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Data Scientist Interviews

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Data Scientist Interview Questions

In a data scientist interview, expect employers to ask questions that assess your data modeling, problem-solving, and programming skills. Be prepared to answer general questions that test your knowledge of statistics and data science. You should also be ready to answer open-ended questions that test your creativity, communication skills, and formal education in data modeling and programming.

Top Data Scientist Interview Questions & How to Answer

Question 1

Question #1: Which data modeling techniques do you prefer and why?

How to answer
How to answer: Turning data into understandable and actionable information is a critical part of the data scientist's job. This question allows employers to understand your data modeling skills and background. List and discuss your preferred data modeling techniques, including benefits such as ease of use, flexibility, etc.
Question 2

Question #2: How would you detect bogus Instagram accounts used for scamming consumers?

How to answer
How to answer: Questions like this one allow an employer to test your problem-solving skills. When answering open-ended questions such as these, feel free to ask clarifying questions and use whiteboards to demonstrate your coding and diagramming skills. Share your thought process as you work through the problem.
Question 3

Question #3: Describe circumstances that require a list, tuple, or set in Python.

How to answer
How to answer: Interviewers will use questions such as this one to test your Python programming skills. Review Python basics such as lists, tuples, and sets before your interview. You should be able to explain when and how each tool is used by data scientists.

54,195 data scientist interview questions shared by candidates

R4: Assume the distribution of children per family is given by: # children 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | >=5 p 0.3 | 0.25 | 0.2 | 0.15 | 0.1 | 0 Consider a random girl in the population of children. What's the probability that she has a sister?
avatar

Data Scientist

Interviewed at Google

4.4★
Sep 2, 2021

R4: Assume the distribution of children per family is given by: # children 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | >=5 p 0.3 | 0.25 | 0.2 | 0.15 | 0.1 | 0 Consider a random girl in the population of children. What's the probability that she has a sister?

SQL: there is a table of time,post id, action and content. the action can be reported and the content is spam. another table of time,post id, user - of all posts were removed manually the question: What percent of yesterday's content views were on content that has been reported for spam and removed yesterday?
avatar

Data Scientist

Interviewed at Meta

3.6★
Jun 2, 2020

SQL: there is a table of time,post id, action and content. the action can be reported and the content is spam. another table of time,post id, user - of all posts were removed manually the question: What percent of yesterday's content views were on content that has been reported for spam and removed yesterday?

• What are the typical Greek symbols used in Q-Learning? • What does Alpha typically represent? • What does Gamma typically represent? • What does Epsilon typically represent? • What is Greedy-Epsilon? • How does a High Alpha versus a Low Alpha impact the model? • What is the Exploration-Exploitation Tradeoff? • What is a Decay Structure? • What is important about a Decay Structure? • How could we apply reinforcement learning to Alexa/Echo which would add functionality? • How would you implement this? • What kind of reward structure would you use? • Why would you use that reward structure? • Tell me about a time when you were not able to complete all parts of a task? • Tell me about a time you not only met expectations but exceeded them?
avatar

Applied Scientist Internship

Interviewed at Amazon

3.5★
Mar 17, 2021

• What are the typical Greek symbols used in Q-Learning? • What does Alpha typically represent? • What does Gamma typically represent? • What does Epsilon typically represent? • What is Greedy-Epsilon? • How does a High Alpha versus a Low Alpha impact the model? • What is the Exploration-Exploitation Tradeoff? • What is a Decay Structure? • What is important about a Decay Structure? • How could we apply reinforcement learning to Alexa/Echo which would add functionality? • How would you implement this? • What kind of reward structure would you use? • Why would you use that reward structure? • Tell me about a time when you were not able to complete all parts of a task? • Tell me about a time you not only met expectations but exceeded them?

You're about to get on a plane to Seattle. You want to know if you should bring an umbrella. You call 3 random friends of yours who live there and ask each independently if it's raining. Each of your friends has a 2/3 chance of telling you the truth and a 1/3 chance of messing with you by lying. All 3 friends tell you that "Yes" it is raining. What is the probability that it's actually raining in Seattle?
avatar

Data Scientist

Interviewed at Microsoft

4★
Sep 19, 2016

You're about to get on a plane to Seattle. You want to know if you should bring an umbrella. You call 3 random friends of yours who live there and ask each independently if it's raining. Each of your friends has a 2/3 chance of telling you the truth and a 1/3 chance of messing with you by lying. All 3 friends tell you that "Yes" it is raining. What is the probability that it's actually raining in Seattle?

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