Starbucks Data Scientist Interview Questions | Glassdoor

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Data Scientist Interview

3 Oct 2019

Anonymous interview candidate

No offer

Neutral experience

Average interview

Application

I applied online. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Starbucks (Seattle, WA) in Sept 2019

Interview

I applied for a data science position in the Seattle HQ. I received an email notification to setup an interview after 3 weeks and had a phone screen with the recruiter. They setup a second phone interview for 10 days later, which was technical (no coding but describing / walking through ML methods and approaches of a hypothetical project and one I had done). After that they arranged an in person interview, which was a ~5 hour in person interview process. There was 18 days between my 2nd phone interview and the in person. I felt the in person and both phone interviews went extremely well, but I received an email saying they were moving forward with other candidates. I asked for feedback on the interview since I thought I could not have done better and they said they don't give feedback.

Interview questions [5]

Question 1

You are asked to predict whether trucks driving routes between stores are going to finish late so that preemptive action can be taken to avert the cost and risk. Describe your approach.

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Question 2

A manager in a packet filling line is complaining that their machine is not functioning correctly. The machine weighs a group of packets at once and attempts to get 25 packets into a box. He has been getting complaints from customers of boxes with amounts other than 25. How would you help?

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Question 3

Write a function in Python or R to identify days to buy/sell stock

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Question 4

For each ML problem, they asked me what model I would select for that problem. They asked me to explain the math behind the model and then asked me why that model. After that they asked what other models could be used.

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Question 5

For one ML problem, they gave me a hypothetical situation in which one of the data points had some known issues in the backend and asked me how I would handle that.

Answer question

14

Other Data Scientist interview reviews for Starbucks

Data Scientist Interview

20 Jan 2026

Anonymous interview candidate

No offer

Negative experience

Easy interview

Application

I applied online. I interviewed at Starbucks in Jan 2026

Interview

I applied online and completed an online assessment which included SQL and Data Science programming questions. I passed the assessment and had an initial recruiter call where the next interview rounds were explained (intro call with hiring manager, technical case study, behavioral). After this, there were multiple follow-ups from my side as the process was delayed due to the hiring manager being on vacation. Eventually, I received a rejection email stating that they would not be moving forward due to having many qualified candidates — without ever scheduling the hiring manager interview. It was disappointing to invest time preparing for multiple rounds after passing the assessment, only to be rejected without any actual interview or feedback. Clearer communication and respect for candidates’ time would greatly improve the experience. Pros: Structured online assessment, recruiter was responsive initially Cons: Lack of transparency, process ended without interviews or feedback

Interview questions [1]

Question 1

1. SQL - joins, CTEs/subqueries, functions 2. Build a ML model from scratch on the given dataset - data exploration to bulding model.

Answer question

1

Starbucks response

4mo

Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear about your experience and appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We strive to create a positive candidate journey and will take your comments into account as we continue to improve.

Data Scientist Interview

12 Dec 2025

Anonymous interview candidate

No offer

Negative experience

Difficult interview

Application

I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Starbucks (Seattle, WA) in Dec 2025

Interview

after a month received OA, 90 minutes, then recruiter round then maybe some steps to for the interview process. i wasnt move forwarded after the OA. So don’t know. I hope that helps.

Interview questions [1]

Question 1

OA Required which included, SQL, Python, and 2 stats questions. SQL (med) , and Stats were easy, but the python, it was almost impossible to do so if you are not smart af or are not good cheating with AI. It was an entry level role, and they wanted me to build a machine learning model in random forrest for features, from SCRATCH, no syntax you can look up, doing the whole pipeling and building model to predict things in 90 minutes where you have to do sql and other 2 questions too. I feel it stupid task to ask in this era.

Answer question

Starbucks response

5mo

Thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience and understand your frustration. At Starbucks, we strive to provide every candidate with a fair and respectful opportunity throughout the hiring process. We appreciate you bringing this to our attention and will take your feedback into consideration as we work to improve our candidate experience.

Data Scientist Interview

18 Dec 2025

Anonymous interview candidate

Declined offer

Positive experience

Average interview

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Starbucks (Seattle, WA) in Nov 2025

Interview

Interview was short and sweet. They asked questions like predictive modelling in python and some queries in SQL as well as questions from Stats and Probability. Overall it was moderate to difficult.

Interview questions [1]

Question 1

SQL, Python, Statistics and Ethics

Answer question