reevo·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen·Intermediate

Intermediate

Jul 2026

Summary

SQL round at Reevo for a software engineer role. Just one question but it had enough moving parts to trip you up if you weren't careful with the grouping logic.

Questions Asked (1)

Given a table with columns for date, team name, and sport name, write a SQL query that returns the count of rows per sport, broken down by year and calendar quarter. Output should include year, quarter, sport name, and count, ordered by year, quarter, count descending, then sport name ascending.

Data ModelingAlgorithms & Data Structures

Author's notes

The grouping part is straightforward but I kept second-guessing the quarter extraction.

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AI HintsAI Generated

Suggested Approach

Start by clarifying the table schema and expected output format, then break the problem into extracting year and quarter from the date, grouping by those plus sport, and counting rows. Finally, apply the specified ordering and consider edge cases like NULLs or date formats.

Pro tip: Mention that you'd verify the date functions are supported by the specific SQL dialect (e.g., EXTRACT vs. DATE_PART) and that you'd test with sample data to ensure quarter boundaries are correct.

1. Clarify requirements and schema

Confirm the table name, column names, and data types, especially the date column format. Ask about expected output and any edge cases like NULL sports or dates.

2. Extract year and quarter

Use SQL date functions to derive the year and quarter from the date column. For example, EXTRACT(YEAR FROM date) and EXTRACT(QUARTER FROM date) in standard SQL.

3. Group and count

Group the results by year, quarter, and sport name, then count the number of rows in each group using COUNT(*).

4. Order the results

Apply the ORDER BY clause: year ASC, quarter ASC, count DESC, sport name ASC. Ensure the count column is referenced correctly (e.g., by alias or position).

5. Review and optimize

Check for potential performance issues (e.g., indexing on date or sport) and consider if any filters are needed. Also, verify that the query handles NULLs appropriately.

Key Points to Mention

Use of EXTRACT or DATE_PART functions to get year and quarter, noting dialect differences.
Grouping by year, quarter, and sport name to aggregate counts.
Ordering by multiple columns with mixed sort directions (ASC/DESC).
Handling of NULL values in sport name or date, and whether they should be included.
Potential need for a subquery or CTE if date extraction is complex or if filtering is required.
Performance considerations: indexing on date and sport columns for large datasets.

AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.