Explain propensity score matching with an example
Last updated: February 6, 2026
Quick Overview
Explain propensity score matching in simple terms and provide a concrete example.
Anduril
February 6, 20264
6
3,163 solved
Explain propensity score matching in simple terms and provide a concrete example.
Anduril asks this during the Onsite to assess your experimentation skills. They want to see how you define success metrics, design controlled experiments, and interpret results with appropriate statistical rigor.
What the Interviewer Expects
- Design complex experimentation strategies for tricky scenarios
- Handle multi-armed bandits, switchback experiments, and quasi-experiments
- Address long-term effects vs short-term metrics
- Propose causal inference methods when randomization is not possible
- Build a measurement framework that connects metrics to business value
- Discuss organizational experimentation culture and maturity
Key Topics to Cover
How to Approach This
- Define success metrics carefully. A good metric is measurable, actionable, and aligned with business goals.
- Run experiments long enough to account for novelty effects and weekly seasonality.
- Use funnel analysis to identify where users drop off for maximum optimization impact.
- Segment results by key dimensions (platform, country, user cohort) to catch hidden patterns.
- 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 interference between treatment and control?
- What if you discover a bug in the logging during the experiment?
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Problem Setup
The specific analytical question we are addressing is: "How do we estimate the causal effect of a new defense technology implemented by Anduril on military readiness?" To approach this question, we wo...
Methodology
To analyze the causal effect using propensity score matching (PSM), we would follow these steps:
- Estimate Propensity Scores: Use logistic regression to estimate the probability of a unit receiv...
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