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9/9/2019 50 Data Analyst Interview Questions
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This tutorial explains common and tricky data
analyst interview questions with answers. The main Submit
responsibility of data analyst is to generate insights

from data and present it to stakeholders such as  Follow us
external or internal clients. During this process, on Facebook
he/she extracts data from database and then clean
it up to prepare it for analysis. Later data analysis
step involves exploration of data with descriptive
statistics and then building predictive model for
prediction. Data analyst must know basics and
intermediary statistics and know how to apply it with
SAS / SPSS. Excel and SQL are the two most
popular tools used in data analytics so candidate
✖
must
Lovepossess a Spread
good knowledge
the Word! of these tools.
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Excel is used for
a variety  Tweet suchasSubscribe
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https://www.listendata.com/2017/01/data-analyst-interview-questions.html 1/25
generating quick summaries and presenting it in an

interactive excel dashboard. Mostly o ine reporting
deliverables are in either excel or powerpoint report
formats.
This tutorial covers interview questions on the following

topics:
1. MS Excel
2. Basic and Intermediate Statistics
3. SAS
4. SQL
5. HR / Project related questions
Excel Questions
The following is a list of some tricky or advanced

excel interview questions.
1. What is the default value of last parameter of

VLOOKUP?
TRUE/1 . It refers to nding the closest

(approximate) match and assuming the table is
sorted in ascending order. Whereas, FALSE/0 refers
to exact match.
2. What is the main limitation of VLOOKUP function? ✖

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The lookup value should be at the most left side

column in the table array. VLOOKUP only looks right.
It cannot look right to left.
3. Does VLOOKUP look up case-sensitive values?
No, it is not case-sensitive. The text 'ram' and 'RAM'

is identical for VLOOKUP.
4. 2 ways to extract unique values in excel
Use Advanced Filter option (shortcut key : ALT D F

A) and 'Remove Duplicates' option under Data tab.
5. How to nd duplicates in a column?
Use CONDITIONAL FORMATING to highlight

duplicate values. OR use COUNTIF function as
shown below. For example, values are stored in cells
D4:D7.
=COUNTIF(D4:D7,D4)
Apply lter on the column wherein you applied

COUNTIF function and select values greater than 1.
6. How to insert a drop down?
✖

Go to Data tab >> Select Data Validation. Another

way to insert a drop down is to enable Developer tab
and Insert Combo box.
7. How to sum values based on some conditions?
Use SUMIF or SUMPRODUCT functions. The SUMIF

function is explained below -
=SUMIF(range, criteria, sum_range)

=SUMIF(A2:A5,"A",B2:B5)
Excel : SUMIF Function
8. How to create cross tabulation in Excel?
Use Pivot Table and select one

variable in Row label and the other
variable in Column label.
✖

9. What is Excel Array Formula?
Excel Array Formula Explained
10. How to extract First Name from a full name?
Suppose you need to pull 'Neha' from 'Neha Sharma'.

Use MID and FIND functions.
=MID (A2,1,FIND(" ",A2)-1)
Tutorial : Practical Uses of MID Function
11. How Index and Match Function works?
Index function returns a value from a range based

on row number.
= INDEX(range, row_number)
See the image below -
✖

Excel : Index Function
In this case, we are telling EXCEL to return second

value of the range A2:A4. It returns 30.
Match function returns the relative position of a

value in range.
= MATCH(lookup_value, range,
match_type)
match_type can be exact match, largest/smallest

value that is less than or greater than equal to
lookup_value.
Excel : Match Function
In this case, we are asking EXCEL to nd the relative

position of 30 in the range A2:A4. It returns 2.
12. How Index and Match Function works together?
=INDEX(range, MATCH(lookup_value, ✖
lookup_range, match_type))

Suppose information of Product and Sales are

stored in columns A and B. You need to look for
product against sales value so you need to tell
EXCEL to look from right to left as sales value is
placed in the right hand side of the range/table.
=INDEX(A2:A5,MATCH(45,B2:B5,0))
Nested INDEX MATCH Excel Functions
Basic and Intermediate Statistics
The following questions touch upon some basics

and intermediate statistics topics. These topics are
generally taught in undergraduate / graduate
courses.
1. What is p-value?
✖
It is thethis
lowest
Post?level of the
signi cance at which you can
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 Share If p-value
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reject the null hypothesis. < 0.05, 
you
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reject the null hypothesis at 5% level of signi cance.
2. Difference between MEAN. MEDIAN, MODE
Mean is calculated by summing all the values

divided by number of observations. Median is the
middle value. And Mode is the most occurring value.
3. In which data types MEAN, MEDIAN and MODE are

more suitable?
MEAN is suitable for continuous data with no

outliers. It is affected by extreme values (Outliers).
MEDIAN is suitable for continuous data with outliers
or ordinal data. Mode is suitable for categorical data
(including both nominal and ordinal data).
4. Different Types of Sampling Techniques?
There are following four main types of sampling

techniques.
1. Simple random sampling
2. Strati ed sampling
3. Cluster sampling
4. Systematic sampling
5. Difference between Cluster and Strati ed Sampling?

✖
The main  Share
Share difference  Tweetand strati
between cluster  Subscribe
ed

sampling is that in strati ed sampling all the strata

need to be sampled. In cluster sampling one
proceeds by rst selecting a number of clusters at
random and then sampling each cluster or conduct
a census of each cluster. But usually not all clusters
would be included.
6. When should we use T-test than Z-test?
Theoretically, we should use T-test when sample

size (N) is less than 30. Practically, we always use t-
test. It is because t-test and z test are equivalent as
N tends to in nity.
7. What is the difference between R-square and Adjusted

R-square?
Check out this link - R-square vs. Adjusted R-square
8. How to detect outliers?
Box Plot Method - If a value is higher than the

1.5*IQR above the upper quartile (Q3), the value will
be considered as outlier. Similarly, if a value is lower
than the 1.5*IQR below the lower quartile (Q1), the
value will be considered as outlier.
Standard Deviation Method - If a value is higher

than the mean plus or minus three Standard
Deviation is considered as outlier. ✖

Ways to detect Outliers with SAS
9. De ne Homoscedasticity?
In a linear regression model, there should be

homogeneity of variance of the residuals. In other
words, the variance of residuals are approximately
equal for all predicted dependent variable values.
Check Homoscedasticity with SAS
10. Difference between Standardized and Unstandardized

Coe cients?
To calculate Standardized Coe cients, rst we need

to standardize both dependent and independent
variables and use the standardized variables in the
regression model to get standardized estimates. By
'standardize', it implies subtracting mean from each
observation and divide that by the standard
deviation. The standardized coe cient is interpreted
in terms of standard deviation. Whereas,
unstandardized coe cient is measured in actual
units.
11. Difference between Factor Analysis and Principal

Component Analysis?
Both the analysis are very much similar but they are ✖

different in terms of calculation and their practical

usage :
1. In Principal Components Analysis, the

components are calculated as linear
combinations of the raw input variables. In
Factor Analysis, the raw input variables are
de ned as linear combinations of the factors.
2. The main idea of using PCA is to explain as

much of the total variance in the variables as
possible. Whereas, the factor analysis
explains the covariances or correlations
between the variables.
3. PCA is used when we need to reduce the

number of variables (dimensionality
reduction) whereas FA is used when we need
to group variables into some factors.
12. Difference between Linear and Logistic Regression?
There are more than 10 differences between these

two algorithms. Check out the link below -
Linear vs. Logistic Regression
13. How to statistically compare means between groups?
Use Independent T-test when a continuous variable

and a categorical variable having two independent
categories. ✖

Use Paired T-test when a continuous variable and a

categorical variable having two dependent or paired
categories.
Use one way ANOVA when a continuous variable

and a categorical variable having more than two
independent categories.
Use GLM Repeated Measures when a continuous

variable and a categorical variable more than two
dependent categories.
14. Explain eigenvalues and eigenvectors intuitively
Eigenvalues are variances explained by principal

components. By 'variances', i mean the diagonal
values of the covariance matrix below -
x y z
1.34 -0.16 0.19
-0.16 0.62 -0.13
0.19 -0.13 1.49
The sum of the diagonal values is 3.45.
Why eigenvalue greater than 1 is considered to

retain components? It is because the average
eigenvalue will be 1, so > 1 implies higher than ✖
average.

Eigenvectors are the coe cients of orthogonal

(uncorrelated) transformation of variables into
principal components.
SAS
The following questions would help you to prepare

for SAS interview round.
1. Difference between WHERE and IF statement?
WHERE statement can be used in

procedures to subset data while IF
statement cannot be used in procedures.
WHERE can be used as a data set option
while IF cannot be used as a data set
option.
WHERE statement is more e cient than
IF statement. It tells SAS not to read all
observations from the data set
WHERE statement can not be used when
reading data using INPUT statement
whereas IF statement can be used.
When it is required to use newly created
variables, use IF statement as it doesn't
require variables to exist in the READIN
data set.
2. How PROC MEANS works? ✖


PROC MEANS DATA = dataset_name;

VAR analysis_variable;
CLASS grouping_variable;
RUN;
Detailed Explanation : PROC MEANS
3. Difference between INFORMAT and FORMAT?
Informat is used to read data whereas Format is

used to write or display data.
4. Difference between NODUPKEY and NODUP in PROC

SORT?
The NODUPKEY option removes duplicate

observations where value of a variable listed in BY
statement is repeated while NODUP option removes
duplicate observations where values in all the
variables are repeated.
5. How many maximum characters SAS library name can

take?
A valid library name must start with an alphabet and

cannot have more than 8 characters.
✖
6. Which is more faster - Proc SQL or SAS data step?

The SQL procedure performed better with the

smaller datasets whereas the data step performed
better with the larger datasets (more than approx.
100 MB).
7. Two main advantages of Proc SQL Joins over Data Step

Merging?
1. Proc SQL JOINS do not require variables to

be sorted prior to joining them whereas Data
Step Merging requires.
2. Proc SQL works perfectly when key variables

have different names
8. What would happen if i don't use 'BY statement in

MERGE?
Without 'BY' statement, SAS will merge the 1st

observation from dataset A and 1st observation
from dataset B to form the 1st observation of the
nal dataset. It might lead to meaningless results.
9. What are the ways to create a macro variable?
There are 5 ways to create macro variables:
%Let
Iterative %DO statement
✖
Call Symput
Proc SQl into
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Macro Parameters
10. How to rename columns with PROC SQL?
Use AS alias.
Proc SQL;
select name as fullname from table1;
quit;
11. How to calculate percentile values with SAS?
We can use PROC MEANS or PROC UNIVARIATE to

calculate percentile values. For example, specify
options P10, P90 to calculate 10th and 90th
percentile score. PROC MEANS cannot calculate
custom percentile values such as 97.5th or 99.5th
percentile. To calculate these custom percentile
values, you can use PCTLPTS= option in PROC
UNIVARIATE.
Tutorial : PROC UNIVARIATE
12. How to replace missing values of all the numeric

variables to 0 in a single run?
✖

We can use _numeric_ to specify all the numeric

variables and dim functions in array to count the
number of numeric variables.
data temp;
set sampledata;
array Q(*) _numeric_;
do i= 1 to dim(Q);
if Q(i) = . then Q(i)= 0;
end;
run;
SQL
1. How to write conditional statements (IF ELSE) in SQL?
In SQL, it is possible with CASE WHEN statements.
select
case when sex='M' then 1 else 0
end as males
, case when sex='F' then 1 else 0
end as females
from sashelp.class;
quit;
✖

2. What are the common SQL data types ?
Data Type Format
Numeric NUMBER(L,D), INTEGER,SMALLINT,DECIMAL(L,D)
Character CHAR(L),VARCHAR(L)
Date DATE
3. How to subset or lter data in SQL?
We can use WHERE clause to subset or lter data.
SELECT *
FROM PRODUCT
WHERE SALES > 200
4. Difference between WHERE and HAVING clauses
The HAVING clause comes into effect when GROUP

BY is used. It runs after GROUP BY so it lters
grouping variable. Whereas WHERE clause runs
prior to GROUP BY clause so it does not lter a
grouping variable.
✖
5. Difference between Full Join and Cross Join?

A full join keeps all rows from both of the input

tables even if we cannot nd a matching row.
Cross Join returns cartesian product of tables. It
matches every row of one table with every row of
another table.
6. Difference between UNION and UNION ALL
The main use of UNION and UNION ALL is to join

two tables. The main difference between them is
that UNION removes duplicate records and UNION
ALL keeps the duplicate records. By 'duplicate
records', all the values of two or more rows are
same.
7. How to create a blank table
Method I :
The following method creates a new table called

temp2 with the same column names and attributes
of table temp.
CREATE TABLE TEMP2 LIKE TEMP;
Method II :
✖
In this case, we are creating a blank table by

subsetting data method. As 1 is not equal to 2, it

returns zero row.
create table temp3 as

select * from temp
where 1=2;
8. What will be the result of the query below?
select case when null = null then 'Yes'

else 'No' end as Result;
It will return NO as the above code is not right way to

compare null values. The correct way would be to
use 'is' keyword to compare -
select case when null is null then 'Yes'

else 'No' end as Result;
9. Suppose you have a table named TEMP. You need to

recode values of column Y, Swap values 2 and 3 in column
Y
✖

Table
UPDATE TEMP
SET Y= CASE WHEN Y = 2 THEN 3
WHEN Y = 3 THEN 2
ELSE Y END;
10. Identify second maximum value
select max(y) from temp

where y not in (select max(y) from
temp);
In this code, the logic is to remove the maximum

value from the main table and then calculate the
max value to gure out the second max value of the
main table.
11. Identify second maximum value by a group
The code below rst removes all the max values by

✖
a group
 from
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 by
table. Later
Word! we calculated the

second max value a group.  Tweet
Share  Subscribe
select a.x, max(a.y) as maxy from

temp a left join
(select x, max(y) as maxy from temp
group by 1) b
on a.x = b. x and a.y = b.maxy
where b.x is null and b.maxy is null
group by 1;
12. Is the query below correct? If not, what's the issue?
SELECT custid, YEAR(ref_date) AS

ref_year
FROM custmart
WHERE ref_year >= 2015;
The calculated column cannot be used in WHERE

condition so we need to modify the above code like
this -
SELECT custid, YEAR(ref_date) AS

ref_year
FROM custmart
WHERE YEAR(ref_date) >= 2015;
✖
HR / Project Related Questions

1. Explain one of your project
Start from problem de nition

Explain Data Cleaning, Exploration and
Data Preparation Steps
What technique / algorithm is used in the
project?
Financial (Dollar) value impact of the
project
2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
3. Why are you leaving the current organization?
4. Why should we hire you?
5. Where do you see yourself ve years from now?
6. What was the toughest decision you ever had to make?
End Notes
The above list of questions would assist you in

preparing for interviews for roles of senior / lead
data analyst. Don't just mug up answers, understand
✖
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About Author:
Deepanshu founded ListenData with a simple objective - Make analytics
easy to understand and follow. He has over 8 years of experience in data
science. During his tenure, he has worked with global clients in various
domains like Banking, Insurance, Telecom and Human Resource.
While I love having friends who agree, I only learn from those who don't
Let's Get Connected: Email | LinkedIn
6 Responses to "50 Data Analyst Interview Questions"
Anonymous 9 February 2017 at 11:36
Excellent blog
Reply
Anonymous 9 February 2017 at 11:37
Please add some more question related to excel and sas base
Reply
Unknown 15 November 2017 at 23:46
extremely helpful and up to the mark blog. great job
Reply
Laxmiprasad DB 21 November 2017 at 21:00
3rd Answer is wrong. It should be 'Yes' cos its case sensitive.
Reply
Replies
✖
 Share
Deepanshu Bhalla 22 November 2017 at 12:30

It is not case-sensitive. can you try it once using excel?
Reply
SUFI 15 December 2018 at 13:41
Fan Ho gaya sir me ap ka!!
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9/9/2019 50 Data Analyst Interview Questions

ABOUT INDEX CONTACT

Home » Data Analyst Interview Questions » 50 Data Analyst Interview Questions

Your Email Address

responsibility of data analyst is to generate insights

generating quick summaries and presenting it in an

This tutorial covers interview questions on the following

2. Basic and Intermediate Statistics

5. HR / Project related questions

The following is a list of some tricky or advanced

1. What is the default value of last parameter of

TRUE/1 . It refers to nding the closest

2. What is the main limitation of VLOOKUP function? ✖

The lookup value should be at the most left side

3. Does VLOOKUP look up case-sensitive values?

No, it is not case-sensitive. The text 'ram' and 'RAM'

4. 2 ways to extract unique values in excel

Use Advanced Filter option (shortcut key : ALT D F

5. How to nd duplicates in a column?

Use CONDITIONAL FORMATING to highlight

Apply lter on the column wherein you applied

6. How to insert a drop down?

Go to Data tab >> Select Data Validation. Another

7. How to sum values based on some conditions?

Use SUMIF or SUMPRODUCT functions. The SUMIF

=SUMIF(range, criteria, sum_range)

Excel : SUMIF Function

8. How to create cross tabulation in Excel?

Use Pivot Table and select one

9. What is Excel Array Formula?

Excel Array Formula Explained

10. How to extract First Name from a full name?

Suppose you need to pull 'Neha' from 'Neha Sharma'.

=MID (A2,1,FIND(" ",A2)-1)

Tutorial : Practical Uses of MID Function

11. How Index and Match Function works?

Index function returns a value from a range based

See the image below -

Excel : Index Function

In this case, we are telling EXCEL to return second

Match function returns the relative position of a

match_type can be exact match, largest/smallest

Excel : Match Function

In this case, we are asking EXCEL to nd the relative

12. How Index and Match Function works together?

Suppose information of Product and Sales are

Nested INDEX MATCH Excel Functions

Basic and Intermediate Statistics

The following questions touch upon some basics

reject the null hypothesis at 5% level of signi cance.

2. Difference between MEAN. MEDIAN, MODE

Mean is calculated by summing all the values

3. In which data types MEAN, MEDIAN and MODE are

MEAN is suitable for continuous data with no

4. Different Types of Sampling Techniques?

There are following four main types of sampling

1. Simple random sampling

5. Difference between Cluster and Strati ed Sampling?

sampling is that in strati ed sampling all the strata

6. When should we use T-test than Z-test?

Theoretically, we should use T-test when sample

7. What is the difference between R-square and Adjusted

8. How to detect outliers?

Box Plot Method - If a value is higher than the