Grubhub Data Scientist Interview Questions
& Process

I got contacted by the interviewer via linkedin and then we had a phone screen. The team looked like a fun group but I decided not to move forward because I had other offers that were a better fit for my interests.

This was similar to another data science interview I had, but I'm an experienced pro with over 10 years in the field. Honestly, this interview felt super unprofessional. The interviewer was really adversarial and hostile, and sometimes didn't even seem to be listening. They'd ask something like 'explain how gradient descent works,' I'd answer, and they'd hit back with 'you didn't say the word derivative.' They also critiqued my explanation of a statistical learning method, confusing it with another method themselves. This pattern of them being wrong and trying to correct me kept happening. I tried to be diplomatic at first, but it was a lost cause. I ended the interview early because I don't want to work with hostile people. To top it off, their phone rang while I was mid-answer. Grubhub HR, please remind your interviewers that candidates should leave feeling excited, even after a tough interview. Treating candidates this way not only creates bad vibes but also loses you a customer.

I applied online. Then a recruiter reached out to me, and then scheduled two phone interviews. I guess I did not pass, as there are no follow-ups after conversation with them. I want to write this review as I found their review process a bit different from data scientist position I interviewed. Recruiters seem not professional, as she/he is the very first data science recruiter who cannot even recognize key words related to machine learning and who thinks stats and machine learning are totally unrelated. The interview is not well structured. As now I recall, the phone screens are a mixture of behavioral, technical and case interview. I do not understand how one could achieve some goals in one 30-minute interview and indeed the first interview was overtime - the interviewer obviously did not finish what he wanted to ask. I do not understand the interview order either. I was firstly interviewed by someone pretty senior before the second more junior data scientist. I felt really honored yet a bit terrified to speak with a person with such seniority for my first interview, and at the same time confused about what exactly he is looking for.