01
What is the difference between COUNT(*) and COUNT(column)?
Show answer
COUNT(*) counts all rows; COUNT(column) counts only rows where that column is not NULL.
Goldman Sachs Business Analytics Interview Questions & Answers
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02
How do you find the top 5 customers by revenue?
Show answer
SELECT customer_id, SUM(amount) AS revenue FROM orders GROUP BY customer_id ORDER BY revenue DESC LIMIT 5;
03
What is scope creep and how do you control it?
Show answer
Uncontrolled growth of requirements. Control it with a clear scope statement, change control process, impact analysis and sponsor approval for additions.
04
Which what-if analysis tools does Excel have?
Show answer
Goal Seek (find the input for a target output), Data Tables (see outputs for many inputs) and Scenario Manager (save best, base and worst cases).
05
How do you compute CAGR in Excel?
Show answer
CAGR = (End value / Start value)^(1/years) - 1, entered as =(B2/A2)^(1/n)-1.
06
What is the difference between a chart and a dashboard?
Show answer
A chart shows one view of data; a dashboard combines several charts and KPIs on one page for monitoring.
07
Tell me about a time you handled a difficult stakeholder.
Show answer
Use STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Show that you listened, found the underlying goal, used data to align people and reached a documented decision.
08
How do you analyse variance between budget and actual?
Show answer
Variance = Actual - Budget, shown as amount and percentage, with conditional formatting to flag large gaps and comments on the drivers.
09
How do you use Excel's Scenario Manager?
Show answer
Define named scenarios such as best, base and worst with different input values and compare the outputs in a summary report.
10
How would you measure the success of a new feature?
Show answer
Define a goal metric, a baseline and guardrail metrics, run an experiment or before-after comparison and review adoption, retention and revenue impact.
11
How do you evaluate a marketing campaign's ROI?
Show answer
ROI = (incremental profit - campaign cost) / campaign cost. Measure incremental sales using a control group or before-after comparison.
12
What is a user story and what makes it good?
Show answer
A short requirement written as 'As a user, I want X so that Y', backed by acceptance criteria. Good stories follow INVEST: independent, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small and testable.
13
Stakeholders give conflicting requirements. What do you do?
Show answer
Clarify the goal behind each request, map them to business objectives, prioritise with MoSCoW, run a joint session, then document the decision and get sign-off.
14
What is Kano model in prioritisation?
Show answer
A model classifying features as basic, performance or delight attributes based on how they affect customer satisfaction, helping decide what to build first.
15
What is a CTE?
Show answer
A named temporary result introduced with WITH that makes long queries readable and reusable in the same statement.
16
What is a data table in Excel?
Show answer
A what-if tool that recalculates a formula for different inputs, for example loan payments across different rates and tenures.
17
What is a market entry strategy case?
Show answer
Decide whether and how to enter a market by evaluating attractiveness, competition, capabilities and entry mode (build, buy, partner), then risks and next steps.
18
SQL: top 5 customers by spend.
Show answer
SELECT customer_id, SUM(amount) AS spend
FROM orders
GROUP BY customer_id
ORDER BY spend DESC
LIMIT 5;
19
What is Agile and how does Scrum work?
Show answer
Agile delivers value in small increments with feedback. Scrum organises work in sprints with planning, daily stand-ups, review and retrospective, led by a Scrum Master and Product Owner.
20
What does GROUP BY do and how is HAVING different from WHERE?
Show answer
GROUP BY aggregates rows by column; WHERE filters before grouping and HAVING filters after, using aggregate conditions.
21
How would you improve a company's low app conversion rate?
Show answer
Map the funnel, find the biggest drop-off, check usability and load time, run A/B tests on fixes and track conversion lift.
22
What are aggregate functions?
Show answer
Functions that summarise rows into a value, such as COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN and MAX.
23
What is a RACI matrix?
Show answer
A table assigning Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed roles per task so ownership is clear.
24
How do you validate data before analysis?
Show answer
Check row counts against the source, nulls, duplicates on keys, value ranges, date coverage and that totals reconcile with finance reports.
25
SQL: total revenue per month.
Show answer
SELECT DATE_TRUNC('month', order_date) AS month, SUM(amount) AS revenue
FROM orders GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 1;
-- MySQL: DATE_FORMAT(order_date, '%Y-%m')
26
What is a break-even point?
Show answer
The sales volume where total revenue equals total cost. It equals fixed cost divided by contribution margin per unit.
27
How would you analyse the declining sales of a retail store?
Show answer
Break sales into footfall, conversion and average basket, compare with last year and competitors, and check stock, pricing, staffing and local events.
28
How would you decide whether to launch a new product?
Show answer
Assess market size and demand, customer need, competition, unit economics, capabilities, risks and strategic fit, then test with a pilot before scale-up.
29
How do you find duplicate customers?
Show answer
SELECT email, COUNT(*) FROM customers GROUP BY email HAVING COUNT(*) > 1;
30
What is the profit equation and how do you use it in cases?
Show answer
Profit = Revenue minus Cost, where revenue = price x volume and cost = fixed + variable. Split each part to find which one explains a change.
31
What is the difference between XLOOKUP and INDEX-MATCH?
Show answer
Both look up values flexibly; XLOOKUP is simpler with built-in not-found handling, while INDEX-MATCH works in older Excel versions.
32
What is a feasibility study?
Show answer
An early assessment of whether a proposed solution is technically, economically, operationally and legally viable before committing budget.
33
What is the use of the IFERROR function?
Show answer
It returns a custom value when a formula errors out, keeping reports clean, for example =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(...), "Not found").
34
Difference between INNER JOIN and LEFT JOIN?
Show answer
INNER returns only matching rows; LEFT returns all rows from the left table and NULLs where there is no match.
35
What is the 80/20 rule in business analysis?
Show answer
Pareto principle: about 80% of outcomes come from 20% of causes, such as most revenue from a few customers or most defects from a few issues.
36
A food delivery company's orders fell 15%. How do you investigate?
Show answer
Check data accuracy, then segment by city, restaurant, time and user type; look at supply, delivery time, pricing, competitors and seasonality before proposing fixes.
37
BRD vs FRD?
Show answer
A BRD states what the business needs and why. An FRD details how the system should behave to meet those needs (functional specifications).
38
What is the difference between OLTP and OLAP systems?
Show answer
OLTP handles many small day-to-day transactions; OLAP supports analysis over large historical data with aggregates and reporting.
39
How do you build a PivotTable to analyse sales by region and product?
Show answer
Create a table, insert a PivotTable, drag region to rows, product to columns, sales to values, and add slicers for month or channel.
40
What is the difference between revenue and profit?
Show answer
Revenue is total money from sales; profit is what remains after subtracting all costs and expenses.
41
Revenue grew but profit fell. Why could that happen?
Show answer
Look at the cost side: heavier discounts, higher CAC, logistics costs, product mix shifting to low-margin items, one-time expenses or pricing changes. Break contribution margin down by segment.
42
What is SQL and why do business analysts need it?
Show answer
A language for querying databases. BAs use it to pull data themselves, validate numbers, check reports and answer questions without waiting for engineers.
43
How do you calculate monthly revenue growth in SQL?
Show answer
Aggregate revenue per month and use LAG(revenue) OVER (ORDER BY month) to compute (revenue - previous) / previous.
44
What is a SWOT analysis?
Show answer
A framework listing internal Strengths and Weaknesses and external Opportunities and Threats to assess a project or business position.
45
How would you estimate the market size for an electric scooter in India?
Show answer
Top-down: two-wheeler market x EV share x addressable segment. Bottom-up: target households x adoption rate x price. Compare both for a sanity check.
46
How do you handle changing requirements?
Show answer
Log the change, assess impact on scope, cost and timeline, get approval through change control or backlog grooming, and update documents and stakeholders.
47
What is a product backlog vs a sprint backlog?
Show answer
The product backlog is the ordered list of all desired work; the sprint backlog is the subset the team commits to in the current sprint.
48
What is a primary key?
Show answer
A column or set of columns that uniquely identifies each row in a table and cannot contain NULL.
49
How do you validate that a report's numbers are correct?
Show answer
Reconcile totals with source tables using SQL, check filters and joins for duplication, compare with prior periods and verify with business owners.
50
What are the 4 Ps of marketing?
Show answer
Product, Price, Place and Promotion, the levers a business uses to bring an offering to market.
51
How would you price a new subscription product?
Show answer
Combine cost-plus, competitor benchmarks and willingness to pay from research, test tiers with experiments and check margin and churn impact.
52
How do you handle NULL values when calculating averages?
Show answer
AVG ignores NULLs; use COALESCE(col, 0) if NULLs should count as zero, depending on the business meaning.
53
What is a KPI and give examples for an e-commerce business?
Show answer
A measurable value showing progress to a goal, such as conversion rate, average order value, cart abandonment rate and customer retention.
54
Explain Porter's Five Forces.
Show answer
A model assessing industry attractiveness through supplier power, buyer power, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes and rivalry among competitors.
55
What is a subquery and when would you use it?
Show answer
A query nested inside another, used for filtering or calculating values such as customers whose spend is above the average.
56
A bank wants to reduce customer churn. What would you do?
Show answer
Define churn, analyse who leaves and why, segment customers, find drivers through data and surveys, design retention offers and measure uplift with a control group.
57
How do you protect a worksheet or workbook?
Show answer
Review > Protect Sheet or Workbook with a password, lock cells, hide formulas and allow only selected cells to be edited.
58
Use case vs user story?
Show answer
A use case describes the full interaction between an actor and the system (main and alternate flows). A user story is a short statement of need from the user's point of view, refined with acceptance criteria.