Friday, July 26, 2024

Top 20 Mathematics and Statistics Interview Questions and Answers

Hello guys, if you are preparing for Data Engineer or Data Scientist Interview then you must prepare for Mathematics and Statistics questions, and if you are looking for Maths and Statistics questions then you have come to the right place. In the past, I have shared multiple Data Science Interview Questions and Machine Learning Interview questions and in this article, I am going to share 20 Mathematics and Statistics questions which you can prepare for interview. If you have used Statistics and Maths recently then you are most likely to answer these questions but if you are not you can always join these Maths and Statistics courses to learn more about them and refresh you knowledge before interviews. 




20 Mathematics and Statistics Interview Questions and Answers

Mathematics and statistics form part of our daily lives and routines and therefore knowledge in these areas is very important. It is this knowledge that will even help you to sail through that mathematics and statistics interview. 

Don’t wait to fail again when you have the opportunity to make it right and get into the interview with your head up high. The following are the top 20 mathematics and statistics interview questions that will help you a great deal.

1. What is Algebra?
Answer: Algebra is one of the fields of maths, which uses symbols and letters to represent numbers, points, and objects, as well as the relationship between them. It is used to know the unknown variables.


2. What is Exterior Angle in a polygon?
Answer: In polygons, the angle between any side of the shape and a line extended from the next side is referred to as Exterior Angles. The sum of exterior angles of the polygon is 360°.


3. What is exploratory data analysis?
Answer: Exploratory data analysis is the process of performing investigations on data to understand the data better. In this, initial investigations are done to determine patterns, spot abnormalities, test hypotheses, and also check if the assumptions are right.


4. What are the types of selection bias in statistics?
Answer:

  • Observer selection
  • Attrition
  • Protopathic bias
  • Time intervals
  • Sampling bias


5. What is the meaning of an inlier?
Answer: An inlier is a data point that lies at the same level as the rest of the dataset. Finding an inlier in the dataset is difficult when compared to an outlier as it requires external data to do so. Inliers, similar to outliers reduce model accuracy. Hence, even they are removed when they’re found in the data. This is done mainly to maintain model accuracy at all times.


6. What is the meaning of standard deviation?
Answer: Standard deviation represents the magnitude of how far the data points are from the mean. A low value of standard deviation is an indication of the data being close to the mean, and a high value indicates that the data is spread to extreme ends, far away from the mean.


7. What is the difference between Descriptive and Inferential Statistics?
Answer:

  • Descriptive Statistics: Descriptive statistics is used to summarize a sample set of data like the standard deviation or the mean.
  • Inferential statistics: Inferential statistics is used to draw conclusions from the test data that are subjected to random variations.


8. What is the meaning of covariance?
Answer: Covariance is the measure of indication when two items vary together in a cycle. The systematic relation is determined between a pair of random variables to see if the change in one will affect the other variable in the pair or not.


9. Where is inferential statistics used?
Answer: Inferential statistics is used for several purposes, such as research, in which we wish to draw conclusions about a population using some sample data. This is performed in a variety of fields, ranging from government operations to quality control and quality assurance teams in multinational corporations.


10. How can you calculate the p-value using MS Excel?
Answer: the following steps are performed to calculate the p-value easily:

  • Find the Data tab above
  • Click on Data Analysis
  • Select Descriptive Statistics
  • Select the corresponding column
  • Input the confidence level


11. What is the difference between an error of type I and an error of type II?
Answer:

  • When the null hypothesis is rejected even though it is correct, a type 1 error occurs. False positives are also known as type 1 errors.
  • When the null hypothesis is not rejected despite being incorrect, a type 2 error occurs. This is also known as a false negative.


12. What is sampling?
Answer: Selecting an unbiased or random subset of individual observations in a population is regarded as part of the statistical practice of sampling. In order to obtain some understanding of the population, sampling is used.


13. What is the Central Limit Theorem?
Answer: Central Limit Theorem is the cornerstone of statistics. It states that the distribution of a sample from a population comprising a large sample size will have its mean normally distributed. In other words, it will not have any effect on the original population distribution. Central Limit Theorem is widely used in the calculation of confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. 

Here is an example – We want to calculate the average height of people in the world, and we take some samples from the general population, which serves as the data set. Since it is hard or impossible to obtain data regarding the height of every person in the world, we will simply calculate the mean of our sample.


14. What is the Law of Large Numbers in statistics?
Answer: According to the law of large numbers, an increase in the number of trials in an experiment will result in a positive and proportional increase in the results coming closer to the expected value. As an example, let us check the probability of rolling a six-sided dice three times. The expected value obtained is far from the average value. And if we roll a dice a large number of times, we will obtain the average result closer to the expected value (which is 3.5 in this case).


15. What are the types of biases that you can encounter while sampling?
Answer:

  • Undercoverage bias
  • Observer Bias
  • Survivorship bias
  • Self-Selection/Voluntary Response Bias
  • Recall Bias
  • Exclusion Bias


16. What is a statistical interaction?
Answer: A statistical interaction refers to the phenomenon which occurs when the influence of an input variable impacts the output variable. A real-life example includes the interaction of adding sugar to the stirring of tea. Neither of the two variables has an impact on sweetness, but it is the combination of these two variables that do.


17. What is the relationship between mean and median in normal distribution?
Answer: In a normal distribution, the mean and the median are equal.


18. Why do we need sample statistics?
Answer: Sampling in statistics is done when population parameters are not known, especially when the population size is too large.


19. What is the difference between Line, Point, Plane, and Solid?
Answer:

  • Point has no dimensions
  • Line is one-dimensional
  • Plane is two dimensional
  • Solid is three dimensional


20. What is Cubic Meter?
Answer: Cubic Meter is the standard unit used to measure the volume of an object length by length. The unit is written in m3.


What you need to do now is to believe in yourself because a mathematics and statistics interview is just an interview like any other. It is easier for you to pass if you want to. Just make sure that you perfectly remember the questions with answers you have read above and you will be good to go.


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Thanks for reading this article so far. All the best for your Developer or Data Scientist interviews and if you have any questions which don't know answer or any doubt feel free to ask in comments. 
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