Context

Apple Retail transaction data supports reporting on sales, discounts, stores, products, and customer behavior. Interviewers ask this to evaluate whether you can translate operational retail data into an analytics-friendly warehouse design.

Core Question

Explain how you would design a data warehouse schema for Apple Retail transactions. Your answer should cover:

1. The grain of the central fact table
2. Which fact and dimension tables you would create
3. How you would handle transaction line items, returns, discounts, and time-based analysis
4. What keys, slowly changing dimensions, and common analytical queries the design should support

Scope Guidance

Keep the discussion practical and warehouse-focused rather than application-focused. The interviewer expects a clear dimensional model, tradeoffs between star and snowflake approaches, and how the schema enables common SQL analysis such as revenue by store, product performance, and customer purchase trends.