Deliveroo Data Scientist Interview Questions
& Process

So they interview for a level (SDS) and not a specific role on a team. After all 6 interviews I was still not clear on what areas they had jobs available in, which was super frustrating. This meant I couldn't get a feel for the potential work or team environment from talking to the interviewers. The interview process is long but they lay it out clearly: recruiter/HR call, stage 1 technical interview, then a 4 stage loop of SQL, Stakeholder, Presentation, and Case Study. Even though the four stage loop is long, it felt pretty similar to other interviews where those would be combined. I was told repeatedly that the role was about taking a broad problem and developing it into a detailed, clear problem space, but the case study wasn't like that at all. Even though I did great on the other 3 loop interviews, I messed up the case study. I was given a statistical experimentation case study (not a role I was looking for) because they had several roles like that available. Since this was focused on experimentation - not ML as I clearly stated I was interested in - I felt like my time was wasted. Apart from that, the interviews were well detailed beforehand and the interviewers were really nice and their enthusiasm for their roles was obvious. They focused more on communication than technical skill, with the only coding interview being basic SQL (grouping, joining, windows) and no technical questions about machine learning, or dealing with large data.

The interview process was quite lengthy, involving six interviews and a take-home assignment, after which I was unfortunately rejected. The instructions for the take-home task mentioned not to overcomplicate it, yet the feedback indicated a lack of detail. So, be ready to dedicate significant time to the interviews. The interviewers were generally friendly, and the questions were straightforward, covering standard a/b testing and causal inference topics. Despite this, I was rejected. In hindsight, I should have improved my domain knowledge, as my answers to causal inference questions regarding a product dissimilar to my experience were likely unclear. The SQL test was easy, and I answered all questions correctly, but I received negative feedback because I was unfamiliar with PostgreSQL-specific date functionalities, which led to a deduction in my score.

I applied online and a technical recruiter reached out to discuss opportunities at Deliveroo. They sent a link about the interview process for a Data Scientist role with preparation tips. I replied with my availabilities and started preparing, but I never heard back from the recruiter, not even after follow-up emails. This is the first time I've encountered such unprofessionalism. I did read negative Glassdoor reviews before following up but decided to try anyway due to strong interest, which turned out to be a waste of time. Extremely disappointed. Please stop wasting people's time and motivation. There are many talented candidates who don't have time for your indecision. You'll miss out on top talent.