Nick’s previously held Software & Data roles at Facebook, Google, & SafeGraph (a geospatial analytics startup).
Currently, he’s the best-selling author of Ace the Data Science Interview, and Founder & CEO of DataLemur.
Nick’s also active on LinkedIn, where he shares career tips with his 160,000+ followers.
SQL is very important to Fastly for managing databases for real-time edge computing services and analyzing huge amounts of network traffic data to find insights. So, when people apply for Data Science, Data Engineering, and Data Analytics jobs, Fastly almost always tests them on SQL problems.
So, here are 10 Fastly SQL interview questions to help you get ready for the real thing. How many can you name?
Getting a job at Fastly the leading edge cloud platform is a great move for any software engineer or technical professional. But first, you need to impress the recruiters and hiring managers to land the role.
This comprehensive guide will help you prepare for a Fastly interview by exploring commonly asked questions, and providing tips to help formulate winning responses.
Why Fastly Asks These Interview Questions
Fastly needs to hire engineers who can design, build and optimize their complex, high-performance cloud infrastructure The interview questions allow them to evaluate candidates on
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Technical Skills – Do you have expertise in relevant languages frameworks systems design concepts. etc? Can you solve complex coding challenges?
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Problem Solving – How do you approach troubleshooting issues or optimizing systems? Can you think through problems methodically?
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Learning Agility – Do you stay abreast of the latest technologies? How quickly can you ramp up on new languages and concepts?
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Communication – Can you explain technical concepts clearly and concisely to non-technical stakeholders?
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Culture Fit – Do you thrive in a fast-paced, innovative environment? Are you passionate about Fastly’s mission?
With these criteria in mind, let’s look at some of the most common Fastly interview questions and how to tackle them impressively.
Technical Questions
These questions test your hands-on skills and knowledge relevant to the role:
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Explain how Fastly’s edge cloud platform works.
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What experience do you have working with CDNs (content delivery networks)?
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How would you improve the performance of our service?
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What are some ways we could make our system more secure?
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How do you optimize code efficiency and scalability in high traffic environments?
Tips for Answering
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Demonstrate knowledge – Explain concepts like caching, request routing, load balancing etc. clearly. Show you understand Fastly’s architecture.
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Highlight relevant experience – Discuss specific projects where you’ve worked on performance optimization, scaling, security for CDNs/cloud infrastructure.
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Provide examples – Walk through real scenarios where you’ve diagnosed issues and improved system performance or stability. Demonstrate your technical depth.
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Discuss latest technologies – Share ideas on how emerging solutions like AI, edge computing etc. could be leveraged to enhance Fastly’s offerings.
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Use visuals – Supplement your explanations with diagrams/models of systems architecture, data flows etc. where helpful.
Coding & Problem Solving Questions
These questions evaluate your hands-on coding abilities and analytical thinking:
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Write a function to check if a binary tree is a valid binary search tree.
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How would you design a URL shortening service like TinyURL?
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Our API response times are steadily increasing. How would you debug this issue?
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Optimize this snippet of code to improve performance.
Tips for Answering
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Think out loud – Verbalize your thought process as you walk through the logic to solve coding challenges. This gives insights into your analytical abilities.
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Write working code – Strive to write clean, well-organized, syntactically correct code with your solutions. But pseudocode works too if you get stuck.
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Talk through examples – Use specific examples to demonstrate how you would test and debug issues step-by-step. Show your systematic approach.
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Discuss optimizations – Explain how you would improve performance by leveraging caching, algorithms, concurrent requests etc. in your code.
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Clarify questions – It’s fine to ask clarifying questions. The interviewer cares more about your process than getting the “right” solution quickly.
Behavioral & Culture Fit Questions
These questions evaluate your soft skills and your fit with Fastly’s culture:
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Tell me about a time you solved a complex technical problem. What was the outcome?
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How do you stay current on the latest technologies and industry trends?
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Describe a situation where you had to collaborate closely with team members. How did it go?
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Why do you want to work at Fastly? How do you think you’ll thrive here?
Tips for Answering
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Use real examples – Share specific stories that convey relevant soft skills like analytical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity etc.
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Quantify achievements – Use numbers to illustrate the tangible impact of projects you led or contributed to.
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Convey passion – Express genuine excitement for Fastly’s mission, culture and values. Show you’ve researched the company.
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Be authentic – Let your personality shine through. Fastly looks for candidates who are curious self-starters.
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Ask insightful questions – Inquire about opportunities to take on more responsibility, how teams operate, culture initiatives etc. This shows engagement.
Mastering the Fastly Coding Challenge
Many Fastly interviews involve an online technical coding challenge:
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Practice similar questions – Google for coding challenges from Fastly and similar tech companies. Practice these extensively.
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Write clean, well-organized code – Structure and comment your code like it will be maintained by others. Show you can create production-grade solutions.
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Think through edge cases – Carefully consider boundary conditions and error handling in your program logic. Probe edge cases.
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Be ready to walk through your code – Expect to explain your code and design decisions on follow-up video interviews.
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Stay calm – It’s normal to get stuck occasionally. Narrate your thinking, ask clarifying questions, and work through the problem methodically.
Ace Your Fastly Interview
With diligent preparation, you can confidently tackle any questions thrown your way. Keep these tips in mind:
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Research Fastly – Understand their products, underlying technologies, culture, and competitors.
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Hone your fundamentals – Brush up on foundational computer science and programming principles. Review algorithms.
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Practice technical questions – Rehearse explaining complex concepts clearly and concisely.
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Prepare examples – Identify stories that showcase your technical expertise and problem-solving skills.
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Do mock interviews – Practice whiteboarding solutions and answering questions out loud. Get feedback on areas to improve.
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Ask smart questions – Prepare thoughtful questions that show your understanding of Fastly’s business, technology, and the role.
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Be authentic – Let your passion and personality come through. Technical aptitude is key, but so is culture fit.
With extensive preparation and a positive attitude, you’ll be ready to tackle any Fastly interview question thrown your way! Best of luck!
SQL Question 8: Max Bandwidth Usage per Customer
As an engineer at Fastly, a company that helps businesses with cloud computing, you are asked to find out how much bandwidth each customer used the most in a certain month so that Fastly can see how busy their services are.
Use the below schema and data for the problem.
| usage_id | customer_id | time_stamp | bandwidth_in_GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 123 | 2022-06-08 00:00:00 | 23.5 |
| 02 | 265 | 2022-06-10 00:00:00 | 30.3 |
| 03 | 123 | 2022-06-18 00:00:00 | 28.1 |
| 04 | 265 | 2022-07-26 00:00:00 | 22.2 |
| 05 | 123 | 2022-07-05 00:00:00 | 20.5 |
| month | customer | max_bandwidth |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | 123 | 28.1 |
| 6 | 265 | 30.3 |
| 7 | 123 | 20.5 |
| 7 | 265 | 22.2 |
Here is a PostgreSQL query that will provide you the solution.
In the query, we extracted the month from and grouped the data by and the month. We then found the max bandwidth for each group sorted it by and month.
SQL Question 5: What are the various types of joins used in SQL?
If two or more tables share a key, you can use joins to bring together data from those tables.
Four JOIN types are available in SQL. Say you had access to two tables in a PostgreSQL database that stored sales data from Fastly’s Salesforce CRM. This would show you an example of each type.
- brings up rows from both tables where the shared key or keys match So, if you have an INNER JOIN between the Sales table and the Customers table, it will only get the rows where the customer_id in the Sales table matches the customer_id in the Customers table.
- gets all the rows from the left table (in this case, the sales table) and any rows that match from the right table (the table). If the right table doesn’t have a match, NULL values will be sent back for the columns in that table.
- : gets all the rows from the right table (this time, the customers table) and any rows that match from the left table (the sales table). If there is no match in the left table, the columns in the left table will get NULL values.
- brings back all the rows from both tables, even if the shared key or keys don’t match. If there isn’t a match, NULL values will be sent back for the columns of the table that doesn’t match.
Top 6 interview questions at Fastly and how to answer “Why Fastly”
FAQ
How do I answer why should I hire you?
