Friend Recommendations by Mutual Friend Count

SQLHardSenior levelMeta~15 min

Problem

**[Asked at Meta]**

For user `1`, find all **friend-of-friend candidates** (users connected through
a mutual friend, but not directly friends with user 1) and rank them by mutual
friend count.

Return `recommended` (user_id) and `mutual_count`, ordered by mutual_count
descending then user_id ascending.

Tables

Example rows — the live problem includes the full dataset.

friendships

user_id	friend_id

Expected output

Your answer should return 2 rows with the columns recommended, mutual_count.

Starter code (SQL)

SELECT *
FROM friendships;

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Solution & explanation

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