Data Scientist Interviews

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.

54,300 data scientist interview questions shared by candidates

Write a social network that runs in memory. There should be four functions. makePost(userID, postID) follow(followerID, followedID) unfollow(followerID, followedID) showFeed(userID) The show feed function should show the posts made by the user, the posts made by the people the user followed and they should be in chronological order.
avatar

Data Scientist - Machine Learning

Interviewed at Citizen (NY)

2.7
Mar 10, 2025

Write a social network that runs in memory. There should be four functions. makePost(userID, postID) follow(followerID, followedID) unfollow(followerID, followedID) showFeed(userID) The show feed function should show the posts made by the user, the posts made by the people the user followed and they should be in chronological order.

Standard questions about how I tackle business and data problems etc. However, as a data scientist I noticed one potentially red flag: the company is new and fresh in their data science department (although they have a solid data engineering and reporting base), but they want to start straight with GenAI/LLM stuff (Chat-GPT and whatnot). For those unfamiliar: it is pretty much a guaranteed pitfall as people would be using super-complex tools with zero knowledge of their inner workings (think of learning to run before you can walk).
avatar

Data Scientist

Interviewed at Marel

3.8
Jan 28, 2024

Standard questions about how I tackle business and data problems etc. However, as a data scientist I noticed one potentially red flag: the company is new and fresh in their data science department (although they have a solid data engineering and reporting base), but they want to start straight with GenAI/LLM stuff (Chat-GPT and whatnot). For those unfamiliar: it is pretty much a guaranteed pitfall as people would be using super-complex tools with zero knowledge of their inner workings (think of learning to run before you can walk).

Viewing 1091 - 1100 interview questions

Glassdoor has 54,300 interview questions and reports from Data scientist interviews. Prepare for your interview. Get hired. Love your job.