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This question is commonly asked for Data Scientist candidates at Google during technical interviews.

Explain Simpson’s Paradox and Its Causes with Example

Last updated: Mar 29, 2026

Quick Overview

This question evaluates understanding of Simpson's paradox, confounding variables, and the impact of aggregation on subgroup trends in the Statistics & Math domain, combining conceptual understanding with practical application through definition and a numeric example.

Google

Jul 12, 2025, 6:59 PM

Data Scientist

Technical Screen

Statistics & Math

Simpson’s Paradox: Definition, Cause, and Example

Task

You are asked to demonstrate your understanding of Simpson’s paradox in a statistics/analytics interview setting.

Define Simpson’s paradox in your own words.
Explain how data imbalance or confounding can create the paradox (i.e., why aggregation can reverse trends seen within subgroups).
Provide a concrete, numeric example where a relationship holds within each group but reverses when the groups are combined.

Hint: Contrast aggregated results with stratified (within-group) results and discuss the role of a confounder.

Solution

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