Avanade Data Engineer Interview Questions + Guide in 2024

Avanade is a leading global provider of innovative digital, cloud, and advisory services and is the top expert in the Microsoft ecosystem. A joint venture between Accenture LLP and Microsoft Corporation, Avanade leverages cutting-edge Microsoft technologies to drive comprehensive digital transformation for its clients.

The Data Engineer role at Avanade offers an exceptional opportunity for technologists passionate about data and cloud technology. This role focuses on handling large-scale data projects and working closely with high-profile clients across various sectors to present tailored solutions. Proficiency in tools like Databricks, Synapse, and Data Factory and languages such as Python and SQL is essential.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the interview process, Avanade data engineer interview questions you might get asked, as well as valuable tips to help you prepare better.

HR Screening Call

If your CV is shortlisted, you’ll get contacted by a recruiter from Avanade. This initial call will verify key details like your experiences and skill level and may include some basic behavioral questions. The conversation will likely delve into your past projects and your employed methodologies.

The whole recruiter call should take about 30 minutes.

Technical Virtual Interview

Successfully navigating the HR round will result in an invitation for the technical screening round. This stage often involves a virtual interview conducted through videoconferencing and screen sharing. Common topics include Azure Cloud services, ETL processes, and SQL queries.

Sometimes, a take-home assignment may be part of this stage, evaluating your ability to solve real-world problems using your skill set.

Team/Manager Interviews

If you pass the initial technical screening, you’ll conduct further interviews with team members and possibly managers. These sessions will involve more detailed discussions about your technical skills and experiences and behavioral questions. Topics could include API development, code reuse, and handling conflicts.

Onsite Interview Rounds

Following the preliminary rounds, you might be invited for onsite interviews. This stage will typically include multiple interview rounds to evaluate your technical proficiency and soft skills. You may also be required to present or discuss your take-home assignment.

Typically, interviews at Avanade vary by role and team, but commonly Data Engineer interviews follow a fairly standardized process across these question topics.

1. How would you increase engagement for users with partners on Facebook?

Facebook reports show that users with partners make fewer posts. How would you approach tackling this issue, and what strategies might you implement to increase engagement for this demographic?

2. How would you recommend colleges to students based on maximizing educational value?

You have access to data on college programs, student finances, and historical alumni salary data. How would you create a system to recommend colleges to students looking to maximize the value of their education from a cost perspective?

3. What business health metrics would you track for a D2C e-commerce sock business?

You are in charge of an e-commerce D2C business that sells socks. What key business health metrics would you care about tracking on a company dashboard?

• How would you query data to test if CTR depends on search result rating on Facebook? You have a table representing search results with columns for query, position, and rating, and another table for search events with columns for search_id, query, and has_clicked. Write a query to return data to support or disprove the hypothesis that CTR is dependent on the search result rating.

4. How would you measure the effectiveness of extra pay for delivery drivers during peak hours?

You work at a food delivery company. How would you measure the effectiveness of giving extra pay to delivery drivers during peak hours to meet consumer demand?

5. Identify first-time and repeat purchases for each product category in a user’s purchase history.

Analyze a user’s purchases to determine which purchases are first-time buys within their product category and which are repeat purchases. Output a table with each purchase and a boolean column indicating if the category was previously purchased.

6. Determine if one string can be shifted to become another string.

Given two strings A and B, write a function can_shift to check if A can be shifted some number of places to get B.

7. Compute the standard deviation for lists of integers in a dictionary.

Write a function compute_deviation that takes a list of dictionaries with keys and lists of integers and returns a dictionary with the standard deviation of each list without using NumPy.

8. Calculate the percentage of search queries with low ratings.

Write a query to find the percentage of search queries where all ratings for the query results are less than 3, rounding the answer to two decimal points.

9. Reconstruct the path of a trip from unordered flight segments.

Given a list of unordered flights, write a function plan_trip to reconstruct the trip path in order from the starting city to the final destination.

10. How would you encode a categorical variable with thousands of distinct values?

If you have a categorical variable with thousands of distinct values, how would you encode it for use in a machine-learning model?

11. How would you combat overfitting when building tree-based models?

If you are training a classification model, how would you prevent overfitting when using tree-based models?

12. How would you design an ML system to predict movie scores based on review text?

As an ML engineer at Netflix, you have access to reviews of 10K movies, each containing multiple sentences and a score from 1 to 10. How would you design a machine learning system to predict the movie score based on the review text?

13. What is the expected amount of money you would win in a casino dice game with a reroll option?

You’re playing a casino dice game where you roll a die once. If you reroll, you earn the amount equal to the number on your second roll; otherwise, you earn the amount equal to the number on your first roll. Assuming you adopt a profit-maximizing strategy, what would be the expected amount of money you would win?

14. What is a confidence interval for a statistic and why is it useful?

What is a confidence interval for a statistic? Explain why it is useful to know the confidence interval for a statistic and how you calculate it.

Here are some quick tips to help you ace the data scientist interview at Avanade:

• Know Your Azure Tools: Being proficient in Azure tools like Data Factory, Databricks, Synapse, and Cosmos DB will give you an edge.
• Prepare for Behavioral Questions: Prepare to discuss how you’ve managed conflict, handled difficult moments, and embraced change in past roles.
• Brush Up on Key Topics: Make sure you are comfortable discussing ETL processes, data warehouse architecture, and API development.

What is the average salary for a Data Engineer at Avanade?

Are there opportunities for career development at Avanade?

Absolutely! Avanade is committed to continuous learning and development. Employees are required to complete a minimum of 80 hours per year in training and paid certifications. You also get a dedicated career advisor to support your professional growth and access to technical resources globally.

What is the company culture like at Avanade?

Avanade’s culture is inclusive, diverse, innovative, and driven by a sense of collaboration and community. The company values creativity, empowers every voice, and encourages employees to experiment and innovate. Working at Avanade means joining a supportive environment with opportunities for both professional and personal growth.

The interview experiences and job postings at Avanade for the Data Engineer position highlight a mix of technical and behavioral assessments, with some individuals reporting positive interactions while others faced challenges. Regardless of the experiences, it’s clear that Avanade seeks talented professionals passionate about data engineering, particularly those with expertise in Azure and Microsoft technologies.

Good luck with your interview!