Scribd Inc. Data Scientist Interview Questions
& Process

It was good, they asked python and sql coding questions. Also some basic questions about expected value and hypothesis testing. Many ML questions came up, some theory and some about a project I did. Overall it was a good and relaxed experience, seems like a cool place.

The interview process was pretty standard: I had a call with the hiring manager, then a call with a recruiter, followed by two technical phone screens. What wasn't standard was that every person I interacted with during the process was a white male – the recruiter, the hiring manager, two data scientists for the first tech screen, and two for the second tech screen. I thought this was weird, so I asked around in my network about the diversity on the Scribd data science team and found out it's like 95% white males. This is pretty unacceptable for a company of their size, especially since I think they have over 15 data scientists. I ended up taking another job because I'm a minority and I wouldn't want to work on a team with such little balance. The recruiter was nice, but he took forever to respond.

Scribd's hiring process needs a lot of work. Even though it only had 3 rounds, the whole thing took over 3 months from start to end. Every update was late by 2 weeks or more. Seriously, this was the first role I applied to in my latest job search and literally the last one to get back, by which point I'd already moved on. I found the questions very odd as well. Prior to my recruiter call I was asked to submit a written response to a bunch of behavioral questions, and then during the call the same questions were asked--so what's the point of the written response? For the technical call and on-site, many questions had nothing to do with data science; in fact, the interviewers themselves said the questions "do not reflect the work they actually do". So again, what is the point of asking these questions? It took them 4 weeks to get back to me about the on-site, and only after I sent them a follow-up email. The recruiter told me the position had been filled, except she named me the wrong position! Once I corrected her, she apologized for the confusion and said they were still sorting out my position, but I just withdrew my application. Honestly, after witnessing such unprofessionalism, if anything I felt like I had dodged a bullet.