11 SS&C Technologies SQL Interview Questions (Updated 2024)
At SS&C Technologies, SQL is used across the company for analyzing financial datasets for insights and in their investment performance & attribution business. Because of this, SS&C Technologies almost always asks SQL questions during interviews for Data Analytics, Data Science, and Data Engineering jobs.
As such, to help you practice for the SS&C Technologies SQL interview, we've collected 11 SS&C Technologies SQL interview questions – can you solve them?
11 SS&C Technologies SQL Interview Questions
SQL Question 1: Identify VIP Users for SS&C Technologies
SS&C Technologies financial success may largely depend on the usage of their software solutions and services by their customers. Hence, identifying the VIP users i.e., users who have used the maximum number of different services and/or are frequent users of their services has significant importance.
For this analysis, let's consider two tables:
- table that contains information about each user.
- table which stores information about which service each user uses and how often.
Example Input:
| user_id | user_name | sign_up_date |
|---|---|---|
| 101 | johndoe | 2019-07-01 |
| 102 | janedoe | 2019-07-15 |
| 103 | mikesmith | 2019-08-01 |
| 104 | sarajohnson | 2019-08-15 |
Example Input:
| service_id | user_id | usage_date | usage_count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201 | 101 | 2022-06-01 | 5 |
| 202 | 101 | 2022-06-15 | 3 |
| 203 | 102 | 2022-07-01 | 8 |
| 204 | 103 | 2022-07-15 | 2 |
| 201 | 104 | 2022-07-01 | 6 |
For the above data, write a SQL query to fetch the top 3 VIP users who have used the maximum number of different services or have highest usage count.
Answer:
In the given query we are joining the and tables on the column. Then we're using the clause to sum the and count the distinct for each . Finally, we're ordering the result by the number of services used (in descending order), and for those who have used an equal number of services - by the total usage (also in descending order). The clause is used to return only the top 3 users. This query will give us the VIP users for SS&C Technologies.
To solve a similar VIP customer analysis question on DataLemur's free online SQL code editor, try this Microsoft Azure Cloud SQL Interview Question:
SQL Question 2: Calculate Monthly Average Ratings for Each Product
Given a table which includes product reviews by users, write a SQL query to calculate the average rating for each product on a monthly basis. You are expected to use a SQL window function in your solution.
Example Input:
| review_id | user_id | submit_date | product_id | stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 101 | 2022-01-12 | 1 | 5 |
| 2 | 102 | 2022-01-13 | 1 | 4 |
| 3 | 103 | 2022-01-14 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 101 | 2022-02-12 | 1 | 5 |
| 5 | 102 | 2022-02-13 | 2 | 3 |
| 6 | 103 | 2022-02-15 | 1 | 2 |
| 7 | 101 | 2022-03-12 | 2 | 1 |
| 8 | 102 | 2022-03-14 | 1 | 4 |
| 9 | 103 | 2022-03-15 | 1 | 2 |
Answer:
This PostgreSQL query calculates the average rating for each product for each month. The function is used to truncate the submit_date to the month. The grouping is done based on the month and product_id to get the average rating for each product for each month. The result is ordered by month and product_id for better readability.
Example Output:
| month | product_id | avg_rating |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-01-01 | 1 | 4.50 |
| 2022-01-01 | 2 | 3.00 |
| 2022-02-01 | 1 | 3.50 |
| 2022-02-01 | 2 | 3.00 |
| 2022-03-01 | 1 | 3.00 |
| 2022-03-01 | 2 | 1.00 |
For more window function practice, solve this Uber SQL Interview Question on DataLemur's interactive SQL code editor:
SQL Question 3: Why is normalizing a database helpful?
There are several advantages to normalizing a database, including less redundancy, more flexibility, and better performance.
-
Less Redundancy: Normalization reduces redundancy by breaking down a larger, more general table into smaller, more specific tables. This reduces the amount of data that needs to be accessed for queries.
-
More Flexibility: Normalization makes it easier to modify the structure of the database, as there is less redundancy, so it allows you to make changes to one table without affecting others. This makes it easier to adapt the database to changing business needs (a very real reality at SS&C Technologies!)
-
Better Performance: Normalization can improve the performance of the database by reducing the amount of data that needs to be stored and accessed in a single table. This can result in faster query times and better overall performance.
SQL Question 4: Calculate the average transaction amount for different types of funds in SS&C Technologies
SS&C Technologies, a leading provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, often deals with different types of funds. Now, an analyst wants to know the average transaction amount for each type of fund within a given period. You have a database table called 'transactions' with columns 'transaction_id', 'fund_type', 'transaction_date' and 'amount'. Write a SQL query to find out the average transaction amount for each type of fund.
Example Input:
| transaction_id | fund_type | transaction_date | amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Equity | 2022-01-01 | 5000 |
| 002 | Debt | 2022-02-01 | 3000 |
| 003 | Equity | 2022-03-01 | 7000 |
| 004 | Hybrid | 2022-04-01 | 8000 |
| 005 | Equity | 2022-05-01 | 4000 |
Example Output:
| fund_type | avg_amount |
|---|---|
| Equity | 5333.33 |
| Debt | 3000.00 |
| Hybrid | 8000.00 |
Answer:
This query uses the function to calculate the average amount of transactions for each fund type. The clause is used to group the transactions by fund type before the average is calculated.
To practice a very similar question try this interactive Stripe Repeated Payments Question which is similar for dealing with transaction data or this Uber User's Third Transaction Question which is similar for querying specific transactions.
SQL Question 5: What's a database view, and when would you use one?
A database view is a virtual table that is created based on the results of a SELECT statement, and provides you a customized, read-only version of your data that you can query just like a regular table.
Views in SQL can help you enforce data security requirements by hiding sensitive data from certain users, and can improve performance for some queries by pre-computing the results for an intermediate step and storing them in a view (which can be faster than executing the intermediate query each time). However, their read-only nature means that on any underlying update, the view has to be re-computed.
SQL Question 6: Total Sold Software Packages per Client
Imagine you work for SS&C Technologies, and the company wishes to keep track of the total software packages purchased by each client. For this exercise, let's use two tables, and . Each row in the table has a that matches an in the table. Write the SQL query that would find the total number of software packages purchased by each client.
Example Input:
| client_id | client_name |
|---|---|
| 101 | Bank of America |
| 102 | Goldman Sachs |
| 103 | Wells Fargo |
| 104 | Citibank |
Example Input:
| purchase_id | client_id | software_package | purchase_date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1001 | 101 | Governance Software | 2022-01-01 |
| 1002 | 101 | Accounting Software | 2022-02-01 |
| 1003 | 102 | Accounting Software | 2022-01-15 |
| 1004 | 102 | Governance Software | 2022-02-20 |
| 1005 | 103 | Accounting Software | 2022-02-25 |
| 1006 | 103 | Governance Software | 2022-03-10 |
| 1007 | 103 | Accounting Software | 2022-04-01 |
Answer:
The SQL query joins and tables on , then groups by to count the total number of purchased by each client. The result is ordered by in descending order.
Example Output:
| client_name | total_packages |
|---|---|
| Bank of America | 2 |
| Goldman Sachs | 2 |
| Wells Fargo | 3 |
SQL Question 7: What does the operator do?
For a tangible example of in PostgreSQL, suppose you were doing an HR Analytics project for SS&C Technologies, and had access to SS&C Technologies's contractors and employees data. Assume that some employees were previously contractors, and vice versa, and thus would show up in both tables.
You could use operator to find all contractors who never were a employee using this query:
Note that is available in PostgreSQL and SQL Server, while is the equivalent operator which is available in MySQL and Oracle (but don't worry about knowing which RDBMS supports which exact commands since SS&C Technologies interviewers aren't trying to trip you up on memorizing SQL syntax).
SQL Question 8: Finding Customers Based on Specific Pattern in Their Names
SS&C Technologies is a company that deals with a vast database of customers daily. The company wants to filter out customer records where the customer's name starts with a specific character; let's say 'J'. Write an SQL query to find the names of all customers that begin with 'J'.
Example Input:
| customer_id | first_name | last_name | registration_date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1001 | John | Doe | john.doe@example.com | 2018-01-01 |
| 1002 | Jane | Smith | jane.smith@example.com | 2019-03-15 |
| 1003 | Sam | Johnson | sam.johnson@example.com | 2017-06-24 |
| 1004 | Jennifer | Morrison | jennifer.morrison@example.com | 2019-12-21 |
| 1005 | Mike | Jordan | mike.jordan@example.com | 2020-02-09 |
Example Output:
| customer_id | first_name | last_name |
|---|---|---|
| 1001 | John | Doe |
| 1002 | Jane | Smith |
| 1004 | Jennifer | Morrison |
Answer:
This SQL query filters out the customer data where the customer's first name starts with 'J' by using the 'LIKE' clause in the 'WHERE' statement. The '%' sign after 'J' in 'LIKE' statement is a wildcard that matches any sequence of characters. Therefore, any customer name that starts with 'J' followed by any characters will satisfy the condition.
SQL Question 9: Analyze Customer Purchases and their Locations
We have two tables: 'Customers' and 'Purchases'. The 'Customers' table holds information about our customers, including their customer ID and location. The 'Purchases' table holds information about the purchases customers made, including the item purchased and the ID of the customer who made the purchase.
Can you write a SQL query to list all customers who bought 'Product X', sorted by location?
Example Input:
| customer_id | location |
|---|---|
| 001 | New York |
| 002 | Boston |
| 003 | Los Angeles |
| 004 | Seattle |
| 005 | Miami |
Example Input:
| purchase_id | customer_id | product |
|---|---|---|
| 9001 | 002 | Product X |
| 9002 | 001 | Product Y |
| 9003 | 003 | Product X |
| 9004 | 005 | Product Z |
| 9005 | 004 | Product X |
Answer:
This query will join the 'Customers' and 'Purchases' tables on the 'customer_id' field, which is common to both tables. It then filters results to only include rows where 'product' is 'Product X'. It will then sort these results in ascending order based on the customers' location.
Because joins come up frequently during SQL interviews, try an interactive SQL join question from Spotify:
SQL Question 10: What does the SQL command do?
is used to combine the results of multiple statements into a single result set.
Suppose you were doing an HR Analytics project for SS&C Technologies, and needed to analyze both SS&C Technologies's contractors and employees. You could use in the following way:
This statement would return a combined result set of SS&C Technologies contractors and employees who were hired after the start of the year 2023.
SQL Question 11: Calculate Savings Interest
You are given a database of individual customer savings accounts at SS&C Technologies. Each row corresponds to a snapshot of the account at the end of each month. These snapshots includes the account balance at the end of the month, the annual interest rate at the end of the month (in percentages), and the date when the snapshot was taken.
Your task is to calculate the amount of interest each account would have earned in the next month, rounded to the nearest cent, using the formula for simple interest:
For our case, the time is one month, calculate it as a fraction of 12 months. The rate should be considered as a fraction, e.g., 5% is 0.05.
Example Input:
| account_id | end_of_month_balance | annual_interest_rate | snapshot_date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5000 | 2.3 | 2020-01-31 |
| 2 | 10000 | 3.5 | 2020-02-29 |
| 3 | 7500 | 2.5 | 2020-03-31 |
| 4 | 15000 | 3.0 | 2020-04-30 |
| 5 | 9500 | 2.8 | 2020-05-31 |
Example Output:
| account_id | interest_next_month |
|---|---|
| 1 | 9.58 |
| 2 | 29.17 |
| 3 | 15.63 |
| 4 | 37.50 |
| 5 | 22.08 |
Answer:
This SQL command will create a table with and the corresponding interest for the next month. Interest for the upcoming month is calculated by applying the formula for simple interest to each account's end of month balance with the annual interest rate adjusted to a monthly rate. The command is used to ensure the result is rounded to the nearest cent.
To practice a very similar question try this interactive Google Odd and Even Measurements Question which is similar for utilizing mathematical calculations involving provided data or this Wayfair Y-on-Y Growth Rate Question which is similar for using time-series data to calculate future metric.
How To Prepare for the SS&C Technologies SQL Interview
The best way to prepare for a SQL interview, besides making sure you have strong SQL fundamentals, is to practice a ton of real SQL questions that were asked in recent job interviews.
In addition to solving the earlier SS&C Technologies SQL interview questions, you should also solve the 200+ SQL questions from real Data Science & Analytics interviews which come from companies like FAANG and tech startups.
Each DataLemur SQL question has hints to guide you, fully explained answers along with a discussion board to see how others solved it and most importantly, there's an online SQL code editor so you can right online code up your SQL query and have it graded.
To prep for the SS&C Technologies SQL interview you can also be a great idea to practice interview questions from other tech companies like:
In case your SQL coding skills are weak, don't worry about jumping right into solving questions – refresh your SQL knowledge with this interactive SQL tutorial.
This tutorial covers things like LEFT vs. RIGHT JOIN and filtering data with boolean operators – both of these show up routinely in SQL job interviews at SS&C Technologies.
SS&C Technologies Data Science Interview Tips
What Do SS&C Technologies Data Science Interviews Cover?
In addition to SQL query questions, the other types of questions tested in the SS&C Technologies Data Science Interview are:
- Statistics and Probability Questions
- Coding Questions in Python or R
- Product Analytics Questions
- ML Interview Questions
- Behavioral & Resume-Based Questions
How To Prepare for SS&C Technologies Data Science Interviews?
The best way to prepare for SS&C Technologies Data Science interviews is by reading Ace the Data Science Interview. The book's got:
- 201 Interview Questions from tech companies like Google & Microsoft
- A Crash Course covering Python, SQL & ML
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