Module 16 · SQL for Data Analysis
Final project
The brief for your final project, the Harbourline Freight operations review, and how it's assessed.
About 15 minutes
The problem
Harbourline's leadership team meets next week to plan 2027. They've asked for an operations review: a short, evidence-based report on how the business performed, built from the database you've been working with throughout this course.
This is your final project. It's the closest thing in the course to a real analyst's assignment: a brief, a database, and questions that need several of the techniques you've learned.
The concept
You'll answer six questions. For each one, you submit the query you wrote and one or two sentences explaining what the result means for the business.
| # | Question | Techniques you'll likely use |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Who are our ten highest-volume customers by containers shipped, across the whole period? | JOIN, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, LIMIT |
| 2 | How did shipment volume change month by month? | GROUP BY, date functions, LAG |
| 3 | Which five routes carry the most shipments, and what mode are they? | JOIN, GROUP BY |
| 4 | What is revenue (charges on delivered shipments) by customer, and how much of it has been paid? | CTEs, LEFT JOIN, COALESCE |
| 5 | Which customers have become inactive: shipped before, but nothing since 2026-03-01? | GROUP BY, HAVING |
| 6 | How reliable are our deliveries? On-time rate by mode and for the three worst routes. | CASE, JOIN, aggregates |
Your project page has the full brief, the SQL editor connected to the database, and the submission form.
Example
A strong answer to question 3 looks like this:
SELECT r.origin, r.destination, r.mode, COUNT(*) AS shipments
FROM shipments AS s
JOIN routes AS r ON r.route_id = s.route_id
GROUP BY r.route_id, r.origin, r.destination, r.mode
ORDER BY shipments DESC
LIMIT 5;Sea imports into Lagos dominate: the busiest routes are all sea lanes from Asia and Europe. That's where delays or capacity problems would affect the most customers.
It gives the query, the number, and what it means. It doesn't need to be longer.
Walkthrough
How your project is assessed:
- Correct queries. Each query should answer the question asked, with sensible definitions, for example excluding cancelled shipments where that matters.
- Clear explanations. One or two sentences per question in plain language. A manager should understand them without reading the SQL.
- Honest limits. If the data can't fully answer something, say so.
To earn your certificate you need to complete every lesson, complete the practice exercises, pass the final assessment (70% or more) and submit this project.
Practice
Practice
Warm-up for question 1: show the customer_id and total containers of the single highest-volume customer across all shipments.
Ctrl + Enter to run. Tab indents; press Esc then Tab to leave the editor.
Check your understanding
Answer every question to check.