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Lead and Lag for Churn
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Lead and Lag for Churn

MediumSQL · PostgreSQL

Problem

How would you use SQL window functions like LEAD and LAG to analyze user churn over time?

Use the users and activity_events tables. Return one row for each user and month in which the user was active, identifying the previous and next active months and whether the user churned after that month.

Output

  1. Columns: user_id, active_month, previous_active_month, next_active_month, and churned_after_month
  2. Treat a missing next active month or a gap of more than one calendar month as churn
  3. Order by user_id, then active_month

Schema

users
ColumnTypeDescription
user_idPKINTUnique user identifier
user_nameVARCHAR(100)User display name
signup_dateDATEDate the user registered
activity_events
ColumnTypeDescription
event_idPKINTUnique activity event identifier
user_idINTUser associated with the event
event_atTIMESTAMPTimestamp when the activity occurred
event_typeVARCHAR(50)Optional activity category
Tablesusersactivity_events
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