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Amazon·Software Engineer·Technical Phone Screen·Intermediate

Intermediate
Jun 2026

Summary

Amazon BI Engineer interview with a SQL-heavy technical screen. One question, pretty focused, nothing behavioral from what I remember.

Questions Asked (1)

Q1

You have a table with daily event counts (event_date, cnt). Given a current date parameter, write a SQL query that returns the week start date and total event count for each ISO week that falls within the previous calendar month.

Product Analytics & MetricsData Modeling
Author's notes

This one tripped me up more than I expected.

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AI HintsAI Generated

Suggested Approach

First, clarify the requirements: the query should return the week start date (Monday) and total event count for each ISO week that falls entirely within the previous calendar month relative to the current date parameter. Then, filter the daily event counts to only include dates in that previous month, and group by the ISO week start date, summing the counts.

Pro tip: Mention that ISO weeks start on Monday and that the week start date should be calculated using date functions like DATE_TRUNC('week', event_date) in PostgreSQL or equivalent. Also, note that if a week spans across month boundaries, it should be excluded because it doesn't fall entirely within the previous month.

1. Clarify requirements

Confirm that 'previous calendar month' means the full month immediately before the current date, and that 'ISO week' means weeks starting on Monday. Also, clarify that only weeks entirely within that month should be included.

2. Determine date range

Calculate the first and last day of the previous calendar month based on the current date parameter. For example, if current date is '2024-03-15', the previous month is February 2024, so start date is '2024-02-01' and end date is '2024-02-29'.

3. Filter and compute week start

Filter the daily event counts to only include rows where event_date is within the previous month. Then, compute the ISO week start date (Monday) for each event_date using a date function like DATE_TRUNC('week', event_date).

4. Group and aggregate

Group the filtered data by the computed week start date and sum the event counts to get the total for each ISO week.

5. Ensure weeks are fully within month

Add a condition to only include weeks where the week start date is >= first day of previous month and the week end date (week start + 6 days) is <= last day of previous month. This ensures the week falls entirely within the previous month.

Key Points to Mention

  • ISO week definition: weeks start on Monday and are numbered 1-53.
  • Previous calendar month boundaries: first day and last day of the month before the current date.
  • Date truncation to get week start: e.g., DATE_TRUNC('week', event_date) in PostgreSQL.
  • Filtering condition: event_date between first and last day of previous month.
  • Ensuring weeks are fully contained: week start >= first day AND week start + 6 days <= last day.
  • Aggregation: SUM(cnt) grouped by week start date.

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