Twitter Data Scientist Interview Questions

First the Manager reached out via linkedin, then I had HR interview, then they gave me take home test and I am currently on the final virtual interview. The take home test consisted of a probability question with several sub'questions and then a business case.

The recruiter is pretty good and makes me feel less nervous. the whole process is smooth and gives you a direct response within a short time. behavior questions, take-home test, technical screening, onsite.

After submitting my resume, I heard from the recruiting team and I was asked to have a video interview with a data scientist. The interview was rescheduled twice. The interviewer was really rude and lack of patience when I did the case.

30 mins coding interview. A simple question about data manipulation in Python. The question isn't hard, but the interviewer skipped over the example, so it was hard to understand the concept being asked about.

20 minute recruiting call to describe the position and ask for background, 1 hr video conference with a hiring manger, take home assignment, and a final round interview with multiple members of the team. No feedback provided with generic rejection even though you're putting time & effort into the process.

First phone interview was 30 minutes with hiring manager. It was focused on product sense. The second interview had two parts. One was data manipulation without using built in function in Python. Second part was product sense.

Background: I have a PhD in statistics from one of the top universities, have 10 years of DS/ML industry experience, been a technical lead at a top 3 FANG company for 5 years and before my current job I worked for a mid-size company for another 5 years. I applied online for a DS position at Twitter and was contacted by a Twitter recruiter the next day. Had an informational/technical interview with the hiring manager, he was very friendly and honest which I liked and this made me more motivated. Same day the recruiter said the hiring manager liked me and they want to move forward to the next step. I had an interview with an SDE and one DS (both told me they had about 1 year of experience). I had one coding question (SDE/Algorithm/Design) type of question which according to the hiring manager and the JD was not supposed to be part of interview (this was a pure Senior DS Analytics role and not SDE or even ML Engineering role), and one DS question. DS question was easy (power analysis for experimentation) and I managed to fully solve the coding question but not as a SDE with the most optimum algorithm/system design solution. Two days later I got a generic email from Twitter that they are not interested in moving forward while I thought the interview went pretty well and other than algorithm/system design I managed to answer all questions and even fully answered the coding part! Also while interviewing with Twitter, I was interviewing with two other top five IT companies for a lead IC and one DS manager role and got offer from both of them so I was a bit shocked and disappointed with how my case was handled with Twitter. To be honest I still think Twitter is a great company but they need to use more senior(experienced) people for interviews. Also I cannot be 1005 sure but recently I have seen a lot of grey areas and "other considerations" happening at IT companies based on the gender and racial factors which is not fair and pleasant.

While I did meet some great people during this process, overall I cannot recommend the experience. The recruiters were disorganized and often failed to send critical updates unless prompted (this happened more than once, at different stages of the interview). One of the interviewers was very unfriendly and aggressive (did not smile once during the interview) -- I'm not really sure why. This individual asked exclusively behavioral questions, and I answered honestly, to the best of my ability, but it didn't seem to be what they were looking for. I also got the sense that some people on the team were unhappy. While Twitter touts their employee friendliness, my takeaway is that there is a lot of internal politics and a confrontational work environment, at least on the team I interviewed for.

Very friendly and positive experience, it has so many stages. Overall positive experience, recruiter is very nice and friendly and hiring manager is super helpful too. It requires a bit of preparation and practice, if you are not ready don't go there.

After being contacted by a recruiter, was set up with a 30 minute phone screen with the hiring manager. He wasn't impressed by my professional experience and after a single question ended the interview.