Data Modeling Interview Questions

28 real Data Modeling questions asked in live technical interviews — each with a model answer. Updated weekly.

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Which database or storage solution would you use in a scenario where customers' phone numbers are changing frequently, such as in a telecommunications company?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Are you aware of the data modeling concept?🟢 Easy · Conceptual · Asked 1×Suppose there are many columns based on column X. I will be using GROUP BY on only two columns, even though there are 10 more columns. Is it a choice to use all columns for GROUP BY?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Given an orders table, an order_items table, and a products table, write a query to find products that were never sold.🟡 Medium · Coding · Asked 1×Can you explain the difference between a physical model and a logical model?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×How do you optimize a data model to improve query performance, for example, reducing a query that currently takes minutes to run?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Another scenario I normally encounter as a data modeler: data is made available in the Gold layer and BI reports consume it, but the BI team reports that queries on the Gold layer are taking too long and they cannot get reports rendered on time. How would you handle this situation?🟡 Medium · Debugging · Asked 1×Suppose you have built a data model in the gold layer, and over time the solution has expanded into multiple tables, relationships, and complex logic. An enhancement requires changes to the gold layer. How would you approach this?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×When building a goal layer, do you follow any data modeling standards? How would you design diagrams to illustrate correlations between tables, and what is your typical approach to the goal layer?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Suppose you need to ingest data from an API service into a data lake, build a medallion architecture data bridge, and then make it available for API consumption in tabular form. How would you approach this typical data ingestion and data modeling exercise?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Shubhi, the question is simple: When a modeler is giving a proposal to someone, should they structure the table and approach with technical rationale? Which platform are you using? In Databricks, if you are giving someone a model that works on finance data and the requirement is to maintain history, from an implementation point of view, what is the underlying architecture of Databricks?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×In data modeling, what tool stack do you use to build models, and at which level of modeling do you apply normalization?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What experience do you have in data modeling, specifically regarding data breaks? Which recent project did you work on, what was your role, and can you give a brief overview?🟡 Medium · Behavioral · Asked 1×In dbt, what is the difference between ref and source?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is the difference between ref and source functions?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Show the model syntax inside a dbt model. Is the SQL syntax to create a view for product?🟢 Easy · Coding · Asked 1×I want to create a dbt model on top of the product table. How would I structure it across bronze, silver, and gold layers, and what would the SQL look like to create a view that selects shop from product?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×In dbt, what is the meaning of a model?🟢 Easy · Conceptual · Asked 1×Define a schema. Can you use a struct type to define a schema?🟢 Easy · Conceptual · Asked 1×How would you approach recreating dashboards in Tableau when the current data model is set up for Qlik, and you are working with both Qlik and Tableau engineers?🟡 Medium · System Design · Asked 1×How many types of data modeling are there, and what are the three major types?🟢 Easy · Conceptual · Asked 1×Did you work on any data modeling in a timely manner?🟡 Medium · Behavioral · Asked 1×Do you have any idea of a canonical data model?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Are you comfortable with data modeling? Do you understand data modeling techniques and star schemas? Have you had experience with them?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What are the types of data models?🟢 Easy · Conceptual · Asked 1×Which data model would you use for large datasets stored in Amazon S3?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is the difference between Star Schemes and Snowflake Schemes?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is modeling in Elasticsearch?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×

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