I applied online. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Rakuten (Tokyo) in Jun 2018
Interview
Talked with 2 managers and one employee on the Data Scientist team. 2 were through Skype, one was a face to face meeting. After explaining about my current experience in the data science field, talked about upcoming projects and expected scope of work in Rakuten.
this interview process had 5 rounds
2 was a tech test
３ were conversational in nature
with various managers from direct and indirect to the department manager mostly in Japan but also outside Japan.
1st Interview was simple leetcode task and some questions about Kubernetes. 2nd interview - classical ML and DL questions, Final interview is mostly informal, but there may appear some questions about specific experience and problem solving
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is the difference between random forest and boosting?
Initial LeetCode coding test, hiring manager interview for profile and role fit, multiple technical rounds covering statistics, machine learning, SQL, Python, and case studies, concluding with behavioral interviews evaluating teamwork, communication, and cultural alignment.