Statistics Interview Questions for Data Analysts
1. What is a population in statistics?
• A population is the entire group we want to study or collect data from.
2. What is a sample?
• A sample is a smaller group selected from the population.
3. What is the mean?
• The mean is the average of a set of numbers, calculated by adding them up and dividing
by the count.
4. What is the median?
• The median is the middle value in a list of numbers sorted in ascending or descending
order.
5. What is the mode?
• The mode is the number that appears most frequently in a dataset.
6. What is range?
• The range is the difference between the highest and lowest values in a dataset.
7. What is standard deviation?
• Standard deviation measures how spread out the numbers are in a dataset.
8. What is variance?
• Variance is the average of the squared differences from the mean.
9. What is a histogram?
• A histogram is a bar graph that represents the frequency distribution of numerical data.
10. What is a scatter plot?
• A scatter plot is a graph used to study the relationship between two variables.
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INTERMEDIATE QUESTIONS
11. What is correlation?
• Correlation measures the strength and direction of the relationship between two
variables.
12. What is the difference between positive and negative correlation?
• Positive correlation means that as one variable increases, the other also increases.
Negative correlation means that as one variable increases, the other decreases.
13. What is regression analysis?
• Regression analysis is used to predict the value of a dependent variable based on the
value of one or more independent variables.
14. What is the difference between correlation and causation?
• Correlation is a relationship between two variables, while causation means that one
variable directly affects the other.
15. What is a null hypothesis?
• The null hypothesis is a statement that there is no effect or no difference.
16. What is an alternative hypothesis?
• The alternative hypothesis is a statement that there is an effect or a difference.
17. What is a p-value?
• A p-value indicates the probability of obtaining the observed results assuming the null
hypothesis is true.
18. What is a confidence interval?
• A confidence interval is a range of values that is likely to contain the population
parameter.
19. What is a Type I error?
• A Type I error occurs when we reject the null hypothesis when it is actually true.
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20. What is a Type II error?
• A Type II error occurs when we fail to reject the null hypothesis when it is actually false.
ADVANCED QUESTIONS
21. What is ANOVA?
• ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) is used to compare the means of three or more groups.
22. What is a t-test?
• A t-test is used to compare the means of two groups.
23. What is the Central Limit Theorem?
• The Central Limit Theorem states that the distribution of the sample mean approaches a
normal distribution as the sample size increases.
24. What is heteroscedasticity?
• Heteroscedasticity occurs when the variance of errors is not constant across
observations.
25. What is multicollinearity?
• Multicollinearity occurs when independent variables in a regression model are highly
correlated.
26. What is logistic regression?
• Logistic regression is used for predicting binary outcomes.
27. What is a chi-square test?
• A chi-square test is used to determine if there is a significant association between two
categorical variables.
28. What is the difference between a parametric and non-parametric test?
• Parametric tests assume underlying statistical distributions; non-parametric tests do not.
29. What is R-squared?
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• R-squared measures the proportion of the variance in the dependent variable that is
predictable from the independent variables.
30. What is a residual in regression analysis?
• A residual is the difference between the observed value and the predicted value of the
dependent variable.
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