The interview consists of several stages. It begins with a discussion about your background, focusing primarily on your research projects. This is followed by technical questions, particularly on topics such as statistics and causal inference. The final stage involves solving a coding question to assess your programming skills.
A former colleague referred me to the Data Scientist position at TikTok, which kicked off the interview process. The technical screen included a question about designing an A/B test for a ranking model, followed by an SQL challenge related to user sessions. The funny part was that the SQL problem was a twist on one I had been grinding through on PracHub just a few days prior. After some behavioral interviews, I received an offer, but ultimately decided to decline as it didn't align with my goals.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Walk me through how you'd design an A/B test for a new ranking model on the For You feed, and how you'd pick guardrail metrics.
Given a sessions table (user_id, session_start, session_end, country), write SQL to find the users whose average session length grew the most week-over-week.
I applied online. I interviewed at TikTok (London, England)
Interview
one medium level sql test and an open question
Since i'm not familiar with business context(though i actually spent time preparing AB test and causal inference), i didn't get what i should answer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
if tiktok shop is going to launch in Netherland, how to evaluate it before AB test
Data Scientist applicants have rated the interview process at TikTok with 3.2 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 29% positive. To compare, the company-average is 37.3% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Data Scientist roles take an average of 20 days to get hired, when considering 117 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at TikTok overall takes an average of 30 days.
Common stages of the interview process at TikTok as a Data Scientist according to 117 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 34%
Skills test: 26%
Phone interview: 19%
Background check: 7%
Presentation: 5%
Other: 3%
Personality test: 2%
Group panel interview: 1%
Drug test: 1%
IQ intelligence test: 1%
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