I applied through a staffing agency. I interviewed at Walmart (Bengaluru) in Oct 2017
Interview
The interview process is long drawn with absolutely zero substance in it. There were a total of 3 rounds for me:-
1. Telephonic round - Technical but very easy
2. Webex round - Two rounds worth 1.5 hours. Anyone who has studied machine learning or worked on it for 2 years will crack the interview
3. 4 Face to Face rounds in their office in Bangalore. This included the final negotiation round with the HR
Here is gist of what it is about:-
- Technical rounds are extremely easy.
- By the end of all rounds you are sure that the India Data Science team is doing nothing but POC's
- The interviewers are not really seasoned. They don't know what they are asking. If you can write 10 lines of code, they are over the moon. Some of them might even tell you that there is not much work in Walmart Labs in India
- The HR tends to give you an impression that they are doing great favor to you by making an offer. They will tell you that you are already making a lot in the current company and hence they can't give a big hike. In my case, the hike was well below the industry standard
- Here is the good part about the company - Free snacks all day, the most amazing buffet in the town is served at lunch time (includes everything that you have ever eaten), Personal cab every day, Health club in the company premises is great
- Here is how the offers are - There is a fixed component. There is variable component which is around 25% of the fixed. Additionally there are Walmart shares whose worth is twice the variable component. One is called new hire RSU. Other is normal RSU.They vest over 4 years. Since Walmart shares don't move much, here is your comp in a way
X = Fixed
0.25 X = Variable
0.25 X + 0.25X = RSU which vest over 4 years
Total = X + 0.25 X + (0.25X + 0.25X)/4
~ 1.4X ~ 1.4*fixed component
They should be able to offer you a good joining bonus as well as good relocation which includes brokerage of your new house.
- Slow interview process
- Every step takes atleast a week
- Not worth working if you intend to grow your career - Atleast in India
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is cross entropy?
Difference between Gradient Boosting and Random Forest?
Assumptions of linear regression?
Significance of log odds?
It was not that bad, 3 initial rounds overall okay, it would have been nice if they added some more depth in questions and asked good questions.
and it would have been great if they call or tell something before interview.
A former colleague referred me to the data scientist position, and I was excited to dive in. The interview process was intense, starting with a phone screen that led to a technical round focused on SQL and experiment design. I was asked to write a complex SQL query and design an experiment for a forecasting model. Lucky timing — I had reviewed similar questions on prachub.com during my prep, which really helped boost my confidence. After a final behavioral round, I received an offer and happily accepted.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Write a SQL query using window functions to find, for each product category, the item with the highest month-over-month sales growth
terrible Data Scientist role interview process, took 3 months and got rejected after final interview where the interviewer didn't have my resume and asked something else which the recruiter did not mention to prepare