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Estimate Population Mean and Conversion Rate Accurately

Last updated: Apr 16, 2026

Quick Overview

This question evaluates a data scientist's competence in statistical inference and estimation, covering hypothesis testing and p-value interpretation, confidence intervals and sample size scaling, tail-probability estimation, unbiased sampling strategies for many binary features, and parameter estimation under left-truncated normal models.

  • hard
  • Google
  • Statistics & Math
  • Data Scientist

Estimate Population Mean and Conversion Rate Accurately

Company: Google

Role: Data Scientist

Category: Statistics & Math

Difficulty: hard

Interview Round: Onsite

##### Scenario General statistical inference tasks: testing a population mean, controlling standard error, estimating tail probabilities, computing conversion rate, and parameter estimation under truncated normal sampling. ##### Question You collected a sample and want to test whether the population mean differs from 0. What does a p-value of x% mean in this hypothesis-testing context? Given sample mean x̄ = 1 and standard error 0.1, construct the 95% confidence interval for the population mean. What sample size would you need to achieve a standard error of 0.01 instead of 0.1? What actions can you take if the sample size cannot be increased? Given independent observations X₁,…,Xₙ from distribution X, propose an estimator for p = P(X > 10). Construct a 95% confidence interval for P(X > 10) and interpret a resulting interval [a, b] in terms of the true probability p. You have 1,000 binary features and want to estimate the overall conversion rate. Describe how you would design the estimation or sampling strategy. Assume X ∼ N(μ, σ²) but you only observe Y = X conditioned on X > 3 (a truncated normal). How would you estimate μ and σ²? How would you construct 95% confidence intervals for μ and σ² under this truncation setting? ##### Hints Use definitions of p-value, z/t intervals, se = s/√n, plug-in estimator for probability, normal or Wilson CI, sample size formula, MLE for truncated normal, bootstrap/delta method for CI.

Quick Answer: This question evaluates a data scientist's competence in statistical inference and estimation, covering hypothesis testing and p-value interpretation, confidence intervals and sample size scaling, tail-probability estimation, unbiased sampling strategies for many binary features, and parameter estimation under left-truncated normal models.

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Google
Jul 12, 2025, 6:59 PM
Data Scientist
Onsite
Statistics & Math
72
0

Statistical Inference: Hypothesis Tests, Confidence Intervals, Sampling Design, and Truncated Normal Estimation

Context

You are evaluating a set of practical statistical tasks common in data science interviews. Assume i.i.d. sampling unless stated otherwise, and use standard large-sample approximations when appropriate.

Tasks

  1. Hypothesis test: You test whether a population mean differs from 0 (two-sided). What does a p-value of x% mean in this context?
  2. Confidence interval for a mean: Given sample mean x̄ = 1 and standard error SE = 0.1, construct the 95% confidence interval for the population mean. State any assumptions.
  3. Targeting a smaller SE: What sample size factor is needed to reduce SE from 0.1 to 0.01? Give the general formula and the implication for the new sample size in terms of the current sample size.
  4. If you cannot increase the sample size, what actions can you take to improve inference (e.g., narrower interval, more power)?
  5. Tail probability estimation: Given independent observations X₁,…,Xₙ from distribution X, propose an estimator for p = P(X > 10). Construct a 95% confidence interval for p and interpret a resulting interval [a, b] in terms of the true probability p.
  6. Estimating an overall conversion rate with 1,000 binary features: You wish to estimate the overall conversion rate in a population where each unit has 1,000 binary features. Describe an estimation/sampling strategy that is efficient and yields an unbiased (or approximately unbiased) estimate of the overall rate.
  7. Truncated normal: Assume X ∼ N(μ, σ²) but you only observe Y = X conditioned on X > 3 (left-truncated at 3). How would you estimate μ and σ²? How would you construct 95% confidence intervals for μ and σ² under this truncation?

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