I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Instacart in Oct 2018
Interview
Very chill initially. Spoke with a recruiter from a third party company, he was great. Made the role out to be more of a data analyst/ETL dev role, which was fine. He passed me along to Instacart, and they liked my resume. Initially they give you a tricky SQL query. It was really easy once you understand what the question is asking (ambiguous wording was a problem here) - took about 5 min to write after 5 min of reading it over and over again. Then I chatted with a recruiter from Instacart; 10/10 most awkward conversation I've had. Lastly, I was given a coding challenge.
They don't give you any direction for this - "find insights" and another question that was similarly open ended. I assumed it would be best to take a data analyst approach to the problem since that is how the role was described to me, so I did a lot of graphing and group bys. I spent a few hours on it (they tell you 4-6 hrs is typical). I think I probably could have used Tableau, but I didn't want to use my work computer, so I just did everything in Python. Heard back quickly that I did not get the role. I think the process was smooth, but given that I received 0 feedback on my assessment and the assessment covered about 40% of what I was told I would be doing in the role, I'm giving this a thumbs down.
I think if someone spends numerous hours on an assignment, they should be some courteous enough to tell them where they can improve.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I think the open-endedness of the take home challenge is tough. They tell you it's supposed to be that way, but given I'm not getting paid, I'm not going to spend 8 hrs exhausting all possible analysis.
I applied through other source. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Instacart in Oct 2025
Interview
First there was Tech screening followed by a Take home Assessment where we had to review an experiment and make a recommendation. The Virtual on-site (4 rounds) included one round to review the assessment from before, and other standard rounds (stats, bar raiser, hiring manager).
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Talk me through a project you've done in the past.
Some ab test and casual ml
Lots of cases, sometimes the interviewer does not seem prepared
SQL as well
Requires solid framing of problems especially in the relevant space
Practical ml and ab testing questions
Don’t have a track for metrics versus modeling for DS
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Instacart check out experience with 4 screens, purpose
I applied online. I interviewed at Instacart (California City, CA) in May 2025
Interview
Straightforward even though the process is pretty lengthy. It requires a lot time including a take home that is expected to take 5 hours but you know it usually requires 2 times as much.