BNSF Railway Data Scientist Interview Questions
& Process
Real candidates share what happened, how many rounds they had,
and how the experience turned out.
Based on 8 interview experiences · FREE TO READ
Candidate interview experiences
First-hand accounts from people who interviewed at BNSF Railway.
BNSF Railway
Data Scientist
Mid Easy Negative experience No offer 1 round
Interview process
Take home
Interview formats
Technical
After applying, I received a Codility link for a 90-minute assessment with two questions. It felt like a waste of time because a quick look at my resume or GitHub would show I can do the job. I ended up quitting and withdrawing my application. I've had experiences with other Berkshire Hathaway companies where I spent significant time on assessments and interviews only to be told I was overqualified, and then later asked to apply for a lower-level role. While working there offers job stability, be prepared for a lot of bureaucracy and hoops to jump through.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Do some basic data cleaning and then apply a linear regression to housing data.
- Aggregate a few basic statistics about stock prices and then return a nested list of data frames formatted as requested.
BNSF Railway
Data Scientist
Entry Average Negative experience No offer 1 round
Interview process
Take home
Interview formats
Coding Technical
Shortly after applying, I was sent a link to an automated "codility" assessment. There was no human interaction at all. It's supposed to take up to two hours. I thought it was rude to ask for that much of someone's time without talking to them first. I quit the assessment because of what they were asking. It made me think they're unserious, and the culture wouldn't be a good fit, especially since the salary range is so broad it's useless. They're not worth the time.
Confirmed questions2 questions
- Implement the provided equation (mutual information) and its solution using numpy/pandas, without accessing external resources.
- Complete a full project using the provided CSV, including data pre-processing, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and regression modeling, with no external resources and within a time limit.
BNSF Railway
Data Scientist
Senior Average Positive experience Decline offer 3 rounds
Interview process
Take home Technical screen Onsite Panel Background check
Interview formats
Technical Coding Presentation Behavioral
So first, there was an online test. Then, I had to explain my solution for that online test. After that, it was a panel interview where they gave me a business problem and I had to present my solution, which took about 3 hours. Finally, there was a behavioral interview with the manager and another person, which lasted 2 hours.
Confirmed questions1 question
- Given incoming packages, how would you classify them by destination to achieve the lowest delivery cost?
BNSF Railway Data Scientist Interview Questions
Quoted word for word from BNSF Railway interview reports.
“Implement the provided equation (mutual information) and its solution using numpy/pandas, without accessing external resources.”
Read reports →“Aggregate a few basic statistics about stock prices and then return a nested list of data frames formatted as requested.”
Read reports →“Do some basic data cleaning and then apply a linear regression to housing data.”
Read reports →“Perform a regression task with multiple sub-tasks”
Read reports →“Code a function”
Read report →“Given incoming packages, how would you classify them by destination to achieve the lowest delivery cost?”
Read report →“Generic LeetCode style problems involving basic statistics, to be solved in either Python or R.”
Read report →“Complete a full project using the provided CSV, including data pre-processing, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and regression modeling, with no external resources and within a time limit.”
Read report →“Can you answer some probability questions?”
Read report →Formats, difficulty and experience
Across all 8 BNSF Railway interview reports.