I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Ancestry (San Francisco, CA) in May 2015
Interview
A recruiter contacted me to have an interview. The first step of the interview was to talk with the senior director (my eventual supervisor). The interview started with him giving me an overview of what ancestry.com does. Next we delved into my dissertation research and giving him excepts about how my research can benefit the company. Next we talked about the what big and complex data sets I used and how I handled them.
The 2nd round was a coding round. This was very different from what I have encountered. The interviewer emailed me a question paper (1 problem) and called to clarify if I had any questions. The aim was to write a piece of code with an hour and email him back the code with test cases.
Next they flew me over to SF. There I was scheduled to have 5 rounds of interviews out of which 1 person did not appear. With the other 4 I mainly talked about my research and some "tricky" DM/ML questions.
I was informed that I will have 1 more round of telephonic screen with the person whom I was scheduled to have an onsite interview. The last TPS was again a heavy coding interview (google docs) where I was made to solve 2 questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Coding round: Java String manipulation.
DM/ML questions: a few about ensemble methods. A few about various classifiers and my knowledge about how and where to use various techniques
3rd coding: Solving a maze. Finding shortest path.
I applied online. I interviewed at Ancestry (San Francisco, CA)
Interview
I received an email to set up a call with HR, but the day before the meeting I was asked to reschedule. During the rescheduled 10-minute Zoom call, I was asked a few very standard questions, such as “Tell me about yourself.” After that, I never heard back—despite sending several polite biweekly follow-up emails over the next several months.
I applied online. I interviewed at Ancestry (Lehi, UT)
Interview
I received an email to schedule a screening interview, and when the day come there were no link whatsoever. I emailed the recruiter to ask whether it has been rescheduled or that I have missed an email. There were no response. They basically ghosted me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I didnt get pass the screening interview so there were no questions.
One telephone call with HR.
One telephone round with a senior engineer to solve a coding question. We were working on a shared doc to solve the problem. I was not able to solve the problem with a little help from the interviewer.
