Meta Data Scientist Interview Questions

Meta’s Data Scientist interviews target candidates who can turn large-scale product data into clear, measurable product decisions. Expect a blend of technical and product-focused assessments: Meta Data Scientist interview questions often probe SQL and Python data manipulation, statistical inference and A/B test design, metric definition and instrumentation, and product sense around engagement and growth. Distinctive to Meta is the emphasis on scale, experimentation, and the ability to communicate actionable insights to engineers and product managers; interviewers typically evaluate both analytical rigor and storytelling clarity. The process usually begins with a recruiter screen, moves to one or more technical screens (coding/SQL plus a product or metrics case), and culminates in a loop of interviews that combine analytics, research-design, and behavioral rounds. For effective interview preparation, prioritize timed practice on data manipulation problems, refresh hypothesis testing and power intuition, rehearse product-metric case studies aloud, and craft concise STAR stories that emphasize measurable impact. Complement technical practice with mock interviews and clear explanations of tradeoffs so you can translate analyses into product recommendations under time pressure.

617 Questions 1 Company07.06.2026
Showing 20 results
Role
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Meta
Hard
Data Scientist

Increase posts receiving comments via experimentation

Increase the Share of Posts That Receive a Meaningful Comment You are a data scientist for a consumer social app with posts and comments. Your goal is...

Analytics & Experimentation
4
0
33 people solved
Oct 13, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist

Redesign an executive dashboard for C-suite

Redesign a Spaghetti Chart into an Executive Dashboard Context You are handed a single slide for the C‑suite that shows a spaghetti chart of regional ...

Analytics & Experimentation
2
0
37 people solved
Oct 13, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Hard
Data Scientist

Derive and validate DID for staggered rollout

Causal Effect of a Staggered Adoption Policy Across EU Regions You cannot randomize. An intervention is rolled out at different dates across EU region...

Statistics & Math
6
0
54 people solved
Oct 13, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist

Model session times and comments with exponential/Poisson

Session Duration Memoryless Assumption and Poisson Comment Counts Setup - We model user session end times with a constant hazard (memoryless) over tim...

Statistics & Math
2
0
29 people solved
Oct 13, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Hard
Data Scientist

Prove friends outperform unconnected; design metrics, observational analysis, and rollout experiment

Question You are given two event tables, info_stream_views (one row per viewer–post view, with viewer_id, post_id, relationship ∈ {friend, unconnected...

Analytics & Experimentation
5
0
68 people solved
Oct 13, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data ScientistNew Grad

Describe Overcoming a Major Challenge in Your Career

Describe Overcoming a Major Challenge in Your Career This is a behavioral deep-dive for a new-grad data scientist role. The interviewer may ask severa...

Behavioral & Leadership
94
0
238 people solved
Jul 12, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Easy
Data Scientist

Calculate Expected Day for First Selection in Sampling

Expected Day of First Selection in Daily Sampling There are 1,000 people. Each day, 10 distinct names are selected uniformly at random. Day counting s...

Statistics & Math
28
0
70 people solved
Jul 12, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Hard
Data Scientist

Design an experiment to evaluate a new ads algorithm

You are a Product Analytics/Data Science partner for an ads ranking/recommendation team. Facebook has shipped (or plans to ship) a new ad recommendati...

Analytics & Experimentation
3
0
43 people solved
Aug 21, 2025
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Meta
Medium
Data Scientist Locked

Evaluate AI-assisted ad creation

This question evaluates a candidate's competence in product analytics, causal inference, experimentation design, metric definition, and monitoring for...

Analytics & Experimentation
5
0
75 people solved
Mar 1, 2026
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Meta
Medium
Data Scientist Locked

Analyze spend and creation-source shifts

This question evaluates a data scientist's competency in SQL-based data manipulation, time-series aggregation, joins, and metric computation for analy...

Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
7
0
57 people solved
Mar 1, 2026
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist

Evaluate Product-Ranking Algorithm with Precision and Recall Metrics

Evaluate Product-Ranking Algorithm with Precision and Recall Metrics Scenario Instagram Shopping wants to improve its product‑ranking algorithm for th...

Machine Learning
5
0
44 people solved
Aug 4, 2025
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Meta
Easy
Data Scientist

Compute probabilities for chatbot response quality

Context A chatbot response is considered good if it is both: - Helpful, and - Honest. You are told: - \(P(\text{Helpful}) = 0.8\) - \(P(\text{Honest})...

Statistics & Math
4
1
89 people solved
Oct 30, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist

Evaluating and launching Instagram Stories

Evaluating and Launching Instagram Stories You are evaluating the rollout and impact of Stories, an ephemeral sharing format similar to Snapchat, acro...

Analytics & Experimentation
73
1
271 people solved
Jul 12, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist Locked

Fake Accounts [AE]

Evaluates probability, classification metrics, and feature engineering for fake-account detection. Strong answers apply Bayes' rule with rate-weighted...

Statistics & Math
216
6
493 people solved
Jul 12, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist

Analyze User Comment Distribution and Sampling Effects

Analyze User Comment Distribution and Sampling Effects You are analyzing daily comment counts per user. The individual user-level distribution is righ...

Statistics & Math
116
3
360 people solved
Jul 12, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist

Propose an ads recommendation model for shop ads

You need to propose a modeling approach for recommending/ranking shop ads (i.e., which shop ads to show and in what order) for a marketplace app. Desc...

Machine Learning
5
0
43 people solved
Oct 14, 2025
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Meta
Medium
Data Scientist

Design an A/B test for a new shop-ads algorithm

A new ranking/promotion algorithm will change which shop ads are shown (and their order). You are asked: “How do we know if this new algo is good?” De...

Analytics & Experimentation
11
0
78 people solved
Oct 14, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist

Compute ad revenue metrics by geography in SQL

You work on a marketplace app that shows shop ads. You are given the following tables. Assumptions - All timestamps are stored in UTC. - “Revenue” is ...

Data Manipulation (SQL/Python)
8
0
80 people solved
Oct 14, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist

Build a model to infer home vs office vs public

You must infer whether a Facebook session’s network context is home, office, or public venue to inform Portal targeting. Constraints: IPs may be share...

Machine Learning
2
0
43 people solved
Oct 13, 2025
Meta logo
Meta
Medium
Data Scientist Locked

Apply reinforcement learning to product decisions

This question evaluates expertise in reinforcement learning and sequential decision-making for product optimization, covering MDP formulation, contras...

Machine Learning
2
0
42 people solved
Oct 13, 2025
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Frequently Asked Questions

How difficult are Meta Data Scientist interview questions?
Meta Data Scientist interviews are typically challenging because they test both depth and breadth: technical fluency, statistical thinking, product intuition, and clear communication. Expect medium-to-hard SQL and coding problems alongside statistics and experiment-design questions that probe conceptual understanding rather than rote formulas. Senior roles add system and measurement tradeoff discussions and leadership expectations. Interviewers evaluate correctness, clarity, assumptions, and business impact, so partial solutions can still score well if you surface limitations and next steps. Preparation should emphasize translating technical results into actionable product recommendations as much as solving the raw problem.
What is the typical Meta Data Scientist interview process and where does each topic show up?
The Meta Data Scientist process usually begins with a recruiter screen, moves to a technical screening (live SQL/Python or a take-home), and then a multi-round onsite or virtual loop of four to five interviews. SQL and data-manipulation tasks appear in screening and the analytics rounds. Experiment design and statistics show up in research-design and metrics interviews. Product-sense rounds evaluate metric selection, tradeoffs, and impact. Behavioral rounds probe collaboration, ownership, and influence. Coding or algorithmic questions may appear depending on role level, and senior interviews emphasize scaling, measurement validity, and cross-functional leadership.
How long should I prepare for Meta Data Scientist interviews and what should a timeline look like?
A focused preparation timeline of six to eight weeks often works well for experienced candidates, with longer ramps for those switching fields. Start by solidifying core SQL and Python skills and practicing timed problems, then layer in statistics, experiment design, and product-case practice. Midway, incorporate mock interviews and full-length loops to practice pacing, storytelling, and translating analyses to impact. In the final weeks, refine STAR behavioral stories, review past projects with clear metrics, and run targeted drills on weak spots. Regular feedback and simulated interview conditions dramatically improve interview-day composure and clarity.
What are the key subtopics I must master for a Meta Data Scientist role?
You should be fluent in SQL fundamentals—joins, aggregations, window functions, CTEs, NULL behaviour, and the difference between WHERE and HAVING—along with performance-aware query design. In statistics, master hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, power, bias versus variance, and common pitfalls in A/B testing and metric validity. Analytical skills include metric design, segmentation, funnel analysis, and root-cause diagnosis. Practical Python for data manipulation, clear code and algorithmic complexity intuition are useful. For senior roles, add measurement platforms, data pipelines, causal inference principles, and communicating tradeoffs to product and engineering partners.
What standout tips and common pitfalls should I know for Meta interviews?
Standout performance combines rigorous answers with business context: always state assumptions, define the metric you would optimize, and conclude with clear product recommendations. Verbally outline your plan before coding or analysis and validate edge cases and data limitations. Use concise STAR stories that quantify impact. Common pitfalls include failing to tie analysis back to user or business outcomes, ignoring confounders in experiments, overengineering solutions when a simple metric change suffices, and poor communication under time pressure. Practicing paced mock interviews and seeking targeted feedback on clarity and tradeoff discussion will mitigate these risks.

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