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This question is commonly asked for Machine Learning Engineer candidates at Pinterest during technical interviews.

Explain overfitting and how to prevent it | Pinterest Interview Question

Explain overfitting and how to prevent it

Last updated: Mar 29, 2026

Quick Overview

This question evaluates understanding of overfitting, the relationship between training and validation performance and generalization, and knowledge of regularization concepts including differences between L1 and L2 penalties.

Dec 13, 2025, 12:00 AM

Machine Learning Engineer

Technical Screen

Machine Learning

You are asked rapid-fire ML fundamentals questions.

What is overfitting? Explain it in terms of training vs. validation performance and generalization.
How can you prevent or mitigate overfitting? List practical techniques and when you would use them.
What is the difference between L1 and L2 regularization? Compare their effect on model weights, feature selection, optimization behavior, and typical use cases.

Solution

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