Instructions and covered skills
Read each question and identify the metric definition, calculation, or analytical conclusion that best fits the stated scenario. Keep the cohort entry event, observation period, and denominator in view before selecting an answer. Work from the information provided rather than assumptions about data that is not stated. Pay close attention to whether a question concerns customer counts, revenue, subscriptions, or product activity. Turn off notifications and avoid switching between unrelated tasks while completing the test. Review each selected response for alignment with the cohort definition and reporting period.
Key Areas
This assessment covers the analytical practices used to measure customer persistence and revenue durability in subscription businesses. Candidates should be able to define a cohort using a consistent entry event, such as the month of first payment, contract start, or completed activation. They should understand how the selected event affects interpretation and why cohort membership should remain fixed after assignment.
Key calculations include customer retention, customer churn, gross revenue retention, net revenue retention, and recurring-revenue churn. The assessment examines numerator and denominator choices, treatment of expansions and contractions, and the difference between account-based and revenue-based views. It also addresses cohort maturity, calendar-period alignment, and the handling of customers who have not yet reached a given observation window.
Interpretation skills are central. Candidates should recognize patterns such as sharp early drop-off, broad deterioration across recent cohorts, delayed churn after a pricing change, and apparent retention changes caused by incomplete data. They should be able to compare acquisition channels, plans, segments, and product behaviors while keeping definitions consistent. Questions also assess the ability to identify data-quality risks, including duplicate accounts, plan migrations, paused subscriptions, reactivations, and inconsistent cancellation dates.
Recommended Preparation
Review a SaaS retention table or cohort heatmap and trace each value back to its source population. Practice calculating retention from a fixed starting cohort and calculating churn over a defined period. Compare logo retention with gross and net revenue retention to understand how account losses, downgrades, and expansions produce different results.
Prepare to evaluate whether a proposed analysis uses comparable cohorts, complete observation windows, and an appropriate denominator. Familiarity with monthly recurring revenue, customer lifecycle events, subscription status histories, and segmented reporting will be useful. Focus on explaining what a metric does and does not reveal, then connect observed cohort patterns to a practical investigation or action.