Calculate variance for A/B test results

Last updated: April 15, 2026

Quick Overview

Given the following scenario about revenue per session, calculate the the p-value.

Mastercard
Analytics & Experimentation
Data Scientist
Mastercard
April 15, 2026
Data Scientist
Technical Screen
Analytics & Experimentation
Medium

0

13

1,808 solved


Given the following scenario about revenue per session, calculate the the p-value.

Analytics questions at Mastercard evaluate your ability to define metrics, design experiments, and derive actionable insights from data. This Technical Screen question tests your end-to-end analytical thinking.

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
Simpson's paradox and ecological fallacy
A/B testing methodology
Sample size and power calculation
Funnel analysis and cohort analysis
Metric definition and success criteria
Segmentation and heterogeneous effects
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
  • How would you handle seasonality in your experiment?
  • How would you handle an experiment where the control and treatment groups are different sizes?
  • What would you do if a stakeholder wants to end the experiment early because initial results look good?
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Browse Analytics Questions
Sample Answer
Problem Setup

The analytical question at hand is to calculate the p-value for revenue per session from an A/B test conducted by Mastercard. We need to understand if there is a statistically significant difference b...

Methodology

To calculate the p-value, we will use a two-sample t-test. This test is suitable as it compares the means of two independent groups (Group A and Group B) to determine if they are significantly differe...


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