9 ON Semiconductor SQL Interview Questions (Updated 2024)

Updated on

February 14, 2024

At ON Semiconductor, SQL is used quite frequently for analyzing semiconductor production data for efficiency improvements and managing databases of electronic component design details. Unsurprisingly this is why ON Semiconductor asks SQL coding questions in interviews for Data Science and Data Engineering positions.

So, to help you practice for the ON Semiconductor SQL interview, we've curated 9 ON Semiconductor SQL interview questions – how many can you solve?

9 ONSemi SQL Interview Questions

SQL Question 1: Calculating Monthly Average Unit Sales

As a data analyst for ON Semiconductor, your manager wants you to calculate the average monthly unit sales volume for each product. The exercise requires you to use the window functions in SQL.

Assume you have a sales table named , which has the following structure:

Example Input:
sale_idsale_dateproduct_idunits_sold
8652022-07-05102529
8672022-08-03178615
8692022-09-18102533
8702022-10-15178620
8712022-10-25102530
Example Output:
mthproductavg_units_sold
7102529.00
8178615.00
9102533.00
10102530.00
10178620.00

Answer:


The above SQL script calculates the average units sold by product id for each month. It first extracts the month from the date, then splits the data into partitions based on the month and product id using the clause. Then, for each partition, it applies the function to calculate the average units sold. The clause then sorts the final result set by month and product id.

p.s. Window functions show up super often during SQL interviews, so practice the 27+ window function questions on DataLemur

DataLemur SQL Questions

SQL Question 2: Sales Analysis for ON Semiconductor Products

ON Semiconductor is a company operating in the semiconductor industry. They manufacture, among other things, different types of semiconductor components. They need your help to better understand their sales history.

For a given list of products and corresponding sales data, your task is to calculate the total amount of sales per product type per quarter of the year. Consider that the company has three main types of products: transistors, diodes and integrated circuits.

Here's an example of how the company stores their sales data in the sales and products tables:

Example Input:
product_idproduct_nameproduct_type
1TransistorATransistor
2DiodeADiode
3ICircuitAIntegrated Circuit
4TransistorBTransistor
5DiodeBDiode
Example Input:
order_idproduct_idquantitysales_date
10011102022-01-05
1002252022-01-15
1003322022-03-10
1004482022-04-20
10055152022-06-18

Answer:

To find the total sales per product type per quarter of the year, we can join the sales table and the products table on product_id, and use the extract function in PostgreSQL to get the quarter of the year from the sales_date. Here's a possible SQL query for this:


This query first joins the and tables on the column. Then it groups the resulting table by and . For each group, it calculates the total sales by summing up quantities from the table. The final result is ordered by quarter, and for each quarter, the products are sorted in descending order by sales.

SQL Question 3: How do foreign and primary keys differ?

To explain the difference between a primary key and foreign key, let's start with some data from ON Semiconductor's marketing analytics database which stores data from Google Ads campaigns:

:

+------------+------------+------------+------------+ | ad_id | campaign_id| keyword | click_count| +------------+------------+------------+------------+ | 1 | 100 | ON Semiconductor pricing | 10 | | 2 | 100 | ON Semiconductor reviews | 15 | | 3 | 101 | ON Semiconductor alternatives | 7 | | 4 | 101 | buy ON Semiconductor | 12 | +------------+------------+------------+------------+

In this table, could be a primary key. It is unique for each row in the table and cannot contain null values.

could be a foreign key. It references the of the Google Ads campaign that each ad belongs to, establishing a relationship between the ads and their campaigns. This foreign key allows you to easily query the table to find out which ads belong to a specific campaign, or to find out which campaigns a specific ad belongs to.

It is also possible for a table to have multiple foreign keys that reference different primary keys in other tables. For example, the table could have additional foreign keys for the of the ad group that each ad belongs to, and the of the Google Ads account that the campaigns belong to.

ON Semiconductor SQL Interview Questions

SQL Question 4: Find the Average Scrapping Quantity of Each Production Line

You're given a table called , which shows the amount of materials scrapped on each production line in ON Semiconductor each week. Each production line uses different semiconductor materials, and machine calibration and manufacturing processes can result in some material wastage that is tracked.

Find the average amount of materials scrapped in each production line per week.

The table is structured as follows:

Example Input:

Assuming that this table contains data for more than one week, write a PostgreSQL query that would return the average scrapped quantity per week for every production line. The output should be sorted ascendingly by production lines.

Expected Output:


Answer:

Here is a PostgreSQL query that would solve the problem:


This code groups the table by the then averages the for each group. The clause ensures the result is displayed in ascending order by .

To practice a very similar question try this interactive Google Odd and Even Measurements Question which is similar for calculating sums based on category or this Amazon Average Review Ratings Question which is similar for calculating average values based on group.

SQL Question 5: What does the constraint do?

A is a field in a table that references the of another table. It creates a link between the two tables and ensures that the data in the field is valid.

Say for example you had sales analytics data from ON Semiconductor's CRM (customer-relationship management) tool.


In this example, the table has a foreign key field called that references the "account_id" field in the table (the primary key). This helps to link the data about each opportunity to the corresponding account information in the accounts table.

This makes sure the insertion of rows in the table that do not have corresponding entries in the table. It also helps to enforce the relationship between the two tables and ensures that data is not deleted from the table if there are still references to it in the table.

SQL Question 6: Calculate the click-through-rate (CTR) for ON Semiconductor products

ON Semiconductor is a company that sells semiconductors for a variety of products. Let's say ON Semiconductor runs ad campaigns on different platforms for their new range of products and wants to analyze the performance in terms of CTR (Click-Through-Rate).

Click-through-rate is the ratio of the number of users who click on an ad to the number of total users who view the ad. In this case, you are asked to calculate monthly CTR for different ad campaigns showing different ON Semiconductor products.

We are to use two tables as follows:

  1. A table to record each time an user views an ad.

  2. A table to record each time an user clicks an ad.

Here's a glimpse of the kind of data stored in the and tables:

Example Input:
view_iduser_idview_dateproduct_idcampaign_id
100113406/12/2022 00:00:0050101601
200225606/14/2022 00:00:0069858701
300336507/08/2022 00:00:0050100601
400419507/11/2022 00:00:0069852701
500599707/15/2022 00:00:0050101601
Example Input:
click_iduser_idclick_dateproduct_idcampaign_id
345613406/12/2022 00:00:0050101601
456736507/08/2022 00:00:0050100601
567899707/15/2022 00:00:0050101601

Write a SQL query to calculate the monthly CTR for each campaign.

Answer:

Here is one way you can calculate the monthly CTR for each campaign:


The output will be a table that shows, for each month and each ad campaign, the total number of views, total number of clicks, and the calculated CTR (in percentages).

The above query first calculates the monthly number of views and clicks for each campaign in the and temporary tables, respectively. It then LEFT JOINs these two tables on the campaign_id and month fields, and calculates the CTR by diving the number of clicks by the number of views for each row. Note that we use a COALESCE function to replace any NULL value of clicks (where there were views but no clicks) with 0 for the CTR calculation.

To solve another question about calculating rates, try this TikTok SQL Interview Question on DataLemur's interactive coding environment: TikTok SQL Interview Question

SQL Question 7: What's a constraint in SQL, and do you have any examples?

Constraints are used to specify the rules concerning data in the table. It can be applied for single or multiple fields in an SQL table during the creation of the table or after creating using the ALTER TABLE command. The constraints are:

Say you were storing sales analytyics data from ON Semiconductor's CRM inside a database. Here's some example constraints you could use:

  • PRIMARY KEY constraint: You might use a PRIMARY KEY constraint to ensure that each record in the database has a unique identifier. For example, you could use the "opportunity_id" field as the primary key in the "opportunities" table.

  • FOREIGN KEY constraint: You might use a FOREIGN KEY constraint to link the data in one table to the data in another table. For example, you could use a foreign key field in the "opportunities" table to reference the "account_id" field in the "accounts" table.

  • NOT NULL constraint: You might use a NOT NULL constraint to ensure that a field cannot contain a NULL value. For example, you could use a NOT NULL constraint on the "opportunity_name" field in the "opportunities" table to ensure that each opportunity has a name.

  • UNIQUE constraint: You might use a UNIQUE constraint to ensure that the data in a field is unique across the entire table. For example, you could use a UNIQUE constraint on the "email" field in the "contacts" table to ensure that each contact has a unique email address.

  • CHECK constraint: You might use a CHECK constraint to ensure that the data in a field meets certain conditions. For example, you could use a CHECK constraint to ensure that the "deal_probability" field in the "opportunities" table is a value between 0 and 100.

  • DEFAULT constraint: You might use a DEFAULT constraint to specify a default value for a field. For example, you could use a DEFAULT constraint on the "stage" field in the "opportunities" table to set the default value to "prospecting"

SQL Question 8: Find the Maximum Sales per Product Type for Each Quarter

As a data analyst at ON Semiconductor, you are asked to analyze the sales data from the past year. Your task is to create a query that will provide the maximum sales of each product type for each quarter.

Example Input:
product_idproduct_typeproduct_sale_datesale_amount
10001Semiconductor2021-03-136000
10002Processor2021-01-078000
10003Semiconductor2021-02-177000
10004Processor2021-01-019000
10005Semiconductor2021-05-228500
10006Semiconductor2021-07-137300
10007Processor2021-04-038800
Example Output:
yearquarterproduct_typemax_sale_amount
2021Q1Semiconductor7000
2021Q1Processor9000
2021Q2Semiconductor8500

Answer:

To solve this, you could take the following steps in SQL:

  1. Extract the year and the quarter from the sales date.
  2. Group by the extracted year, quarter, and product type.
  3. Use the MAX aggregate function to find the maximum sales for each grouping.

Here is the PostgreSQL query:


This query starts by grouping the sales data by the year and quarter of the sale date and the product type. It then extracts the maximum sale amount for each group. The resulting output shows the maximum sale amount for each product type in each quarter of each year. The data is then sorted in ascending order by year and quarter.

SQL Question 9: Filter ON Semiconductor Customer Records

As a Database Analyst at ON Semiconductor, you are tasked with extracting customer records for a new marketing campaign. The company needs records for customers who have a particular interest. To narrow it down, the company wants all customers whose interests contain the word "Semiconductor". Create a SQL query using the SQL keyword LIKE to filter these records from the customer database.

Below is the sample data from table:

Example Input:
customer_idfirst_namelast_nameemailinterests
123JohnDoejohn.doe@email.comProgramming, Semiconductors, Reading
456JaneDoejane.doe@email.comCooking, Hiking, Drawing
789JimBeamjim.beam@email.comSemiconductors, Gaming, Music
111JamieDawsonjamie.dawson@email.comPhotography, Semiconductors, Writing
222JillBensonjill.benson@email.comJogging, Biking, Yoga

Answer:

You can solve this filtering problem using the following SQL query:


This query will filter and display all data from the table where the attribute contains the word 'Semiconductor'. The '%' is a wildcard character that can match any sequence of characters.

Please note that PostgreSQL is case-sensitive, so make sure the spelling and the case of the string match with the records in the database.

The output from the query will be:

customer_idfirst_namelast_nameemailinterests
123JohnDoejohn.doe@email.comProgramming, Semiconductors, Reading
789JimBeamjim.beam@email.comSemiconductors, Gaming, Music
111JamieDawsonjamie.dawson@email.comPhotography, Semiconductors, Writing

Preparing For The ON Semiconductor SQL Interview

Assuming that you've already got basic SQL skills, the next best tip we have to prepare for the ON Semiconductor SQL interview is to solve as many practice SQL interview questions as you can! In addition to solving the earlier ON Semiconductor SQL interview questions, you should also solve the 200+ tricky sql questions on DataLemur which come from companies like Facebook, Google, and VC-backed startups. DataLemur SQL Interview Questions

Each interview question has multiple hints, full answers and most importantly, there's an interactive coding environment so you can easily right in the browser your SQL query and have it executed.

To prep for the ON Semiconductor SQL interview you can also be wise to practice SQL questions from other semiconductor companies like:

However, if your SQL coding skills are weak, forget about jumping right into solving questions – go learn SQL with this interactive SQL tutorial.

Free SQL tutorial

This tutorial covers topics including GROUP BY and window functions – both of which show up routinely in SQL job interviews at ON Semiconductor.

ON Semiconductor Data Science Interview Tips

What Do ON Semiconductor Data Science Interviews Cover?

Beyond writing SQL queries, the other topics tested in the ON Semiconductor Data Science Interview are:

ON Semiconductor Data Scientist

How To Prepare for ON Semiconductor Data Science Interviews?

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

  • 201 interview questions taken from Facebook, Google & startups
  • a refresher on SQL, Product-Sense & ML
  • over 900+ 5-star reviews on Amazon

Ace the DS Interview

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