Sample Interview Questions

Technical Questions

1. SQL:
   • Write a query to find the top 5 highest-paid employees from a salary table.
   • Explain the difference between INNER JOIN, LEFT JOIN, RIGHT JOIN, and FULL JOIN.
2. Programming:
   • Write a Python function to calculate the median of a list of numbers.
   • Explain how you would use Python’s Pandas library to handle missing values in a dataset.
3. Big Data:
   • Describe the process of a MapReduce job in Hadoop.
   • How does Apache Spark handle data processing differently from Hadoop MapReduce?
4. ETL Pipelines:
   • How would you design an ETL pipeline to process and load data from multiple sources into a data warehouse?
   • Explain how you would handle data transformation errors in an ETL process.
5. Data Warehousing:
   • Describe the difference between OLAP and OLTP systems.
   • What are star schema and snowflake schema, and when would you use each?
6. Cloud Services:
   • How would you set up a data pipeline using AWS services?
   • Explain how to use Google BigQuery for data analysis.

Behavioral Questions

1. Problem-Solving:
   • Describe a challenging data engineering problem you faced and how you resolved it.
   • How do you prioritize tasks when working on multiple projects?
2. Collaboration:
   • How do you communicate technical details to non-technical stakeholders?
   • Describe a time when you worked as part of a team to complete a data engineering project.
3. Learning and Growth:
   • How do you stay current with new technologies and developments in data engineering?
   • Describe a new tool or technology you recently learned and how you applied it in your work.