Machine Learning Scientist Interview Experience - Chicago, Illinois
January 1, 2019
Positive ExperienceGot Offer
Process
The overall process took maybe 2 months.
- Initial phone screen
- A ~5-hour take-home modeling challenge
- Second phone screen
- On-site "power day" with 5 interviews:
- Review research paper
- Data science whiteboarding
- Engineering whiteboarding
- Case study
- Behavioral interview
Questions
Each interview was with a totally different person and was pretty distinct.
It helps to be familiar with data science and engineering, and academic research.
In a data science interview, I was asked to design a database as well as some numerical code.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Capital One Machine Learning Scientist role in Chicago, Illinois.
Success Rate
100%
Pass Rate
Capital One's interview process for their Machine Learning Scientist roles in Chicago, Illinois is incredibly easy as the vast majority of engineers get an offer after going through it.
Experience Rating
Positive100%
Neutral0%
Negative0%
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Capital One's Machine Learning Scientist interview process in Chicago, Illinois.
Capital One Work Experiences
5.0
Great machine learning team to work with
Machine Learning Scientist • Former Employee
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
June 16, 2025
Pros: Technical and nice people to work with.
Cons: Interns research hard to connect to their core LLM pipelines.
5.0
Fast Moving Industry
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
Chicago, Illinois, United States
November 4, 2025
Pros: Capital One is fairly modern for a banking company, as their phrase is "a tech company that does banking."
Exciting work, especially with the recent Discover acquisition.
Great work-life balance.
Cons: I think there is a little bit of truth to the toxicity that comes from many ex-Amazon employees.
Pay is not as competitive compared to other tech companies, but again, that is the trade-off for great work-life balance.
4.0
Solid bank tech, very annoying performance cycles
Associate Software Engineer • Current Employee
Chicago, Illinois, United States
October 27, 2025
Pros: Work-life balance is good. The tech stack and tech culture seem pretty good for a bank.
Cons: Performance cycles every 6 months, stack ranking, constantly trying to outshine peers whether you do your best or not.
- 5.0Great machine learning team to work withMachine Learning Scientist • Former EmployeeWashington, District of Columbia, United StatesJune 16, 2025Pros: Technical and nice people to work with.Cons: Interns research hard to connect to their core LLM pipelines.
- 5.0Fast Moving IndustrySenior Software Engineer • Current EmployeeChicago, Illinois, United StatesNovember 4, 2025Pros: Capital One is fairly modern for a banking company, as their phrase is "a tech company that does banking." Exciting work, especially with the recent Discover acquisition. Great work-life balance.Cons: I think there is a little bit of truth to the toxicity that comes from many ex-Amazon employees. Pay is not as competitive compared to other tech companies, but again, that is the trade-off for great work-life balance.
- 4.0Solid bank tech, very annoying performance cyclesAssociate Software Engineer • Current EmployeeChicago, Illinois, United StatesOctober 27, 2025Pros: Work-life balance is good. The tech stack and tech culture seem pretty good for a bank.Cons: Performance cycles every 6 months, stack ranking, constantly trying to outshine peers whether you do your best or not.
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