Diagnose Delivery Delays: Key Metrics and Experiment Design
Company: DoorDash
Role: Data Scientist
Category: Analytics & Experimentation
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Technical Screen
##### Scenario
You are the PM for a delivery app noticing an uptick in delivery delays.
##### Question
How would you diagnose the root causes of delivery delays? Which key metrics and segments would you analyze? Design an experiment to validate one solution aimed at reducing delays.
##### Hints
Think about funnel break-downs, courier supply vs. demand, restaurant prep times, geography, and A/B testing with control vs. treatment regions.
Quick Answer: This question evaluates a data scientist's diagnostic analytics and experiment-design competencies, including root-cause analysis, metric and segment specification, and causal inference using event-level timestamps, geolocation, ETA predictions, and operational supply-demand data.