The scenario
A common opening: you're told a channel's CAC jumped 20% in the last month and asked to walk through how you'd figure out why before touching the budget. The conversation pushes on your reasoning, whether you'd check for a tracking issue, a change in the platform's auction dynamics, or an actual drop in lead quality, and what you'd look at first.
From there it can move into an A/B test with a lift that looks good but rests on a small sample, asking whether you'd ship the change or wait for more data.
If the employer's setup includes it, a written challenge follows with a short SQL task, something like pulling last month's spend and conversions by channel from a simple campaign table, scoped to a query a marketer would plausibly need, not a full engineering exercise.
What gets covered
Expect questions about defending a CAC or ROAS number under a follow-up, reading a dashboard or report that contains a plausible but wrong takeaway, and setting up an experiment so the result can actually be trusted. Where a written challenge applies, it's scoped to campaign-data SQL, pulling and grouping numbers a marketer would realistically need, rather than algorithms or system design.
This session never asks you to build software. It asks whether the numbers behind your channel and budget decisions actually check out.
Scoring
How scoring applies here
Technical carries real weight in this session, and the written reasoning behind the score reflects whether your CAC, ROAS, or test-reading logic held up, not whether you produced a polished-sounding answer that didn't survive a follow-up.
A written SQL challenge, when included, is scored on whether the query actually pulls the right data, with real execution behind it rather than a description of what a query would do. Communication still matters: a technically sound read of a dashboard that you can't explain to a non-analyst stakeholder doesn't fully do the job this role is hired for.
Frequently asked questions
Will I need to write code in this interview?
Not general software engineering code. Where a written challenge applies, it's typically scoped to SQL for pulling campaign data, something closer to what a marketing manager might actually need than a full engineering exercise.
What kind of math comes up?
CAC and ROAS reasoning under a budget reallocation scenario, and reading an A/B test or GA4 report correctly, including catching a conclusion that looks right on the surface but doesn't hold up.
Is this the same as a technical challenge?
No. The technical interview type is a spoken conversation about domain reasoning. Technical challenges are a separate written format that can include SQL with real execution, and the two often pair together in one session.
Do I need a SQL background to do well here?
Basic SQL helps if the employer's setup includes a written challenge, but the spoken portion of the session weighs more heavily on channel and analytics reasoning than on query syntax.
Related pages
Practice the budget and analytics math this role actually tests
Start a technical AI interview built around CAC, ROAS, and analytics reasoning, then work through a campaign-data SQL challenge if your practice session includes one.