went through the Zoom DS interview in Q1 2026 for a mid-senior role on their product analytics team. here's exactly what the process looked like and what they tested.
phone screen with HM: 30 min. they described the team scope (measuring product engagement, session quality, churn signals) and asked about my most complex analysis project. no SQL or stats in this round.
technical screen: this was two separate 45-minute sessions, back to back.
session 1 was SQL. they used a virtual whiteboard and gave me a schema with tables for users, meetings, participants, and events. the questions escalated in complexity: basic: count distinct users who hosted at least 3 meetings in April medium: compute 7-day rolling average of meeting minutes per user cohort hard: identify users whose session quality score dropped more than 20% week over week for 3+ consecutive weeks
the hard one took most of the time. I used CTEs and a lag window function. they were fine with me thinking out loud and adjusting.
session 2 was case/stats. they described a A/B test scenario: Zoom launched a new meeting UI to 5% of users and wants to know if it improved retention. walk me through your analysis.
I covered: randomization check, metric selection (7-day retention as primary), minimum detectable effect, sample size considerations, and then the actual statistical test (proportions z-test). they pushed on what I'd do if the treatment group had different device distributions (simulate confounding). good question.
behavioral round: one round, 45 min. mostly about cross-functional work with PMs and engineers. standard STAR.
what they care about: depth on SQL window functions, ability to explain stats decisions to non-DS stakeholders, and product intuition for a consumer-ish product. the 'how would you explain this to a PM' question came up twice.