How to prepare for a data analyst interview in one month
A month is enough to build a habit, not just to review: about an hour a day, plus one longer weekend session for the work week. Give the daily hour to SQL first — most analyst interviews start there.
Week 1 — map the job, start SQL
about 1 hour a day
- Paste the posting into Prepare for a job: the topics its interviews will likely cover become your plan, and the readiness report starts tracking them — Ready, Almost or Gap per requirement.
- Start SQL 30 from the warm-up, a section every two days. Solve the daily problem each morning to keep the streak going.
- Write down every pattern you had to look up. That list is Week 2.
Week 2 — finish SQL, add Pandas
about 1 hour a day
- Finish SQL 30: dates, top-N and window functions, then funnels, retention and A/B tests. Redo the problems from your Week 1 list without hints.
- Python or Pandas in the posting? Pandas 20 from the warm-up, or Python problems a few at a time.
- Weekend session: the work week at Carrot, a practice grocery delivery company — about 2–3 hours of emails with deadlines, SQL on its database and an A/B test to decide on.
Week 3 — cases, metrics and A/B
about 1 hour a day
- Every other day, one case without an interviewer: write your plan, compare it with the strong candidate’s walkthrough, note what you missed.
- Metrics from the posting: a cheat sheet card a day — formula, what moves it, what breaks it — then explain it to someone without the card.
- Posting mentions a take-home assignment? Do one take-home case this week, with a deadline you set yourself.
- First mock interview: the stage you fear most. Read the debrief and fix what it flags.
Week 4 — rehearse by stage
about 1 hour a day
- A mock interview per stage the posting points to — SQL, product case, A/B, Python, behavioral. A free account includes one; the Pro pass adds more.
- Fix the bugs in a colleague’s query, notebook and function — skip the function if the posting has no Python. Reading code fast is a skill of its own.
- Readiness report: close every Gap on a topic the posting names. Then stories, questions for the interviewer, and two light days before the interview.
Behind by a week? Keep the daily SQL hour, one work week and one mock interview; drop Pandas unless the posting insists.
By the end of the month you can say yes to
Not checked? That topic gets the last week’s daily hour; the rest stays as it is.
Paste your posting
Offer shows the topics its interviews will likely cover and builds a plan for that job. Free, no card.