I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Instacart (San Francisco, CA) in June 2015
Interview
There was a data challenge, followed by a technical phone interview. After you pass these two, you're brought on-site for a round of technical and culture fit interviews. The interviews are short and targeted to get the best out of you and give you a good insight into the job and the teams you'll work with.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I can't reveal them but mostly around problems in Logistics that Instacart solves on a day to day basis.
Faced a deep technical challenge during the interview, asked to design a personalization algorithm for product recommendations. I walked them through feature engineering and model choices, which stressed me out initially. Luckily, I realized the structure was almost identical to a problem I had explored on prachub.com while prepping. The interview progressed through a behavioral round where they focused on my previous experiences, and I ultimately received an offer, but decided to decline after careful consideration. Overall, it was intense but rewarding.
It was pretty straightforward. HR and then technicals. The technicals were a mix of statistics and math questions. Overall, it moved pretty quickly. My interviewer was quite late with no apology and in general not very friendly. I knew someone interviewing at the same time and they had a much better experience and recieved the same questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Suppose we wanted to launch 15-minute deliveries in a specific area where we already deliver. How would you statistically test the results?