It was smooth, and professional. Started with HR, and case study, and interview with team leaders, ended with interview with VP of engineering. It was a smooth and well-designed process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What would be one feature you would like to see in our app?
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Inkitt in Oct 2017
Interview
I applied online, the initial phase was smooth: introductory call followed by a simple task to do exploratory data analysis. The final phase (screening by the lead data scientist) is what I'd like to warn fellow job applicants about:
The interviewer had no interest testing my knowledge of the fundamentals of data science, he was more interested in mapping my mind on feature engineering for their actual product (I heard the rattle of him writing down what I shared). I shared basic ideas to demonstrate I know how feature engineering works but withheld any more advanced ones. I advise applicants to do the same (or avoid working on their product during the interview) unless they want to give away free consultation.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What features would you engineer to solve our problem (predicting best sellers)?
Hi there,
this is a tricky one! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
While it is absolutely true that you shouldn't give away free consultation, you have to understand that we're working with a very complex and unique product. Questions that are more product-specific serve two purposes:
1. They help you get a clear picture of the actual work you'd perform at our company.
2. They show us you understood this picture and are able and motivated to perform the work required.
The rattle of our Data Scientist might just be notes of him on how you approached a solution to the described problem.
It is hard to assess you correctly if you hold back information.
If I may suggest a piece of advice for the future: If you ever find yourself in the same situation, try to describe a similar problem that you have solved in your career that shows that you will be capable of working in the advanced areas of your skill set.
This way you'd demonstrate your expertise while at the same time not giving away free consultation for the product. :)
All the best for your future,
Your Inkitt Team
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