How difficult are Data Scientist interview questions at top tech and fintech companies in 2026?

Difficulty varies by level and team but is generally medium-to-high for product-facing roles at large tech firms and can be higher for research or machine-learning-specialist tracks. Expect analytics-and-expansion questions that emphasize SQL, experiments, and product metrics at companies like Meta and TikTok, while firms such as Capital One may add domain- and case-style problems that simulate business tradeoffs. Senior roles test end-to-end judgment: model choices, deployment risks, and influence. You should be comfortable with clear assumptions, tradeoff discussions, and writing concise queries or short Python snippets under time pressure.

What does the typical Data Scientist interview process look like and where do these roles most often appear?

Most companies follow a multi-stage process: an initial recruiter screen, one or more technical screens that blend SQL or Python with a metrics or A/B case, and a final interview loop covering analytics, statistics/experimentation, modeling, and behavioral leadership. Product-analytics roles are common at Meta, Google, Amazon, and TikTok, emphasizing funnel and experiment diagnostics; Capital One and other financial firms often include case-style questions that mirror customer or risk decisions. Expect 3–6 interviews in the loop, and be prepared to explain tradeoffs and business impact alongside technical answers.

How should I structure my preparation timeline for 8–12 weeks before Data Scientist interviews?

Start by diagnosing weaknesses: spend the first two weeks consolidating SQL fundamentals and pandas-based data manipulation, then dedicate the next three weeks to statistics and experiments, including hypothesis tests, CIs, and power reasoning. Use weeks 6–8 to practice product-analytics cases and mock interviews focused on funnel and A/B troubleshooting, and reserve the final 2–3 weeks for modeling basics, short Python coding practice, and refining behavioral stories with measurable impact. Regular timed practice on real interview prompts and loop-style mocks yields the best transfer to actual interviews.

What core technical subtopics should I master to perform well as a Data Scientist in interviews?

Focus on five high-leverage areas: SQL and data-frame manipulation (joins, group-bys, windows, CTEs), statistics and experimentation (A/B design, power, bias, confounding), feature engineering and model evaluation (precision/recall, calibration, business metrics), Python for quick analysis and reproducible code, and product analytics thinking (funnels, segmentation, metric definition). Additionally, understand basic deployment and monitoring tradeoffs for production models and be able to discuss assumptions, data quality issues, and how your choice of metric changes conclusions.

What standout tips and common pitfalls should I keep in mind for Data Scientist interviews?

Start answers by clarifying the question and stating assumptions, then walk through your approach before diving into calculations or queries. Tell a concise data-driven story that quantifies impact and tradeoffs. Practice writing clean SQL and short Python snippets under time limits, and rehearse experiment diagnosis aloud. Avoid common pitfalls: failing to define metrics precisely, ignoring segment effects or missing-data biases, overfitting toy models, and giving unfounded causal claims. For behavioral rounds, focus on influence and measurable outcomes rather than raw technical depth alone.

Data Scientist Interview Questions (Updated 2026) — Page 119

Data Scientist Interview Questions

Practice 2,964 real Data Scientist interview questions for 2026. Data Scientist interview questions drawn from Meta, Capital One, Amazon, Google, TikTok and similar employers — real questions from actual interviews with detailed solutions — designed to accelerate your interview preparation for product analytics, ML and production data roles. This collection emphasizes the practical skills interviewers test: SQL and data manipulation, experiment design and A/B testing, statistical reasoning, Python coding for data problems, model evaluation and feature engineering, plus machine-learning system tradeoffs and metric design. What’s distinctive about modern data-science loops is the blend of product thinking and reproducible ML: expect hands-on SQL tasks and funnel analysis in screens, deeper experiment-design and causality questions in mid rounds, and coding or modeling challenges plus ML-system discussions in senior loops. Interviewers evaluate problem framing, statistical rigor, and how you communicate decisions to product partners. To prepare, prioritize daily SQL practice (CTEs, window functions), refresh hypothesis-testing and power calculations, rehearse concise metric-driven narratives, and build a few end-to-end model or experiment stories you can explain clearly under time pressure.

Questions

3.0k

Companies

149

Updated

06.09.2026

3.0k Questions 149 Companies06.09.2026

PLTCHK

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_The_TaNk_

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ChrisSenior SWE, LinkedIn

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sleepy33

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JakeSenior ML Engineer, Lyft

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nuggetlord

"I've used LC, Glassdoor, and random Discords. Nothing comes close to the accuracy here. The questions are actually current — that's what got me. Felt like I had a cheat sheet during the interview."

CarlosFull Stack, Shopify

"The solution quality is insane. It covers approach, edge cases, time complexity, follow-ups. Nothing else comes close."

boba.tea.vibes

"Legit the only resource you need. TC went from 180k -> 350k. Just memorize the top 50 for your target company and you're golden."

AndySWE-II, Google

"PracHub Premium for one month cost me the price of two coffees a week. It landed me a $280K+ starting offer."

couchpotato99

"Literally just signed a $600k offer. I only had 2 weeks to prep, so I focused entirely on the company-tagged lists here. If you're targeting L5+, don't overthink it."

ShrutiData Engineer, Salesforce

"Coaches and bootcamp prep courses cost around $200-300 but PracHub Premium is actually less than a Netflix subscription. And it landed me a $178K offer."

midnightramen

"I honestly don't know how you guys gather so many real interview questions. It's almost scary. I walked into my Amazon loop and recognized 3 out of 4 problems from your database."

BiancaFrontend Eng, Figma

"Discovered PracHub 10 days before my interview. By day 5, I stopped being nervous. By interview day, I was actually excited to show what I knew."

tambrahm007

"I recently cleared Uber interviews (strong hire in the design round) and all the questions were present in prachub."

toa

"The search is what sold me. I typed in a really niche DP problem I got asked last year and it actually came up, full breakdown and everything. These guys are clearly updating it constantly."

PLTCHK

_The_TaNk_

ChrisSenior SWE, LinkedIn

"10 years of experience but never worked at a top company. PracHub's senior-level questions helped me break into FAANG at 35. Age is just a number."

sleepy33

"I was skeptical about the 'real questions' claim, so I put it to the test. I searched for the exact question I got grilled on at my last Meta onsite... and it was right there. Word for word."

JakeSenior ML Engineer, Lyft

"Got a Google recruiter call on Monday, interview on Friday. Crammed PracHub for 4 days. Passed every round. This platform is a miracle worker."

nuggetlord

CarlosFull Stack, Shopify

"The solution quality is insane. It covers approach, edge cases, time complexity, follow-ups. Nothing else comes close."

boba.tea.vibes

"Legit the only resource you need. TC went from 180k -> 350k. Just memorize the top 50 for your target company and you're golden."

AndySWE-II, Google

"PracHub Premium for one month cost me the price of two coffees a week. It landed me a $280K+ starting offer."

couchpotato99

"Literally just signed a $600k offer. I only had 2 weeks to prep, so I focused entirely on the company-tagged lists here. If you're targeting L5+, don't overthink it."

ShrutiData Engineer, Salesforce

"Coaches and bootcamp prep courses cost around $200-300 but PracHub Premium is actually less than a Netflix subscription. And it landed me a $178K offer."

midnightramen

"I honestly don't know how you guys gather so many real interview questions. It's almost scary. I walked into my Amazon loop and recognized 3 out of 4 problems from your database."

BiancaFrontend Eng, Figma

"Discovered PracHub 10 days before my interview. By day 5, I stopped being nervous. By interview day, I was actually excited to show what I knew."

tambrahm007

"I recently cleared Uber interviews (strong hire in the design round) and all the questions were present in prachub."

toa

"The search is what sold me. I typed in a really niche DP problem I got asked last year and it actually came up, full breakdown and everything. These guys are clearly updating it constantly."

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Role

Write SQL for social feed metrics and ties

You are given the following schema (PostgreSQL) and sample rows. Assume UTC timestamps and that friendships are static over the sample window. users(u...

Data Scientist Interview Questions

Data Scientist Interview Questions

Write SQL for social feed metrics and ties

Write SQL to rank categories by impressions

Build panel in SQL; run causal regression

Diagnose and reverse an adoption-rate decline

Implement deduped CTR/RPM aggregator over event stream

Compute ARPDAU/ARPPU by country

Write SQL to flag suspect payments and chargebacks

Evaluate friend-interaction feature with network interference

Explain motivation and behavioral principles

Fix dash dates and aggregate watch time

Write one SQL for exam scores aggregation

Match Year-2 profit to Year-1

Decide goal under ambiguity

Learn complex topic fast under deadline

Compute paid subscriber YoY counts by month

Solve multi-part SQL with sliding windows

Formulate hypotheses and metrics for video-pin ramp

Solve SQL CTR and Python analytics tasks

Design SQL cleaning, mapping, dedupe, and keying

Solve advanced SQL for streaming analytics

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