Stop Grinding LeetCode SQL. Do This Instead.
If I had to prepare for a senior SQL interview again, I wouldn't start by grinding LeetCode — solving 100 random questions, then 100 more, then another list labelled "hard".
That works for junior roles. But for senior analyst, analytics engineer, and data science roles at MAANG-style companies (Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) and fintechs, it's not what interviewers are really testing. At senior level, they want to know:
- Can you recognise the shape of a problem quickly?
- Can you define the data grain before writing SQL?
- Can you explain trade-offs instead of hiding behind syntax?
- Can you write something that holds up on large, messy production data?
- Can you think about performance, not just correctness?
The biggest shift in my own preparation was realising that senior SQL interviews are much less about syntax recall and much more about pattern recognition. That's the framework I'd use if I were starting...
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