Data analyst interviews for freshers usually test four things: Excel, SQL, basic statistics and how you explain your work. Here are 20 questions that come up often, with short answers you can practise out loud.
Excel questions
- What is the difference between VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP? VLOOKUP searches the first column and returns a value to the right. XLOOKUP can look in any direction and handles missing values better.
- What is a pivot table? A tool that summarises large data by grouping and totalling it, without writing formulas.
- How do you remove duplicates? Use Data, then Remove Duplicates, after checking which columns define a duplicate.
- What does SUMIFS do? It adds values that meet more than one condition.
- How can AI help in Excel? It can suggest formulas and explain results, but you must check its answers.
SQL questions
- What is the difference between WHERE and HAVING? WHERE filters rows before grouping. HAVING filters groups after GROUP BY.
- What are the types of joins? Inner, left, right, full and self joins.
- What is a primary key? A column that uniquely identifies each row.
- What is a subquery? A query inside another query.
- What is a window function? A function that calculates across related rows without collapsing them, such as ranking.
Statistics and data questions
- Mean, median and mode: when do you use each? Use the median when outliers distort the mean.
- What is an outlier? A value far from the others. Check it before removing it.
- How do you handle missing values? Remove, fill with a sensible value, or flag them, depending on the data.
- What is correlation? How two variables move together. It does not prove one causes the other.
Python, Power BI and project questions
- What is Pandas used for? Cleaning, filtering and analysing tabular data in Python.
- What is a DataFrame? A table of rows and columns in Pandas.
- What is DAX? The formula language of Power BI.
- Dashboard or report: what is the difference? A dashboard gives a quick view of key numbers. A report goes deeper.
- Tell me about a project you built. Explain the problem, the data, what you did and what you found.
- Why do you want to be a data analyst? Link your interest in solving problems with data to the role.
How to prepare
Practise with real datasets, write SQL by hand, and explain each answer in two or three sentences. Our Data Analytics with Gen AI course includes mock interviews and interview preparation.
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