OYO Data Scientist Interview Questions
& Process

So the whole process had 4 Rounds. First was a test covering Aptitude, SQL, ML, and Python. Then we had a Group Discussion. Round 3 was an ML Round focusing on ML basics, resume discussion, and Stats. Finally, Round 4 was another ML Round where we tackled a Business Case Study in ML and Stats.

I applied for this role at Snapdeal through an internal referral. The hiring process kicked off pretty quickly, within a day. My first interaction was with HR, who initially wanted me to come to the office the next day. I opted for a phone interview instead to learn more about the role, and she agreed. The next day, I had a call where the interviewer went over the job details and responsibilities. They asked me to share information about my past projects, which I did by walking them through my resume. After that, HR was supposed to schedule another round with someone from the data science team. A few days later, I had another call. This time, the interviewer focused on my previous projects and some basic ML algorithms like linear regression, L1, and L2 regularization, asking when to use them. The feedback from this interview was positive, and HR then scheduled a final third round. In this last round, I was asked HR-related questions about my motivation for joining and the layoff situation at Snapdeal. The interviewer seemed satisfied. After a couple of weeks with no word from HR, my friend reached out to see if I could accept the role with a 10% increment. I was surprised and confused why the company wasn't communicating directly with me or sending an offer letter, especially since my friend was involved. This whole situation made me decide against joining Oyo. While I understand that companies might not offer significant pay increases during layoffs, using a friend (who isn't even in HR) to negotiate salary without an offer letter struck me as unprofessional. Eventually, my friend asked about my salary expectations, and I told him I wasn't interested in the company anymore. Later that month, I accepted offers from other reputable firms with much higher increments.

I got a cold call from HR who verified my profile and mentioned they urgently need a Data Scientist for their Analytics team. I suggested some dates for a technical phone screen, and they said they'd check with the hiring manager. Unfortunately, there was no confirmation email or call. The interviewer proceeded with the technical round two days later, which also felt like a cold call. I pointed out the lack of prior notice, but they didn't seem to care and said I'd hear back from their team. As expected, I received a rejection email the next day. My advice is that if a hiring team conducts interviews without confirmation and proceeds with cold calls for technical rounds, and then rejects candidates, their hiring method is flawed and needs improvement.