Got ghosted in the introductory interview. I understand they don't owe the candidates anything but it doesnt cost much more than sending a templated rejection email to get some closure.
2
Other Senior Data Scientist interview reviews for Zillow
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Zillow in Mar 2023
Interview
Half-hour call with recruiter went great. 2nd round is a technical screening, 3rd/final round was panel interviews. Interviewed March 2023. Was told job had been open since November 2022.
45-min technical screening was one large, multi-part SQL exercise (testing different joins, knowledge of several different window functions, use of CASE/WHEN, etc) and one Python exercise (with some assumed knowledge of the mathematics behind a specific classification algorithm), with a conceptual follow-up question to the Python exercise. It was a more difficult screening than you typically see at this stage of the process.
I did well on the technical exercise - answered everything correctly - but was not advanced beyond this round. No feedback on why, I can only assume the screener (who was not on the team I was interviewing for) did not like the way I solved the exercise (I.e. while correct, not answered in the most optimal way?).
It appears the job went unfilled yet again as I saw the same role re-posted this morning. Seems to be a disconnect in what the team is looking for, what is being communicated to the recruiter, and what screeners are being asked to look for. Feels like they’re looking for a unicorn that has a multiple very advanced skill set that, frankly, is going to be worth a much higher salary than is being offered.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
SQL/Python exercises, and data-preprocessing question
1st round HR/talent
2nd round sql/case
3rd and final round never happened. Obviously there were layoffs but the last time the recruiter and I were in touch (mid November) they said they would follow up with me on whether or not the role would still be available and they also mentioned it likely would still be.
I emailed the recruiter recently and got an automatic reply that the email address was "no longer being monitored." I would have appreciated at least a heads up that they were leaving or that the role was closed as I put a lot of time into the interview process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
sql, case study, what would you do if x metric dropped