Scribd
Upload
8 views20 pages

Mastering Data Analyst Interview Scenarios

The document outlines a series of interview scenarios for a Data Analyst position, where an interviewer poses various technical questions. The candidate provides concise solutions using Python and pandas functions for data manipulation tasks such as creating new columns, merging DataFrames, handling missing values, and filtering data. Each response includes example code snippets demonstrating the candidate's proficiency in data analysis techniques.

Uploaded by

Deeksha Shetty
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
8 views20 pages

Mastering Data Analyst Interview Scenarios

The document outlines a series of interview scenarios for a Data Analyst position, where an interviewer poses various technical questions. The candidate provides concise solutions using Python and pandas functions for data manipulation tasks such as creating new columns, merging DataFrames, handling missing values, and filtering data. Each response includes example code snippets demonstrating the candidate's proficiency in data analysis techniques.

Uploaded by

Deeksha Shetty
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 20

Data Analyst

Interview Scenarios
Interviewer: How would you create a new column
based on the year of a datetime column? If it's this
year, assign 0; if it's last year, assign 1.

Candidate:

Candidate: You can use apply() to


extract the year and compare it to
the current year.

import datetime
current_year = datetime.datetime.now().year
df['YearFlag'] = df['Date'].apply(lambda x: 0 if x.year ==
current_year else 1)
Interviewer: How would you handle the situation
where you need to convert a string column
representing dates in yyyy-mm-dd format into
actual datetime objects?

Candidate:

You can use pd.to_datetime() to


convert the string column into
datetime objects.

df['Date'] = pd.to_datetime(
df['Date'], format='%Y-%m-%d')
Interviewer: How can you create a new column in a
DataFrame based on a condition from another
column? For example, if the value in column 'A' is
greater than 10, assign 'High' to a new column,
otherwise assign 'Low'.

Candidate:

You can use the apply function or


np.where for this.

df['NewColumn'] =
df['A'].apply(lambda x: 'High' if x > 10 else 'Low')
Interviewer: How can you merge two DataFrames
on multiple columns with different names, while
keeping all the data from both DataFrames?

Candidate:
We can use the merge() function
with the left_on and right_on
parameters to specify different
column names for merging.

df1.merge(df2, left_on=['col1', 'col2'],


right_on=['colA', 'colB'], how='outer')
Interviewer: What would you do if you want to drop
rows that have NaN values in a specific subset of
columns, but not in the entire DataFrame?

Candidate:

We can use the dropna() method


with the subset parameter to
specify the columns.

df.dropna(subset=['column1', 'column2'],
inplace=True)
Interviewer: How can you create a pivot table to
find the average of 'Sales' grouped by 'Region' and
'Month', and also include a column that counts the
number of transactions?

Candidate:

You can use the pivot_table()


function with multiple aggregation
functions

pivot = df.pivot_table(values=['Sales'],
index=['Region', 'Month'],
aggfunc={'Sales': 'mean', 'TransactionID':'count'})
Interviewer: How would you apply a function that
uses multiple columns in a DataFrame and returns
a new column, say, summing two columns, 'A' and
'B'?

Candidate:

You can use apply() with axis=1 to


apply a function across rows.

df['SumAB'] = df.apply(lambda row: row['A'] +


row['B'], axis=1)
Interviewer: How would you filter rows in a
DataFrame where a specific column contains
values from a list of options?

Candidate:

You can use the isin() method to


filter rows

df_filtered = df[df['Category'].isin(['A', 'B', 'C'])]


Interviewer: How can you group the DataFrame by
one column and apply a custom aggregation
function to another column?

Candidate:
You can use the groupby() method
and then apply the custom
aggregation function using agg()

df.groupby('Category')['Amount'].agg(lambda x:
x.max() - x.min())
Interviewer: If you want to calculate the rolling
mean of a column with a window size of 7, how
would you do it?

Candidate:

You can use the rolling() function


followed by mean().

df['RollingMean'] =
df['Sales'].rolling(window=7).mean()
Interviewer: How would you handle duplicates in a
DataFrame and keep only the first occurrence of
each duplicate row?

Candidate:

You can use the drop_duplicates()


method and specify keep='first' to
keep the first occurrence.

df.drop_duplicates(keep='first', inplace=True)
Interviewer: How can you handle a situation where
you have a multi-index DataFrame and you need to
reset it back to a flat DataFrame?

Candidate:

You can use reset_index() to


flatten a multi-index DataFrame.

df_reset = df.reset_index()
Interviewer: How can you get the top N rows for
each group in a DataFrame?

Candidate:

You can use groupby() with head()

df.groupby('Category').head(3)
Interviewer: How do you perform a cross join
between two DataFrames?

Candidate:

You can use merge() with an


artificial key (like key=1) to perform
a cross join.

df1['key'] = 1
df2['key'] = 1
df_cross = pd.merge(df1, df2, on='key').drop('key', axis=1)
Interviewer: How would you count the number of
occurrences of each value in a column?

Candidate:

You can use the value_counts()


method.

df['Category'].value_counts()
Interviewer: How can you filter rows where a string
column contains a specific substring?

Candidate:

Candidate: You can use the


str.contains() method for this.

df_filtered =
df[df['ProductName'].str.contains('Laptop')]
Interviewer: How would you handle missing values
in a column and replace them with the mean of
that column?

Candidate:

Candidate: You can use fillna() to


replace missing values

df['Column'] =
df['Column'].fillna(df['Column'].mean())
FOR CAREER GUIDANCE,
CHECK OUT OUR PAGE
www.nityacloudtech.com

Follow Us on Linkedin:
Aditya Chandak

You might also like