450 upvotes and 110 comments on Reddit said this is the question nobody wants to ask out loud. So let’s actually answer it.
A Reddit post appeared in r/dataanalysis that hit a nerve. Someone wrote: “Scared of an interview because I use Google a lot for SQL and Power BI.” It got 450 upvotes and 110 comments.
That’s not a small number. That’s hundreds of people saying — quietly, in the comments — me too.
So here’s the honest answer nobody gives you in prep guides: it depends entirely on what you’re Googling, and more importantly, what it signals about how you think.
What Interviewers Actually Care About
Most data analyst interviews — especially at mid-sized companies — are not testing whether you’ve memorised the syntax for a window function. They’re testing three things:
Can you break a vague business question into logical steps? Do you know which tables to join, which metric to calculate, and why? This is the thinking — and no Google search replaces it.
Can you explain what you’re doing and why? Talking through your approach out loud — even when you’re stuck — signals seniority far more than getting the syntax right on the first try.
Not memorised everything — but enough to know what you’re looking for when you look it up. There’s a big difference between Googling “how do I join two tables” and Googling “DATEDIFF syntax in MySQL.”
The Honest Split — What’s Fine vs What’s a Red Flag
Not all Googling is equal. Here’s the real breakdown:
- Exact function syntax (DATEDIFF, DATEADD, DATE_FORMAT)
- Which string functions exist in MySQL vs PostgreSQL
- Window function frame clauses (ROWS BETWEEN etc.)
- A specific DAX formula you use occasionally
- How to format a specific chart type in Power BI
- Keyboard shortcuts or UI locations in a tool
- “What is a JOIN” or “what does GROUP BY do”
- Googling how to approach the problem itself
- Looking up what CTEs are or when to use them
- Searching for what metric to use for a business question
- Googling concepts from your own CV or portfolio
- Not knowing what the query you just wrote does
The pattern is simple. Syntax is fine. Concepts are not. If you have to Google what a LEFT JOIN does, that signals the foundational understanding isn’t there yet. If you Google the exact parameter order for DATEDIFF() — that’s just being thorough.
Ask yourself: if you found the answer, would you understand it immediately? If yes — go ahead and look it up. If you’d need to read it three times to understand what it means — that’s the gap to work on before the interview.
What to Actually Memorise (And What to Stop Worrying About)
Here’s a practical breakdown of what’s worth drilling vs what you can safely look up in the real world — and in most interviews:
| Topic | Memorise This | Fine to Look Up |
|---|---|---|
| JOINs | When to use INNER vs LEFT vs RIGHT, what NULL rows mean | CROSS JOIN, FULL OUTER JOIN syntax specifics |
| Aggregations | SUM, COUNT, AVG, MIN, MAX — when each applies | Statistical functions like STDDEV, VARIANCE |
| Window Functions | ROW_NUMBER, RANK, DENSE_RANK, NTILE, SUM OVER — concepts and use cases | ROWS BETWEEN frame syntax, LAG/LEAD exact parameters |
| Date Functions | That DATEDIFF, DATE_ADD, YEAR(), MONTH() exist and what they do | Exact syntax and parameter order per database |
| CTEs | What they are, why you’d use them over subqueries, how to chain them | Recursive CTE syntax |
| NULL handling | IS NULL, IS NOT NULL, COALESCE, NULLIF — concepts and use | Edge cases in specific databases |
| Power BI / DAX | CALCULATE, SUMX, FILTER, relationship types, measure vs calculated column | Specific time intelligence function parameters |
How to Handle It In the Room
If you’re in an interview — technical or otherwise — and you need to look something up, here’s the move:
“I know I need DATEDIFF here — I just want to double-check the parameter order in MySQL before I write it.” That one sentence tells the interviewer you know what you’re doing and why. You’re not lost — you’re being precise. That’s a green flag, not a red one.
Before writing a single line — talk through what tables you need, what you’re joining on, what metric you’re calculating. Even if your syntax is wrong, demonstrating the right thinking earns more credit than correct syntax with no explanation.
Seriously. Just ask: “Is this an open-resource exercise, or are you testing recall?” Most interviewers at analyst-level roles will say yes to resources — because that’s how the job actually works. And asking the question itself shows self-awareness.
The Bigger Picture
Here’s what the anxiety around Googling is really about: imposter syndrome dressed up as a technical question.
The fear isn’t “what if they see me Google DATEDIFF.” The fear is “what if they find out I don’t really know what I’m doing.” And that fear is worth addressing directly — not by memorising more syntax, but by building genuine understanding of the concepts underneath.
When you understand why you’d use a window function instead of a subquery, or why HAVING exists separately from WHERE — Googling the syntax stops feeling like a confession and starts feeling like what it actually is: efficient working practice.
Every working data analyst Googles things. Every single one. The difference is they Google syntax, not concepts. Build the concepts. Let Google handle the rest.
The best way to internalise SQL concepts is to use them on real data. Check out the Contoso Retail SQL Analysis — it covers CTEs, window functions, JOINs, and aggregations across 10 real business questions.