10 Zimmer Biomet Holdings SQL Interview Questions (Updated 2024)

Updated on

October 31, 2024

Zimmer Biomet Holdings employees use SQL for analyzing patient data to assess the effectiveness of their medical devices, helping them make informed decisions about product improvements. It is also used for managing their inventory of medical devices through relational databases, ensuring they have the right stocks available to meet patient needs, this is why Zimmer Biomet Holdings asks SQL questions during interviews for Data Analytics, Data Science, and Data Engineering jobs.

Thus, to help you prepare, here's 10 Zimmer Biomet Holdings SQL interview questions – able to answer them all?

Zimmer Biomet Holdings SQL Interview Questions

10 Zimmer Biomet Holdings SQL Interview Questions

SQL Question 1: Identify Most Frequent Purchasers of High Revenue Products for Zimmer Biomet Holdings

You are given two tables: and . The table captures every purchase made by customers with information about the customer, date of the purchase and the product purchased, while the table has details about each product offered by Zimmer Biomet Holdings.

table:

order_idcustomer_idorder_dateproduct_id
87612312019-07-2045001
12653122019-08-1075021
92634032019-08-1145001
50211022019-08-1885063
41172312019-09-0775021

table:

product_idproduct_nameprice
45001Orthopedic implant5000.00
75021Surgical instrument2500.00
85063Trauma device1500.00

Assume the high revenue products are those which cost more than 3000.ThetaskistowriteaSQLquerytoidentifythetop5customerswhohavemadethemostpurchasesofhighrevenueproducts(itemspricedgreaterthan3000. The task is to write a SQL query to identify the top 5 customers who have made the most purchases of high revenue products (items priced greater than 3000) in the year 2019.

Answer:


This query joins the table with the table on and filters for all orders in the year 2019 where the product price is greater than $3,000. It then counts these high-revenue purchases for each customer and orders the result in descending order by the number of such purchases. The clause ensures that only the top 5 customers are returned.

To practice a related customer analytics question on DataLemur's free online SQL code editor, try this Microsoft Teams Power User SQL Interview Question:

Microsoft SQL Interview Question: Teams Super User

Explore Zimmer Biomet's latest news to learn about their advancements and contributions to the healthcare industry! Keeping up with their updates will give you insight into how they are shaping the future of medical technology and patient care.

SQL Question 2: Top 3 Department Salaries

Assume there was a table of Zimmer Biomet Holdings employee salary data. Write a SQL query to find the top 3 highest paid employees within each department.

Zimmer Biomet Holdings 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

Check your SQL query for this question directly within the browser on DataLemur:

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 hard to understand, you can find a step-by-step solution with hints here: Top 3 Department Salaries.

SQL Question 3: 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 Zimmer Biomet Holdings's CRM (customer-relationship management) tool.


The constraint ensures that the data in the field of the table is valid, and prevents 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 can be used to ensure that data is not deleted from the accounts table if there are still references to it in the table.

Zimmer Biomet Holdings SQL Interview Questions

SQL Question 4: Analyzing Monthly Sales and Returns

Zimmer Biomet Holdings specializes in the manufacture and marketing of orthopedic reconstructive devices, spinal and trauma devices, dental implants, and related surgical products. Suppose you are a data analyst in the company and you have been given two datasets - and .

The dataset is a record of all products sold each month, and the dataset details all products that have been returned in the same period.

Your task is to write a SQL query that finds the monthly net sales (sales - returns) for each product and ranks them in descending order using window function.

Example Input:

order_iddateproduct_idquantity
12022-01-03A100
22022-01-05B50
32022-02-04A70
42022-02-15B60
52022-03-20A150

Example Input:

return_iddateproduct_idquantity_returned
12022-01-20A10
22022-02-12B5
32022-03-25A50

Example Output:

monthproductnet_salesrank
3A1001
1A902
2B553
2A704
1B505

Answer:

Here's a PostgreSQL query that would solve the problem:


The given SQL query first calculates the total number of sales and returns per month per product. Then it subtracts the returns from the sales to get the net sales. Finally, it ranks the net sales in descending order using the window function.

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

DataLemur Window Function SQL Questions

SQL Question 5: What would you do to speed up a slow SQL query?

Here's some strategies that can generally speed up a slow SQL query:

  • Only query the columns you actually need
  • Index the columns used in the query
  • Use the right kind of JOIN (be explicit about inner vs. outer joins)
  • Use the right data types (for example INT vs BIGINT can save you disk space and memory)

While there's an entire industry dedicated to database performance tuning , for Data Analyst and Data Science interviews at Zimmer Biomet Holdings, knowing the above basics should be more than enough to ace the SQL interview! Data Engineers on the other hand should know more about the command and understand a bit more about a query-execution plan.

SQL Question 6: Inventory Management and Sales Analysis

Zimmer Biomet Holdings, a medical device manufacturer, wants to analyze its sales and inventory data. The company has sales data, where each row represents an item sold, including the item_id of the product, the selling price and the date of sale. They also have an inventory table, showing how much of each product they have left in stock. You are tasked with creating a query which will return the total sales per product and remaining inventory for the last month.

The table is outlined below:

Example Input:

sale_iditem_idsale_datesell_price
12345abc108/10/2022200
12346abc108/11/2022250
12347abc208/09/2022150
12348def108/01/2022100
12349def108/02/2022100

The table is outlined below:

Example Input:

item_idstock_left
abc150
abc2100
def1200

You need to return a table that contains the item id, total sales for that item in the last month, and remaining inventory for each product.

Example Output:

item_idtotal_sales_last_monthstock_left
abc145050
abc2150100
def1200200

Answer:


In the given query, a is used to join the table with based on . Then, for each present in , sum of from for the last month is calculated, which gives . function is used to give when there are no sales for the . At the end, , and are selected in the query.

SQL Question 7: When would you use the / commands in SQL?

Note: Interviews at Zimmer Biomet Holdings often aren't trying to test you on a specific flavor of SQL. As such, you don't need to know that is available in PostgreSQL and SQL Server, while is available in MySQL and Oracle – you just need to understand the general concept!

Your answer should mention that the / operator is used to return all rows from the first statement that are not returned by the second statement.

Here's a PostgreSQL example of using to find all of Zimmer Biomet Holdings' Facebook video ads with more than 50,000 views that aren't also being run on YouTube:


If you want to retain duplicates, you can use the operator instead of . The operator will return all rows, including duplicates.

SQL Question 8: Filter Zimmer Biomet Holdings Customer Records

As a data analyst at Zimmer Biomet Holdings, a medical device manufacturer, you are asked to filter out the customers who have interacted with the company within the last two years (from 2020 to 2022) and have purchased orthopedic or dental products. You are provided a table and a table.

The table has columns , , , , and .

The table has columns , , , (which can be 'orthopedic', 'dental', or 'spinal'), and .

Example Input:

customer_idfirst_namelast_nameemaillast_interaction_date
1JohnDoejohn.doe@example.com2021-05-15
2JaneSmithjane.smith@example.com2022-03-14
3BobJohnsonbob.johnson@example.com2019-04-21
4AliceWilliamsalice.williams@example.com2020-01-30

Example Input:

purchase_idcustomer_idproduct_namecategorypurchase_date
11Hip Replacement Systemorthopedic2021-06-27
22Dental Implantdental2022-01-20
33Shoulder Implantorthopedic2019-07-18
44Spinal Fusion Devicespinal2020-02-17
51Knee Replacement Systemorthopedic2018-09-06

Answer:


This query joins the table with the table using the field, filters out the customers who have interacted with the company within the last two years, and who have purchased orthopedic or dental products. The query returns the , customer's name, email, and the product name of the product that the customer purchased.

SQL Question 9: Finding the Average Days till Replacement for Each Product

As a Data Analyst in Zimmer Biomet Holdings, a medical device company, you are asked to evaluate replacement interval trends for the company's products. Write a SQL query that calculates the average number of days until replacement for each product based on available service records.

Consider the following example data:

Example Input:

service_idproduct_idservice_datereplacement_date
10012102020-05-012021-06-01
10023202020-04-112021-03-10
10032102021-01-012022-02-01
10044202023-07-11N/A
10053202020-06-132021-05-15

Example Output:

product_idavg_days_till_replacement
210395.00
320365.00

Answer:

The PostgreSQL query to solve the problem will look like following:


This query first excludes the rows where is not available. Then, using , it groups the records by . The function is used to calculate the average of differences between and for each group.

To practice a very similar question try this interactive Amazon Highest-Grossing Items Question which is similar for calculating product metrics or this Facebook Average Post Hiatus (Part 1) Question which is similar for average time measurement calculations.

SQL Question 10: DBMS transactions are expected to follow the ACID properties. What are they, and what does each property mean?

A transaction is a one or more SQL commands which are executed as a singular unit if the transaction -commits- (or no execution hapens if the transaction -aborts-).

For transactions, a DBMS is supposed to enforce the follwing ACID properties: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, & Durability.

Here's what each one means:

  • Atomicity: the transaction is completed in an all-or-nothing way (no partial commits)
  • Consistency: the transaction is valid and follows all constraints and restrictions
  • Isolation: the transaction doesn't affect another transaction
  • Durability: the committed transactions is stored permanently in the DB (it doesn't dissapear!)

As you can see, it's pretty important for the multiple databases where Zimmer Biomet Holdings store's it's data to be ACID-compliant!

How To Prepare for the Zimmer Biomet Holdings SQL Interview

The best way to prepare for a Zimmer Biomet Holdings SQL interview is to practice, practice, practice. In addition to solving the earlier Zimmer Biomet Holdings SQL interview questions, you should also solve the 200+ SQL questions from real Data Science & Analytics interviews which come from companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and smaller tech companies.

DataLemur SQL and Data Science Interview Questions

Each DataLemur SQL question has hints to guide you, fully explained answers along with a discussion board to see how others solved it and crucially, there's an interactive coding environment so you can easily right in the browser your SQL query answer and have it executed.

To prep for the Zimmer Biomet Holdings SQL interview you can also be a great idea to solve SQL problems from other healthcare and pharmaceutical companies like:

However, if your SQL coding skills are weak, don't worry about going right into solving questions – strengthen your SQL foundations with this interactive SQL tutorial.

DataLemur SQL tutorial

This tutorial covers topics including LAG window function and advantages of CTEs vs. subqueries – both of these come up often during SQL interviews at Zimmer Biomet Holdings.

Zimmer Biomet Holdings Data Science Interview Tips

What Do Zimmer Biomet Holdings Data Science Interviews Cover?

In addition to SQL query questions, the other topics covered in the Zimmer Biomet Holdings Data Science Interview include:

Zimmer Biomet Holdings Data Scientist

How To Prepare for Zimmer Biomet Holdings Data Science Interviews?

I believe the optimal way to prep for Zimmer Biomet Holdings Data Science interviews is to read the book Ace the Data Science Interview.

It solves 201 data interview questions sourced from Facebook, Google & startups. The book's also got a crash course on SQL, Product-Sense & ML. And finally it's helped thousands of people land their dream job in data, which is how it's gotten to be an Amazon best-seller with over 1000+ 5-star reviews.

Ace the Data Science Interview

While the book is more technical in nature, it's also important to prepare for the Zimmer Biomet Holdings behavioral interview. A good place to start is by understanding the company's unique cultural values.

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