Member Avatar for berbatov

Hi everyone I am new to this forum hopefully someone can shed some light on this vague scenario for a test to get an interview for a company. I dont know for what to do at all stuck please could someone help it would mean alot thank you:

Scenario: A report is required to summarise a week's sales in a supermarket. A log is kept of sold items against time. Each item belongs to one or more categories. The report must give totals by category as well as by item.

Briefly describe what steps you could go through to produce the report. Are there multiple solutions to the problem? Identify the pros and cons of each.

1. Log Table [item, time] 5 million records (item against time stamp, item not unique)
2. Mapping Table [item, cat_id] 1500 records (many to many)
3. Category Table [cat_id, cat_label] 300 records cat_id is primary key
4. Item Table [item, item_label] 1000 records item is primary key

Example Results for given time period:

Bakery 235 Buns 120 Loaves 85 Cakes 30Dairy 168 Milk 103 Butter 65

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Member Avatar for Salem

Is this some "fresh out of college, lowest rung of the ladder, lot's of training required type of position"?
If it is, then enthusiasm and a little research might get you in.

If it's a more senior role, and they're expecting you to be useful from day 1, then you're gonna come unstuck.

> hopefully someone can shed some light on this vague scenario for a test to get an interview for a company
And then what?

Your ideal scenario seems to be that if you can give a smart answer provided by someone else, you'll get the job.

This may well be true, but then what?

"We'd liked your answer so much, we'd like you to implement it".
What's your next move?

Running back to the forum asking for help to keep a job you're not qualified for, which you got on the basis of false pretences (knowing something you didn't).

Here's how it works - you post what you think the answers should be, then we might provide some critique on your analysis and perhaps ask some more questions to help you think your way through the problem.

The problems presented in job interviews are pale shadows of the problems the companies deal with on a daily basis. So unless you can pretty much 'ace the test' on your own (today), you're going to be hopelessly equipped to deal with what comes afterwards.

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