PayPal | Data Scientist | Technical Phone Screen
Timeline: 2026(Jan - Mar) • Fulltime • JobHopper • 
Waiting for result
I recently had an interview for a Data Scientist role at PayPal. This was my first major company interview, and I was quite nervous. The interview started with a brief introduction about my background and experiences.
The interviewer then proceeded to ask a series of technical questions primarily focused on data analysis and machine learning. For the technical assessment, I was tasked with a scenario about fraud detection where I needed to outline the steps I would take to build a model for flagging suspicious transactions. They were particularly interested in my approach to feature engineering and model evaluation.
After the technical portion was complete, we discussed some behavioral questions. They wanted to know how I handle team conflicts and my experience with cross-functional teams. I shared a specific example and highlighted my collaborative approach.
The interview concluded with the interviewer asking if I had any questions for them. I inquired about the team dynamics and what a typical day looks like for a Data Scientist at PayPal.
Overall, I felt the interview went fairly well but I’m unsure of the outcome. They mentioned they would get back to me in a week or two, and I’m currently waiting for their feedback.
Interview Questions
Fibonacci Tree Path Calculation Using Preorder Numbering
Given a binary tree, calculate the number of unique paths from the root to leaves.
Difficulty: Medium | Reference: LC-113 | Tags: Tree, Depth First Search
Tree Distance Sum Problem
Given a tree structure, calculate the sum of distances from each node to all other nodes in the tree.
Difficulty: Medium | Reference: LC-834 | Tags: Tree, Dynamic Programming