Job simulation 1: agree what revenue means

Your stakeholder brief

The operations manager says: “January revenue is 410 on one dashboard and 375 on another. Which is correct?” You have six orders and four refund events. Amounts are fictional whole EUR, excluding tax and shipping. The exercise is deliberately small enough to check by hand. This is a teaching metric, not a financial reporting policy.

Make the contract explicit

Use completed orders placed during January, with start inclusive and February 1 exclusive. Define gross as completed order amount. Define January net order value as gross less refunds on those orders recorded before February 1. A later refund belongs to a later as-of view; do not silently change the cutoff. Cancelled orders contribute neither revenue nor the completed-order denominator.

Inspect the actual source

Paste this fixture into a fresh local SQLite database. Do not run CREATE TABLE against an existing work database. No download or third-party account is required. Read the rows even if you cannot run SQLite.

CREATE TABLE orders(order_id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,customer TEXT,ordered_at TEXT,status TEXT,amount INTEGER);
CREATE TABLE refunds(refund_id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,order_id TEXT,refunded_at TEXT,amount INTEGER);
INSERT INTO orders VALUES
('o1','A','2026-01-01','completed',100),
('o2','A','2026-01-02','completed',60),
('o3','B','2026-01-03','completed',80),
('o4','B','2026-01-04','cancelled',40),
('o5','C','2026-01-05','completed',120),
('o6','C','2026-01-06','completed',50);
INSERT INTO refunds VALUES
('r1','o2','2026-01-10',10),
('r2','o2','2026-01-11',5),
('r3','o5','2026-01-12',20),
('r4','o1','2026-02-02',25);

Try before checking

Write a six-line metric contract: business question, one-row grain, status rule, date window, refund cutoff and denominator. Name the timezone/export assumptions you would ask about in real work. Predict both totals, count completed orders, and explain why a refunded order is still an order.

Interview checkpoint

Answer in 90 seconds: “I would not choose a dashboard before agreeing the metric. Here the 35 difference is explained by included refunds. I checked order grain, statuses and cutoff, then reconciled 410 minus 35 to 375.” State that this is a fictional training case when describing it in a portfolio. Continue with Job simulation 2 in this career studio.