Nationwide Data Scientist Interview Questions
& Process

It took them forever, like 2 months, to decide. First, there was a modeling challenge due by the end of the week. You had to build a model and write a detailed report. Then, there was a panel interview (3-5 people) to go over the model, kind of like an in-person meeting with a manager. You'd think they'd read your report and understand your thinking before passing you, but I felt like they just glanced at the results. Since my results were good, they passed me initially. I even made a nice presentation explaining why my model was correct, but they asked stuff that was already in the report. It was obvious they hadn't read it. So, for a model review, just go with the submission because they probably won't check it. The data they gave was simulated, so I found a great algorithm that worked really well, which might have ruffled some feathers. They seemed to expect someone to struggle with the data, do tons of feature engineering, and use complex algorithms. When I solved their simulated data with a simple, mathematically sound algorithm, they thought I got lucky. I think I just analyzed the data, did an exploratory analysis, and found the best algorithm for the model (roc 0.96 classification with low FP and low FN on a skewed dataset). If they wanted me to act like it was real-time data, they should have provided real data. After that, they stopped talking to me and sent a rejection email almost a month later via automation.

So, there were two parts to the interview. First, I had a Zoom call where they asked me some basic personal questions. After that, they sent me a small data analysis project to work on, which took me about 4 days. Then, a few days after I submitted the project, we had another Zoom interview. They asked me about how I tackled certain issues in the project, like dealing with unbalanced data and what data leakage means. A few days after that, they inquired about my PhD completion timeline. Ultimately, I didn't receive any offers.

The interview was pretty straightforward. It mainly consisted of behavioral questions and questions about the technical skills mentioned on my resume, focusing on how I've learned and used them in previous roles.