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Compare Ad-Insertion Strategies: Expected Ads and Probabilities

Last updated: Mar 29, 2026

Quick Overview

This question evaluates understanding of probability theory, expected value calculation, and stochastic modeling as applied to ad-insertion strategies in sequential data.

  • easy
  • Meta
  • Statistics & Math
  • Data Scientist

Compare Ad-Insertion Strategies: Expected Ads and Probabilities

Company: Meta

Role: Data Scientist

Category: Statistics & Math

Difficulty: easy

Interview Round: Onsite

##### Scenario Newsfeed advertising team comparing two ad-insertion strategies. ##### Question Strategy A: each post independently has 4% chance of being an ad. What is the expected number of ads in 100 posts? 2. Strategy B: exactly one ad is randomly inserted in every block of 25 posts. Compare expected ads per 100 posts. 3. Under Strategy A, what is the probability a user sees at least one ad in the next 25 posts? ##### Hints Use linearity of expectation and binomial probabilities; P(≥ 1) = 1 – (1–p)^n.

Quick Answer: This question evaluates understanding of probability theory, expected value calculation, and stochastic modeling as applied to ad-insertion strategies in sequential data.

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Meta
Jul 12, 2025, 6:59 PM
Data Scientist
Onsite
Statistics & Math
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0

Newsfeed Ad-Insertion Strategies

You are evaluating two ways to insert ads into a user's newsfeed. Assume a user views a contiguous sequence of posts.

Strategies

  • Strategy A: Each post independently has a 4% chance (p = 0.04) of being an ad.
  • Strategy B: Exactly one ad is randomly inserted in every block of 25 posts (non-overlapping blocks).

Questions

  1. Under Strategy A, what is the expected number of ads in 100 posts?
  2. Under Strategy B, what is the (expected) number of ads in 100 posts? Compare to Strategy A.
  3. Under Strategy A, what is the probability a user sees at least one ad in the next 25 posts?

Hint: Use linearity of expectation and binomial probabilities. P(at least one) = 1 − (1 − p)^n.

Solution

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