Prepare for and practice interview questions from AARP across topics like Machine Learning, Statistics, A/B Testing and more.

AARP Interview Questions

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Data Structures & Algorithms

Given two sorted lists, write a function to merge them into one sorted list.

Merge Sorted Lists

Find the missing integer from a array of consequtive integers

Find the Missing Number

Find Bigrams

Write a function to create a single dataframe with complete addresses in the format of street, city, state, zip code.

Complete Addresses

Write a function friendship_timeline to generate an output that lists the pairs of friends with their corresponding timestamps of the friendship beginning and then the timestamp of the friendship ending. 

Friendship Timeline

Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department

2nd Highest Salary

Write a SQL query to create a histogram of the number of comments per user in the month of January 2020.

Comments Histogram

Write a query that returns all neighborhoods that have 0 users.

Empty Neighborhoods

Calculate the first touch attribution for each `user_id` that converted.

First Touch Attribution

Write a query to return the two students with the closest test scores and the score difference

Closest SAT Scores

Machine Learning

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

Encoding Categorical Features

Interpret coefficients of logistic regression for categorical and boolean variables

Coefficients of Logistic Regression

Which model would perform better and why?

Booking Regression

How would you build a job recommendation feed?

Job Recommendation

Write a function calculate_rmse to calculate the root mean squared error from y_pred and y_true

RMS Error

Probability

What is the probability that each subsequent card is larger than the previous drawn card when picking three cards from a shuffled deck of 500 cards

500 Cards

First to Six

What is the probability that it's actually raining in Seattle?

Raining in Seattle

What is the probability that item X would be found on Amazon's website?

Found Item

Compute the expected number of good ads in each scenario and the probability a bad rating came from a lazy rater

Ad Raters

Statistics

Write a function compute_deviation that returns the standard deviation of each list in a list of dictionaries

Compute Deviation

Write a function to return the cumulative percentage of students that received scores within certain buckets.

Bucket Test Scores

Explain what a p-value is to someone who is not technical

P-value to a Layman

Estimating D

Say you are given a dataset of perfectly linearly separable data. What would happen when you run logistic regression?

Perfectly Separable

<p>Let’s say that your company is running a standard control and variant AB test on a feature to increase conversion rates on the landing page. The PM checks the results and finds a .04 p-value.</p>

<p>How would you assess the validity of the result?</p>


How would you assess the validity of the result?

Experiment Validity

A/B Testing

<p>A team wants to A/B test multiple different changes through a sign-up funnel.</p>

<p>For example, on a page, a button is currently red and at the top of the page. They want to see if changing a button from red to blue and/or from the top of the page to the bottom of the page will increase click-through.</p>

<p>How would you set up this test?</p>


<p>Your team wants to run an AB test on the color (red or blue) and position (top/bottom of the page) of a button that links to a promotion.</p>

<p>How many different variants of the test should you run to see the effect that a red button has on the bottom of the page, if currently the button is blue and on the top of the page.</p>


Your team wants to run an AB test on the color (red or blue) and position (top/bottom of the page) of a button that links to a promotion.

How many different variants of the test should you run to see the effect that a red button has on the bottom of the page, if currently the button is blue and on the top of the page.

A/B Test Variants

Button AB Test

<p>Let’s say you want to test the close friends feature on Instagram Stories.</p>

<p>How would you make a control group and test group to account for network effects?</p>


<p>What could be a potential risk when Facebook segments the metrics of the user interface change by market or demographic groups?</p>

What could be a potential risk when Facebook segments the metrics of the user interface change by market or demographic groups?

Network Experiment Design I

<p>What is the primary metric that Facebook should monitor if it decides to make the user interface of its posting feature more like Instagram's?</p>

What is the primary metric that Facebook should monitor if it decides to make the user interface of its posting feature more like Instagram's?

Network Experiment Design II

<p>If Facebook changes its user interface to mimic Instagram's, which adverse effect should they anticipate and monitor?</p>

If Facebook changes its user interface to mimic Instagram's, which adverse effect should they anticipate and monitor?

Network Experiment Design III

How would you make a control group and test group to account for network effects

Network Experiment Design

<p>Let’s say we want to build a new delivery time estimate model for consumers ordering food delivery.</p>

<p>How would you determine if the new model predicts delivery times better than the old model?</p>


<p>When rolling out a new delivery time estimate model in production, what is an important consideration?</p>

When rolling out a new delivery time estimate model in production, what is an important consideration?

Delivery Estimate Model I

<p>What is one way to measure the performance of a new delivery time estimate model for food delivery?</p>

What is one way to measure the performance of a new delivery time estimate model for food delivery?

Delivery Estimate Model II

How would you determine if the new model predicts delivery times better than the old model

Delivery Estimate Model

<p>Let’s say we’re comparing two machine learning algorithms. In which case would you use a bagging algorithm versus a boosting algorithm? </p>

<p>Give an example of the tradeoffs between the two.</p>


<p>In machine learning, when would you use a bagging algorithm over a boosting algorithm?</p>


In machine learning, when would you use a bagging algorithm over a boosting algorithm?

Bagging vs. Boosting

In which case would you use a bagging algorithm versus a boosting algorithm

Bagging vs Boosting

<p>In an A/B test, how can you check if assignment to the various buckets was truly random?</p>


<p>In an A/B test, which of the following is a common method to determine if the assignment to the test groups was truly random?</p>

In an A/B test, which of the following is a common method to determine if the assignment to the test groups was truly random?

Random Bucketing

How can you check if assignment to the various buckets was truly random

<p>Let’s say we want to build a model to predict booking prices on Airbnb.</p>

<p>Between linear regression and random forest regression, which model would perform better and why?</p>


<p>What are the two key concepts of random forest regression?</p>

What are the two key concepts of random forest regression?

<p>Say you are given a dataset of perfectly linearly separable data.</p>

<p>What would happen when you run logistic regression?</p>


<p>What happens when logistic regression is run on a dataset of perfectly linearly separable data?</p>

What happens when logistic regression is run on a dataset of perfectly linearly separable data?

<p>What’s the difference between Lasso and Ridge Regression?</p>


<p>Under what circumstances is it recommended to use Lasso regression over Ridge regression?</p>

Under what circumstances is it recommended to use Lasso regression over Ridge regression?

Lasso vs Ridge

<p>Let’s say that you work at a B2B SAAS company that’s interested in testing the pricing of different levels of subscriptions.</p>

<p>Your project manager comes to you and asks you to run a two-week-long A/B test to test an increase in pricing.</p>

<p>How would you approach designing this test?  How would you determine whether the increase in pricing is a good business decision?</p>


How would you design a two-week A/B test to determine whether a pricing increase is a good business decision

Testing Price Increase

<p>What are the assumptions of linear regression?</p>


Which assumption of the residuals of the standard linear regression model can not be overcome by increasing the sample size?

Regression assumptions

What are the assumptions of linear regression?

Assumptions of Linear Regression

<p>Let’s say we’re testing a new UI with the goal to increase conversion rates. We test it by giving the new UI to a random subset of users.</p>

<p>The test variant wins by 5% on the target metric. What would you expect to happen after the new UI is applied to all users? Will the metric actually go up by ~5%, more, or less?</p>

<p><em>Note: Assume there is no novelty effect.</em></p>


What would you expect to happen after the new UI is applied to all users?

New UI Effect

<p>What are the key differences between classification models and regression models?</p>


<p>What is the MOST important difference between regression and classification models?</p>


What is the MOST important difference between regression and classification models?

Classification vs Regression

Explain the key differences between classification models and regression models

Classification and Regression

<p>Let’s say you have to analyze the results of an AB test.</p>

<p>One variant of the AB test has a sample size of 50K users and the other has a sample size of 200K users.</p>

<p>Given the unbalanced size between the two groups, can you determine if the test will result in bias towards the smaller group?</p>


<p>Given an AB test where one variant has a sample size of 50K users and the other has a sample size of 200K users, what is the likely effect of the unbalanced sizes on the test results?</p>


Given an AB test where one variant has a sample size of 50K users and the other has a sample size of 200K users, what is the likely effect of the unbalanced sizes on the test results?

Sample Size Bias

Can you determine if the test will result in bias towards the smaller group?

<p>Uber Rider deals with huge amounts of data but at Uber Fleet, the amount of data for experimentation is rather low. Let’s say you run an AB test for Uber Fleet and find out that the distribution is not normal.</p>

<p>What kind of analysis would you run and how would you measure which variant won?</p>


<p>Which of the following is NOT an acceptable way to deal with AB testing on a non-normally distributed population?</p>


Which of the following is NOT an acceptable way to deal with AB testing on a non-normally distributed population?

Non-Normal AB Test

What kind of analysis would you run and how would you measure which variant won

Non-Normal AB Testing

<p>What is an unbiased estimator and can you provide an example for a layman to understand?</p>


What makes an estimator of a population statistic unbiased?

Unbiased Estimator

Explain what an unbiased estimator is and provide a layman-friendly example

<p>What are time series models? Why do we need them when we have less complicated regression models?</p>


<p>What can happen if a traditional regression model is used on data that has autocorrelation?</p>

What can happen if a traditional regression model is used on data that has autocorrelation?

Why Do We Need Time Series Models? I

<p>Why can't standard regression models be used effectively for data points where current values are influenced by past values?</p>

Why can't standard regression models be used effectively for data points where current values are influenced by past values?

Why Do We Need Time Series Models? II

Explain what time series models are and why they’re needed instead of simpler regression models

Why Do We Need Time Series Models?

Forecasting & Time Series

<p>How would you explain the concept of linear regression to three different audiences: a child, a first-year college student, and a seasoned mathematician? Ensure your explanations are tailored to the understanding level of each audience.</p>


Describe linear regression to various audiences with different levels of knowledge.

Explaining Linear Regression to Different Audiences

<p>What are the benefits of dynamic pricing, and how can you estimate supply and demand in this context?</p>


Achieving maximum profits through dynamic pricing with real-time supply and demand fluctuations

Understanding Dynamic Pricing Strategy

Analytics

<p>Let’s say you work at an eCommerce startup. You run an A/B test on the company’s checkout product page with the hypothesis that surfacing free shipping will increase conversions.</p>

<p>The experiment group specifies whether the product qualifies for free shipping or not. In the control group, there is no specification of free shipping.</p>

<p>Let’s say we run the experiment for two weeks and get these results.</p>

<p>Control:</p>

<ul>
<li>3056 page visits</li>
<li>1413 conversions</li>
<li>46% conversion</li>
</ul>

<p>Experiment:</p>

<ul>
<li>2947 samples</li>
<li>1533 conversions</li>
<li>52% conversion</li>
</ul>

<p>How would you evaluate the results and if the test was successful or not?</p>


How would you evaluate the results and if the test was successful or not

Free Shipping Mention Test

<p>Explain the difference between the XGBoost and random forest algorithms and give an example where you would use one over the other.</p>


<p>Why might a data scientist choose to use XGBoost instead of Random Forest for a particular machine learning task?</p>


Why might a data scientist choose to use XGBoost instead of Random Forest for a particular machine learning task?

XGBoost vs Random Forest: Choice

Explain the difference between XGBoost and random forest and give an example where you would use one over the other

Xgboost vs Random Forest

<p>Let’s say you’re analyzing an AB test that has both a test group and a control group.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>How do you calculate the sample size necessary for an accurate measurement?</p></li>

<li><p>Let’s say that the sample size is similar and sufficient between the two groups. In order to measure very small differences between the two, should the power get bigger or smaller?</p></li>
</ol>


A/B Test Power Size

<p>Regularization and cross-validation are two common techniques used to improve the performance of machine learning algorithms.</p>

<p>When should you use one versus the other?</p>


<p>Given the choices below, which one is an example of a scenario where we should be using regularization?</p>


Given the choices below, which one is an example of a scenario where we should be using regularization?

Regularization Example

When should you use regularization versus cross-validation

Regularization and Validation

<p>How do you detect and handle correlation between variables in linear regression? What will happen if you ignore the correlation in the regression model?</p>


How do you detect and handle correlation between variables in linear regression, and what happens if you ignore it

Correlation in Regression

<p>Let’s say we want to launch a re-design of a landing page to improve the click-through rate. We can do this by implementing an AB test.
Given that we launch an AB test, how would you infer if the results of the click-through rate were statistically significant or not?</p>


<p>How can you accurately conclude if the results of an A/B test, conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a landing page redesign, are statistically significant?</p>


How can you accurately conclude if the results of an A/B test, conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a landing page redesign, are statistically significant?

Statistically Significant Test

Precisely ascertain whether the outcomes of an A/B test, executed to assess the impact of a landing page redesign, exhibit statistical significance.

<p>What is the difference between Logistic and Linear Regression?</p>

<p>When would use one instead of the other in practice?</p>


What is the difference between Logistic and Linear Regression?

Linear vs Logistic Regression

<p>We’re given two tables, a <code>users</code> table with demographic information and the neighborhood they live in and a <code>neighborhoods</code> table.</p>

<p>Write a query that returns all neighborhoods that have 0 users. </p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>users</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>neighborhood_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>neighborhoods</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>city_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


<p>Write a SQL query to select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department.</p>

<p><strong>Note:</strong> If more than one person shares the highest salary, the query should select the next highest salary.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>employees</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>first_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>last_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>salary</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>department_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>departments</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>salary</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


<p>Write a SQL query to create a histogram of the number of comments per user in the month of January 2020.</p>

<p><em>Note: Assume bin buckets class intervals of one.</em></p>

<p><em>Note: Comments that were created outside of January 2020 should be counted in a “0” bucket</em></p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>users</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>neighborhood_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>mail</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>comments</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Columns</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>body</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>created_at</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output:</strong></p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>comment_count</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>frequency</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


<p>Given the <code>employees</code> and <code>departments</code> table, write a query to get the top 3 highest employee salaries by department. If the department contains less that 3 employees, the top 2 or the top 1 highest salaries should be listed (assume that each department has at least 1 employee). </p>

<p><em>Note: The output should include the full name of the employee in one column, the department name, and the salary. The output should be sorted by department name in ascending order and salary in descending order.</em> </p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>

<p><strong>Input:</strong></p>

<p><code>employees</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>first_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>last_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>salary</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>department_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><code>departments</code> table</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><strong>Output</strong>:</p>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Column</th>
<th>Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>employee_nam</code>e</td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>department_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>salary</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>


Calculate Moving Average	SQL	Easy
Predict Customer Churn	Machine Learning	Medium
A/B Test Significance	Statistics	Medium
Optimize Query Performance	SQL	Hard
Feature Importance Analysis	Machine Learning	Medium
Clean Missing Data	Python	Easy
Neural Network Architecture	Deep Learning	Hard
Calculate Cohort Retention	SQL	Medium
Bayesian Probability	Statistics	Easy
Recommend Similar Products	Machine Learning	Hard

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