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My experience like this was for a data scientist position at Facebook in 2022. So the question was something like, here is a table of predicted probabilities f
by apwheele 2mo ago
My experience like this was for a data scientist position at Facebook in 2022.
So the question was something like, here is a table of predicted probabilities for credit card transactions (hypothetical table, I do not remember the exact quantities), but it looked something like this:
Amount, Probability, ActualFraud
$5 , 0.2 , 0
$100 , 0.5 , 0
$3 , 0.7 , 1
$1 , 0.9 , 1
And then the question was "what was the threshold used to maximize (precision|recall)?" (I cannot remember which metric they were asking for).
My response was that a proper decision model should take the dollar amount of the transaction into consideration, so the decision should more like be `$*p > threshold`, where this threshold meets your precision and recall for preventing dollars lost instead of the binary yes/no.
The interviewers English was not great, so after all that I was just like "well to answer your exact question, it could be anywhere between `0.5 < p <= 0.7`"
Did not make the second round!
- gwbas1c 2mo agoA common interviewer mistake is looking for exact answers, assuming that a candidate just needs to regurgitate facts.
- winternett 2mo agoAt one point earlier in my career (during the early 2000s), they flew me to Chicago, picked me up in a limo and gave me a tour of the office... I knew I didn't want to relocate (from the East Coast) and remote work wasn't an option back then, so I had nothing to lose... They asked me the question of "4 lightbulbs in a room down the hallway, with 3 light switches in the room I'm in" to tell which switch belonged to which bulb... I went in totally unprepared for logical tests, and flubbed the perfect answer partially, but it was funny because I asked the guy if I was "doing an interview to be an electrician or a software developer?". Since then I've been just fine, and to this day, I've never had to answer that question nor use that type of logic on any job... I reverse engineer & migrate major software apps all the time as a Solutions Architect & Development Director. I've always found interviews that involve behavioral and cognitive tests to never be good for me as long-term jobs... Now I interview & hire people regularly without asking those types of questions at all because the questions can too easily be studied & rehearsed prior to interviews.