Prepare for and practice interview questions from Calico Life Sciences across topics like Algorithms, Takehome, Machine Learning and more.

Calico Life Sciences Interview Questions

Calico Life Sciences Interview Guides

Machine Learning

RMS Error

Missing Housing Data

What are the logistic and softmax functions? What is the difference between the two?

Softmax vs Logistic

How to model merchant acquisition in a new market?

Merchant Acquisition

Random Forest Explanation

Data Structures & Algorithms

Moving Window

Given a json string with nested objects, write a function that flattens all the objects to a single key-value dictionary.

Flatten JSON

Write a function to impute the median price of the selected California cheeses in place of the missing values.

Impute Median

Given a list of strings, write a function that returns the longest common prefix

Common Prefix

Valid Anagram

Select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department

2nd Highest Salary

Last Transaction

Given a users table, write a query to get the cumulative number of new users added by the day, with the total reset every month. 

Cumulative Reset

Cumulative Distribution

Find the second longest flight between each pair of cities.

Second Longest Flight

Behavioral

Strategically resolving misaligned expectations with stakeholders for a successful project outcome

Stakeholder Communication

Describing a data project and its challenges

Hurdles In Data Projects

How to present complex data insights with clarity and adaptability tailored to a specific audience

Presentations and Insights

How would you answer when an Interviewer asks why you applied to their company?

Why Do You Want to Work With Us

What do you tell an interviewer when they ask you what your strengths and weaknesses are?

Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Probability

How would you assess if a coin is fair after observing 8 tails in 10 flips?

Fair Coin

Write a function to get a sample from a standard normal distribution.

Normal Distribution Sample

Weighted Keys

Given win reports in a coin toss game with lying, estimate the true number of winners.

Secret Wins

Write a SQL query to select the 2nd highest salary in the engineering department.

Note: If more than one person shares the highest salary, the query should select the next highest salary.

Example:

Input:

<code>employees</code> table

<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>
<code>departments</code> table

<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>
Output:

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

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

How would you handle the data preparation for building a machine learning model using imbalanced data?

Addressing imbalanced data in machine learning through carefully prepared techniques.

Data Preparation for Imbalanced Data

Given a table of bank transactions with columns <code>id</code>, <code>transaction_value</code>, and <code>created_at</code> representing the date and time for each transaction, write a query to get the last transaction for each day.

The output should include the id of the transaction, datetime of the transaction, and the transaction amount. Order the transactions by datetime.

Example:

Input:

<code>bank_transactions</code> table

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

<tr>
<td><code>transaction_value</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

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

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

<tr>
<td><code>transaction_value</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>

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

We’re given a list of at least three numbers named <code>sides</code>. Each entry in <code>sides</code> represents the length of a side of a triangle.

Write a function <code>possible_triangles</code> to determine the number of possible triangles that can be formed using the given side lengths.

In the case that more than three side lengths are given, there may be several possible triangles.

Note: If there are multiple equal side lengths in the list, we consider them as distinct sides.

Examples:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>#Example 1:
sides = [3, 3, 3]
def possible_triangles(sides) -&gt; 1

#Example 2:
sides = [3, 3, 3, 3]
def possible_triangles(sides) -&gt; 4

#Example 3:
sides = [1, 2, 3.5]
def possible_triangles(sides) -&gt; 0
</code></pre>

Find the number of possible triangles from a list of side lengths.

Possible Triangles

Given a sorted list of integers <code>ints</code> with no duplicates, write an efficient function <code>nearest_entries</code> that takes in integers <code>N</code> and <code>k</code> and does the following:

Finds the element of the list that is closest to <code>N</code> and returns that element along with the <code>k</code>-next and <code>k</code>-previous elements of the list.

Notes: 
1. If <code>k</code> is large enough to go out of the bounds of <code>ints</code>, return all entries up to that bound but do not throw an error.
2. If <code>N</code> is not an entry in <code>ints</code> and there are two values equally close to <code>N</code>, use the lower value as your starting point.

Examples:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>#Example 1:
ints = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
N = 4
k = 2
def nearest_entries(ints, N, k) -&gt; [2,3,4,5,6]

#Example 2:
ints = [1,3,4,6,8]
N = 5
k = 1
def nearest_entries(ints, N, k) -&gt; [3,4,6]

#Example 3:
ints = [1,3,4,7,9,11,15,22,77]
N = 22
k = 4
def nearest_entries(ints, N,k) -&gt; [7, 9, 11, 15, 22, 77]
</code></pre>

Finds the element of a list that is closest to some integer, along with the k-next and k-previous elements

K Nearest Entries

Let’s say you work at Costco. Costco has a database with two tables. The first is <code>users</code> composed of user information, including their registration date, and the second is <code>purchases</code> that has the entire item purchase history (if any) for those users.

Write a query to get the total amount spent on each item in the ‘purchases’ table by users that registered in 2022.

Example:

Input:

<code>users</code> table

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

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

<tr>
<td><code>user_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>registration_date</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<code>purchases</code> table

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

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

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

<tr>
<td><code>item</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>price</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>purchase_date</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

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

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>item</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>total_amount_spent</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Total Spent on Products

A biomedical research lab is studying treatment effectiveness across different brain cancer categories. Each patient is associated with one cancer type and may undergo zero or more treatments. Write a query to perform an aggregated analysis across all cancer categories.

For each cancer type, compute:

<ol>
<li>Total number of patients</li>
<li>Percentage of patients who survived ≥ 12 months

<ul>
<li>Round to 2 decimal places</li>
<li>A “1-year survivor” is defined as <code>survival_months &gt;= 12</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li>Average number of treatments per patient

<ul>
<li>Round to 2 decimal places</li>
<li>Include patients with zero treatments</li>
</ul></li>
</ol>

Sort the results in descending order by survival rate.

<h3>Example 1</h3>

Input :

Table <code>patients</code>

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

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>patient_id</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>cancer_type</td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>survival_months</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Table <code>treatments</code>

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

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>treatment_id</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>patient_id</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>treatment_name</td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>treatment_date</td>
<td>DATE</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output :

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

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>cancer_type</td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>total_patients</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>pct_one_year_survivors</td>
<td>DECIMAL</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>avg_treatments_per_patient</td>
<td>DECIMAL</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<h3>Example 2</h3>

Input:

<code>patients</code> table

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>patient_id</th>
<th>cancer_type</th>
<th>survival_months</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>Glioblastoma</td>
<td>10</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Meningioma</td>
<td>24</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>Astrocytoma</td>
<td>15</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>Glioblastoma</td>
<td>14</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>Meningioma</td>
<td>7</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<code>treatments</code> table

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>treatment_id</th>
<th>patient_id</th>
<th>treatment_name</th>
<th>treatment_date</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>201</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>Radiation</td>
<td>2024-03-01</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>202</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>Chemotherapy</td>
<td>2024-06-01</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>203</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>Surgery</td>
<td>2024-02-01</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>204</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>Chemotherapy</td>
<td>2024-08-01</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<h3>Output:</h3>

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>cancer_type</th>
<th>total_patients</th>
<th>pct_one_year_survivors</th>
<th>avg_treatments_per_patient</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Astrocytoma</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>100.00</td>
<td>0.00</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Meningioma</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>50.00</td>
<td>0.50</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Glioblastoma</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>50.00</td>
<td>1.00</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<h3>Explanation:</h3>

Astrocytoma

<ul>
<li>Total patients: 1</li>
<li>Survivors: 1⁄1 → 100.00%</li>
<li>Treatments: 0 total → 0.00 per patient</li>
</ul>

Meningioma

<ul>
<li>Total patients: 2</li>
<li>Survivors: patient 2 (24 months) → 50.00%</li>
<li>Treatments: 1 total (patient 2) → 0.50 per patient</li>
</ul>

Glioblastoma

<ul>
<li>Total patients: 2</li>
<li>Survivors: patient 4 (14 months) → 50.00%</li>
<li>Treatments: 3 total (2 for patient 1, 1 for patient 4) → 1.00 per patient</li>
</ul>

Write a query to perform an aggregated analysis across all cancer categories.

Brain Cancer Treatment Outcomes

Let’s say you work at an advertising firm. You have a table of users’ impressions of ad campaigns over time. Each <code>impression_id</code> consists of values of user engagement specified by <code>Excited</code>, <code>OK</code>, and <code>Bored</code>.

Write a query to find all users who were at some point “Excited” and have never been “Bored” with a campaign.

Example:

Input:

<code>ad_impressions</code> table:

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

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

<tr>
<td><code>dt</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>campaign_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>impression_id</code></td>
<td>TEXT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

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

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

Write a query to find all users that were at some point "Excited" and have never been "Bored" with a campaign.

Always Excited Users

Given a dictionary with weights, write a function <code>random_key</code> that returns a key at random with a probability proportional to the weights.

Example 1:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>weights = {&#39;A&#39;: 1, &#39;B&#39;: 2}
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>random_key(weights) -&gt; return A 1/3 of the time, B 2/3 of the time
</code></pre>

Example 2:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>weights = {&#39;A&#39;: 1, &#39;B&#39;: 1}
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>random_key(weights) -&gt; return A 1/2 of the time, B 1/2 of the time
</code></pre>

Given a table of <code>flights</code>, extract the 2nd flight with the most duration between each pair of cities. Order the flights by the flight <code>id</code> ascending.

Note: For any cities <code>X</code> and <code>Y</code>, <code>(source_location=X, destination_location=Y)</code> and <code>(source_location=Y, destination_location=X)</code> are counted as the same pair of cities.

Note: If there are fewer than two flights between two cities, there is no 2nd longest flight.

Example:

Input:

<code>flights</code> table

<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>destination_location</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>source_location</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>plane_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>flight_start</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>flight_end</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

<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>destination_location</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>source_location</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>flight_start</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>flight_end</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

You’re given a dataframe <code>df_cheeses</code> containing a list of the price of various cheeses from California. The dataframe has missing values in the price column.

Write a function <code>cheese_median</code> to impute the median price of the selected California cheeses in place of the missing values. You may assume at least one cheese is not missing its price.

Example:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>import pandas as pd

cheeses = {&#34;Name&#34;: [
&#34;Bohemian Goat&#34;, 
&#34;Central Coast Bleu&#34;, 
&#34;Cowgirl Mozzarella&#34;, 
&#34;Cypress Grove Cheddar&#34;, 
&#34;Oakdale Colby&#34;], 
&#34;Price&#34; : [15.00, None, 30.00, None, 45.00]}

df_cheeses = pd.DataFrame(cheeses)
</code></pre>

Output:

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Price</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Bohemian Goat</td>
<td>15.00</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Central Coast Bleu</td>
<td>30.00</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Cowgirl Mozzarella</td>
<td>30.00</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Cypress Grove Cheddar</td>
<td>30.00</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>Oakdale Colby</td>
<td>45.00</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Given a table of <code>subscriptions</code>, write a query to get the retention rate of each monthly cohort for each <code>plan_id</code> for the three months after sign-up.

Order your output by <code>start_month</code>, <code>plan_id</code>, then <code>num_month</code>.

If an <code>end_date</code> is in the same month as <code>start_date</code> we say the subscription was not retained in the first month.

If the <code>end_date</code> occurs in the month after the month of <code>start_date</code>, the subscription was not retained in the second month. And so on for the third.

The <code>end_date</code> field is <code>NULL</code> if the user has not canceled.

<h3>Schema:</h3>

Input:

<code>subscriptions</code> table

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

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

<tr>
<td><code>start_date</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>end_date</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>plan_id</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

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

<tbody>
<tr>
<td><code>start_month</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>num_month</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>plan_id</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>retained</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<h3>Example</h3>

Input:

<code>subscriptions</code> table

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>user_id</th>
<th>start_date</th>
<th>end_date</th>
<th>plan_id</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>2020-01-10 00:00:00</td>
<td>2020-03-31 23:59:59</td>
<td>plan1</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>2020-01-10 00:00:00</td>
<td>2020-02-01 23:59:59</td>
<td>plan1</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>2020-01-10 00:00:00</td>
<td>2020-07-31 23:59:59</td>
<td>plan1</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>start_month</th>
<th>num_month</th>
<th>plan_id</th>
<th>retained</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>2020-01-01</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>plan1</td>
<td>1.0</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2020-01-01</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>plan1</td>
<td>0.67</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2020-01-01</td>
<td>3</td>
<td>plan1</td>
<td>0.33</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Explanation:

<ul>
<li>Cohort: All subscriptions starting in January 2020.</li>
<li>Month 1 retention: All 3 users were active in the first month → 3⁄3 = 1.0</li>
<li>Month 2 retention: Only users 1 and 3 were active in Feb → 2⁄3 ≈ 0.67</li>
<li>Month 3 retention: Only user 3 was active in Mar → 1⁄3 ≈ 0.33</li>
</ul>

Subscription Retention

Given a <code>users</code> table, write a query to get the cumulative number of new users added by the day, with the total reset every month. 

Example:

Input:

<code>users</code> table

<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>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>DATE</th>
<th>INTEGER</th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>2020-01-01</td>
<td>5</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2020-01-02</td>
<td>12</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>…</td>
<td>…</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2020-02-01</td>
<td>8</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2020-02-02</td>
<td>17</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2020-02-03</td>
<td>23</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Let’s say you’re interning at a fintech startup that’s building a platform for online games of chance. During testing, one of your simulations flips a coin 10 times and gets 8 tails and 2 heads.

How would you determine if the coin is fair, and what statistical approach would you use to support your conclusion?

Given a list of numbers <code>nums</code> and an integer <code>window_size</code>, write a function <code>moving_window</code> to find the moving window average.

Example 1:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>nums = [1,2,3,4,5,6]
window_size = 3
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def moving_window(input, window_size) -&gt; [1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5]
</code></pre>

Example 2:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>nums = [1,2,3,4,5,6]
window_size = 4
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def moving_window(input, window_size) -&gt; [1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5]
</code></pre>

Given two strings, write a function to return <code>True</code> if the strings are anagrams of each other and <code>False</code> if they are not.

Note: A word is not an anagram of itself.

Example 1:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>string_1 = &#34;listen&#34;
string_2 = &#34;silent&#34;
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>True
</code></pre>

Example 2:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>string_1 = &#34;banana&#34;
string_2 = &#34;bandana&#34;
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>False
</code></pre>

Given a <code>JSON</code> string with nested objects, write a function <code>flatten_json</code> that flattens all the objects to a single key-value dictionary. Do not use the library that actually performs this function.

Example:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>import json
json_str = json.dumps({&#39;a&#39;:{&#39;b&#39;:&#39;c&#39;, &#39;d&#39;:&#39;e&#39;}})
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def flatten_json(json_str) -&gt; json.dumps({&#39;a_b&#39;:&#39;c&#39;, &#39;a_d&#39;:&#39;e&#39;})
</code></pre>

Note: Input and output are in <code>string</code> format : use <code>json.dumps()</code> to convert python dictionary to string.

Write a function, <code>search_list</code>, that returns a boolean indicating if the <code>target</code> value is in the <code>linked_list</code> or not.

You receive the head of the linked list, which is a dictionary with the following keys:
- <code>value</code>: contains the value of the node.
- <code>next</code>: contains the next node in the list, or <code>None</code>.

If the linked list is empty, you’ll receive <code>None</code> since there is no head node for an empty list.

Example:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>target = 2
linked_list = 3 -&gt; 2 -&gt; 5 -&gt; 6 -&gt; 8 -&gt; None
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>search_list(target, linked_list) -&gt; True
</code></pre>

Write a function that returns a boolean indicating if a value is in the linked list.

Search Linked List

You are given a list of integers called <code>numbers</code>. Write a function to return any subset of <code>numbers</code> where the elements <code>sum</code> to <code>zero</code> and that does not contain the number <code>0</code>.

If there are no combinations of elements that sum to zero, return an empty list.

Example 1:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>numbers = [1,-2,6,7,1]
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def zero_sum(numbers) -&gt; [1,-2,1] # only possible combination
</code></pre>

Example 2:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>numbers = [0,0,1,3,6,-4,-1]
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def zero_sum(numbers) -&gt; [1,3,-4]
</code></pre>

or

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def zero_sum(numbers) -&gt; [1,-1]
</code></pre>

or any other subset that sums to zero and doesn’t include <code>0</code>.

Write a function to return any subset of the input list where the elements sum to zero and that does not contain the number 0.

Sum to Zero

Given a list of strings, write a function that returns their longest common prefix. For example, if you were given the strings <code>&#34;flowers&#34;</code>, <code>&#34;flow&#34;</code>, and <code>&#34;flight&#34;</code>, your function should return the string <code>&#34;fl&#34;</code>.

If the list of strings has no common prefix, return an empty string.

Example 1:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>strings = [&#34;flowers&#34;, &#34;flow&#34;, &#34;flight&#34;] 
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>&#34;fl&#34;
</code></pre>

Example 2:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>strings = [&#34;showboat&#34;, &#34;showcase&#34;, &#34;shower&#34;]
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>&#34;show&#34;
</code></pre>

A group of 100 students are participating in a coin-tossing challenge at a school event. Each student flips a fair coin once:
- If the coin lands on heads, the student wins and truthfully reports their win.
- If the coin lands on tails, the student flips again:
 - If the second flip is heads, the student lies and claims they won, even though they lost.
 - If the second flip is tails, the student truthfully reports their loss.

At the end of the game, 30 students report that they won. As an analyst, you are tasked with determining the expected number of students who actually won the game (i.e., got heads on their first flip).

Example:

Suppose only 8 students report winning. How many students would you expect to have truly won based on the rules above?

Note: You may assume each coin flip is independent and fair (probability of heads = 0.5).

You work at a ride-sharing company and are given a table containing information about the rides of users.

Write a query to get the duration (in minutes) of each ride longer than two hours. Sort the results by duration in descending order.

<code>rides</code> table:

<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>passenger_user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>start_dt</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>end_dt</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>distance</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>ride_region</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>is_completed</code>	</td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

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

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

Time Difference

Let’s say that you’re training a classification model.

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

Let's say that you're training a classification model.   How would you combat overfitting when building tree-based models?

Overfit Avoidance

What are the logistic and softmax functions? What is the difference between the two?

What makes them useful for use in logistic regression?

In logistic regression, how is the predicted class determined based on the logistic function?

In logistic regression, how is the predicted class determined based on the logistic function?

Softmax vs Logistic II

What is the key characteristic of the logistic function that makes it useful for mapping continuous values to a probability?

What is the key characteristic of the logistic function that makes it useful for mapping continuous values to a probability?

Softmax vs Logistic I

Let’s say we have an <code>annual_payments</code> table. Answer the following three questions via SQL queries and output them as a table with the answers to each question.

<ol>
<li>How many total transactions are in this table?</li>
<li>How many different users made transactions?</li>
<li>How many transactions listed as <code>&#34;paid&#34;</code> have an amount greater or equal to 100?</li>
<li>Which product made the highest revenue? (use only transactions with a <code>&#34;paid&#34;</code> status)</li>
</ol>

Example:

Input:

<code>annual_payments</code> table

<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>amount</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>

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

<tr>
<td><code>status</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

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

<tr>
<td><code>amount_refunded</code></td>
<td>FLOAT</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>product</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td><code>last_updated</code></td>
<td>DATETIME</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

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

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

<tr>
<td><code>answer</code></td>
<td>TEXT</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Write a SQL query to count transactions filtered by several criterias.

Count Transactions

Given a string, write a function to determine if it is palindrome or not.

Note: A palindrome is a word/string that is read the same way forward as it is backward, e.g. <code>&#39;reviver&#39;</code>, <code>&#39;madam&#39;</code>, <code>&#39;deified&#39;</code> and <code>&#39;civic&#39;</code> are all palindromes, while <code>&#39;tree&#39;</code>, <code>&#39;music&#39;</code> and <code>&#39;person&#39;</code> are not palindromes.

Example:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>word1 = &#34;tree&#34;
word2 = &#34;radar&#34;
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def is_palindrome(word1) -&gt; False
def is_palindrome(word2) -&gt; True
</code></pre>

Given a string, write a function to determine if it is palindrome or not.

String Palindromes

You work as a data scientist for ride-sharing company.

An executive asks how you would evaluate whether a 50% rider discount promotion is a good or bad idea?

How would you implement it? What metrics would you track?

You work as a data scientist for ride-sharing company.  An executive asks how you would evaluate whether a 50% rider discount promotion is a good or bad idea?  How would you implement it? What metrics would you track?

Rider Discount

Product Sense & Metrics

Let’s say that you’re a data scientist working for Facebook.

You’ve been asked to generate a machine learning model that can map the legal first name of a person to likely nicknames they might have.

How do you go about designing this model?

Mapping Nicknames

You are given a <code>string</code> that represents some floating-point number. Write a function, <code>digit_accumulator</code>, that returns the sum of every digit in the <code>string</code>.

Example:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>s = &#34;123.0045&#34;
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def digit_accumulator(s) -&gt; 15

Since 
1 + 2 + 3 + 0 + 0 + 4 + 5 = 15
</code></pre>

Digit Accumulator

To improve customer experience on Uber Eats, what key parameters would you focus on improving?

Delivering an exceptional customer experience by focusing on key customer-centric parameters

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

Calico Life Sciences Interview Questions

Calico Life Sciences Interview Guides

Calico Life Sciences Interview Questions

Challenge

Calico Life Sciences Salaries by Position

Discussion & Interview Experiences

Discussion & Interview Experiences