Write a SQL query to find the top 5 merchants by transaction volume in the last quarter from a transactions table with columns: transaction_id, merchant_id, transaction_date, amount. Explain your approach.
Why This Is Asked
This question assesses foundational data extraction skills essential for a Business Analyst in fintech; no verbatim Maya question is publicly documented, but SQL proficiency is a confirmed technical screening topic.
General Approach
Outline the SQL logic step-by-step, mention handling of date filters and aggregation, and briefly discuss performance considerations to show depth.
Sample STAR Answer▾
Situation
At my previous role in a fintech startup, our operations team needed a weekly report on the highest-grossing merchants to prioritize partnership outreach.
Task
I had to extract the top 5 merchants by total transaction volume from our database for the most recent quarter, ensuring accuracy and efficiency.
Action
I wrote a SQL query grouping by merchant_id, summing the amount, filtering for the last quarter using date functions, ordering by total amount descending, and limiting to 5. I validated the results by cross-checking with a few known high-volume merchants and optimized the query by indexing transaction_date and merchant_id.
Result
The report was generated in under 2 seconds and helped the partnerships team close three new deals, increasing merchant acquisition by 15% that quarter.
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