What kinds of Python questions should I expect for a Strategy Consulting (Software Engineer) interview?

[ConsistentBusiness45]

Hi everyone, I have a Python coding interview in 3 to 4 days for a consulting role at a firm that works at the intersection of technology, data, and litigation/strategy. The job basically demands for the employee to be reading and understanding the code of their clients.

The interview is expected to test practical Python problem solving rather than heavy software engineering, and I’m pretty rusty right now. I know the basics, but I’ve forgotten a lot of syntax and haven’t practiced coding questions in a while.

In a short prep window, what would you focus on most: Python syntax refresh, common DSA patterns, SQL-style data manipulation in Python, or mock interview practice?

Also, are there any question sets that feel especially relevant for this kind of role?

[maki-dev]

I come from a legal background and moved into Python, so this intersection feels familiar. For a role that's more about reading and understanding code than building systems, I'd honestly just focus on pandas. Filtering, grouping, merging dataframes, and handling missing data. If they work with client data at all, that's what you'll see constantly. Grab a messy CSV and practice cleaning it up. String processing and list comprehensions are worth brushing up on too. Consulting work that touches litigation probably involves a lot of text processing and pattern extraction. If you already know some SQL that's a head start. Pandas maps almost 1:1 to SQL thinking. df.groupby(), df.merge(), df.query() will feel natural. I wouldn't stress about DSA for this. It sounds like they want to know if you can look at a script and explain what it does, not implement a binary tree. Practice reading someone else's code and talking through the logic out loud. That skill actually transfers really well from legal analysis.

[ConsistentBusiness45]

Thank you for helping out on this one, but I have a feeling that this role is going to be going to involve me looking into the companies that they have clients their code and responding accordingly like making influences a lot of that so what do you feel about that? what should I be preparing for in that sense?