Monday 17 October 2016

3 Steps to prepare for a data science and analytics internship interview


Thinking of how to prepare for a data scientist internship interview? We have outlined a general interview process that many candidates go through when they are applying for an intern role as a data scientist and some tips to apply for a data science intern role.

Step one: Take-Home Data Challenge

A lot of data science teams in many companies will probably ask you to work on and complete a data challenge after you submit your application. Most of these challenges require you to analyze a small dataset and then write a report discussing any insights gained from your analysis. Companies are usually very flexible in terms of the language and program that you have used for analysis of your data, so just be comfortable in at least one of the languages such as R, Python or even Matlab. These data challenges serve as good filters for serious candidates.

Step two: Phone Interview - Analytical Questions

After the take-home data challenge, some companies will want to discuss the findings in your report through a phone call. However, there are also some other companies that might just evaluate your written report without asking more question about. This process depends on which company you are applying for. During the analytical phone interview, your interviewer will present you a scenario whereby you will need to talk about how you would use data to solve the issue at hand. You should be very comfortable talking about metrics, simple predictive models, and experimentation. Think with a quantitative approach to everything. However, do keep in mind that while you explain it technically, think of the problem from the business point of view.

Step three: Phone Interview - Coding Questions

During the coding interview, which might be a separate session from your analytical interview, your interviewer will generally ask you to write some SQL queries to make sure that you know database. They'll present you a general schema, and you'll write increasingly more complex queries. If you don't know SQL, you can learn it from online tutorial. Some other companies which require the intern to be more technical, will ask some simple programming questions. Always prepare yourself with a bank of potential algorithm questions. Be prepared to write some simple algorithmic programs. Coding interview for a data science role often involved data structures such as trees, hash tables, and arrays.

Be sure to have some good questions ready to ask if you get the chance. Make sure you make use of all the interview opportunities to impressed your interviewer!

Disclaimer: This is a work for the sole purpose of an academic project. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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