A data analyst interview throws light on the core of every statistical analysis for any company. Data handling is the backbone of a company’s strategic algorithms. With the increase in the popularity of data analytics and data manipulation over the years, the admiration for data analysts has reached new heights. Many may argue about the role of a data analyst, but they are responsible for all the statistical analysis needed to make strategic decisions for the betterment of the business.

You may ask what does a data analyst do? Depending on the company, a data analyst may have to perform an abundance of duties apart from statistical analysis. The role gets specialized based on the business. For instance, a data analyst from a software company will perform duties that may sound different to a data analyst from a finance company.

The field of analytics has grown substantially and along with that, the demand for data analysts and researchers has also increased. It is hard to find the perfect analyst amongst the vast pool of talented analysts, and most employers struggle when it comes to hiring and conducting a data analyst interview.

Let’s take a look at how it can be done effectively and productively.

What is Data Analysis?

Data analysis is the phenomenon of handling and modeling data in an order to generate the best possible strategic planning that would be effective in making the business expand. The main purpose of data analysis is to extract useful data through statistical analysis and use it in the decision making.

According to Wikipedia,

“Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming and modeling data to discover useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making.”

Data analysis prevails in every sphere of life. No matter how simple the decision may be, we prefer to check all the parameters and data concerning the decision.

Why is Data Analysis important?

In business decisions, data analysis plays a big role because it helps in making better decisions. The theory is simple: for the company to thrive, the employer and the employees need to figure what is wrong and convert the wrongs into the rights. This is what data analysis helps with. All you need is to analyze the prevailing data, modify accordingly, and make the strategy.

There are many types of data analysis:

• Text Analysis: It is a method to discover a pattern in large data sets to transform raw data into business information.
• Statistical Analysis: Statistical Analysis analyses a set of data or a sample of data to show the mean, deviation, percentage, and frequency.
• Diagnostic Analysis: Diagnostic Analysis shows the cause behind the data.
• Predictive Analysis: Predictive Analysis makes predictions about future outcomes based on prevalent data.
• Prescriptive Analysis: Prescriptive Analysis combines all the data gathered from the analysis and determines what steps need to be taken further.

Who is a Data Analyst?

In other words, who can become a data analyst? A data analyst processes all the datasets and creates strategic business decisions based on the available data. The analyst has to keep tabs on every little detail concerning the business so that nothing gets lost while processing the data.

The individual analyst is responsible to make the best outcome of all the data and create a strategy to execute.

As per Glassdoor, the average annual salary for a data analyst is around $67000. However, that depends on the experience, qualifications, and the company status of the analyst. According to IBM, the annual salary of a data scientist is around $95000, while that of a data analyst is $106000.

With all things considered, the role of a data analyst is an important one and also, a dignified one. To hold a position as a data analyst, the person needs to have an undergraduate degree or a PG degree in mathematics, science, analytics, computer science, or economics.

Hiring a Data Analyst

Like all other corporate positions, a lot of research goes into what employers look for in a data analyst. The hiring managers need to have a specific recruitment process to hire the best data analyst. The process will follow the same stages as other hiring processes.

• Screening
• Assessment
• Interview
• Selection

Job Role and Requirements for a Data Analyst

The data analyst has to be the “gatekeeper” of all the data that comes in and goes out in the business. He has a specific set of responsibilities that need to be performed when required.

The role and responsibilities of a data analyst may vary from company to company, but in the end, all the data has to be managed by the analyst.

When you are about to hire a data analyst, make sure you have provided the exact role and responsibilities that the employee has to perform, otherwise it will lead to employee dissatisfaction, resulting in a turnover or resignation.

This is a list of all the typical responsibilities that a data analyst performs.

• Design and maintain data systems and databases; which may include fixing minor coding errors, determining root causes of problems, etc.
• Mine data from sources, followed by reorganizing the accrued data in a readable format.
• Use statistical tools to interpret data sets that follow the newest trends and patterns valuable for predictive analysis.
• Develop an acceptable methodology for triage and scheduling of projects.
• Prepare reports trends, patterns, and predictions using relevant data.
• Collaborate with programmers, engineers, and organizational leaders to recognize points of improvement, recommend system modifications, if required, and develop policies for proper data management.
• Create, duplicate, or replicate the data process for stakeholders to understand the steps of the data analysis process.

Necessary Skills for a Data Analyst

What does a data analyst do? Well, an adequate knowledge of mathematics, coding, and a good understanding of data analysis is essential for starters.

Here is a graphical representation of all the necessary skills that a data analyst must possess.

Assessment of a Data Analyst

Assessing the skills and knowledge is a tough job. The employer should have a holistic and integrated approach that evaluates all the requisite skills during a data analyst interview.

Glider.ai provides a best-in-class assessment platform that helps you find the best talent and sets you apart from your competition.

Glider provides real-world simulations that evaluate the candidate’s competencies in all spheres of the workplace environment. The platform converts large data management problems into simpler versions to make the process fast-paced and more efficient. This facilitates the recruiters to assess a large number of candidates within a short period.

The platform assesses the candidates based on the requirements and creates a talent pool of the best candidates for better processing.

Big tech companies such as Facebook, AT&T, Nutanix, Collabera, etc., take the help of Glider.ai as a third-party assessment vendor for their hiring process.

Interviewing a Data Analyst

According to Career Guru99 and Medium, these are some of the most asked questions in a data analyst interview. Employers should be following these questions to provide the best interview experience to candidates and hire the best amongst them.

• What is the responsibility of a Data analyst?
• What is required to become a data analyst?
• What are the various steps in an analytics project?
• What is data cleansing?
• List out some of the best practices for data cleaning
• What is logistic regression?
• What is the difference between data mining and data profiling?
• List out some common problems faced by data analysts.
• What are the missing patterns that are generally observed?
• What is the KNN imputation method?
• What are the data validation methods used by data analysts?
• What should be done with suspected or missing data?
• How to deal with multi-source problems?
• What is an Outlier?
• What is the Hierarchical Clustering Algorithm?
• What is K-mean Algorithm?
• What are the key skills required for a data analyst?
• What is collaborative filtering?
• What are the tools used in Big Data?
• What is KPI, design of experiments, and the 80/20 rule?
• What is Map Reduce?
• What is Clustering? What are the properties of clustering algorithms?
• What are some of the statistical methods that are useful for a data analyst?
• What is time series analysis?
• What is correlogram analysis?
• What is a hash table?
• What is a hash table collision? How is it avoided?
• What is imputation? List out different types of imputation techniques?
• Which imputation method is more favorable?

The position of a data analyst is a tough role. Recruiters need to have a standardized and unbiased recruitment process to get the best results. An objective approach that examines the required skills in an efficient and fast-paced manner is guaranteed to give desired results.

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