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Efficient Watch-Time Calculation
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Efficient Watch-Time Calculation

MediumSQL · PostgreSQL

Problem

What is an efficient way to compute how much time someone has watched a movie in Python?

For this SQL version, calculate valid watched time from playback session offsets, including open sessions and offsets outside the movie duration. Exclude sessions without valid viewer or movie matches and sessions with no positive duration.

Output

  1. One row per viewer and movie with valid watch time.
  2. Columns: viewer_id, viewer_name, movie_id, title, total_watched_seconds, and watch_percentage.
  3. Sort by viewer_id, then movie_id, both ascending.

Schema

viewers
ColumnTypeDescription
viewer_idPKINTUnique viewer identifier
viewer_nameVARCHAR(100)Viewer display name
movies
ColumnTypeDescription
movie_idPKINTUnique movie identifier
titleVARCHAR(200)Movie title
duration_secondsINTMovie duration in seconds
watch_sessions
ColumnTypeDescription
session_idPKINTUnique playback session identifier
viewer_idINTViewer associated with the session
movie_idINTMovie associated with the session
start_secondINTPlayback start offset in seconds
end_secondINTPlayback end offset in seconds, null when still open
Tablesviewersmovieswatch_sessions
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