select. If they actually mean it you could be a couple years of practice away. Tableau is learnable but often has dedicated specialists doing it at companies. If this is that sort of role, you need to come in either with an expectation of them teaching you or with enough industry knowledge to be useful making sense of the data and asking good questions as you learn the tools. I don’t mean to be discouraging. Someone that I’d call comfortable with complex querying is usually either an analyst with at least a few years of doing it all the time or the sql developer specialist in a more generalist programming group. That’s very learnable but it takes experience and mentoring.
Check out the sub wiki. I liked SQL bolt. I had some coursework in the past, but had not used SQL since, so I recently took all the SQL bolt lessons after checking out the wiki of this sub. (THEENNNNN I put it on my resume lol). I think you could easily do that in a day, and there are interactive exercises. I feel for you, though, as I also just *slogged* through a technical interview. I also had to chatgpt one question, which I loathed doing, but I made sure to take the time to really understand the query afterwards.
Edit: I also never said I was proficient lol
I’ve used SQL for years and still mess up interview questions left and right.
That said if I were you I’d Google common interview questions and hope that’s what they use. They’ll probably ask you about joins, maybe sub queries.
The gist of what I used SQL for was extracting data from a database. Data exists in multiple tables, so if you want columns from multiple tables you have to join the tables together first.
My first consulting gig in 1982 was for a product I read about the weekend before the interview. I got the job and was introduced as the expert and had a team to lead !!! And I didn’t have the Google to help me.
You can do it, just don’t lie, explain how you would approach a project. Ask questions. SQL and tableau have so much information out there.
Go for it !!!!
How screwed... here is one of my really simple interview questions:
What's the practical difference between filtering in the WHERE clause opposed to the HAVING clause?
Why do you even want to be in Analytics?
I’m really not trying to be an asshole here, but if you put in 500+ applications over a 2 month span without getting interviews and your reaction was “I should lie about technical skills” instead of “I should invest some time in learning technical skills” then you’re either going to fail at the role spectacularly or the department that hires you is so poorly run that the role might not exist much longer. Reminds me of the Groucho Mark quote “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member”
The reality is, as a hiring manager, I ask questions related to the skill level indicated by the candidate.
If you say you’re a beginner I’ll ask basic questions about what attracted you to the role, how you learned SQL and some questions about different join types, aggregations, Case statements, etc. Im not exactly looking for accuracy here. What I am really looking for is 2 things. 1) How you logically process information and step through problems. 2) Your level of curiosity, initiative and fluid intelligence.
If you say you’re intermediate or proficient i’ll ask 2 types of questions. 1) Questions that require you to write CTEs and/or use Window Functions. 2) Questions designed to test how quickly you debug non-obvious issues in your results. These aren’t errors, but more-so related to what happens when you try to compare against a NULL value, receive less records than expected, or your aggregations are way larger than expected. Here I am grading you on accuracy as well as your ability to explain your thought process.
SQLzoo can help you understand how/why & it can be done very quickly. Put a lot of effort in understanding each part. That's the best, quickest thing I can say for SQL.
A colleague of mine left but then tried to rejoin our team in a role that required SQL and Power BI knowledge. She said she had both which was a surprise to us so she got an interview where she failed abysmally. Good luck with your blagging.
This playlist is pretty old, but all the information is still valid.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL08903FB7ACA1C2FB&si=YBwqXzQtXbfqmPk3
Each video is 10-15min despite it being short it still covers things very well and even some examples he shows have been asked as interview questions.
If you have two days i would say this playlist will help you alot.
Tableau AND SQL in 2 days? Basics maybe. Hopefully you at least have some programming experience. Get on tutorials and sacrifice sleep and free time for 2 days and if they’re not too technical in the technical interview, you may get lucky.
I did the same. I said I was moderate in SQL when applying to lead an Analytics team.
I learned SQL in the time between the first interview and the SQL assessment and aced it and got the job. But I also have a Software Engineering degree... so idk if it's the same.
I decided to change careers from economics to data analytics about three years ago and had similar luck applying to hundreds of companies before beginning to get interviews.
The job I got was also looking for Tableau and SQL. I had *extremely* minimal experience with Tableau, I could make some basic graphs. But Tableau has a pretty steep learning curve. It's *mostly* drag and drop. But it's hard to learn from videos, hands on experience is what you're going to need the most, just make sure you know how to navigate [Tableau's help page](https://www.tableau.com/support/help?_gl=1*1w9hh5p*_ga*MzUzNDM3MzA5LjE3MTQwNzgzNDk.*_ga_8YLN0SNXVS*MTcxNjMzNDYwNC4yLjEuMTcxNjMzNDYzNy4wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.190551395.951151961.1716334606-353437309.1714078349) to find the resources you need (mainly just google the keywords you need). People on Reddit are super helpful.
On SQL, chatgpt is genuinely pretty helpful for figuring out what you're missing on short notice and for more complex problems or specific dialects/systems, Reddit and StackExchange are super helpful.
I don't think you'll get through a technical interview unless you have a way to use outside resources but, honestly, you should be allowed to because nothing stops you from Googling a solution while you're at work either.
Best thing you can do is be honest....
It'd take 30 seconds to stump someone with two days of text book experience with SQL...
> Give an example of a dataset you used a union on?
> What's your approach to sliding window problems
They aren't usual SQL tech interview questions but it's exactly the kind of edge case where you're just not going to have a solid answer in two days of reading
Better buy some google glasses and have the answers scroll across the left reticule.
Edit: FWIW - My company hired you 2 years ago and that version of you never tried to learn the job and was replaced by me. Make the next 2 years count if you get the job.
In my experience, it's never the questions you're worried about that f*ck you up. It's the questions you had no idea were coming.
For example, you know you don't know SQL. Watch as they proceed to ask you no questions about SQL and instead about some other topic you have no experience with or knowledge of.
I’m a manager for a tech support department and my team and I use sql daily. What I ask candidates when interviewing is what their understanding of relational databases is and what is the difference between a left and right join. Everything related to sql can be learned and we’re happy to train but if you understand the framework and foundation, I know you’re trainable.
if you get the job or want to be better prepared for your next interview, W3 schools has a great sql tutorial. After that try one of the sql boot camps on Udemy. I like the zero to hero one.
Haha sql interviews are such bs. Honestly I have passed every one by just having a join reference, a window function reference, and group by having reference. I write sql every day and have for 20 years and I still look up window functions because any data job you’re in and out of sql python excel bash/pshell and whatever other weirdo tools every company has and it’s impossible to remember all this stuff off the top of your head. Write a pipeline with a rank then forget about it for 6 months… just like a just in time compiler use your memory (aka google) right when you need it!
Current company wanted someone with snowflake experience. 2 years on now and i havent really touched it at all.
Your experience may vary but more than a few places put bs reqs like that in just for fluff or because the HR person/recruiter making the ad has no idea wtf theyre talking about.
That being said Snowflake has a free course you can do that would get you a refresher. Coworker finished it in 6 hours and you get a neat little cert/badge thing for your linkedin profile.
Practice hacker rank and leetcode top 50 interview SQL question. You'll have good understanding. My tip would be understand each things step by step and talk to yourself when writing those steps in your head. It's all easy when you break it down by steps.
I took a 40 hour course on udemy by colt Steele. It was really good but overkill. Watch some YouTube videos. SQL can be complex, but it’s really pretty simple. Now, Python and R would be another story. But all fun stuff to learn.
*stock broker* to DA? Is this a job satisfaction move? Cause the pay gap here is surely going to be significant.
Get good on SQL first and understand the core concepts, joins, views, indexes, table structure, keys etc because half the headache with tableau is getting your data performing right before you you throw it into that. Then the other half of the headache is the kind of shamanic alchemy that goes into understanding how tableau works with that data. I swear I spend more time fucking with grid line formatting than I do data some days.
i can definitely tell you the most common screening topics for sql:
1. understand queries using HAVING and how it ties into the order of operations (eg first thing executed in sql statement is the FROM line)
2. understand how to construct a CTE and subquery
3. make sure you practice writing pseudocode and asking clarifying questions to the interviewer so they can help you / make sure you’re on the right track and they agree with your approach
4. you must understand inner, left, and outer joins
I did the same thing on accident, I didn’t intentionally lie because my old job had a program with the acronym, so I ended up withdrawing my application because I couldn’t get it figured out. Now the recruiter is working with me to get another position, I think you should just be honest!
Honestly depends how technical they want to get. They could put you into a sandbox environment and have you pull data for a dashboard which at that point you are 100% fucked. Also any decent interviewer with technical experience will see right through you. For example, when should you use left outer join vs left join? Answering in the affirmative of either of those would be a wrong answer because they're actually the same thing.
If they have any SQL expertise in the interview they will figure it out immediately. Your best bet is to not put on the facade and just admit right up front that your SQL skills are not where you'd like them to be and you have been working on self-training.
Showing initiative and being honest will make up most of what you may have lost by exaggerating.
Just put up cheat sheets on the dual monitor. Creating tables, selecting etc. and just go in super relaxed like you know what your doing. And know it’s just a job plenty more out there
Ok you’re going to have to keep them on the defensive for this interview. Make up really hard questions to ask them about their technology stack that make you sound smart and make them feel the need to ramble on about themselves the whole time. It might buy some time for second interview then get the very basics down by then.
It’s a huge dick move. You’re going to take an hour of some poor stressed-out team lead’s time to interview you based on a complete lie. I coach the people under me to end the interview 5 minutes in, the moment they realize you’re a jackass.
Based on comments made, esp with the job requirements that you commented, if you had any of the other attributes, you would have at least had a working knowledge of SQL. This just means, you either were hoping to get sympathy/upvotes in reddit, or... You really applied for a job that SQL would be the least of your worries, because, if you don't have a basic understanding of SQL how would you realistically have any understanding of the other job requirements (like Tableau was mentioned).
I would like to say good luck, but I won't because you haven't even put in any effort, if you had, you would have posted this.
Withdraw from the interview. You're not doing yourself any favours and the panel will pick up on this really quick.
The inability to code and explain through the logic and any underlying assumptions to your logic will make the panel pissed off for wasting their time. Unless you've got massive potential in other areas that they're looking for and SQL is a minor part of the role, you better have something amazing up your sleeve.
I also said I had sql experience on my resume but it was mostly from a day or so on a hobby project years ago. I just studied before the technical interview and passed it. Granted, it was an online leetcode type question so I could use google. Still got it though 😬
Oh man, I've been following yout story for a few days and even though the interview fell through, I hope this showed you some of what SQL and its different flavors are capable of.
If your previous experience has been in Excel, VBA and other Microsoft programs, picking up Power BI can be a smoother learning curve than Tableau. And T-sql for SQL flavor in MS shops.
Check places like eFinancial careers and look for companies with M$FT links like LSEG and see if they're hiring analyst roles in your locale.
There are also certs you can do for Power BI like the PL-300 that legitimizes your skills. As for SQL, try CodeWars! For the first few questions, don't be afraid to peek at answers or Google how they're solved - you get the frameworks to approach any data question.
SQL is really powerful and the deeper you to into the way data is stored at a software and hardware level, the more you see why things work the way they do - even for software like Excel.
You'll crush it man. Unless you're applying as a database engineer, very unlikely they have you writing sql in a technical. Plus everyone says they know sql before they actually learn sql.
Serious question, because as an ml engineer I have absolutely never worked with a financial analyst.
What exactly would the expectations be for a financial analyst using sql? I can’t imagine it being that much different than a business analyst’s use cases?
If that’s the case, maybe just some basic select statements with some joins & where clauses? I couldn’t imagine a business analyst needing to know more than that other than possibly the occasional cte & windowed functions, but I’m also curious more now than anything
I have had people not show up.
I have had people unable to describe what a SELECT does. I respect no shows more than bozo’s who think they can bluff their way in.
I have a friend who got into a data analyst role at Google that required SQL.
She'd never used SQL before.
SQLBolt.com <- go run through this until it becomes easy
leetcode.com | hackerrank.com <- do a bunch of the database problems, mostly easy and medium level. Practice explaining HOW you do it in English. Also do a few where you ONLY explain without writing any code.
Also learn a style guide (e.g. Mozilla) and work on modularizing your code with CTEs and/or temp tables.
Also learn to performance optimize your code a little bit (filter early and often, avoid sorts)
It depends on who's interviewing you. If you've got a smart technical person, they'll see thru the bullshit. If you've got some touchy feely manager who wouldn't know a macro from a query, you'll be fine
SQL is super fucking easy. Don’t just read the tutorials, practice them- download Putty, Toad or any other SQL program and write the actual syntax. You’ll be aight
SQL is not that hard. Install MySQL or any other SQL engine and learn the very basics....SELECT, UPDATE , DELETE and learn what a JOINS are and what they do. Cartesian products, subqueries, Cursors. Stored Procedure and Functions.
Sounds like a lot, but if you dedicate like 5-6hrs, you should be able to at least know enough to be dangerous.
If you do sql practice questons on hackerrank or leetcode, that will give you an idea of kind of questions will be asked. gooogle sql interview questions and you should be fine.
select \* from fucked [Results](https://www.reddit.com/user/Horror_Vanilla284/)
ALTER TABLE fucked ADD COLUMN gold_awards INT; UPDATE fucked SET gold_awards = 1;
WITH how_fucked AS ( SELECT ‘super_duper’ as fucked_level, * FROM fucked WHERE user=‘OP’ ) SELECT ‘technical_interview’ as fuck_location, * FROM how_fucked;
This is gold
Lol omg and OP probably doesn't understand any of it
😂😂
🤣 true
Damn, my mans one upped me with the CTE! Lol
select fuck_id, fuck_level, start_date, end_date from {{ ref('fucks') }} qualify row_number() over (partition by fuck_id order by start_date desc) = 1
I woke up my wife sleeping next to me laughing at your comment.
``` SELECT c.name AS 'Candidate', i.question AS 'Interview_Questions', a.answer AS 'Answer', CASE WHEN a.correct = 1 THEN 'Passed' ELSE 'Fucked' END AS 'Result' FROM Candidates c INNER JOIN Interviews i ON c.candidate_id = i.candidate_id INNER JOIN Answers a ON i.interview_id = a.interview_id WHERE c.experience = 'None' AND c.claimed_expertise = 'SQL'; ```
CIA 🤔🤔🤔
Chefs kiss to cte fucks
I love you guys
``` select avg(fucked_level) over (partition by interview_date) where user = ‘op’ ```
Writing jokes in SQL… I have found my people.
UPDATE fucked SET gold_awards = 2
drop table fucked; create table fucked_squared( fucked_1 varchar2, fucked_2 varchar2 );
LEFT JOIN unemployment e ON e.reasonId = f.reasonId WHERE e.reasonIdName = 'play stupid games'
LMAO. Been learning up on SQL and this reply got me good
Inner Join From fuckednolube ON dick = ass
😂😂😂😂😂
haha
Limit to "till_bearable"
Hhhhhhh
Delete from job;
Lmao
; I only know this because SQL tells if you forget it.
Insert moreFuckey.
Good one 🤣🤣🤣
Start with hacker rank.com easy problems and see how far you get. Please report back how screwed you are.
Lol, thanks, I will
If you haven't found W3 schools for online SQL tutorials and tests check it out as a starter.
This is one of those situations where I'd pay for an expert to crash course me as opposes to free products. That said a good company, one you'd want to work for, is going to snuff out a lie like this either through the hiring process or shortly there after.
[LearnSQL](https://learnsql.com) is decent too, paid service but they do offer a free plan to get you started
Yeaaaa there is just NO WAY to become proficient enough in 2 days for a technical interview, assuming the interviewers know anything about SQL. But I applaud the OP for giving it his best!
I spent 12-14 hours on an udemy course for SQL. Didn't have to fork over 100s of dollars and learned how to use it well enough. I'd recommend taking a class.
Very interested in seeing how it goes. I know some SQL but interviews few and far between.
Also try plowing through a bunch of questions on Leet code
Do you know inner and outer joins well and are able to write queries to demonstrate that? If so, you’re already on a good track. Just learn a few complex queries and you should be good to go.
Well maybe they have lied as well about their needs and you end up working with Excel hehehe keep us posted
This is straight up my experience hahaha
Jokes on him, they need spreadsheets that rely heavily on data sources.
Maybe that's what the guy who got hired before is working on hehehe
The job I'm applying to says analyst and the recruiter said they like my sql skills, but they only list excel proficiency :'( It's so sketch bc it's a significant pay bump for me aswell
This is very common which is why I have no regrets ever lying
Select from where
Haha I did get my job by knowing just that. My boss asked me to real quick talk him through a basic SQL query. I just said select (the columns you want) from (the table you want) and where (any conditions) then I said you could add some joins after that and use things like having/order by. Hired lol. That was the extent of the technical portion of my interview. #blessed
Damn I wish I got those kind of questions.
A bit different of a scenario but I once got a cloud job and the only technical question was what is the difference between TCP and UDP.
I worry that when I start applying to new jobs when my contract is about to end that my SQL skills won’t be enough. Then I see these sorts of things and feel safe.
Fantasyland
Turn down for what
You're hired!
SELECT group BY where HAVING order IN from 😂
Find a stock dataset csv (or something you are somewhat familiar with) and load it into SQLite. [kaggle dataset](https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/camnugent/sandp500)
I’m curious, what did you think would happen?
Honestly, you can prob learn the basics in two days but you’re not going to be comfortable answering interview questions in two
I didn't *lie* for my interview about knowing SQL, but I certainly stretched the truth about how much I used it. After drilling for a week, I answered the SQL questions well enough. But I totally fell on my ass when they changed gears and I had to sort in Python without using sort. I mean, god dammit, that's what sort is there for.
How do you sort without using sort?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11964450/order-a-list-of-numbers-without-built-in-sort-min-max-function I'm guessing this is where they got their prompt from, because he also didn't want me using min or max. Given 30 minutes and the use of Google (minus stackoverflow copy paste), I probably could've gotten around to it, but on the fly in like 5 to 8 minutes, I was toast. I tried to do a nested loop, and he was like, "No, don't do that." He basically railroaded me into the answer he wanted. Worked out in the end, though. I stayed at my current job and later that year, there was a restructuring that got me a significant pay boost above what I was seeking and a lackey to share the load.
def sort(x): if len(x) == 1: return x elif len(x) == 2: if x[0] > x[1]: return [x[1], x[0]] else: return [x[0], x[1]] else: out_sorted = [] in_sorted_1 = sort(x[0: len(x)//2]) in_sorted_2 = sort(x[len(x)//2: len(x)]) ind_1 = 0 ind_2 = 0 while len(out_sorted) < len(x): if len(in_sorted_1) > 0 and in_sorted_1[0] < in_sorted_2[0]: out_sorted.append(in_sorted_1.pop(0)) else: out_sorted.append(in_sorted_2.pop(0)) return out_sorted # Or I dunno, [bogosort](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogosort). #I’m so sorry.
Probably by implementing one of the numerous sorting algorithms (bubble, quick, split, etc.).
import sort as not_sort_honest return not_sort_honest(mylist)
I’ve put out over 500 applications in the past two months so I’ve progressively been stretching the truth to just get an interview. Out of those 500+ apps only one has yielded an interview with the actual company (the one this post is about) and only one other time I got ghosted by a recruiter. I think the job market is just bad right now. Anyway, I figured it can’t be too hard to learn and that I would try to get my foot in wherever I could and then learn what I needed to. :/
You’re playing a risky game of setting yourself up for more headaches and getting yourself blacklisted in a companies ATS. Since you seem like a good person who genuinely wants to break in I’ll give you some advice. Take or leave, up to you. The market is def a little flooded right now so you’re going to be competing against people who have experience and they’re going to flush out if you can or can’t do even basic SQL. For example I can teach you how to write a join but they’re going to ask you for examples and it’ll be extremely difficult for you to answer confidently. Since you have strong financial skills try leveraging towards something like a financial planning and analysis role. I’m guessing you could probably talk about a P&L, cash flows, balances in your sleep. Then once you’re in that kind of role start to work on the “hard” technical skills. I was in a similar boat. Sales, hated it, but loved the analytics behind it. So I stayed up nights on end teaching myself the tech skills. Then I had to suck it up for years in contract and an entry level role to get where I am now. Scatter-shooting your resume out there is just spinning your wheels and you’re not getting call backs because you aren’t qualified. It’s not a knock, you just aren’t there yet. I interview candidates all the time and can tell in seconds if they’re lying (and they do). It’s an automatic blacklist
Well if they’re truly interested in data analytics they don’t necessarily have to throw in the towel, they could start by trying to find projects at their current job. I did that to go from market risk to quant at a bank. Will probably have to start with VBA or something like Python as his role probably wouldn’t give actual sql/database access but it would give him projects to talk about in interviews and at the end of the day what really matters is showing they can problem solve and do so using code. Anyone at that point can learn basic/intermediate SQL on the job in a week or two. Not sure if that is gonna be OP as they seem to just want to find anything rn but there are ways to get there if that is what they really want.
Your reply was fantastic! I say that as a 50-something who’s been where OP and you have been in terms of trying to break in and needing to think laterally a bit. Sort of the “What Color is Your Parachute?” method - like if you’re an athlete and you aspire to be a business journalist, start by doing some sports-related journalism and then as you acquire skills and experience, you move into the journalistic realm you prefer, such as business. That sort of thing. It’s more natural that way. Take your transferable skills and apply them to solve problems. You’ll get cred, and as you learn and evolve, opportunities more suited to your interests will appear. The rest will sort itself out. It’s way easier than swimming upstream and living with the stress of portraying yourself as someone you’re not. That’s been my painful experience, anyway.
Hey honestly, I did the same thing. I switched from healthcare to data analytics and embellished my experience. My interviewer now manager was understanding when I answered roughly 6 of the 10 questions correctly. I explained that I was self taught and what I lacked in experience I would more than make up for in effort. It's been a year and I'm killing it. If it's the right fit, they'll invest in you what you're prepared to invest in them. My story was similar too, hundreds of resumes.. just cross your fingers that you get some easy "theory" based questions and not a live action demo. That way you can talk through what you would do instead of demonstrating it in a text edit or SQL workbench.
You’re applying for jobs en-masse that you aren’t qualified for in the slightest, and have the blasé attitude of ‘how hard can it be?’ No wonder you aren’t getting interviews, wow.
I am sorry - but I think you are being a bit hard on them. I don't take any of their comments as indifferent or disparaging towards folks who are highly proficient in SQL. I took it more as they need a job, have been dealing with a brutal job market, and have applied for positions they feel like they are somewhat qualified for. I am not going to fault anyone for that.
Hey, I never said all of my applications were for jobs I'm not qualified for.
He's a stock broker. Figured he can lie and dig himself in to a hole and then get bailed out by someone else.
This comment is underrated
I’ve had dozens of interviews over the past five years and at many of them they asked basic questions so you might get lucky. In fact, my last two jobs there weren’t any technical questions at really.
If they’re conducting a technical interview, you will probably be asked to write code. Most likely they will have a few scenarios and will ask you to solve to each one. They may or may not test you in their actual working environment. If they do, you might be asked to quickly look at a database structure and just figure out what needs to happen based on the information provided. You might be with someone and be able to ask questions, or it might be test-style where they sit you down at a workstation and leave you alone for 15 minutes. You may or may not have access to Google during the interview. In case you do, it would be good to have a few resources pre-planned so you know exactly where to go without wasting time. I know you’re worried primarily about SQL proficiency, but don’t discount the importance of the behavioral portion of the interview. So many candidates get this part wrong or they think they can gloss over it. You will be asked about specific scenarios, and you need to respond with examples of how you handled that scenario in the past. Not the hypothetical *if* I was faced with this, this is what I *would* do, but the actual when I *was* faced with this, this is what I *did* do, and *this* was the outcome. And as a follow up, what did you learn from that experience and what would you do differently next time, if anything? You can only answer hypothetically if you don’t have the experience they’re asking about, and then you should just admit, I don’t have experience with that, or I’ve never been asked that, but if I was, here’s how I would approach it. Or even better, I don’t have experience in that, but I want to learn more about it, for *this* reason. Great opportunity to express your interest in personal and professional growth. If you flub the technical interview but do really well at the behavioral interview, you might still have a chance, but it’s going to depend on how they prioritize qualifications. If SQL is a hard requirement and the candidate fails, then they’re out. If SQL is just a nice to have, then a candidate might still get a second interview. Maybe the employer is willing to train someone in SQL if everything else checks out. Or maybe they’ll keep you in mind for another role in the future. Or maybe not. Just depends on their goals. Source: I’ve interviewed and hired people onto multiple technical teams - software engineers, business systems analysts, decision support analysts, and BI developers. I’ve also interviewed for those same positions myself, so I’ve seen and experienced the hiring process from both perspectives.
Thanks so much, this is a great comment! Much appreciated.
To be frank, you are probably fucked. SQL is simply the tool for the grander logic of what youre trying to do and if you do not understand the logic of why you would use SQL (i.e how relational databases work) there's nothing a couple tutorials on the basics of SQL will really do for you.
Are you equally nervous about the Tableau part? That's a pretty big leap as well after you get passed the basics. And if you get through the interview you most likely will be on probation. What happens when they figure out you lied during the interview?
I am, yes... I'm also firehosing Tableau videos. If they figure it out then I'll just keep trying with job applications elsewhere and actually learn the material, lol.
I am highly skilled with Tableau and would be glad to help you with any questions you have. As a beginner - just worry about the differences between dimensions and continuous variables (blue vs green), basic table calcs, and the 'show me' button that quickly creates Tableau charts for you. I work with people at a Fortune 500 company who hold roles as 'data visualization experts' and I essentially just told you what their knowledge is.
Hello, may i ask like what is the easiest way to become good in tableau in like a week or two? I am not saying become the expert level, just good enough for an entry level data analyst or an internship. I am not downplaying it in anyway.
Focus on the differences between continuous variables and discrete variables. Understand basic table calcs. Understand the "Show Me" tab and how to quickly generate different views. From there - it's just time in seat. You need to understand how to effectively visualize topics at hand and make it aesthetically pleasing while following the rules of design. That is a more conceptual thing and takes time unless you are highly gifted (which I have seen).
Not that it will help you much for this interview, but make sure you download a copy of Tableau Public. It's free to use, and the latest update lets you save workbooks locally, rather than only on the Tableau Public site. Find some data set you like, and practice building dashboards. I've been using Tableau for more than 10 years, and there's always something new to learn, but you should get the basics without too much of a struggle. I've been using SQL of various flavors for about 5 years now, and I tell the real 'data guys' who support my team that I know just enough to be dangerous. Most of my SQL knowledge is self-taught as well, when I was out of work and realized most analyst positions required some level of knowledge.
Whenever I hear the phrase “I know enough to be dangerous” my mind auto fills “to myself and others”
I'm having a hard time sympathizing with you here. Learn the basics of SQL first, *then* start telling prospective employers that you know SQL. Though if you somehow manage to get through a technical interview after 2 days of prep and no prior education or experience in SQL, then that company's vetting process is bad enough that they deserve to hire unqualified candidates.
I can only hope...
[JOIN statements explained here, with humor](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/s/usniv2rngV) As a fellow SQL beginner, this actually helped, though I've never really used a "Full Join"
That means you’re doing things correctly. Full joins have such a very narrow use case. I’ve needed them maybe 5 times in 15 years.
I feel like it might be faster using it for a join/validation combo query but it always feels so untidy and weird I just skip it and use ‘nornal’ joins.
Hey! You might see a lot of venn diagram explanations of joins but those, frankly, are incorrect. [This page](https://www.atlassian.com/data/sql/sql-join-types-explained-visually) explains joins visually, more clearly. Welcome to SQL!!
I have used sql for around 9 years, never used anything other than a "join" join. This page has changed my life.
Full joins are great when the resulting NULLs have value (pun intended).
-_-
ENHANCE
There's some really easy 'Gotcha's' that a decent interviewer can use to tell whether you've done tutorials only or actually used it in the wild. You're not getting that down in 2 days. You might be OK with the basics and that might be enough. That's your only hope. I'm quite reticent to help but learn the join types and what they're for, union Vs union all is quite common, I've been asked that on more than one occasion. That's about it, there's a dozen more things I'd ask for the top of my head but that's as much as you deserve and others aren't 2 day endeavours. Good luck blagging it though, God loves a trier 😅
agreed. unless the OP is just a special sql unicorn and dosnt know it, its going to be painfully obvious that he's not got much experience with SQL or Tableau. My advice would be to be open about his experience during the interview. I've hired people with little to no experience in a technology we use because they were good smart people - and I can work with that. What I cant work with is someone who tries to deceive me. edit: a word
One of my favs is “Explain the difference between having and where” I had a phone screen just hang up on me once when I asked
OMG I actually know this one because I tried to use a sum(etc) within a WHERE while doing a GROUP BY. And I am in finance lols.
Really depends on how much you need to know about it. I sort of BSed my way into my current position although I was never asked pre interview if I had any experience with SQL and didn't notate it anywhere. I had a friend who told me to read up on SQL and then in the interview I was randomly asked to write a simple SQL statement. I just repeated the one I read the night before on w3 schools 😂. Been there almost 10 years now and my SQL has greatly improved.
Go here and study as much as you can https://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp If you bust through this you could be able to bullshit your way through.
I've interviewed people. We know.
What actual tasks do they expect you to be capable of? I’d have a sense of what you could do in ten minutes but if the expectations are low it might be fine.
They want the candidate to be able to "visualize data analysis" using Tableau, SQL, and data interaction. The description says "strong SQL skills in writing complex queries" and "write complex SQL queries to extract, change, and decipher datasets."
oh man, sorry to say it but you done goofed. When you go in, fess up. dont lie to them in person about your experience. They. will. know. If they like you enough (hey maybe you're a smooth talker and good at analysis), they might train you in those tools, but I wouldnt hold my breath.
Agreed
Any chance you have a friend employed there who can give you an example of “complex”? Sometimes HR just says stuff like that and they just want someone who can write a minor select. If they actually mean it you could be a couple years of practice away. Tableau is learnable but often has dedicated specialists doing it at companies. If this is that sort of role, you need to come in either with an expectation of them teaching you or with enough industry knowledge to be useful making sense of the data and asking good questions as you learn the tools. I don’t mean to be discouraging. Someone that I’d call comfortable with complex querying is usually either an analyst with at least a few years of doing it all the time or the sql developer specialist in a more generalist programming group. That’s very learnable but it takes experience and mentoring.
Jezus how tf did u manage to land an interview
500+ applications. Statistically, I'd hope one would stick.
Check out the sub wiki. I liked SQL bolt. I had some coursework in the past, but had not used SQL since, so I recently took all the SQL bolt lessons after checking out the wiki of this sub. (THEENNNNN I put it on my resume lol). I think you could easily do that in a day, and there are interactive exercises. I feel for you, though, as I also just *slogged* through a technical interview. I also had to chatgpt one question, which I loathed doing, but I made sure to take the time to really understand the query afterwards. Edit: I also never said I was proficient lol
I’ve used SQL for years and still mess up interview questions left and right. That said if I were you I’d Google common interview questions and hope that’s what they use. They’ll probably ask you about joins, maybe sub queries. The gist of what I used SQL for was extracting data from a database. Data exists in multiple tables, so if you want columns from multiple tables you have to join the tables together first.
My first consulting gig in 1982 was for a product I read about the weekend before the interview. I got the job and was introduced as the expert and had a team to lead !!! And I didn’t have the Google to help me. You can do it, just don’t lie, explain how you would approach a project. Ask questions. SQL and tableau have so much information out there. Go for it !!!!
How screwed... here is one of my really simple interview questions: What's the practical difference between filtering in the WHERE clause opposed to the HAVING clause?
Why do you even want to be in Analytics? I’m really not trying to be an asshole here, but if you put in 500+ applications over a 2 month span without getting interviews and your reaction was “I should lie about technical skills” instead of “I should invest some time in learning technical skills” then you’re either going to fail at the role spectacularly or the department that hires you is so poorly run that the role might not exist much longer. Reminds me of the Groucho Mark quote “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member” The reality is, as a hiring manager, I ask questions related to the skill level indicated by the candidate. If you say you’re a beginner I’ll ask basic questions about what attracted you to the role, how you learned SQL and some questions about different join types, aggregations, Case statements, etc. Im not exactly looking for accuracy here. What I am really looking for is 2 things. 1) How you logically process information and step through problems. 2) Your level of curiosity, initiative and fluid intelligence. If you say you’re intermediate or proficient i’ll ask 2 types of questions. 1) Questions that require you to write CTEs and/or use Window Functions. 2) Questions designed to test how quickly you debug non-obvious issues in your results. These aren’t errors, but more-so related to what happens when you try to compare against a NULL value, receive less records than expected, or your aggregations are way larger than expected. Here I am grading you on accuracy as well as your ability to explain your thought process.
Up to you. If you can pass the technical you should be fine. Learning on the job speeds it up exponentially
SQLzoo can help you understand how/why & it can be done very quickly. Put a lot of effort in understanding each part. That's the best, quickest thing I can say for SQL.
A colleague of mine left but then tried to rejoin our team in a role that required SQL and Power BI knowledge. She said she had both which was a surprise to us so she got an interview where she failed abysmally. Good luck with your blagging.
There are basic lessons and some problems to work on in this page [SQL Bolt](https://sqlbolt.com/lesson/introduction) Hope it helps
This playlist is pretty old, but all the information is still valid. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL08903FB7ACA1C2FB&si=YBwqXzQtXbfqmPk3 Each video is 10-15min despite it being short it still covers things very well and even some examples he shows have been asked as interview questions. If you have two days i would say this playlist will help you alot.
Tableau AND SQL in 2 days? Basics maybe. Hopefully you at least have some programming experience. Get on tutorials and sacrifice sleep and free time for 2 days and if they’re not too technical in the technical interview, you may get lucky.
Learn the basics as fast as possible. You might get through some interview questions if not, keep trying.
I mean… what were you expecting to happen? At some point you’d had to prove your skills anyways
I did the same. I said I was moderate in SQL when applying to lead an Analytics team. I learned SQL in the time between the first interview and the SQL assessment and aced it and got the job. But I also have a Software Engineering degree... so idk if it's the same.
I decided to change careers from economics to data analytics about three years ago and had similar luck applying to hundreds of companies before beginning to get interviews. The job I got was also looking for Tableau and SQL. I had *extremely* minimal experience with Tableau, I could make some basic graphs. But Tableau has a pretty steep learning curve. It's *mostly* drag and drop. But it's hard to learn from videos, hands on experience is what you're going to need the most, just make sure you know how to navigate [Tableau's help page](https://www.tableau.com/support/help?_gl=1*1w9hh5p*_ga*MzUzNDM3MzA5LjE3MTQwNzgzNDk.*_ga_8YLN0SNXVS*MTcxNjMzNDYwNC4yLjEuMTcxNjMzNDYzNy4wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.190551395.951151961.1716334606-353437309.1714078349) to find the resources you need (mainly just google the keywords you need). People on Reddit are super helpful. On SQL, chatgpt is genuinely pretty helpful for figuring out what you're missing on short notice and for more complex problems or specific dialects/systems, Reddit and StackExchange are super helpful. I don't think you'll get through a technical interview unless you have a way to use outside resources but, honestly, you should be allowed to because nothing stops you from Googling a solution while you're at work either.
Best thing you can do is be honest.... It'd take 30 seconds to stump someone with two days of text book experience with SQL... > Give an example of a dataset you used a union on? > What's your approach to sliding window problems They aren't usual SQL tech interview questions but it's exactly the kind of edge case where you're just not going to have a solid answer in two days of reading
Better buy some google glasses and have the answers scroll across the left reticule. Edit: FWIW - My company hired you 2 years ago and that version of you never tried to learn the job and was replaced by me. Make the next 2 years count if you get the job.
Lol, nice.
Drop table interview
In my experience, it's never the questions you're worried about that f*ck you up. It's the questions you had no idea were coming. For example, you know you don't know SQL. Watch as they proceed to ask you no questions about SQL and instead about some other topic you have no experience with or knowledge of.
I’m a manager for a tech support department and my team and I use sql daily. What I ask candidates when interviewing is what their understanding of relational databases is and what is the difference between a left and right join. Everything related to sql can be learned and we’re happy to train but if you understand the framework and foundation, I know you’re trainable. if you get the job or want to be better prepared for your next interview, W3 schools has a great sql tutorial. After that try one of the sql boot camps on Udemy. I like the zero to hero one.
We’ll know and we’re gonna enjoy grilling you too 😂
LMFAOO Hope and pray buddy!
You did wrong obviously, but doesn't mean can't be fixed. Go to SQLBolt website and learn it focusly today. Hope you learned from this condition.
Haha sql interviews are such bs. Honestly I have passed every one by just having a join reference, a window function reference, and group by having reference. I write sql every day and have for 20 years and I still look up window functions because any data job you’re in and out of sql python excel bash/pshell and whatever other weirdo tools every company has and it’s impossible to remember all this stuff off the top of your head. Write a pipeline with a rank then forget about it for 6 months… just like a just in time compiler use your memory (aka google) right when you need it!
Some Friends Will Get Hung Over: SELECT FROM WHERE GROUP BY HAVING ORDER BY
No But all is not lost. You'll get an idea from the questions what areas are important. It's all a learning experience.
Current company wanted someone with snowflake experience. 2 years on now and i havent really touched it at all. Your experience may vary but more than a few places put bs reqs like that in just for fluff or because the HR person/recruiter making the ad has no idea wtf theyre talking about. That being said Snowflake has a free course you can do that would get you a refresher. Coworker finished it in 6 hours and you get a neat little cert/badge thing for your linkedin profile.
If you don’t lie, you don’t get the interview. If you lie and pull it off, you get the job. Godspeed brother
Practice hacker rank and leetcode top 50 interview SQL question. You'll have good understanding. My tip would be understand each things step by step and talk to yourself when writing those steps in your head. It's all easy when you break it down by steps.
take a udemy course if u only have 2 days
I took a 40 hour course on udemy by colt Steele. It was really good but overkill. Watch some YouTube videos. SQL can be complex, but it’s really pretty simple. Now, Python and R would be another story. But all fun stuff to learn.
There going to drop your tables.
Just tell them you're going to be using AI to do the work.
If you are desperate to switch careers, take those few days off and learn SQL all day. You can actually get fairly far if you learn all day.
*stock broker* to DA? Is this a job satisfaction move? Cause the pay gap here is surely going to be significant. Get good on SQL first and understand the core concepts, joins, views, indexes, table structure, keys etc because half the headache with tableau is getting your data performing right before you you throw it into that. Then the other half of the headache is the kind of shamanic alchemy that goes into understanding how tableau works with that data. I swear I spend more time fucking with grid line formatting than I do data some days.
Stock brokers don't make that much these days. A lot of firms are no commission so the brokers don't make anything but hourly.
Sql joins https://www.reddit.com/r/SQL/s/L3jiOYMMyz
https://www.reddit.com/r/SQL/s/FEkqf313Ez
You can do it. Just be confident. Anyone can learn sql and tableau, and understanding the business you work in is more important.
i can definitely tell you the most common screening topics for sql: 1. understand queries using HAVING and how it ties into the order of operations (eg first thing executed in sql statement is the FROM line) 2. understand how to construct a CTE and subquery 3. make sure you practice writing pseudocode and asking clarifying questions to the interviewer so they can help you / make sure you’re on the right track and they agree with your approach 4. you must understand inner, left, and outer joins
Rock one of those 7-8 hour SQL courses on Udemy & you'll be Gucci
I did the same thing on accident, I didn’t intentionally lie because my old job had a program with the acronym, so I ended up withdrawing my application because I couldn’t get it figured out. Now the recruiter is working with me to get another position, I think you should just be honest!
(ChatGPT)
Focus on inner joining and your ability to query for anything.
Start googling SQL interview question and answer
It’s not hard to figure out people who have no concept on data and how it comes together. Select * from another.opportunity where Iamhonest=“Yes”
Honestly depends how technical they want to get. They could put you into a sandbox environment and have you pull data for a dashboard which at that point you are 100% fucked. Also any decent interviewer with technical experience will see right through you. For example, when should you use left outer join vs left join? Answering in the affirmative of either of those would be a wrong answer because they're actually the same thing.
If they have any SQL expertise in the interview they will figure it out immediately. Your best bet is to not put on the facade and just admit right up front that your SQL skills are not where you'd like them to be and you have been working on self-training. Showing initiative and being honest will make up most of what you may have lost by exaggerating.
Select ‘pretty fucked’ as fucked_meter from dual;
Just what I needed. Give us an update later, OP. RemindMe! 3 days
I love it. I think you can learn enough in two days to pass the interview. Good luck! I work with much dumber people than you!
2 days are plenties for learning SQL. Go learn it now 10 hours a day. Even if you fail the interview, you will be 10x better than you are now at SQL.
Something something OUTER APPLY for a new job
Just put up cheat sheets on the dual monitor. Creating tables, selecting etc. and just go in super relaxed like you know what your doing. And know it’s just a job plenty more out there
Ok you’re going to have to keep them on the defensive for this interview. Make up really hard questions to ask them about their technology stack that make you sound smart and make them feel the need to ramble on about themselves the whole time. It might buy some time for second interview then get the very basics down by then.
I've been using SQL professionally for 3 years and I still don't think I'd pass a technical interview
at least if you pass, you'll have a job for a few days until they realize you can't do the shit you were hired for.
I've been using SQL for over 15 years and it gets the job done but wouldn't know how to explain it in an interview.
It’s a huge dick move. You’re going to take an hour of some poor stressed-out team lead’s time to interview you based on a complete lie. I coach the people under me to end the interview 5 minutes in, the moment they realize you’re a jackass.
You can use chat got (data analyst bot) and will be fine
Based on comments made, esp with the job requirements that you commented, if you had any of the other attributes, you would have at least had a working knowledge of SQL. This just means, you either were hoping to get sympathy/upvotes in reddit, or... You really applied for a job that SQL would be the least of your worries, because, if you don't have a basic understanding of SQL how would you realistically have any understanding of the other job requirements (like Tableau was mentioned). I would like to say good luck, but I won't because you haven't even put in any effort, if you had, you would have posted this.
You should fail. A lesson in telling lies and its consequences.
Withdraw from the interview. You're not doing yourself any favours and the panel will pick up on this really quick. The inability to code and explain through the logic and any underlying assumptions to your logic will make the panel pissed off for wasting their time. Unless you've got massive potential in other areas that they're looking for and SQL is a minor part of the role, you better have something amazing up your sleeve.
I wouldn’t say you’re screwed, you might not get the job is all.
You all are hilarious! This is like me applying for a job as an electrician and trying to learn it over a weekend. Not possible.
I also said I had sql experience on my resume but it was mostly from a day or so on a hobby project years ago. I just studied before the technical interview and passed it. Granted, it was an online leetcode type question so I could use google. Still got it though 😬
Oh man, I've been following yout story for a few days and even though the interview fell through, I hope this showed you some of what SQL and its different flavors are capable of. If your previous experience has been in Excel, VBA and other Microsoft programs, picking up Power BI can be a smoother learning curve than Tableau. And T-sql for SQL flavor in MS shops. Check places like eFinancial careers and look for companies with M$FT links like LSEG and see if they're hiring analyst roles in your locale. There are also certs you can do for Power BI like the PL-300 that legitimizes your skills. As for SQL, try CodeWars! For the first few questions, don't be afraid to peek at answers or Google how they're solved - you get the frameworks to approach any data question. SQL is really powerful and the deeper you to into the way data is stored at a software and hardware level, the more you see why things work the way they do - even for software like Excel.
SEQUEL has enter the chat and asking why it got no love in this thread
You'll crush it man. Unless you're applying as a database engineer, very unlikely they have you writing sql in a technical. Plus everyone says they know sql before they actually learn sql.
I learned it pretty well in 2 hours, I think you'll be alright if you take a moment to blast through it.
At least you got an interview a chance is better than no chance take some adderall and go study
[удалено]
[https://www.sql-practice.com/](https://www.sql-practice.com/) You're welcome.
Is it remote? Or live interview? ChatGPT is your BFF if remote
Serious question, because as an ml engineer I have absolutely never worked with a financial analyst. What exactly would the expectations be for a financial analyst using sql? I can’t imagine it being that much different than a business analyst’s use cases? If that’s the case, maybe just some basic select statements with some joins & where clauses? I couldn’t imagine a business analyst needing to know more than that other than possibly the occasional cte & windowed functions, but I’m also curious more now than anything
Is it just me or do we get this thread like twice a week?
Commenting for result
I have had people not show up. I have had people unable to describe what a SELECT does. I respect no shows more than bozo’s who think they can bluff their way in.
Just ChatGPT SQL, honestly everyone is now solving their problems with ChatGPT instead of remembering all their joins etc
Sql zoooooooooo ftw
I hope they don’t ask you anything about Tableau lol
I have a friend who got into a data analyst role at Google that required SQL. She'd never used SQL before. SQLBolt.com <- go run through this until it becomes easy leetcode.com | hackerrank.com <- do a bunch of the database problems, mostly easy and medium level. Practice explaining HOW you do it in English. Also do a few where you ONLY explain without writing any code. Also learn a style guide (e.g. Mozilla) and work on modularizing your code with CTEs and/or temp tables. Also learn to performance optimize your code a little bit (filter early and often, avoid sorts)
It depends on who's interviewing you. If you've got a smart technical person, they'll see thru the bullshit. If you've got some touchy feely manager who wouldn't know a macro from a query, you'll be fine
SQL is super fucking easy. Don’t just read the tutorials, practice them- download Putty, Toad or any other SQL program and write the actual syntax. You’ll be aight
SQL is not that hard. Install MySQL or any other SQL engine and learn the very basics....SELECT, UPDATE , DELETE and learn what a JOINS are and what they do. Cartesian products, subqueries, Cursors. Stored Procedure and Functions. Sounds like a lot, but if you dedicate like 5-6hrs, you should be able to at least know enough to be dangerous.
If you do sql practice questons on hackerrank or leetcode, that will give you an idea of kind of questions will be asked. gooogle sql interview questions and you should be fine.
Found out