Evaluate account re-ranking via logs and A/B test

Quick Overview

This question evaluates a data scientist's skills in experiment design, causal inference, logging and instrumentation, metric definition, and bias identification when assessing a change to account ranking for multi-account users.

Evaluate account re-ranking via logs and A/B test

Company: Meta

Role: Data Scientist

Category: Analytics & Experimentation

Difficulty: easy

Interview Round: Technical Screen

A product has **users with multiple accounts**. In the UI, these accounts are shown as a list. - **Current ranking**: accounts are sorted by **most recent visit** (most recently visited account appears at the top). - **Proposed change**: sort accounts by **number of notifications** (accounts with the most notifications appear at the top). You are asked: 1) **Historical/offline analysis**: Using existing logs and historical data, how would you assess whether this ranking change is likely to improve the product? Be explicit about: - what success means (primary metric + diagnostic metrics + guardrails) - what data you need (events/logging schema at a high level) - key confounders/biases (e.g., selection/position bias, heavy-user effects, regression to the mean) - what analyses you would run and how you would interpret results 2) **A/B test design**: Propose an online experiment to measure the causal impact of the new ranking. Cover: - experiment unit and randomization level (user/account/device) - eligibility criteria (e.g., users with 2+ accounts) - key metrics (primary/secondary/guardrails) and how to compute them - sample size / MDE considerations and duration - analysis plan (e.g., CUPED, handling multiple comparisons) - pitfalls (spillover, novelty effects, instrumentation, SRM) and how to mitigate them

Quick Answer: This question evaluates a data scientist's skills in experiment design, causal inference, logging and instrumentation, metric definition, and bias identification when assessing a change to account ranking for multi-account users.

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Feb 3, 2026, 2:55 AM
easyData ScientistTechnical ScreenAnalytics & Experimentation
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A product has users with multiple accounts. In the UI, these accounts are shown as a list.

  • Current ranking : accounts are sorted by most recent visit (most recently visited account appears at the top).
  • Proposed change : sort accounts by number of notifications (accounts with the most notifications appear at the top).

You are asked:

  1. Historical/offline analysis : Using existing logs and historical data, how would you assess whether this ranking change is likely to improve the product? Be explicit about:
    • what success means (primary metric + diagnostic metrics + guardrails)
    • what data you need (events/logging schema at a high level)
    • key confounders/biases (e.g., selection/position bias, heavy-user effects, regression to the mean)
    • what analyses you would run and how you would interpret results
  2. A/B test design : Propose an online experiment to measure the causal impact of the new ranking. Cover:
    • experiment unit and randomization level (user/account/device)
    • eligibility criteria (e.g., users with 2+ accounts)
    • key metrics (primary/secondary/guardrails) and how to compute them
    • sample size / MDE considerations and duration
    • analysis plan (e.g., CUPED, handling multiple comparisons)
    • pitfalls (spillover, novelty effects, instrumentation, SRM) and how to mitigate them
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