8 Intuitive Surgical SQL Interview Questions (Updated 2024)
Intuitive Surgical employees use SQL to analyze surgical robotics data, helping them identify areas where they can improve efficiency and enhance patient outcomes. They also use SQL to manage large patient databases, ensuring that healthcare delivery is streamlined and tailored to individual needs, that is why Intuitive Surgical includes SQL coding questions in interviews for Data Analytics, Data Science, and Data Engineering jobs.
So, to help you practice for the Intuitive Surgical SQL interview, we've collected 8 Intuitive Surgical SQL interview questions in this article.
8 Intuitive Surgical SQL Interview Questions
SQL Question 1: Identify the Top Surgical Equipment Buyers for Intuitive Surgical
Intuitive Surgical is a company that develops, manufactures, and markets robotic surgical systems. They have a customer database where they track the purchasing activities of various hospitals and clinics. They want to identify the top 'whale' buyers of their products - the customers who repeatedly purchase a large quantity of their surgical systems.
Specifically, they define their 'whale' buyers as any customer who has made more than 5 purchases in any given month. They need a SQL query that can identify these whales from their database table.
Example Input:
| purchase_id | customer_id | purchase_date | product_id | quantity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9191 | 125 | 06/08/2022 | 10001 | 10 |
| 5612 | 372 | 06/15/2022 | 10013 | 7 |
| 2919 | 372 | 06/27/2022 | 10001 | 5 |
| 8352 | 208 | 07/26/2022 | 10004 | 8 |
| 9619 | 125 | 07/30/2022 | 10013 | 12 |
Example Input:
| customer_id | name |
|---|---|
| 125 | St John's Hospital |
| 372 | Evergreen Health Clinic |
| 208 | Main Street Surgery |
Answer:
SQL:
This query joins the table with the table based on , groups the results by the customer's name and the purchase month, and counts the number of purchases and the total quantity purchased for each group. It then filters out the groups where the number of purchases is not more than 5. The result is a list of 'whale' buyers, sorted by the purchase month and number of purchases. In other words, it identifies the customers who have made more than 5 purchases in any given month and sorts them in descending order.
To work on a similar customer analytics SQL question where you can code right in the browser and have your SQL solution instantly graded, try this Walmart Labs SQL Interview Question:
Dive into Intuitive Surgical's exciting announcement about their fifth-generation robotic system, which is set to revolutionize surgical procedures! Keeping up with Intuitive Surgical's innovations can help you appreciate the advancements in medical technology and their impact on healthcare.
SQL Question 2: 2nd Largest Salary
Suppose you had a table of Intuitive Surgical employee salary data. Write a SQL query to find the 2nd highest salary at the company.
Intuitive Surgical Example Input:
| employee_id | salary |
|---|---|
| 1 | 2500 |
| 2 | 800 |
| 3 | 1000 |
| 4 | 1200 |
Example Output:
| second_highest_salary |
|---|
| 1200 |
Solve this interview question and run your code right in DataLemur's online SQL environment:
Answer:
You can find a detailed solution here: 2nd Highest Salary.
SQL Question 3: What are database views used for?
Database views are created to provide customized, read-only versions of your data that you can query just like a regular table. So why even use one if they're just like a regular table?
Views are useful for creating a simplified version of your data for specific users, or for hiding sensitive data from certain users while still allowing them to access other data.
SQL Question 4: Analyze Surgical Robots Usage
Intuitive Surgical develops, manufactures, and markets robotic products designed to improve clinical outcomes of patients through minimally invasive surgery.
You are given a table called that records each usage of the robotic surgical equipment in various hospitals. The table has the following columns:
- : A unique identifier for each usage record.
- : The ID of the robot that was used.
- : The ID of the hospital where the robot was used.
- : The type of surgical procedure performed with the robot.
- : The date the robot was used in a procedure.
Example Input:
| usage_id | robot_id | hospital_id | procedure_type | usage_date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 10 | Type-A | 2023-01-01 |
| 2 | 1 | 10 | Type-B | 2023-01-02 |
| 3 | 2 | 20 | Type-A | 2023-01-02 |
| 4 | 1 | 10 | Type-A | 2023-01-03 |
| 5 | 3 | 30 | Type-C | 2023-01-03 |
Here's your task:
We would like to understand the consecutive days that each robot in each hospital is used. Write a PostgreSQL query to output a table that shows for each robot in each hospital, how many times they have been used for 2 consecutive days. Sort the output by and .
Example Output:
| robot_id | hospital_id | consecutive_days_usage_count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 2 |
Answer:
This query first creates a subquery that additionally contains the information about the previous usage date for each robot in each hospital ordered by . In the outer query, we compare each with the and count the occurrences where the difference is .
To solve a related window function SQL problem on DataLemur's free interactive SQL code editor, solve this Google SQL Interview Question:
SQL Question 5: Database transactions are supposed to be atomic, consistent, isolated, & durable. What does each term mean?
ACID refers to the four key properties that are essential to the reliable and correct execution of database transactions. These properties are:
Atomicity: ensures that a transaction is treated as a single operation, and either all of the changes are made or none of them are! Basically, the database version of a "-FULL SEND-"
Consistency: ensures that the data is in a consistent state before and after a transaction is completed. For example, if wiring money to a friendly Nigerian prince whose fallen on hard times, consistency ensures that the total value of funds lost in my account is the same amount that's gained in the prince's account!
Isolation: ensures that the intermediate state of a transaction is invisible to other transactions. Back to the wiring-the-prince-some-money example, isolation ensures that another transaction sees the transferred funds in my account OR the princes, but not in both accounts at the same time
Durability: ensures that once a transaction has been completed successfully, the changes made by the transaction are permanent and cannot be undone, even in the event of a system failure. Basically, no taksies backsies (even if your system has a meltdown!).
SQL Question 6: Average Duration of Surgeries Performed by a Particular Surgical Device
As an analyst at Intuitive Surgical, your task is to find out the average duration of surgeries performed by each type of surgical machine in the company's portfolio. You have a database called which has the columns: , , , , and . For simplicity's sake, the difference between the and the will provide the duration of a surgery. Both and are in the format: .
Example Input:
| surgery_id | device_id | device_name | start_time | end_time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3215 | 1 | Da Vinci S | 2022-06-08 14:00:00 | 2022-06-08 16:30:00 |
| 6272 | 1 | Da Vinci S | 2022-07-14 10:00:00 | 2022-07-14 12:15:00 |
| 1189 | 2 | Da Vinci Xi | 2022-06-28 09:00:00 | 2022-06-28 12:40:00 |
| 5472 | 2 | Da Vinci Xi | 2022-07-10 13:20:00 | 2022-07-10 16:50:00 |
| 2789 | 3 | Da Vinci SP | 2022-06-17 11:30:00 | 2022-06-17 14:20:00 |
Answer:
In the above query, the piece is used to calculate the duration of each procedure in hours. The function is then used to find the average duration for each surgical device. The result is a table containing the name of each device and its corresponding average procedure duration.
To practice a very similar question try this interactive Amazon Server Utilization Time Question which is similar for calculating total time in different contexts or this Snapchat Sending vs. Opening Snaps Question which is similar for breaking down time spent on activities.
SQL Question 7: What's the difference between a left and right join?
In SQL, both a left and right join is used to combine rows from different tables based on a shared key or set of keys, resulting in a single merged table of data. However, here's the difference:
LEFT (OUTER) JOIN: Retrieves all the records/rows from the left and the matched records/rows from the right table.
RIGHT (OUTER) JOIN: Retrieves all the records/rows from the right and the matched records/rows from the left table.
SQL Question 8: Find the Most used Surgical Robots
Intuitive Surgical is a company known for developing, manufacturing, and marketing robotic surgical products, chiefly the da Vinci Surgical System. Given that data, you are to write an SQL query to determine which surgical robot model is most frequently utilized by hospitals.
The question desires to find the robot with the maximum number of surgeries conducted per model for the current year. You are provided with a table, which contains the information of all surgeries conducted.
Consider the table for the current year:
Example Input:
| surgery_id | hospital_id | surgery_date | robot_model |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1325 | 101 | 01/15/2022 | Da Vinci Xi |
| 1852 | 234 | 01/20/2022 | Da Vinci Si |
| 2109 | 312 | 01/30/2022 | Da Vinci Xi |
| 2618 | 401 | 02/15/2022 | Da Vinci X |
| 2756 | 521 | 02/18/2022 | Da Vinci Si |
Example Output:
| robot_model | total_surgeries |
|---|---|
| Da Vinci Xi | 2 |
| Da Vinci Si | 2 |
| Da Vinci X | 1 |
Answer:
This query first filters the surgeries that were conducted in the current year. It then groups the data by the and counts the number of surgeries per model. The clause is used to sort the data in descending order based on the count of surgeries.
Intuitive Surgical SQL Interview Tips
Assuming that you've already got basic SQL skills, the next best tip we have to prepare for the Intuitive Surgical SQL interview is to solve as many practice SQL interview questions as you can! Besides solving the above Intuitive Surgical SQL interview questions, you should also solve the 200+ SQL questions from real Data Science & Analytics interviews which come from companies like Netflix, Airbnb, and Amazon.
Each interview question has multiple hints, fully explained answers along with a discussion board to see how others solved it and best of all, there's an online SQL code editor so you can instantly run your SQL query and have it checked.
To prep for the Intuitive Surgical SQL interview you can also be helpful to practice interview questions from other healthcare and pharmaceutical companies like:
- Medtronic SQL questions
- Patterson SQL questions
- Select Medical Holdings SQL questions
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals SQL questions
But if your SQL query skills are weak, forget about going right into solving questions – refresh your SQL knowledge with this DataLemur SQL tutorial.
This tutorial covers SQL topics like math functions like ROUND()/CEIL() and working with string/text data – both of these pop up routinely in SQL job interviews at Intuitive Surgical.
Intuitive Surgical Data Science Interview Tips
What Do Intuitive Surgical Data Science Interviews Cover?
Besides SQL interview questions, the other question categories to practice for the Intuitive Surgical Data Science Interview include:
- Experimental Design & AB Testing Questions
- Python or R Coding Questions
- Product-Sense Questions
- Machine Learning Questions
- Behavioral Interview Questions focussed on Intuitive Surgical values & principles
How To Prepare for Intuitive Surgical Data Science Interviews?
To prepare for Intuitive Surgical Data Science interviews read the book Ace the Data Science Interview because it's got:
- 201 interview questions sourced from Google, Microsoft & tech startups
- a crash course covering SQL, AB Testing & ML
- over 1000+ reviews on Amazon & 4.5-star rating
Also focus on the behavioral interview – prep for it using this guide on behavioral interview questions.