Budget vs Actual Variance Report | Dataford Interview Questions

FinSight tracks department spending in a single budgeting table. Write a SQL query to report departments where actual spending differs from projected budget.

Requirements

Return each department with its total projected budget, total actual spend, and the variance (actual_spend - projected_budget).
Include only departments where the totals do not match.
Add a status column that shows Over Budget when actual spend is greater than projected budget, otherwise Under Budget.
Order the results by absolute variance descending, then by department name.

Schema

department_budget_actuals

Column	Type	Description
idPK	INT	Primary key for each budget record
department	VARCHAR(100)	Department name
projected_budget	DECIMAL(12,2)	Projected budget amount for the record
actual_spend	DECIMAL(12,2)	Actual expenditure amount for the record
report_month	DATE	Reporting month for the budget entry
cost_center	VARCHAR(50)	Cost center associated with the record

Your question is Budget vs Actual Variance Report. Start with the requirements and the one table in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.

Problem

FinSight tracks department spending in a single budgeting table. Write a SQL query to report departments where actual spending differs from projected budget.

Requirements

Return each department with its total projected budget, total actual spend, and the variance (actual_spend - projected_budget).
Include only departments where the totals do not match.
Add a status column that shows Over Budget when actual spend is greater than projected budget, otherwise Under Budget.
Order the results by absolute variance descending, then by department name.

Schema

department_budget_actuals

Column	Type	Description
idPK	INT	Primary key for each budget record
department	VARCHAR(100)	Department name
projected_budget	DECIMAL(12,2)	Projected budget amount for the record
actual_spend	DECIMAL(12,2)	Actual expenditure amount for the record
report_month	DATE	Reporting month for the budget entry
cost_center	VARCHAR(50)	Cost center associated with the record

Your question is Budget vs Actual Variance Report. Start with the requirements and the one table in the Question tab.

Run and submit as often as you like. When you're ready, talk me through your approach or go straight to the code.