MECLABS Data Scientist Interview Questions
& Process

It was a pretty long process. Started with a phone chat for HR and some basic stats. Then there was an online Excel test. After that, I had a 3-hour session with three questions on time series, A/B testing, and t-tests. They also had an online behavioral assessment. The final stage involved three in-person interviews with six different people. The first interview covered my Excel test responses and included more stats questions. The other two interviews were all about HR stuff. Lots of the same questions came up, and each interview was about an hour and a half. I got an offer a week after.

So the interview process kicked off with a phone interview where they asked me some general HR questions about how I work with others, my communication style, and what I liked most about Excel. After that, I was given a skills assessment to complete in Excel, which had 3 questions and took about 2.5 hours. Then, I had a second interview with two senior folks. They asked more HR-type questions, but also dug into statistics, asking about tests, accuracy, and validity. They also sent over two online behavioral assessments. The final interview was in-person at their office with three people. It was a really relaxed chat, mostly about how well I'd fit in with the team. They introduced me to a bunch of the employees, and everyone seemed really young and happy with the work environment. I got the job offer six days after the in-house interview, but I had to turn it down because of my move and the salary they offered.

It started with an HR phone call, where they asked typical HR questions and admitted they didn't know much about the technical side. Then came a skills assessment: I got three data files and had three hours to analyze them, including making graphs. They were flexible about when I could do this. After that, I interviewed with two data scientists/managers. They asked some HR questions and a lot about statistics like ANOVA and t-tests. We also talked about salary, which was much lower than expected. My reaction must have been obvious because the interview tone changed. I was later rejected, though I might have withdrawn myself due to the pay. I didn't make it to the next stages, which I think involved another skills assessment and an interview with a senior executive. The whole process takes a really long time. My impression was that it's a good place to start a data career and learn, but the pay and expected long hours aren't competitive.