I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Allstate in Jun 2020
Interview
Similar to what has been described before, I had a phone screen interview with two Data scientists, the questions revolved around, SQL, and general programming: find the mode of a column in SQL, find if two strings are anagrams of each other. This was then followed by a case study about a shipping container company and how to evaluate fuel efficiency. This part of the interview process was good as the people on the other end were helpful if you were confused or stuck.
I was then moved forward to the virtual onsite interview. This took place at the start of June and lasted three hours, seemingly before they had decided to pull the job/move in another direction. This interview consisted of three parts, behavioural, programming, case study. It was really an expanded version of the phone interview. The programming part of the process was done on a virtual whiteboard programme with an emphasis on being as syntactically correct as possible.
Two days after the interview I was emailed that I had not received the position, I wasn't entirely shocked by this, as I didn't think that I had performed that well.
Interview questions [4]
Question 1
Talk about a time that you changed someone's mind?
The interview process was supposed to be the same as the previous posts described. Three turns total:
1. A phone screening with a bot: all behavior questions. They gave me 48 hours to finish the process after sending me the email.
2. Technical phone interview with two data scientists. They asked about my recent project and some difficulties I encountered. One fairly simple coding problem and a case study about the fuel efficiency of ship transportation.
3. This is a depressing one. I was scheduled for a third interview but had it canceled several days ahead. Then recently HR contacted me that the interview is not going to happen and they will not move further on my application. This was supposed to be the last turn of the interview and I was quite excited about it. I understand that this is an unusual time, but I can't help feeling frustrated. I hope this won't happen to future applicants.
To the other applicants who had a similar experience, I'm sorry for the situation and best wishes to you.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Find a pair of numbers in a list that sums up to a target value.
For the case study, describe some data preprocessing techniques. How do you deal with categorical variables with many levels? How would you go about dealing with missing data? How do you evaluate your model? Some other questions will depend on your response during the interview.
Worst Experience ever.
As mentioned, 1st round is phone call with a bot, talking about a few background questions like describe a project that you apply statistics/machine learning skills and solve problems etc. 2nd round is a technical interview with 3 part: self introduction and go over resume, coding, machine learning case.
I was scheduled for a virtual onsite Monday. Last Friday 4:45pm or so, an HR called me and said due to time conflict she needs to reschedule and ask me to provide availability in the next 2 weeks. I provided my availability immediately but no follow-up in the next few days. Hence I shot a message to follow up Tuesday evening. In Wednesday evening around 6:30pm, the HR called me and said the virtual onsite is canceled due to business change and we are not moving forward.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Background:
Talk a bit about yourself, talk a bit about your experience, talk a bit about your skill and what problem you solved.
Coding:
easy level coding, similar to 2 sum
Case:
how to quantify problems, what features you think of to use, how to evaluate performance, etc.