Capital One Data Analyst Interview Experience — A Groupon Break-Even Case, Fast-Tracked to the Next Round

I just interviewed for the C1 SBA minicase yesterday, and it was the exact same Groupon case that's been floating around!

If you're running a restaurant, you're considering whether to partner with a platform like Groupon.

1. What factors would you consider?

2. Given data: number of tables served per day: 20; avg spend/day: $30; cost: $0.40 per dollar spent; FC: $100/day — what is the daily profit? Worked out to $260/day.

3. Now Groupon's strategy is that customers can use a $15 coupon to redeem $30 worth of spend, and Groupon takes a 40% commission on that $15 — what average spend/day would make this Groupon strategy viable? (Basically, calculate the break-even point.) Worked out to $35/day.

4. Asked whether I'd consider partnering with Groupon. (This was actually asking about marginal profit, but I didn't catch that angle in the moment — I just said partnering looked doable since avg spend went from $30 to $35, a $5 bump. Thinking about it afterward, from a marginal profit angle: without Groupon the VC is $0.40, with Groupon the VC is $21 (Groupon's cut) + $0.40 — which is higher than the VC without Groupon, so the answer should be not to partner.)

5. New data given: number of tables served per day: 25; avg spend/day: $36; VC: $0.40/dollar spent; FC: $100; and 10 of those tables used a Groupon coupon — what's the daily profit now? Worked out to $230.

6. Asked why, even though both the number of tables served and the avg spend went up, profit actually went down compared to question 2.

7. Asked again whether I'd consider partnering with Groupon now. (I said from a pure profitability standpoint, no, because of the Groupon cost — but if the restaurant's tables are often sitting empty with low occupancy, then from a marketing angle, to attract customers, I would consider it.)

8. Asked how I would improve profitability if I did partner with Groupon. (Reduce the commission, or switch to a $20-redeems-$30 structure.)

The interviewer opened with a brief self-introduction and then went straight into the case. Since I'd already prepped this exact question, I moved through it pretty fast. The interviewer didn't say much the whole time — no follow-up questions based on my answers, no real feedback, he just kept saying "make sense" lol. The case portion wrapped up in a little over 20 minutes, followed by roughly ten-plus minutes of small talk.

More than an hour after the interview ended, I got an email from HR saying I'd moved on to the next round.

Good luck everyone!