Interpret a statistically significant lift of 2% from an experiment

Last updated: April 18, 2026

Quick Overview

An experiment shows conflicting results. What conclusions can you draw? What are the caveats?

Cloudflare
Analytics & Experimentation
Data Scientist
Cloudflare
April 18, 2026
Data Scientist
Phone Screen
Analytics & Experimentation
Hard

10

6

3,471 solved


An experiment shows conflicting results. What conclusions can you draw? What are the caveats?

Cloudflare asks this during the Phone Screen 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
Metric definition and success criteria
Simpson's paradox and ecological fallacy
A/B testing methodology
Sample size and power calculation
Novelty and primacy 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 if you discover a bug in the logging during the experiment?
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