Identify Key Drivers of Delivery Decline in Los Angeles

Quick Overview

This interview question evaluates metric design, causal reasoning, experiment setup, diagnostics, SQL/statistical checks, and recommendations in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer for Identify Key Drivers of Delivery Decline in Los Angeles states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.

Identify Key Drivers of Delivery Decline in Los Angeles

Company: DoorDash

Role: Data Scientist

Category: Analytics & Experimentation

Difficulty: hard

Interview Round: Technical Screen

##### Scenario DoorDash sees a 10% drop in the number of completed deliveries in Los Angeles week-over-week. ##### Question How would you identify, attribute, and quantify the key drivers behind the 10% delivery decline in LA? 1. List the potential root causes and propose testable hypotheses across the supply, demand, merchant, product, external, and measurement dimensions. 2. Outline an analytical plan to test each hypothesis — the data you would examine, the segmentation/cuts you would apply, and the method you would use. 3. Quantify and attribute the −10% to its contributing drivers (e.g., via funnel/marketplace decomposition). 4. If controlled experiments (A/B tests) are infeasible, describe the alternative approaches you would use to establish causal inference and validate your findings. ##### Hints Think funnel analysis, supply vs. demand decomposition, segmentation by time/location/cohort, seasonality, competitor impact, and synthetic-control or time-series causal methods (DiD, BSTS/CausalImpact, event study, IV).

Quick Answer: This interview question evaluates metric design, causal reasoning, experiment setup, diagnostics, SQL/statistical checks, and recommendations in a realistic interview setting. A strong answer for Identify Key Drivers of Delivery Decline in Los Angeles states assumptions, handles edge cases, explains trade-offs, and shows how to validate the result clearly.

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Aug 4, 2025, 10:55 AM
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Identify Key Drivers of Delivery Decline in Los Angeles

Scenario

DoorDash sees a 10% drop in the number of completed deliveries in Los Angeles week-over-week.

Question

How would you identify, attribute, and quantify the key drivers behind the 10% delivery decline in LA?

  1. List the potential root causes and propose testable hypotheses across the supply, demand, merchant, product, external, and measurement dimensions.
  2. Outline an analytical plan to test each hypothesis — the data you would examine, the segmentation/cuts you would apply, and the method you would use.
  3. Quantify and attribute the −10% to its contributing drivers (e.g., via funnel/marketplace decomposition).
  4. If controlled experiments (A/B tests) are infeasible, describe the alternative approaches you would use to establish causal inference and validate your findings.
Hints

Think funnel analysis, supply vs. demand decomposition, segmentation by time/location/cohort, seasonality, competitor impact, and synthetic-control or time-series causal methods (DiD, BSTS/CausalImpact, event study, IV).

Clarifying Questions to Ask Guidance

  • Clarify the business objective, unit of analysis, time window, exposure definition, and primary metric.
  • State assumptions about instrumentation, randomization, sample size, and data quality.
  • Separate descriptive analysis from causal claims.

What a Strong Answer Covers Guidance

  • A metric framework with primary, guardrail, and diagnostic metrics.
  • A credible analysis or experiment design with clear assumptions and bias checks.
  • SQL/statistical logic for segmentation, variance, confidence, and data validation where relevant.
  • An actionable recommendation that explains trade-offs and next steps.

Follow-up Questions Guidance

  • What sanity checks would you run before trusting the result?
  • How would you handle novelty effects, seasonality, or selection bias?
  • What decision would you make if metrics disagree?
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