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Choose between A/B and switchback for spillovers

Last updated: Mar 29, 2026

Quick Overview

This question evaluates experimental-design and causal-inference competencies, specifically handling interference and spillovers, defining experimental units and treatment assignment, drawing causal DAGs, identifying bias sources, selecting primary and guardrail metrics, and pre-specifying decision rules.

  • hard
  • Uber
  • Analytics & Experimentation
  • Data Scientist

Choose between A/B and switchback for spillovers

Company: Uber

Role: Data Scientist

Category: Analytics & Experimentation

Difficulty: hard

Interview Round: Technical Screen

A new driver-queue algorithm is proposed at a single airport; reassignments at one terminal can affect nearby terminals and the overall driver pool. Decide whether a classic user-level A/B or a switchback/geo-time experiment is more appropriate. Define the experimental unit, draw a causal DAG to reason about interference and spillovers, and justify your choice. Identify key bias sources (time trends, weather, event traffic), propose mitigation (blocking by hour/day, CUPED, randomization inference), and specify the primary metric, guardrails, and a go/no-go decision rule.

Quick Answer: This question evaluates experimental-design and causal-inference competencies, specifically handling interference and spillovers, defining experimental units and treatment assignment, drawing causal DAGs, identifying bias sources, selecting primary and guardrail metrics, and pre-specifying decision rules.

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Uber
Oct 13, 2025, 9:49 PM
Data Scientist
Technical Screen
Analytics & Experimentation
8
0
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Airport Driver-Queue Algorithm: Experiment Design and Causal Reasoning

Background

A new driver-queue algorithm is being tested at a single airport with multiple terminals. The algorithm can reassign drivers across terminals, which may influence nearby terminals and the overall airport driver pool.

Task

Decide whether to use a classic user-level A/B test or a switchback/geo-time experiment. Then:

  1. Define the experimental unit and explain how treatment will be assigned.
  2. Draw and explain a causal DAG to reason about interference and spillovers across terminals and over time.
  3. Justify your experimental design choice given potential interference.
  4. Identify main bias sources (e.g., time trends, weather, event traffic) and propose mitigation strategies (e.g., blocking by hour/day, CUPED, randomization inference).
  5. Specify:
    • Primary success metric
    • Guardrail metrics
    • A clear, pre-specified go/no-go decision rule

Assume you can toggle the algorithm on/off at the airport level and collect standard operational metrics (wait times, cancellations, earnings, throughput).

Solution

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