American Express Data Scientist Interview Guide
The role of an American Express Data Scientist
As a Data Scientist at American Express, you will play a critical role in predicting customer behavior and driving business results. You will use industry-leading modeling and artificial intelligence practices to build predictive models that help make data-driven decisions across various business functions such as credit, fraud, marketing, and servicing optimization.
Your primary responsibilities as a Data Scientist at American Express will include designing and executing experiments, analyzing data, building and deploying predictive models, and communicating results to stakeholders. You will also be responsible for staying up-to-date with the latest advancements in data science and incorporating new techniques into your work as needed.
American Express hires for Data Scientist roles across the company and offers different levels of seniority depending on the scope and expected impact of the role. They have opportunities for Senior, Director and Manager level positions, as well as openings for Machine Learning and Big Data Engineers.
These positions may vary depending on the business unit and location, but the primary focus is to leverage data to drive business results and improve customer experiences.
How to Apply for a Data Scientist Job at American Express?
Check out American Express’s career page and browse through the Data Scientist job listings. When you find a role that interests you, be sure to read through the job requirements and qualifications carefully to ensure you meet the criteria. If you have any connections within the company, consider reaching out to them for a referral as it highly increases your chance. When you apply, make sure to tailor your resume to align with the qualifications listed in the job posting. This will help you stand out from other applicants. And if you need help with customizing your resume specifically for American Express (or for that matter, any other company), Prepfully provides resume review services by experienced recruiters in your target company that can give you feedback on your resume. It's worth noting that the application process may vary depending on the position and location, and the company may conduct additional assessments or interviews as part of the selection process.
American Express Data Scientist Interview Guide
As a part of the American Express Data Scientist interview, you will need to go through multiple interview rounds. The interview process and questions may differ for different positions and roles.
1. Recruiter Screen - In the initial screening stage, the recruiter will ask general questions about your background and provide an overview of the interview process. This screening is then followed by another phone screening with a Hiring Manager.
2. Technical Interview - The second primary round of the interview process at American Express is a technical interview round. This is a crucial stage in the selection process, where the candidate's technical skills and knowledge are thoroughly evaluated.
3. Onsite Interview Rounds - The final onsite round of the interview process is an in-depth evaluation of the candidate's skills and abilities. During this stage, the candidate will meet with approximately 5 team members and managers one-on-one and is expected to face multiple rounds of interviews.
Get a mock interview with a recruiter at American Express
→ Schedule NowCheck out video guide that delves into the interview process and provides valuable tips tailored to each round of the interview.
Relevant Guides
American Express Data Scientist: Recruiter Screen
Overview
This stage is divided into two rounds - a recruiter screen and a behavioral interview with the hiring manager.
- Recruiter Screen: The initial screening stage where the recruiter will ask general questions about your background and provide an overview of the interview process.
- Hiring Manager Behavioral Interview: The next stage is the behavioral interview with the hiring manager. The manager will ask questions about why you are interested in the company and what you are looking for in your next role. The manager will also talk about their background, the history of the team and the current needs of the team.
Interview Questions
- Why do you want to join American Express?
- Why do you think you will be a good fit for the role?
- How many years of experience do you have in data science?
- What is your understanding of data science?
- What are you passionate about?
- Describe a time when you had to coordinate with another team.
Watch these videos
American Express Data Scientist: Technical Interview
Overview
The second primary round of the interview process at American Express is a technical interview round. This is a crucial stage in the selection process, where the candidate's technical skills and knowledge are thoroughly evaluated. The primary focus of this interview round is on machine learning. For instance, a candidate reported that the ML questions came with a focus on customer acquisition for credit cards. It is important for the candidate to have a deep understanding of the concepts and techniques of machine learning and to be able to apply them to real-world scenarios. They should also have strong communication skills and be able to effectively explain their thought process and reasoning. Some candidates also reported working with a ML case study.
Interview Questions
- What is Random forest?
- Given a dataset, how do you perform KNN on it?
- Given a training set of users with their demographic information, a psychological test of their personality (openness to like pages or not) and the pages of FB they have liked so far, how could we predict the gender, age and other demographics of unseen data?
- Explain how Gradient Descent works.
- What are the metrics used in machine learning?
- Given a scenario, what pipelines would be effective to solve a data science problem?
Read these articles
American Express Data Scientist: Onsite Interview Rounds
Overview
The final onsite round of the interview process is an in-depth evaluation of the candidate's skills and abilities. During this stage, the candidate will meet with approximately 5 team members and managers one-on-one and is expected to face multiple rounds of interviews. Some of the rounds you can expect to face are:
- Behavioral Round: During this round, the interviewer will ask questions about the candidate's past experiences and behavior in specific situations to assess their fit with the company culture and values. The candidate should come prepared to answer behavioral questions and provide examples of their leadership skills, communication style, problem-solving abilities, and other relevant experiences.
- Live Coding Round: In this round, the candidate will be asked to demonstrate their logic and approach to coding. The interviewer will ask the candidate to write code for a specific problem and discuss their thought process and design choices.
- Quantitative Round: In this round, the interviewer will ask questions focused on mathematics. The candidate should be prepared to demonstrate their understanding of mathematical concepts and their ability to apply them to real-world problems.
A candidate also reported giving a presentation on a specific topic and answering technical questions related to it. Please note that these are just some of the examples of the rounds you could face. However, the rounds can be different for different roles and positions.
Interview Questions
- How do you handle conflicts with team members or coworkers?
- Can you describe a situation in which you had to communicate complex technical information to a non-technical audience?
- Can you write a function to find the sum of two numbers?
- Explain your approach to finding the most common elements in an array?
- Write a code to implement a linked list in Python?
- Explain the difference between depth-first search and breadth-first search algorithms?
- Write code to implement a binary search tree in Python?
- Explain the concept of probability and its applications in data science?
- Explain how to calculate the mean, median, and mode of a set of data.
- Describe the concept of hypothesis testing and when it is used.
Interview Tips
When you are preparing for a American Express Data Scientist Interview - we’d recommend keeping these things in mind:
- Brush up on your machine learning knowledge and be familiar with the most common algorithms and techniques.
- Prepare to answer behavioral questions and provide examples of your past experiences.
- Be ready to demonstrate your coding skills through live coding exercises.
- Brush up on your mathematical knowledge and be able to apply it to real-world problems.
- Be prepared to give a presentation and answer technical questions related to it.
- Show your problem-solving abilities, leadership skills, and communication style.
Responsibilities of a Data Scientist at American Express
The responsibilities of a data scientist at American Express across roles can broadly be seen as-
- Work with massive amounts of digital data (Web, App, API) and sophisticated tools in an industry leading Big Data environment.
- Build NLP driven solutions from identifying business problems, to collecting training dataset, to analyzing data, to modeling, to validating and to delivering NLP models.
- Build everything from basic reports to advanced machine learning models and algorithms to drive improvements to our customer’s online and mobile app experiences.
- Work with product owners to revolutionize the product and content design with a data-driven approach.
- Collaborate with tech partners to test, implement and deploy modeling solutions to production systems.
- Develop insights into customer behavior and introduce new approaches to transform complex behavioral data into actionable information
- Leverage the power of closed loop through Amex network to make decisions more intelligent and relevant.
Skills and Qualifications needed for Data Scientists at American Express
Here are some skills and qualifications that will help you excel in your Data Science interviews at American Express. One thing to note here is that the degree qualification is different for every role.
- It's beneficial to have at least 5+ years of experience in Data Science roles, which can help you stand out from other candidates. Along with this, having previous work experience where you can demonstrate that you’ve used Python and/or R can also help your profile.
- Be well-versed in databases such as Hive, SQL, or the equivalent. Having knowledge of SAS can be an added bonus.
- Gain a deep understanding of machine learning/statistical algorithms like deep learning and boosting.
- Familiarize yourself with analytical tools such as PySpark or scikit-learn to excel in this role.
- Brush up on presentation tools, such as Excel and PowerPoint, to effectively communicate your findings to the team.
- Develop strong interpersonal skills and the ability to cultivate relationships with multiple collaborators. This will allow you to successfully partner with others and drive results.
It's important to keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive, and the requirements and qualifications may vary depending on the position and location. It's always best to check the job description and requirements on the American Express's Career page before you apply for the role.
Salary Ranges
The salary range for a Data Scientist at American Express would depend on several factors such as the person's experience, location, and the specific role they are hired for. However, the average salary for a Data Scientist at American Express is approximately $120,000 to $140,000 per year, with top earners making over $160,000 per year. Keep in mind that these figures are just rough estimates and the actual salary could be higher or lower based on the specific factors mentioned earlier.
Conclusion
The interview process for a Data Scientist role at American Express typically includes 3 primary rounds - a recruiter screen, followed by a technical interview round, and the final onsite interview rounds to conclude. In the initial screening stage, the recruiter will ask general questions about your background and provide an overview of the interview process. This screening is then followed by another phone screening with a Hiring Manager. The second primary round of the interview process at American Express is a technical interview round. This is a crucial stage in the selection process, where the candidate's technical skills and knowledge are thoroughly evaluated. The final onsite round of the interview process is an in-depth evaluation of the candidate's skills and abilities. During this stage, the candidate will meet with approximately 5 team members and managers one-on-one and is expected to face multiple rounds of interviews.
Good luck with your interviews!