Engineering and data
A first interview with a data analyst should answer three questions. Do they start from the business question? Do they doubt numbers until they’ve checked them? Can they explain a finding clearly enough that someone acts on it? It adds to a technical interview on SQL, the language used to pull data from databases, or a take-home task. It doesn’t replace one.
Follow-up questions ask how they checked a number. That’s where real analysis and a rehearsed story are easiest to tell apart.
What to look for
The questions
Ask them in order. Listen for real details: what happened, what the candidate did, and how it ended.
Strong answer
States the business question, the data used, the finding, and what the team did differently afterward.
Weak answer
Describes a dashboard they built with no decision attached to it.
Strong answer
First checks the drop is real and not caused by a tracking change or late data. Then splits it by channel, device and region, looks for new releases or campaigns that ended, and reports early while saying what isn’t confirmed yet.
Weak answer
Jumps to a cause straight away, or starts building a statistical model.
Strong answer
Names the real cause, like duplicate rows from combining two tables or a definition that had changed. Traced it back to the source, and told the people who had already used the numbers.
Weak answer
Removed unusual values until the result looked reasonable.
Strong answer
Explains the logic in plain words, like what one row in each table stands for or how they dealt with duplicates, and how they checked the result against a number they trusted.
Weak answer
Can’t explain it without the code in front of them, or never checked the result.
Strong answer
Uses a concrete example, names the likely hidden factor behind both, and suggests a test or a cheaper way to check before committing.
Weak answer
Gives a lecture on statistics, or goes along with it to avoid the conversation.
Strong answer
Delivers what was asked, explains the gap plainly, and proposes a better measure with reasons.
Weak answer
Builds it without comment, or refuses until it’s changed.
Strong answer
Starts from the decisions the person using it makes, keeps it to a few numbers with their definitions shown, and removes what nobody uses.
Weak answer
Includes everything available in case someone needs it.
Strong answer
Owned it quickly, sent the correction to everyone who had seen it, and added a check so it wouldn’t happen again.
Weak answer
Can’t think of one, or fixed it quietly and hoped nobody noticed.
Before the interview
Short form questions the candidate answers before the interview. You read the answers next to the interview. They aren’t scored.
Listen for
Avoid
Use this in LessRounds
Paste the questions into a scripted interview, where the AI reads each question word for word. Add the skills from the scorecard, then share one link. Every data analyst candidate gets the same questions. You get a score for each skill, with the candidate’s own words that explain it.
Partly. Ask candidates to talk through a query they wrote and how they checked it. That shows whether they understand how tables combine and what each row stands for. Test SQL writing in a later technical interview.
Senior analysts question the request before answering it, and they know which findings are worth a manager’s time. Junior analysts tend to answer exactly what they were asked.
Start with 100 free credits, enough for about 20 interviews. No credit card or sales call needed.