Amazon SQL interview Q&A

Here are all 15 SQL questions and answers in plain text format, with increased
difficulty for specified questions. The first letter of each question is capitalized.

Q1: Identify customers who made purchases on exactly three different days in the
last month.

Tables: purchases (customer_id, purchase_date)

Answer:​
WITH purchases_summary AS (​
SELECT customer_id, COUNT(DISTINCT purchase_date) AS purchase_days​
FROM purchases​
WHERE purchase_date >= DATEADD(month, -1, CURRENT_DATE)​
GROUP BY customer_id​
)​
SELECT customer_id​
FROM purchases_summary​
WHERE purchase_days = 3;

Q2: Find the top 2 highest-selling products for each category.

Tables: sales (product_id, sale_amount), products (product_id, category)

Answer:​
WITH ranked_sales AS (​
SELECT​
p.category,​
s.product_id,​
SUM(s.sale_amount) AS total_sales,​
RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY p.category ORDER BY SUM(s.sale_amount)
DESC) AS rank​
FROM sales s​
JOIN products p ON s.product_id = p.product_id​
GROUP BY p.category, s.product_id​
)​
SELECT category, product_id, total_sales​
FROM ranked_sales​
WHERE rank <= 2;

Q3: Detect anomalies where sales for a product are 50% lower than the average for
that product.

Tables: sales (product_id, sale_amount)

Answer:​
WITH product_stats AS (​
SELECT product_id, AVG(sale_amount) AS avg_sales​
FROM sales​
GROUP BY product_id​
)​
SELECT s.product_id, s.sale_amount​
FROM sales s​
JOIN product_stats ps ON s.product_id = ps.product_id​
WHERE s.sale_amount < 0.5 * ps.avg_sales;

Q4: Find employees who have never been a manager and have worked in more
than one department.

Tables: employees (employee_id, name, manager_id, department_id)

Answer:​
WITH manager_list AS (​
 SELECT DISTINCT manager_id​
FROM employees​
WHERE manager_id IS NOT NULL​
),​
department_count AS (​
SELECT employee_id, COUNT(DISTINCT department_id) AS
department_count​
FROM employees​
GROUP BY employee_id​
)​
SELECT e.employee_id, e.name​
FROM employees e​
JOIN department_count dc ON e.employee_id = dc.employee_id​
WHERE e.employee_id NOT IN (SELECT manager_id FROM manager_list)​
AND dc.department_count > 1;

Q5: Calculate the median salary in each department.

Tables: employees (employee_id, department_id, salary)

Answer:​
WITH ranked_salaries AS (​
SELECT​
department_id,​
salary,​
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY department_id ORDER BY salary)
AS row_num,​
COUNT(*) OVER (PARTITION BY department_id) AS total_rows​
FROM employees​
)​
SELECT department_id, AVG(salary) AS median_salary​
FROM ranked_salaries​
WHERE row_num IN (FLOOR((total_rows + 1) / 2), CEIL((total_rows + 1) / 2))​
GROUP BY department_id;
Q6: Identify customers who purchased products from all available categories.

Tables: purchases (customer_id, product_id), products (product_id, category)

Answer:​
WITH categories_per_customer AS (​
SELECT customer_id, COUNT(DISTINCT p.category) AS customer_categories​
FROM purchases pu​
JOIN products p ON pu.product_id = p.product_id​
GROUP BY customer_id​
),​
total_categories AS (​
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT category) AS total_categories​
FROM products​
)​
SELECT customer_id​
FROM categories_per_customer, total_categories​
WHERE customer_categories = total_categories;

Q7: Calculate the cumulative sales for each store, but only include dates where the
daily sales exceeded the store's average daily sales.

Tables: sales (store_id, sale_amount, sale_date)

Answer:​
WITH store_avg AS (​
SELECT store_id, AVG(sale_amount) AS avg_sales​
FROM sales​
GROUP BY store_id​
),​
filtered_sales AS (​
SELECT s.store_id, s.sale_date, s.sale_amount​
FROM sales s​
 JOIN store_avg sa ON s.store_id = sa.store_id​
WHERE s.sale_amount > sa.avg_sales​
)​
SELECT store_id, sale_date,​
SUM(sale_amount) OVER (PARTITION BY store_id ORDER BY sale_date) AS
cumulative_sales​
FROM filtered_sales;

Q8: List employees who earn more than their department average.

Tables: employees (employee_id, department_id, salary)

Answer:​
WITH department_avg AS (​
SELECT department_id, AVG(salary) AS avg_salary​
FROM employees​
GROUP BY department_id​
)​
SELECT e.employee_id, e.salary​
FROM employees e​
JOIN department_avg da ON e.department_id = da.department_id​
WHERE e.salary > da.avg_salary;

Q9: Identify products that have been sold but have no record in the products table
and also calculate how many times each missing product has been sold.

Tables: sales (product_id), products (product_id)

Answer:​
SELECT s.product_id, COUNT(*) AS times_sold​
FROM sales s​
LEFT JOIN products p ON s.product_id = p.product_id​
WHERE p.product_id IS NULL​
GROUP BY s.product_id;

Q10: Identify suppliers whose average delivery time is less than 2 days, but only
consider deliveries with quantities greater than 100 units.

Tables: deliveries (supplier_id, delivery_date, order_date, quantity)

Answer:​
SELECT supplier_id​
FROM deliveries​
WHERE quantity > 100​
GROUP BY supplier_id​
HAVING AVG(DATEDIFF(day, order_date, delivery_date)) < 2;

Q11: Find customers who made no purchases in the last 6 months but made at least
one purchase in the 6 months prior to that.

Tables: customers (customer_id), purchases (customer_id, purchase_date)

Answer:​
WITH six_months_ago AS (​
SELECT customer_id​
FROM purchases​
WHERE purchase_date BETWEEN DATEADD(month, -12, CURRENT_DATE)
AND DATEADD(month, -6, CURRENT_DATE)​
),​
recent_purchases AS (​
SELECT customer_id​
FROM purchases​
WHERE purchase_date >= DATEADD(month, -6, CURRENT_DATE)​
)​
SELECT DISTINCT c.customer_id​
FROM customers c​
JOIN six_months_ago sm ON c.customer_id = sm.customer_id​
LEFT JOIN recent_purchases rp ON c.customer_id = rp.customer_id​
WHERE rp.customer_id IS NULL;

Q12: Find the top 3 most frequent product combinations bought together.

Tables: order_details (order_id, product_id)

Answer:​
WITH product_pairs AS (​
SELECT​
od1.product_id AS product1,​
od2.product_id AS product2,​
COUNT(*) AS pair_count​
FROM order_details od1​
JOIN order_details od2 ON od1.order_id = od2.order_id AND od1.product_id <
od2.product_id​
GROUP BY od1.product_id, od2.product_id​
)​
SELECT product1, product2, pair_count​
FROM product_pairs​
ORDER BY pair_count DESC​
LIMIT 3;

Q13: Calculate the moving average of sales for each product over a 7-day window.

Tables: sales (product_id, sale_amount, sale_date)

Answer:​
SELECT​
product_id,​
sale_date,​
AVG(sale_amount) OVER (PARTITION BY product_id ORDER BY sale_date
ROWS BETWEEN 6 PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) AS moving_avg​
FROM sales;

Q14: Rank stores by their monthly sales performance.

Tables: sales (store_id, sale_amount, sale_date)

Answer:​
WITH monthly_sales AS (​
SELECT​
store_id,​
DATE_TRUNC('month', sale_date) AS sale_month,​
SUM(sale_amount) AS total_sales​
FROM sales​
GROUP BY store_id, DATE_TRUNC('month', sale_date)​
)​
SELECT​
store_id,​
sale_month,​
total_sales,​
RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY sale_month ORDER BY total_sales DESC) AS
rank​
FROM monthly_sales;

Q15: Find customers who placed more than 50% of their orders in the last month.

Tables: orders (customer_id, order_id, order_date)

Answer:​
WITH order_stats AS (​
SELECT​
customer_id,​
COUNT(*) AS total_orders,​
SUM(CASE WHEN order_date >= DATEADD(month, -1, CURRENT_DATE)
THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS last_month_orders​
FROM orders​
GROUP BY customer_id​
)​
SELECT customer_id​
FROM order_stats​
WHERE last_month_orders > 0.5 * total_orders;