Highest Grade For Each Student
A medium-tier problem at 71% community acceptance, tagged with Database. Reported in interviews at Coursera and 0 others.
You're hitting a database problem on your Coursera OA. Highest Grade For Each Student is a GROUP BY query with a twist: you need to handle ties and return multiple rows per student without duplicating effort. It's medium difficulty, so the initial instinct to just max() and group feels right until you realize the problem wants all instances where a student hit their personal peak. If you blank on the window function or subquery pattern during the live assessment, StealthCoder solves it in seconds while the proctor sees nothing.
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Highest Grade For Each Student is the kind of problem that decides whether you pass. StealthCoder reads the problem on screen and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Invisible to screen share. The proctor sees nothing. Made by a working Amazon engineer who got tired of watching qualified friends bomb OAs they'd solve cold in an IDE.
Get StealthCoderThe trap is thinking one row per student. You're actually returning every grade entry that matches each student's maximum. The standard approach uses a subquery to find the max grade per student, then join back to filter only those rows. Or you can use window functions like ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY student ORDER BY grade DESC) and filter where rank = 1. Most candidates start with a simple GROUP BY and MAX(), which compiles but fails test cases where a student has multiple grades tied at the maximum. The real complexity is SQL dialect quirks: some databases disallow non-aggregated columns in GROUP BY without a window function. During a live OA, hitting that wall costs minutes. StealthCoder reads the schema and returns the working pattern instantly.
Pattern tags
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Highest Grade For Each Student recycles across companies for a reason. It's medium-tier, and most candidates blank under the timer. StealthCoder is the hedge: an AI overlay invisible during screen share. It reads the problem and surfaces a working solution in under 2 seconds. Made by a working Amazon engineer who got tired of watching qualified friends bomb OAs they'd solve cold in an IDE. Works on HackerRank, CodeSignal, CoderPad, and Karat.
Highest Grade For Each Student interview FAQ
Is this really asked at Coursera?+
Yes, Coursera has reported this problem. It's their kind of schema: enrollment, grades, student records. Medium difficulty at Coursera suggests it's a real screening filter, not a warmup. You should expect it.
What's the trick if a student has multiple grades tied at the max?+
Return all of them. GROUP BY with MAX() only gives one row per group; you need a subquery or window function to preserve tied rows. Common miss: candidates write GROUP BY student, MAX(grade) and return only the max value, forgetting duplicates exist.
Should I use a subquery or window function?+
Both work. Subquery is clearer on older databases; window function is faster on modern SQL. For Coursera, test with sample data first. If your database is PostgreSQL or MySQL 8+, window functions execute faster. Subqueries are safer if you're unsure of the dialect.
How does this relate to other database problems I've seen?+
It combines GROUP BY (Database topic) with filtering on aggregates, which requires either a subquery in FROM or a window function. It's a level up from basic GROUP BY and teaches you why subqueries and window functions exist.
What's the acceptance rate telling me?+
71% is solid, suggesting it's approachable but not trivial. Most candidates who see the pattern solve it; the gap is people who get tripped up by ties or SQL syntax. Prep the window function version and you're ahead.
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