Describe navigating ambiguous, repetitive questioning
Overview
This question evaluates a Data Scientist's skills in stakeholder communication, ambiguity management, diagnostic reasoning to identify misaligned goals or definitions, adaptive framing between technical and plain-language explanations, trade-off analysis under time pressure, and delivering measurable outcomes.
Snowflake
Oct 13, 2025, 9:49 PM
Data Scientist
Technical Screen
Behavioral & Leadership
0
0
Behavioral: Handling Repeated, "Fishing" Questions
Context: You're a Data Scientist in a technical screen or stakeholder review. The other person keeps asking the same question in different ways, seemingly fishing for a specific answer. Provide a concise, structured response that covers the following:
- Context and stakes (who, what decision, why it mattered).
- How you diagnosed the misalignment in goals or definitions.
- How you adapted your communication (e.g., switching between technical detail and plain-language framing).
- How you validated that your answer addressed the real concern.
- What trade-offs you made under time pressure.
- The measurable outcome.
Conclude with what you would do differently next time to prevent the situation.
Solution
Login required
Show