went through the full citi DS loop for their risk analytics team in NYC, early 2026. sharing because i couldn't find good signal online before my interviews.
the process for me was: recruiter screen, HireVue, then a 4-round virtual onsite.
HireVue was two video-response questions. pure behavioral. nothing technical. you get like 2 minutes per answer. i treated it as the bar for clearing, not the bar for the job.
round 1: SQL + data manipulation. not leetcode SQL. this was more like analyst-level query writing: window functions, cohort queries, identifying data quality issues in a given schema. the questions assumed you know how a real relational database works, not that you've memorized SQL syntax trivia. they gave me a scenario about customer transaction data and asked me to find anomalies. one subquery was genuinely tricky. study GROUP BY edge cases, rolling averages, and lag/lead window functions. that covers 90% of what you'll see.
round 2: stats and probability. regression assumptions, A/B testing design, type 1 vs type 2 error tradeoffs. nothing from first principles probability theory. more applied: "we ran an experiment, here's the result, what concerns do you have?" i got a question about sample size estimation that i fumbled a bit. know the formula and be able to explain it to a non-statistician.
round 3: case study. they sent a dataset ahead of time (24 hours before), asked me to prep a 15-minute presentation on my findings. i chose to focus on one clean insight rather than cover everything. i think that was right. they asked follow-up questions about how i'd operationalize the model in a production environment. that felt more like a practical ML question than a DS one. know something about model monitoring and drift.
round 4: behavioral. leadership principles style. STAR format. questions were around stakeholder management, ambiguity, and influencing without authority. classic stuff but they dug in on specifics.
leveling: i was interviewing for a VP-equivalent DS role (their internal titles are a bit unusual). comp felt competitive for the street, roughly where you'd expect for NYC fintech. the hiring process moved slowly, about 6 weeks from application to offer.
feel free to ask anything.