Calculate probability for user retention

Last updated: November 5, 2025

Quick Overview

Given the following scenario about user conversion, calculate the the sample size needed.

Goldman Sachs
Analytics & Experimentation
Data Scientist
Goldman Sachs
November 5, 2025
Data Scientist
Technical Screen
Analytics & Experimentation
Medium

55

5

311 solved


Given the following scenario about user conversion, calculate the the sample size needed.

This analytics question from Goldman Sachs's Technical Screen tests your ability to think critically about data. The interviewer expects you to consider confounding variables, selection bias, and the difference between correlation and causation.

What the Interviewer Expects
  • Design a rigorous experiment with proper randomization and sample size calculation
  • Define primary and guardrail metrics with clear rationale
  • Address novelty effects, network effects, and interference
  • Segment results appropriately and identify heterogeneous treatment effects
  • Propose follow-up analyses when results are ambiguous
Key Topics to Cover
Novelty and primacy effects
Segmentation and heterogeneous effects
Metric definition and success criteria
Network effects and interference
Long-term vs short-term metrics
How to Approach This
  1. Define success metrics carefully. A good metric is measurable, actionable, and aligned with business goals.
  2. Run experiments long enough to account for novelty effects and weekly seasonality.
  3. Use funnel analysis to identify where users drop off for maximum optimization impact.
  4. Segment results by key dimensions (platform, country, user cohort) to catch hidden patterns.
  5. Consider network effects and interference between treatment and control groups.
Possible Follow-up Questions
  • What if the experiment shows a positive short-term effect but you suspect a negative long-term impact?
  • How would you handle seasonality in your experiment?
  • How would you handle an experiment where the control and treatment groups are different sizes?
  • How would you handle interference between treatment and control?
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