Prepare for and practice interview questions from Elsevier across topics like SQL, Algorithms, Presentation and more.

Elsevier Interview Questions

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Data Structures & Algorithms

Given an array and a target integer, write a function that returns the indices of two integers in the array that add up to the target integer.

Target Indices

Write a function to rotate an array by 90 degrees in the clockwise direction.

Matrix Rotation

Most Repetition

Median O(1)

Summing Numeric Strings

Machine Learning

Coefficients of Logistic Regression

Lasso vs Ridge

Classification and Regression

Low Precision

Bias vs. Variance Tradeoff

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

Prioritized debt reduction, process improvement, and a focus on maintainability for fintech efficiency

Decreasing Tech Debt

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

A/B Testing

Experiment Validity

Button AB Test

Testing Price Increase

Marketing Dollar Efficiency

An A/B test is being conducted to determine which version of a payment processing page leads to higher conversion rates. You’re responsible for analyzing the results. How would you set up and analyze this A/B test? Additionally, how would you use bootstrap sampling to calculate the confidence intervals for the test results, ensuring your conclusions are statistically valid?

A/B Testing a Checkout Button Change

Statistics

What are the assumptions of linear regression?

Assumptions of Linear Regression

What is the difference between type I and type II errors?

Type I and II Errors

What are confidence intervals and how are they useful

Confidence Interval Explanation

Given a table called <code>user_experiences</code>, write a query to determine the percentage of users that held the title of <code>&#34;Data Analyst&#34;</code> immediately before holding the title <code>&#34;Data Scientist&#34;</code>.

Immediate is defined as the user holding no other titles between the <code>&#34;Data Analyst&#34;</code> and <code>&#34;Data Scientist&#34;</code> roles.

Example:

Input:

<code>user_experiences</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>position_name</code></td>
<td>VARCHAR</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>user_id</code></td>
<td>INTEGER</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

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

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

User Experience Percentage

Given a table of product subscriptions with a subscription start date and end date for each user, write a query that returns true or false whether or not each user has a subscription date range that overlaps with any other completed subscription.

Completed subscriptions have <code>end_date</code> recorded.

Example:

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>
</tbody>
</table>

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

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>2019-01-01</td>
<td>2019-01-31</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>2019-01-15</td>
<td>2019-01-17</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>2019-01-29</td>
<td>2019-02-04</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>2019-02-05</td>
<td>2019-02-10</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Output:

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><code>user_id</code></th>
<th><code>overlap</code></th>
</tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>1</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Subscription Overlap

What are the assumptions of linear regression?

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

Regression assumptions

Given an array and a target integer, write a function <code>sum_pair_indices</code> that returns the indices of two integers in the array that add up to the target integer. If not found, just return an empty list.

Note: Can you do it on \(O(n)\) time?

Note: Even though there could be many solutions, only one needs to be returned.

Example 1:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>array = [1 2 3 4] 
target = 5 
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def sum_pair_indices(array, target) -&gt; [0 3] or [1 2]
</code></pre>

Example 2:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>array = [3]
target = 6 
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>Do NOT return [0 0] as you can&#39;t use an index twice.
</code></pre>

Write a Python function called <code>longest_increasing_subsequence</code> that takes a list of integers as input and returns as output the length of the longest increasing subsequence in the list.

Note: An increasing subsequence is a subset of a list where the elements are in strictly increasing order. The subsequence does not have to be contiguous or unique.

<h3>Example:</h3>

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>nums = [10, 9, 2, 5, 3, 3, 7, 101, 18]
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>4
</code></pre>

Explanation:

The longest increasing subsequence is <code>[2, 3, 7, 101]</code>, for a total length of 4.

Find the longest increasing subsequence in a list of integers.

Longest Increasing Subsequence

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

Imagine you are asked to build a machine learning model to decide new loan approvals for a
financial firm. You ask the data department in the company for a subset of data to get started
working on the problem. The data includes different features about applicants such as age,
occupation, zip code, height, number of children, favorite color, etc. You decide to build
multiple machine learning models to test out different ideas before settling on the best one.

How would you explain the bias-variance tradeoff with regards to
building and choosing a model to use?

Given an array filled with random values, write a function <code>rotate_matrix</code> to rotate the array by 90 degrees in the clockwise direction.

Example:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>import numpy as np

array = np.array( [[1, 2, 3, 4, 5], [2, 3, 4, 5, 6], [3, 4, 5, 6, 7], [4, 5, 6, 7, 8], [5, 6, 7, 8, 9]] )

</code></pre>

array
<table><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>7</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>7</td><td>8</td><td>9</td></tr></tbody></table>

Output:

<table><tbody><tr><td>5</td><td>4</td><td>3</td><td>2</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>5</td><td>4</td><td>3</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>6</td><td>5</td><td>4</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>7</td><td>6</td><td>5</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>8</td><td>7</td><td>6</td><td>5</td></tr></tbody></table>

What’s the difference between Lasso and Ridge Regression?

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

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

Let’s say you’re a data scientist at LinkedIn where you’re working on a product that sends qualified job candidates to companies. The team has launched a new feature that allows candidates to message hiring managers at companies directly during the interview process to get updates on their status.

Due to engineering constraints, the company can’t AB test the feature before launching it.

How would you analyze how the feature is performing?

How would you analyze how the feature is performing?

Recruiting Leads

Analytics

An e-commerce team wants to test whether changing the checkout button color increases conversions. You have an experiment group and a control group, and you need to decide whether the change is worth launching.

How would you set up the A/B test end to end: define the hypothesis, choose the right metrics and guardrails, determine sample size inputs, avoid bias in assignment, decide how long to run the test, and analyze the results before making a launch decision?

In the context of hypothesis testing, what are type I errors (type one errors) and type II errors (type two errors)? What is the difference between the two?

Bonus: Describe the probability of making each type of error mathematically.

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

You’re given a list of sorted integers in which more than 50% of the list is comprised of the same repeating integer.

Write a function to return the median value of the list in \(O(1)\) computational time and space.

Note: the lists are all non-empty

Example:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>li = [1,2,2]
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>median(li) -&gt; 2
</code></pre>

<h1>Binary Tree Validation</h1>

You are given the root of a binary tree. You need to determine if it is a valid binary search tree (BST).

A valid BST is defined as follows:

<ul>
<li>The left subtree of a node contains only nodes with values less than or equal to the node’s value.</li>
<li>The right subtree of a node contains only nodes with values greater than or equal to the node’s value.</li>
<li>Both the left and right subtrees must also be binary search trees.</li>
</ul>

Given the function <code>def is_valid_bst(root: Node) -&gt; bool:</code>, return True if the binary tree is a valid BST. Otherwise, return False.

<h3>Example:</h3>

Input:

<img src="/s3/questions/9664817c-3e12-4a40-9236-8382b13f55a0.png" alt="image"/>Converted Binary Tree.png

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>def is_valid_bst(Node(3)) -&gt; True
</code></pre>

Given the root node, verify if a binary search tree is valid or not.

Binary Tree Validation

Let’s say that you are leading the development of an internal chatbot for operations support at Thomson Reuters, an internal tooling in their news division for referencing articles.

How would you design a system given a choice between fine-tuning the LLM or using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)?

Fine-Tuning VS RAG

AI & Agentic Systems

What is a confidence interval for a statistic? Why is it useful to know the confidence interval for a statistic and how do you calculate it?

When an interviewer asks you a question along the lines of:

<ul>
<li>Why did you apply to our company?</li>
<li>What are you looking for in your next job?</li>
<li>What makes you a good fit for our company?</li>
</ul>

How should you respond?

When asked 'What are you looking for in your next job?' in an interview, how can you tie the company's employee benefits into your response?

When asked 'What are you looking for in your next job?' in an interview, how can you tie the company's employee benefits into your response?

Why Do You Want to Work With Us I

How can company values be used effectively in an interview when asked 'What makes you a good fit for our company?'

How can company values be used effectively in an interview when asked 'What makes you a good fit for our company?'

Why Do You Want to Work With Us II

When responding to the question 'Why did you apply to our company?' during an interview, what aspect should you highlight?

When responding to the question 'Why did you apply to our company?' during an interview, what aspect should you highlight?

Why Do You Want to Work With Us III

Find if there is a path from a starting point to an ending point in a walled maze

Pathfinder in Maze

Talk about a time when you had trouble communicating with stakeholders. How were you able to overcome it?

“Suppose you are given a matrix of integers. Your task is to write a function that returns the sum of the elements in the matrix.

Example 1:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>matrix = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]]
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>matrix_sum(matrix) -&gt; 45
</code></pre>

Example 2:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>matrix = [[-1, -2, -3], [-4, -5, -6], [-7, -8, -9]]
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>matrix_sum(matrix) -&gt; -45
</code></pre>

The function should be able to handle both positive and negative integers and should return the sum as an integer.

The task is to find the sum of all elements in a given matrix of integers.

Sum of Matrix Elements

Describe a data project you worked on. What were some of the challenges you faced?

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.

How would you assess the validity of the result?

Imagine you have been given an array of integers, and a query number <code>k</code>. Your task is to write a function that finds all the triplets in the array that sum up to the query number <code>k</code>.

Let’s illustrate this with some examples:

Example 1:

Input:

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

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>count_triplets(nums, k) -&gt; 1
</code></pre>

In this case, there is only one triplet that sums up to 6: (1, 2, 3).

Example 2:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>nums = [10, 10, 20, 30, 40]
k = 60
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>count_triplets(nums, k) -&gt; 3
</code></pre>

In this case, there are three triplets that sum up to 60: (10, 10, 40), (10, 20, 30), and (10, 20, 30).
The value 10 can be retrieved as <code>nums[0]</code> or <code>nums[1]</code>, therefore resulting in two triplets with the same value.

Write a function that returns the number of triplets in the array that sum to `k`.

Triplet Counting

Given two strings, <code>num_str1</code> and <code>num_str2</code>, write a function to sum the two strings together without directly converting them to integers.

Note: Return the output in string format.

Example:

Input:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>num_ str1 = &#39;122&#39; #assume that in practice the two strings are huge
num_str2 = &#39;222&#39;
</code></pre>

Output:

<pre tabindex="0" class="chroma"><code>sum_strings(num_str1,num_str2) -&gt; &#39;344&#39;
</code></pre>

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

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.

How would you set up this test?

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.

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

Let’s say you have the option to buy either a five-year-old start-up with annual revenue of 5 million dollars and 40% year-over-year growth, or a well-established company with 50 million dollars in annual revenue growing at 5% per year.

How would you decide which company to acquire? What factors and analyses would you consider?

How would you evaluate whether to acquire a fast-growing start-up or a mature company?

Company Acquisition Choice

Business Case

When an interviewer asks a question along the lines of:

<ul>
<li>What would your current manager say about you? What constructive criticisms might he give?</li>
<li>What are your three biggest strengths and weaknesses you have identified in yourself?</li>
</ul>

How would you respond?

When asked about your strengths in an interview, what is an effective way to respond?

When asked about your strengths in an interview, what is an effective way to respond?

Your Strengths and Weaknesses I

Which of the following is an acceptable strategy when discussing weaknesses in an interview?

Which of the following is an acceptable strategy when discussing weaknesses in an interview?

Your Strengths and Weaknesses II

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

Your Strengths and Weaknesses

How would you convey insights and the methods you use to a non-technical audience?

Making data-driven insights actionable for those without technical expertise

Simple Explanations

How would you interpret coefficients of logistic regression for categorical and boolean variables?

Why is one-hot encoding recommended for categorical variables in logistic regression models?

Why is one-hot encoding recommended for categorical variables in logistic regression models?

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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