What’s the data architect interview process like?
What to expect from a data architect interview process? Technical phone screens, onsite interviews with team members, or a lunch meeting with your potential manager?
However, interview processes vary depending on the company’s unique policy and recruitment approach.
So, here’s what you need to know about the data architect job interview at three top-notch companies – Netflix, Microsoft, and Apple. We’re positive these brief overviews will give you a good impression of what happens behind closed doors.
Usually, the process starts with 2 phone interviews that revolve around more general background and professional experience questions – one with a recruiter, and then another one with the hiring manager. The phone screens are followed by two onsite interviews. The first one is with 3-4 people from the data architect team. So, you can expect plenty of database systems, software design patterns, virtual warehousing, and some programming questions. The interviewers will also ask you to analyze a hypothetical problem and enumerate various possible data architecture solutions. In the second interview, you will meet higher-level executives which means some behavioral and situational questions will come your way.
The data architect interview process usually starts with a phone interview that covers your areas of expertise, previous job experience, and future plans. The interviewer will most probably ask you about the Microsoft technologies you’ve used to build solutions and the challenges you’ve encountered while implementing them.
The phone screen is followed by 4-5 onsite interviews, often with 2 different teams. Around half of them are focused on data architecture. Those include scenario-based data architecture questions where you should list the pros and cons of all possibilities you can think of and what decision you’d make based on the company’s needs.
Another thing the interviewers will test is your coding skills. As in other corporations, you only reach the hiring manager if you have passed the data architect interviews with the teams. Once the Hiring Manager has made a decision, you should receive timely feedback. But if you don’t have an answer from HR within a week, there is no harm in sending a friendly reminder.
The Apple data architect interview is quite standard – you’ll have a phone screen with a recruiter first, followed by a few technical data architect phone interviews with team members.
If you pass them successfully, the recruiter will give you an overview of the process prior to the onsite data architect interviews. You’ll have 6 to 8 interviews with members of the data architect team and some senior employees the team works with. There are both 1-on-1 and 2-on-1 interviews, plus a lunch interview with your potential manager. Similar to other companies, interviewers’ questions are centered around different areas and the interviewers refrain from sharing their feedback during the process. However, prepare for some data mart, dimension tables, as well as star and snowflake schema questions.
Once that stage is over, your interviewers will compare notes. Then, only if they are sure that you’re a good prospect for the data architect job, you’ll have interviews with the director and the VP of the company (who, of course, has the final say). Usually, you’ll hear from a recruiter in a few days. But if it takes longer, you can send a kind request for updates. And remember, Apple employees are huge Apple fans. So, even if being a Mac user isn’t a prerequisite, you should demonstrate some knowledge (and definitely some enthusiasm) about its products.
Which are the top 5 skills you need to become a data architect?
Here are the essential competences every data architect must demonstrate:
If you need to build up your data architect skillset, then our online Data Science program is a great place to start. You can preview the program (15 hours of video instruction) for free.
25) Is it possible to use direct connect for transferring the objects from the data centers?
Yes, it is possible. Cloud Front simply supports custom origins and thus this task can be performed. However, you need to pay for it depending on the data transfer rates.