Pre-Doc Quiz? UChicago Data Analysis and Coding

[binary]

Hello, I just received an email asking me to complete a 3 hour data analysis and coding quiz sometime in the next few days as part of the University of Chicago Pre-Doc positions interview process. Has anybody taken a similar quiz that may be able to tell me what I can expect? This is my first time doing this for an academic interview, however, I've taken IBM's coding quiz for a software development position in the past.

 

I plan on brushing up with a couple questions on HackerRank, but I'm not sure if this is going to help seeing that this is a data quiz and I haven't heard the language requirements.

 

Any advice would be great, I haven't had an acceptance come in yet so I'm really hoping to continue this interview process.

 

Thank you!

[hallowedelegy]

If you haven't read this already, then it'll be helpful: Econ RA Guide | A community guide for research assistants in economics.

 

I can't say for sure whether the Chicago pre-doc quiz will be similar, but it's most likely a data task rather than a CS coding interview. Doing HackerRank will likely not help except maybe help you brush up on your programming. Instead, it'd be more useful to do a data cleaning style task and also be prepared to run summary statistics/regressions. FYI, from previous people's experiences with data tasks, it is generally advised to comment copiously. It is unlikely that you would overcomment.

[CyTwombly]

Check out the practice data task here at predoc.org. I think the example they give is actually one that was previously used for UChicago predocs.

 

How to Prepare | The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

[raguide]

We may have hid the practice data task a bit too well on our guide... you can find it below

 

Coding example | Econ RA Guide

 

Good luck!