A Data Scientist at Seatgeek operates at the intersection of marketplace economics, predictive modeling, and user experience. As a live-entertainment transaction platform, Seatgeek relies heavily on data science to optimize its two-sided marketplace. This involves balancing the needs of everyday fans looking for tickets with the commercial goals of professional sellers, sports teams, and theater venues.

In this role, your work directly influences core product features, such as the proprietary Deal Score algorithm, dynamic pricing engines, fraud detection systems, and personalized recommendation models. The scale and velocity of ticket sales require data models that can process vast amounts of transactional and behavioral data in real time, making the technical challenges both complex and highly impactful.

Successfully stepping into this role means joining a team that values rigorous analytical thinking. You will not just build models; you will translate complex statistical outputs into strategic business decisions that shape how millions of users experience live events.

The questions you will encounter during the hiring process are designed to test your technical execution, mathematical foundations, and business acumen. These questions are drawn from real candidate experiences and are structured to evaluate how you perform under pressure and how you structure ambiguous problems.

Mathematical & Statistical Foundations

These questions assess your theoretical understanding of the mathematics that underpin machine learning and statistical modeling. Expect to go beyond high-level definitions to explain the exact mechanics of your analytical choices.

• Explain the mathematical difference between L1 and L2 regularization and when you would choose one over the other.
• How do you calculate the probability of an event occurring in a multi-stage user funnel given historical conversion rates?

Preparing for the Data Scientist interview process at Seatgeek requires a balanced approach. You must be equally ready to write code on a shared screen, solve complex mathematical proofs, and defend your business decisions to executive leadership.

Technical Rigor & Mathematical Foundations – You must possess a deep theoretical understanding of statistics, probability, and machine learning algorithms. Interviewers will push you to explain the mathematical "why" behind your modeling choices, rather than just the "how."

Structured Problem Solving – When faced with ambiguous business cases, your ability to break down a problem into testable hypotheses is critical. You should clearly articulate your assumptions, define key performance indicators (KPIs), and walk through your analytical framework step-by-step.

Executive Presence & Resilience – The final rounds involve direct interaction with senior leaders, including directors and executive officers. You must be able to present your ideas confidently, handle critical feedback in real time, and remain composed under intense, detailed questioning.

Cultural Alignment & Curiosity – Beyond technical execution, interviewers assess your genuine interest in the ticketing and live events industry. You should demonstrate a strong understanding of Seatgeek’s product ecosystem and be prepared to discuss how your work aligns with their marketplace goals.

The interview process at Seatgeek is designed to be comprehensive, thorough, and demanding. It aims to evaluate both your immediate technical capabilities and your long-term strategic value to the team. The progression moves quickly from high-level screenings to deep-dive technical and behavioral assessments.

Initially, you will undergo a preliminary phone screen, often with a hiring manager or director. This conversation is highly conversational and focuses on your professional background, your CV, and your alignment with the core functions of the role. It is an opportunity for both parties to ensure that your career goals match the team's current trajectory.

If you advance, you will move into technical screens that focus on mathematical foundations and coding. This is followed by a comprehensive final panel. The final panel is a rigorous experience that combines live programming, system design, and behavioral interviews with senior leadership, including directors and executive stakeholders.

The timeline above details the typical progression of a candidate through the hiring pipeline. It is crucial to manage your preparation energy accordingly, ensuring you are as sharp for the final executive interviews as you are for the initial technical challenges. While the technical rounds test your execution, the final rounds with senior leadership will ultimately determine your cultural and strategic fit.

To succeed at Seatgeek, you must understand the specific competencies evaluated during each phase of the interview process.

Mathematical Foundations & Analytical Rigor

This evaluation area focuses on your theoretical grasp of mathematics and statistics. You will not merely be asked to run library imports; you must explain what is happening under the hood of your models.

Be ready to go over:

• Probability theory – Calculating conditional probabilities, understanding Bayes' theorem, and solving combinatorial problems related to user behavior.
• Statistical modeling – Linear and logistic regressions, decision trees, and ensemble methods, including their underlying mathematical assumptions.
• Experimental design – Power analysis, sample size determination, and identifying confounding variables in dynamic marketplace environments.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Multi-armed bandits for real-time optimization, non-parametric statistical tests, and Bayesian inference techniques.

Example scenarios:

• Deriving the update rule for a gradient descent algorithm on a whiteboard.
• Explaining how you would design an experiment to test a new ticket recommendation algorithm when user traffic is highly seasonal.

Live Coding & Algorithmic Execution

During the technical panel, you will face live programming environments where you must demonstrate clean coding practices, efficient data manipulation, and strong algorithmic thinking.

Be ready to go over:

• Data structures and algorithms – Efficient use of arrays, hash maps, trees, and search/sort algorithms to solve complex data processing problems.
• SQL proficiency – Writing complex queries involving window functions, common table expressions (CTEs), and complex joins on transactional tables.
• Python optimization – Utilizing vectorization, managing memory with large datasets, and writing modular, readable code.

Example scenarios:

• Writing a Python function to parse and aggregate API logs to identify anomalous purchasing patterns.
• Optimizing a slow-running SQL query that aggregates ticket sales across multiple dimensions.

Executive Presence & Business Case Analysis

The final stages of the interview process involve intense interactions with senior directors and executive leaders. This round goes beyond technical capability to evaluate your resilience, communication style, and business intuition.

Be ready to go over:

• Handling critical feedback – Remaining calm, professional, and structured when your ideas or past projects are challenged by senior stakeholders.
• Translating technical concepts – Explaining complex machine learning outputs in simple, actionable business terms.
• Strategic prioritization – How you decide which data science initiatives to pursue based on resource constraints and business impact.