30 Product Analyst Interview Questions

Here are 30 Product Analyst Interview Questions and answers, including Python, SQL, A/B Testing, Probability and Statistics, and Product Questions.

What is a Product Analyst?

A product analyst is a member of a data science family of jobs. They analyze product data to make recommendations on product development and updates, its launching, and marketing.

There are three distinct tasks most product analysts will have.

Responsibilities of a Product Analyst

Preparing Reports

Product analysts prepare reports, such as sales reports, by analyzing data with analytical tools and interpreting it using statistical techniques.

Product Analysis

They will assess the companies' products, for example, by doing a product failure analysis. Also, they will recommend different products according to these results of reports.

Customer Data Analysis

Also, to identify customer needs, product analysts analyze the customer data and do market research. According to the results, they will recommend different products. They will also make a customer segmentation to help the company's marketing strategy.

Product Analyst Skills

Technical Skills

• SQL: When making business decisions, first, you have to get your data from the database.
• Python: After getting your data, turning it into an analyzable shape, and doing further analysis.
• A/B Testing : When making a business decision, A/B testing is used to assess different variants of the product.
• Product Questions: If you will analyze product data, first better to have prior knowledge about it.
• Statistics and Probability Questions: To make a decision after doing hypothesis testing or when comparing products by making interpretations accordingly.

Soft Skills

• Analytical Thinking: Data analysis includes many statistic and probability questions among with coding skills. So analytical thinking also is dependent on your technical skills.
• Problem-Solving: When analyzing the Data, asking the right questions and having the ability to break down complex problems is essential for product data analyst.
• Communication: After turning data into meaningful information, the Product Data Analyst needs to share it with their and other teams within a company.

In product analyst interviews, product managers try measuring your analytical skills.

Product Analyst Interview Process

The product analyst interview process differs from company to company. However, in general, you could expect three different interview stages:

• HR Meeting
• Hiring Manager Interview
• Technical Interview

First HR Meeting, which is mostly about explaining your skills, experience, and salary expectations. Generally, don’t expect any technical questions here. Maybe one question requiring some high-level explanation, just to make sure you don’t think SQL means ‘Somebody Quickly Left’.

The second stage is the Hiring Manager Interview. The hiring Manager will explain the position's details, ask you about your experience (Product, Statistic Probability, and A/B Testing Questions), and test your skills.

This section might be before or after the technical interview, according to the company you are interviewing.

In Technical Interview, your SQL and Python knowledge will be tested. This included coding and non-coding questions.

In this article, I will give an example of these questions, which will help you succeed in the Product Analyst interview.

Product Analyst Interview Questions

Basic Product Analyst Interview Questions

1. Can you tell me the situation in which you solved a complicated problem?

Interviewers ask this question to measure your problem-solving skills. Preparing that question helps you familiarize yourself with business problem-solving questions. Before answering these questions, try to think that one in three steps:

• When did you face that problem?
• What is the problem?
• What was your solution to that problem?

Here are 8 Common problem-solving interview questions.

2. How would you present our products to a customer?

Now here are these 4 steps to help you answer that question:

• Do your research
• Target your audience
• Create a powerful message
• Use visuals while presenting
  

Here are expanding versions of product promotion in 12 ways.

3. What qualifications do you think product analysts should have?

Try emphasizing your skills along with Product Analysis must-have skills. Giving characteristic examples like problem-solving and analytical skills should be supported with provable programming knowledge like SQL and Python.

4. Tell us a little bit about your past project as a Product analyst.

When discussing your past project, there are three important things to figure out.

• Project structure and purpose
• Tools
• Your role

Try to focus on answering these questions when preparing an answer to the interview question.

5. What was your biggest mistake in your career as a Product Analyst?

Here, it is important to focus on the time when you solved this mistake and what you learned from it. Do not emphasize the mistake; try focusing on where you improved yourself.

Advanced Product Analyst Interview Questions

SQL Product Analyst Interview Questions

Non-Coding Questions

6. Database Normalization

Deloitte asks you to explain database normalization processes.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2330-database-normalization

Solution

1NF: Each cell should contain a single value, and records need to be a unique
2NF: All non-key attributes are fully dependent on the primary key
3NF: There will be no transitive functional dependencies; hence we will remove them.
BCNF(Boyce-Codd Normal Form): It is a higher version of 3NF. It will solve the anomaly that was not solved by 3NF.
4NF: When the database table instance does not contain two or more independent and multivalued data other than a candidate key.

(NF: stands for Normal Form.)

7. Table Joins

Deloitte asks you to explain the difference between the Cartesian product and outer join.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2387-table-joins

Solution

Cross Join(Cartesian Product)

• Returns the table where each row of the left table joins with each row of the right table.

It makes all possible pairs.

• Returns all the rows from both tables.
• Matching rows: Both tables merged.
• No matching rows in the left table: The right table is filled with nulls.

No matching rows in the right table: The left table is filled with nulls.

Coding Questions

To shake things a bit, we’ll diverge from our usual course – instead of coding in PostgreSQL, we’ll do it in MySQL.

8. Products with No Sales

This product analyst interview question is asked by Amazon and wants you to find the ID and market name of the products that have not had any sales.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding/2109-products-with-no-sales

Data

The first table provided by the question is fct_customer_sales. The table has the following columns.

The data preview is shown below.

The second table is dim_product, and the table contains the following columns.

The data preview is shown below.

Solution Approach

1. SELECT the prod_sku_id and the market_name columns FROM dim_product
2. RIGHT JOIN and merge two data tables
3. ON prod_sku_id
4. WHERE - set prod_sku_id to NULL to find zero sales

Coding

1. SELECT the id and the market name FROM dim_product

SELECT d.prod_sku_id, d.market_name
FROM  dim_product d

2. RIGHT JOIN to merge both tables so that dim_product is your right table

SELECT d.prod_sku_id, d.market_name
FROM  fct_customer_sales f
RIGHT JOIN dim_product d

3. ON – the merge will be on prod_sku_id

SELECT d.prod_sku_id, d.market_name
FROM  fct_customer_sales f
RIGHT JOIN dim_product d
ON f.prod_sku_id = d.prod_sku_id

4. WHERE – to find zero sales, set f.prod_sku_id IS null

SELECT d.prod_sku_id, d.market_name
FROM  fct_customer_sales f
RIGHT JOIN dim_product d
ON f.prod_sku_id = d.prod_sku_id
WHERE  f.prod_sku_id IS null

Output

9. Apple Product Counts

Google asks this product analyst interview question where you need to find the Apple product users and the number of total users with a device and then group the counts by language.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding/10141-apple-product-counts

Data

The first table is playbook_events, and it contains the following columns.

The data preview is shown below.

The second table is playbook_users; here are the table columns.

The data preview is shown below.

Solution Approach

1. SELECT language and user_id to find the number, and use COUNT() with DISTINCT to find unique values.
2. Continue using DISTINCT with CASE block and count Apple devices
3. FROM playbook_users - select the table
4. JOIN with playbook_events - merge with the second table
5. ON user_id
6. GROUP BY - finally, group by language

Coding

Use the widget and try finding the answer on your own.

Output

10. Product Market Share

Amazon wants you to find Product Market Share at the Product Brand level for each Territory for Q4-2021.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding/2112-product-market-share

Data

The first table is fct_customer_sales, and the table contains the following columns.

The data preview is shown below.

The second table is dim_product and contains the following columns;

The data preview is also shown below.

Finally, the third table is map_customer_territory.

The data preview is also shown below.

Solution Approach

1. SELECT territory_id, prod_brand, count, then use the COUNT() and SUM() window function to find the market share by territory
2. Use all three tables
3. Use WHERE to find brands with at least one sale related to Q4-2021
4. Group by the territory and brand

Coding

Use the widget and try finding the answer on your own.

Output

Python Product Analyst Interview Questions

Non-Coding Question

11. Linked List and Array

This question is from Amazon and asks you to find the differences between a linked list and an array.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2074-linked-list-and-array

Solution Approach

This problem can be explained by the comparison table.

12. Comprehension in Python

Pearson asks this question to assess your list comprehension knowledge in Python.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2184-comprehension-in-python

Solution Approach

List comprehension is used to create a list with shortened syntax in Python. This method makes your code looks neat. You can use list comprehension to filter the list.

When you are in a situation to adjust your computation power, it is good to know that it is faster than loops.

Coding Questions

13. Most Lucrative Products

This question is asked by Facebook/Meta to asses your knowledge to explore and manipulate the data frames by finding the 5 most lucrative products.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding/2119-most-lucrative-products

Data

The table provided by the question is online_orders. The table has the following columns.

The data preview is shown below.

Solution Approach

1. First, calculate the total sales by multiplying cost_in_dollars with units_sold
2. Then groupby the total sales and sum it, reset_index afterward to remove indexes
3. Add column ranking by using the rank method on the total column
4. Filter the required raking when selecting rank and sort_values in descending order

Coding

1) Calculate the total sales

Now, first, let’s calculate the total sales by multiplying cost_in_dollars with units_sold.

online_orders['total'] = online_orders['cost_in_dollars'] * online_orders['units_sold']

2) Group by the product and sum the units sold

Okay, now it is time to group the Facebook sales by the product ID, select the total column and calculate the sum with the agg method, and reset the index for ranking afterward. And we will store the information in the products.

online_orders['total'] = online_orders['cost_in_dollars'] * online_orders['units_sold']
products = online_orders.groupby(by="product_id")[["total"]].agg(func="sum").reset_index()

3) Rank the products by sale

Now, add the ranking column by using the rank method in the total column, which we will use in the next step to select the 5 most lucrative products.

online_orders['total'] = online_orders['cost_in_dollars'] * online_orders['units_sold']
products = online_orders.groupby(by="product_id")[["total"]].agg(func="sum").reset_index()
products['ranking'] = products['total'].rank(method='min', ascending=False)

4) Find the top 5 products

Find the most lucrative products by sorting values according to the product ID and the total sales, which we defined earlier. Use the ranking and filter it to define the top 5.

online_orders['total'] = online_orders['cost_in_dollars'] * online_orders['units_sold']
products = online_orders.groupby(by="product_id")[["total"]].agg(func="sum").reset_index()
products['ranking'] = products['total'].rank(method='min', ascending=False)
result = products[products['ranking'] <= 5][['product_id', 'total']].sort_values('total', ascending=False)

Output

14. The Most Expensive Products Per Category

This question was asked by Amazon in the interviews. Here, Amazon tests your data manipulation and analysis skills.

It asks you to find the most expensive products per category.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding/9607-the-most-expensive-products-per-category

Data

The table provided by the question is innerwear_amazon_com. The table has the following columns.
The data preview is shown below.

Solution Approach

1. Adjust the price column by using the replace method and turn the type to float by using the astype method
2. Locate the most expensive product by using the loc method, with groupby
3. The output should contain the columns product_category, product name, and price

Coding

Use the widget and try finding the answer on your own.

Expected Output

15. Apple Product Counts

Google asks in their interviews this question. It requires a high level of data manipulation skills to find the Apple product counts.

Does this sound familiar? Actually, in the SQL section, you solved this problem. You may be asked to solve the same question in the interview with Python and SQL.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/coding/10141-apple-product-counts

Data

We have 2 different data frames.

Our first data frame is playbook_events.

The second data frame is playbook_users.

Here’s the data.

Solution Approach

1. Merge the data frames on user_id
2. Define a list as mac_device, for further filtering, containing the Apple product names
3. Define df and group the users by language, select their user_id, and find the unique ones; use the isin and to_frame methods
4. Define the results by grouping the merged dataframe by language and user_id and finding unique ones
5. Merge the df on language, fill the N/A with zeros and sort_values by n_total_users, and select language, n_apple_users, and n_total_users.

Coding

Use the widget and try finding the answer on your own.

Expected Output

After doing that much analysis, good to remind you that there are Data Analyst Interview Questions for you if you wish to pursue a career in that way.

A/B Testing Interview Questions for Product Analysts

16. What are Type I and Type II errors?

Type I error: Also called False Positive and happens when you reject a Null Hypothesis that is actually true. For example, when the test indicates that you are ill but you are not.

Type II error: Also called False Negative. It’s when you accept a Null Hypothesis that actually you should reject. For example, when the test says you are not ill, but you are.

Here, you can see Type I And Type II Errors In A/B Testing And How To Avoid Them.

17. What are the steps of A/B testing?

The steps are:

• Collect Data
• Set the Goal
• Create Control and Test Group
• Define the Hypothesis
• Test the Hypothesis
• Analyze The Outcome

Also, you can see here the steps of A/B testing.

18. When to do A/B testing?

A/B testing is used to find which version of the product will serve your goal in a given field. The main purpose is to find the best performance outcome according to your project needs.

Here are other possible situations in that you might want to do A/B testing.

19. Can you give me an example of A/B testing?

Now let’s analyze Netflix. You probably noticed when using Netflix that the thumbnail of the films is constantly changing. The main reason behind this is to test which thumbnail the user will prefer. That is a common example of A/B testing.

Here is a sample of the A/B test being done by Netflix.

20. Tell us about a successful A/B test you designed.

When preparing for an interview, it’s good to evaluate your past experience with A/B testing. It’s common for the product manager to ask this question during the interview. To answer it, try showing your analytical skills with your past experience.

Also, do not forget to mention the challenges you faced and how to overcome them.

Here are other A/B testing interview questions that cover A/B testing deeply.

Product Interview Questions

21. Daily Active Users

Twitch asks this product analyst interview question to see how you would frame this possible problem, which is the Daily Active Users drop.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2322-daily-active-users

Solution

Now, the first step should be to define the possible reasons behind this drop. Is this problem internal or external?

• If it is an internal problem,
  • Try finding all technical problems that might be related to this users drop.
• If it is an external problem,
  • Check the market; maybe a significant competitor entered the market, and users decided to move there.
  • See if there was an event that happened that affected your users.
  • Check the same periods in other years to see if this is a seasonal event, e.g., due to vacations.

22. Favorite Product or App

Uber asks about your favorite product in an interview. Also, they would like to know how you would improve this product.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2192-favorite-product-or-app

Solution

Give the name of your favorite product first and try answering the following questions.

• Why do you like this product?
• What is the competitor of the company of your product?
• Why did you choose this product?

To describe how you would improve it or design it, try answering the following questions first, it might give you a clue.

• If you can choose features from the competitors, what would it be?
• If you have to change one feature of the product, what would it be?

23. Ad Success Metrics

Instagram asks you to measure the success of an Instagram ad by choosing a metric. The question is, what is that metric?

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2308-ad-success-metrics

Solution

Now, try to ask yourself what are the metrics of the Instagram ad. They can be:

• Profile visit
• Website click
• Follow
• Accounts reached

And second, why do you use Instagram ad?

For example,

• To gain followers
• To increase the number of your website visitors

Actually, the success metrics depend on the reason behind your Instagram ad usage.

Most of the time, the aim of the success metric is gaining followers, yet if you sell products online, the reason behind this might be website clicks.

24. Identify Ebay Objects

How would you identify the cameras from other objects? What will be your method? eBay asks this question in an interview.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2075-identify-ebay-objects

Solution

Now, let’s frame the problem. The main thing is identifying an object from the data.

First, you can identify an object by Computer Vision. The technique behind this is Computer object detection. Computer Vision uses algorithms to identify objects in given media, such as video or photo.

Second, you can compare the products' descriptions using Natural Language Processing techniques. It will define a product by comparing them with similarity metrics like euclidean distance or cosine similarity.

25. Fake News on Facebook

Meta asks you to find the estimate of fake news on Facebook and how it impacts the users.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2350-fake-news-on-facebook

Solution

Let’s develop an approach. First, let's define what is fake news and what is not.

Then, it is good to find the source of fake news. To do that, we will detect which accounts produce fake news and classify their news as fake. We can detect these accounts by mining the text from the comments on their posts by using keywords like “fake”, “not real”, and “not true”.

Of course, some legit accounts can be suspended, but the fake news numbers will totally decrease after that action.

If you want to see more, here are Product Interview Questions.

Statistics and Probability Interview Questions for Product Analysts

26. Interpret P-Value

Amazon asks you to explain P-Value to an engineer.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2166-interpret-p-value

Solution

P value is the possibility that your Null hypothesis is true. Typically, if < 0.05, you would reject the null hypothesis. Otherwise, you would reject the alternative hypothesis.

What is the Null Hypothesis?

The null hypothesis means that everything is fine.

What is an alternative hypothesis?

An alternative hypothesis simply means something is going on.

Example

Now, to explain it to the engineer, let’s give a related example.

Suppose you will calculate the viscosity of the oil in different conditions. Typically, coconut oil's viscosity should be 27.6 at 40 °C.

Null Hypothesis: Your viscosity will be  27.6 in 40 °C. ( Everything is fine.)

Alternative Hypothesis: No, it will be higher. (Something going on.).

To test the null hypothesis, of course, experiments will be conducted.

In this example, the p-value is the possibility of the coconut oil's viscosity being 27.6 at 40 °C.

27. Comparing Two Groups

Glassdoor asks you to compare two groups and decide on what statistical methods you will use to find the differences or similarities.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2343-comparing-two-groups

Solution

Now, there can be several answers to this question.

• For two continuous variables from different populations, there are two different options.
  • Two-Sample t-Test

To conduct a T-test, the variables should be;

• Independent, randomly selected, continuous, and normally distributed.
• Mann Whitney U Test

Requirements;

• The variables are not normally distributed.
• More than two continuous variables.
  • ANOVA

To conduct the ANOVA test, the variables should be;

• Independent
• Randomly selected
• Normally distributed
• Categorical and associated variables
  • Chi-Square Test of Independence

The test conditions;

• Variables should be discrete or categorical,
• Sample sizes should be enough.
• Randomly selected samples.

28. Definition of Variance

Microsoft asks you the definition of variance.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2243-definition-of-variance

Solution

The variance simply gives a clue as to how much your variables expand from their averages. If this answer is not enough for your interviewer, take a look at the question solution to learn how you can answer in a more elaborate way.

29. Cost of Discount Coupons

Lyft asks you to calculate the expected cost for the company.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2310-cost-of-discount-coupons

Solution

Now, to calculate this question, we will use the expected value of the binomial distribution. The expected value of a variable can be calculated as;

N * P,
N: the number of customers.
P: is the probability of the customer using that coupon.

That’s why the expected cost of the company (E)  is

E = 5 * N * P

30. OLS Assumptions

Capital One asks you to explain the assumptions made by Ordinary Least Squares.

Link to the question: https://platform.stratascratch.com/technical/2323-ols-assumptions

Solution

This method is used to calculate the parameters in a linear regression model.

Here are the assumptions made by Ordinary Least Squares:

• Linearity
• Avoid Multicollinearity
• Normality of Errors
• Avoid Endogeneity
• No Autocorrelation

If you feel that you want to see more of these questions, here are Probability and Statistics Interview Questions.

Summary

In this article, you see many different product analyst interview questions to help you to get ready for your interview.  Preparing for an interview allows you to be straightforward and confident, which increases your chances.

Also, if you are at the beginning of your preparation, do not worry. Remember, Rome wasn't built in one day, so stick with StrataScratch, and slowly you’ll get there.