11 Avnet SQL Interview Questions (Updated 2024)

Updated on

October 31, 2024

Data Scientists, Analysts, and Data Engineers at Avnet use SQL to analyze sales data, helping them make informed strategic decisions about product offerings and pricing strategies. They also use SQL to manage a large supplier database, ensuring that procurement processes run smoothly and efficiently by tracking supplier performance and inventory levels, this is the reason why Avnet evaluates jobseekers on SQL coding interview questions.

So, to help you prep, here's 11 Avnet SQL interview questions – able to solve them?

Avnet SQL Interview Questions

11 Avnet SQL Interview Questions

SQL Question 1: Analyzing Monthly Ratings for Avnet Products

Avnet, as a technology solutions provider, may be interested in understanding how their products are performing over time. One of the ways to ascertain this is by analyzing customer ratings on the products. We are going to analyze a dataset that tracks the reviews given to various products for the last couple of months.

You have access to a table with the following schema:

Column NameType
review_idInteger
user_idInteger
submit_dateDate
product_idInteger
starsInteger

Example Input:

review_iduser_idsubmit_dateproduct_idstars
617112306/08/2022500014
780226506/10/2022698524
529336206/18/2022500013
635219207/26/2022698523
451798107/05/2022698522

Write an SQL query to find the average rating () each received per month. Order the result by month then product id. The resulting table should be formatted as follows:

Example Output:

mthproductavg_stars
6500013.50
6698524.00
7698522.50

Answer:


In this query, function extracts the month number from the field as . The returns the average rating of the product in the respective month. The groups the result by the month and product. The orders the result by month first and by product id next in ascending order.

Pro Tip: Window functions are a frequent SQL interview topic, so practice every window function problem on DataLemur

DataLemur SQL Questions

Explore Avnet's press releases to uncover their latest innovations and contributions to the technology sector! Learning about Avnet's initiatives can give you a clearer picture of how they are influencing the market and supporting their partners.

SQL Question 2: Top 3 Department Salaries

Imagine there was a table of Avnet employee salary data. Write a SQL query to find the top three highest paid employees in each department.

Avnet Example Input:

employee_idnamesalarydepartment_id
1Emma Thompson38001
2Daniel Rodriguez22301
3Olivia Smith20001
4Noah Johnson68002
5Sophia Martinez17501
8William Davis68002
10James Anderson40001

Example Input:

department_iddepartment_name
1Data Analytics
2Data Science

Example Output:

department_namenamesalary
Data AnalyticsJames Anderson4000
Data AnalyticsEmma Thompson3800
Data AnalyticsDaniel Rodriguez2230
Data ScienceNoah Johnson6800
Data ScienceWilliam Davis6800

Write a SQL query for this problem and run your code right in DataLemur's online SQL environment:

Top 3 Department Salaries

Answer:

We use the DENSE_RANK() window function to generate unique ranks for each employee's salary within their department, with higher salaries receiving lower ranks. Then, we wrap this up in a CTE and filter the employees with a ranking of 3 or lower.


If the solution above is tough, you can find a step-by-step solution with hints here: Top 3 Department Salaries.

SQL Question 3: What's a database view?

A database view is a virtual table that is created based on the results of a statement, and provides you a customized, read-only version of your data that you can query just like a regular table.

You'd want to use a view for a few reasons:

  • views allow you to create a simpler versions of your data based on whose running the query (such as hiding un-important columns/rows from business analysts if they're just random noisy artifacts of your Data Infrastructure pipelines)
  • views can help you comply with information security requirements by hiding sensitive data from certain users (important for regulated industries like government and healthcare!)
  • views often improve performance for complicated queries by pre-computing the results and saving them in a view (which is often faster than re-executing the original query)... just be careful since static views don't update if the underlying data changes!

Avnet SQL Interview Questions

SQL Question 4: Sales Analysis for Avnet

Avnet, a large electronics supply company, wants to analyze their sales by products, departments, and employees. They want to know which department sells the most of each product and which employee has the highest sales in each department. Also, they want to know the trend of the total sales amount month over month.

Assuming we have 3 tables: , , and .

Sample Data:

product_idproduct_namedepartment
101ResistorElectronics
102CapacitorElectronics
103DisplayComputer Hardware

Sample Data:

employee_idemployee_namedepartment
1John DoeElectronics
2Jane SmithElectronics
3Peter ParkerComputer Hardware

Sample Data:

sale_idemployee_idproduct_idquantitysale_date
11001110110009/10/2022
11002210215009/14/2022
11003310320009/15/2022
11004210130009/16/2022
11005110115009/17/2022

Answer:

To answer this multi-part question, we'd first need to generate views or subqueries for each component of the question.

  1. To get the total sales of each product in each department:

  1. To find the employee with the highest sales in each department:

  1. To find the month-over-month trend of total sales:

This SQL block will give Avnet the ability to analyze sales by products, departments, and employees as per their requirements.

SQL Question 5: What does the clause do vs. the clause?

The clause serves as a filter for the groups created by the clause, similar to how the clause filters rows. However, is applied to groups rather than individual rows.

For example, say you were a data analyst at Avnet trying to understand how sales differed by region:


This query retrieves the total sales for all products in each region, and uses the clause to only sales made after January 1, 2023. The rows are then grouped by region and the clause filters the groups to include only those with total sales greater than $400,000.

SQL Question 6: Determine the Average Quantity of Orders Per Client

Avnet, one of the world's largest distributors of electronic components and solutions, would like to improve their client relations and inventory management. They would like to know on average, how many units does each client order in a month.

Below are the sample input and output tables for the problem.

Example Input:

order_idclient_idorder_dateproduct_idquantity
102531706/03/2022 00:00:002001500
154841206/12/2022 00:00:003562200
179231706/20/2022 00:00:002001300
204585607/01/2022 00:00:003562400
241131707/20/2022 00:00:002001600

Example Output:

monthclient_idavg_quantity
6317400
6412200
7317600
7856400

Answer:


The PostgreSQL query shared above will carry out the operation. Here we group the orders by the month of their and , then use the function to determine the average order quantity per client each month. The function is used to retrieve the month from the field. The result is then sorted with the clause by month and client ID to improve readability.

To practice a very similar question try this interactive Alibaba Compressed Mean Question which is similar for requiring average quantity calculation or this Walmart Histogram of Users and Purchases Question which is similar for tracking product quantity per user.

SQL Question 7: What sets a cross join apart from a natural join?

A cross join is a JOIN operation in SQL that creates a new table by pairing each row from the first table with every row from the second table. It is also referred to as a cartesian join. In contrast, a natural join combines rows from two or more tables based on their common columns, forming a new table. Natural joins are called "natural" because they rely on the natural relationship between the common columns in the joined tables.

Here's an example of a cross join:


Here's a natural join example using two tables, Avnet employees and Avnet managers:


This natural join returns all rows from Avnet employees where there is no matching row in managers based on the column.

One significant difference between cross joins and natural joins is that the former do not require common columns between the tables being joined, while the latter do. Another distinction is that cross joins can generate very large tables if the input tables have a large number of rows, while natural joins only produce a table with the number of rows equal to the number of matching rows in the input tables.

SQL Question 8: Click-Through and Conversion Rates for Avnet

Avnet is a company that provides services and solutions related to the life cycle of electronics, including marketing and product design. Suppose Avnet wants to analyze the click-through rates of its digital ads and the click-through conversion rates from viewing an item to adding it to the cart.

Specifically, Avnet wants you to calculate the click-through rate (CTR) for each ad campaign and the conversion rate from clicks to adding products to the cart. The CTR is defined as the number of clicks that an ad receives divided by the number of times the ad is shown (impressions), expressed as a percentage. The conversion rate is defined as the number of users that added the product to their cart after a click divided by the total number of clicks, also expressed as a percentage.

Consider the following two tables for Avnet:

Example Input:

click_idcampaign_iduser_idclick_dateproduct_id
21581011232022-06-0850001
35611022652022-06-1069852
27901013622022-06-1850001
27181031922022-07-2669852
69821029812022-07-0569852

Example Input:

impression_idcampaign_idimpression_date
10591012022-06-08
30161022022-06-10
20451012022-06-18
32701032022-07-26
29511022022-07-05

Now, to solve this problem, you would need to join and tables, group by the and calculate the CTR and conversion rate. A SQL query might look something like this:


In the output, each row represents a unique ad campaign, along with the total clicks, total impressions, click-through rate, and conversion rate. The output gives Avnet insights into the performance of their ad campaigns and their conversion rates, which they can use for future marketing and product strategy.

To practice a similar problem about calculating rates, try this TikTok SQL question on DataLemur's online SQL coding environment:

TikTok SQL Interview Question

SQL Question 9: Find the Total Sales Revenue and Number of Sales per Product Category

Given a database of sales transactions at Avnet, which is one of the world's largest distributors of electronic components and embedded solutions, can you determine the total revenue and number of sales per product category within the most recent year?

Avnet operates in various technology sectors such as semiconductors, interconnect, passive and electromechanical (IP&E), and computer products and embedded systems, so we have categorized our products accordingly in our table.

Example Input:

sales_idproduct_iddate_of_salesale_price
2456324506/01/20225000
2873685406/20/20223700
3764324507/15/20225000
4529900108/04/20227200
5283900108/20/20227200

Example Input:

product_idproduct_category
3245Semiconductors
6854Interconnect
9001Embedded Systems

Answer:


This query joins the and tables on , filters for transactions within the last year, and then groups the data by . It sums up to get and counts all entries per group to get for each product category.

Example Output:

product_categorytotal_revenuenumber_of_sales
Semiconductors100002
Interconnect37001
Embedded Systems144002

SQL Question 10: How can you select unique records from a table?

The clause is used to remove all duplicate records from a query.

For example, if you had a table of open jobs Avnet was hiring for, and wanted to see what are all the unique job titles that were currently available at the company, you could write the following query:


SQL Question 11: Filtering Customers by City and Name

In Avnet, a technology solutions company, you are requested to gather customer data for marketing purposes. Can you write an SQL query that selects all customers in the customer records database whose names start with "J" and live in the city of "Phoenix"?

Example Input:

idnamecitystatecountry
6171James SmithPhoenixAZUSA
7802John DoeChicagoILUSA
5293Jane DoePhoenixAZUSA
6352Jackson TurnerPhoenixAZUSA
4517Julia RobertsSan FranciscoCAUSA

Example Output:

idnamecity
6171James SmithPhoenix
5293Jane DoePhoenix
6352Jackson TurnerPhoenix

Answer:


This query uses the keyword of SQL to filter customers whose name starts with 'J'. The 'J%' is a pattern that matches any string starting with 'J'. The query also filters on the city column to find customers residing in 'Phoenix'. The operator is used to ensure both conditions must be true.

Avnet SQL Interview Tips

The key to acing a Avnet SQL interview is to practice, practice, and then practice some more! Besides solving the above Avnet SQL interview questions, you should also solve the 200+ SQL coding questions which come from companies like Google, Uber, and Microsoft.

DataLemur Questions

Each interview question has hints to guide you, full answers and most importantly, there is an online SQL code editor so you can easily right in the browser your query and have it checked.

To prep for the Avnet SQL interview you can also be a great idea to practice interview questions from other industrial and electrical distribution companies like:

However, if your SQL query skills are weak, don't worry about jumping right into solving questions – refresh your SQL knowledge with this free SQL for Data Analytics course.

Free SQL tutorial

This tutorial covers SQL concepts such as handling strings and RANK() window functions – both of which pop up frequently in SQL interviews at Avnet.

Avnet Data Science Interview Tips

What Do Avnet Data Science Interviews Cover?

Beyond writing SQL queries, the other types of questions covered in the Avnet Data Science Interview include:

Avnet Data Scientist

How To Prepare for Avnet Data Science Interviews?

To prepare for Avnet Data Science interviews read the book Ace the Data Science Interview because it's got:

  • 201 interview questions sourced from Facebook, Google & startups
  • a refresher on SQL, AB Testing & ML
  • over 1000+ reviews on Amazon & 4.5-star rating

Ace the Data Science Interview by Nick Singh Kevin Huo

Don't ignore the behavioral interview – prep for that using this list of common Data Scientist behavioral interview questions.

© 2025 DataLemur, Inc

Career Resources

Free 9-Day Data Interview Crash CourseFree SQL Tutorial for Data AnalyticsSQL Interview Cheat Sheet PDFUltimate SQL Interview GuideAce the Data Job Hunt Video CourseAce the Data Science InterviewBest Books for Data Analysts