Shipt Data Scientist Interview Questions + Guide in 2024

Shipt is a leading American delivery service owned by Target Corporation. It is known for its efficient and customer-centric grocery delivery and pickup solutions. Focusing on connecting members to fresh groceries and everyday essentials, Shipt excels at providing swift, reliable, and personalized shopping experiences.

Aspiring to join Shipt as a Data Scientist? This role is integral to the company’s data-driven decision-making and optimization processes. You’ll tackle complex challenges, analyze vast datasets, and contribute to innovative projects that enhance Shipt’s operational efficiency and customer experience.

In this guide, we’ll navigate through the interview process, sharing common Shipt data scientist interview questions, potential challenges, and essential tips to help you secure your dream job. Let’s get started!

Recruiter/Hiring Manager Call Screening

If your CV is shortlisted, a Shipt Talent Acquisition Team recruiter will contact you to verify key details regarding your experience and skill level. During this call, behavioral questions may also be included.

Occasionally, the Shipt hiring manager will participate in this screening round to answer any queries you might have about the role and the company itself. They may also explore surface-level technical and behavioral aspects.

The recruiter call typically lasts about 30 minutes.

Technical Virtual Interview

Passing the recruiter round lands you an invitation for the technical screening round. This is usually conducted virtually through videoconferencing and screen sharing. The one-hour interview may encompass questions about Shipt’s data systems, ETL pipelines, and SQL queries.

A take-home exercise related to data science and operations research is often assigned for the data scientist role. During this stage, you may be evaluated on your proficiency with hypothesis testing, probability distributions, and machine learning fundamentals.

Depending on the seniority of the position, case studies and real-scenario problems may also be part of the assessment.

Onsite Interview Rounds

If you clear the technical virtual interview, you will receive a second recruiter call outlining the next stage and be invited to attend the onsite interview loop. Multiple rounds are conducted during your day at Shipt’s office, focusing on your technical skills, including programming and ML modeling capabilities.

If assigned a take-home exercise, you might also face a presentation round on your findings and methodologies during the onsite interview for the Data Scientist role at Shipt.

Typically, interviews at Shipt vary by role and team, but commonly data scientist interviews follow a fairly standardized process across these question topics.

1. Identify first-time and repeat purchases for each product category.

Analyze a user’s purchases to determine if each purchase is the first time the user has bought a product from its category or a repeat purchase. Output a table with each purchase and a boolean column indicating if the category was previously purchased.

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

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.

3. Compute the standard deviation for lists of integers in dictionaries.

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

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

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

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

Given a list of unordered flights, write a function plan_trip to reconstruct the path of the trip so the trip tickets are in order.

6. 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?

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

You have data on college programs, degrees, 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?

8. What business health metrics would you track for an e-commerce D2C 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?

9. How would you query data to test if CTR depends on search result rating on Facebook?

You have a table representing search results and another representing search events on Facebook. Write a query to return data that supports or disproves the hypothesis that the click-through rate (CTR) depends on the search result rating.

10. 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?

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

You have a categorical variable with thousands of distinct values. Describe the method you would use to encode this variable in a machine-learning model.

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

You are training a classification model. Explain the techniques you would use to prevent overfitting in tree-based models.

13. 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. Describe how you would design a machine learning system to predict the movie score based on the review text.

14. 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?

15. 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 prepare for your upcoming Shipt data scientist interview:

• Prepare Thoroughly for the Technical Round: Shipt places a significant emphasis on technical screening. Ensure you’re well-prepared by brushing up on your understanding of data systems, ETL pipelines, and SQL queries. Also, you can consider practicing coding Python or SQL in our AI interviewer to get real-time feedback.

• Enhance Your Behavioral Interview Skills: Shipt values candidates who align with their culture. Practice answering behavioral questions with peers and be ready to share insightful experiences that demonstrate your problem-solving skills and teamwork.

• Project Confidence and Curiosity: During interactions with various interviewers, display enthusiasm and curiosity about the role and the company. Ask thoughtful questions to demonstrate your genuine interest in accomplishing Shipt’s goals.

What is the average salary for a Data Scientist at Shipt?

How long does the entire interview process take?

The duration can vary, but it’s not uncommon for the process to stretch over several weeks. Some candidates have experienced delays and even a lack of follow-up communications, so be prepared for potential waiting periods.

What is the company culture like at Shipt?

Experiences have been mixed. While some team members are personable and supportive, others might lack people skills. Transparency about the necessity of the position can also be an issue. Be sure to ask questions to clarify any uncertainties about the role.

As Shipt continues to innovate and expand its services, the demand for adept and forward-thinking Data Scientists is higher than ever.

To ensure success, reflect on your past experiences and be prepared for both technical exercises and discussions about your previous projects. Though some candidates have shared concerns about communication and internal clarity, approaching the process proactively can turn challenges into opportunities.

For more insights and tips on how to excel in your interviews, connect with other professionals and leverage online resources.

Good luck with your interview journey at Shipt!