First there is screening round which tests on all areas and skills, ML stat deep learning and coding
If successful onsite is scheduled with 5 rounds
ML depth
Research chat
Coding round
Hiring manager round
Hr round
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
One 90 minutes technical screening with questions on statistics, applied deep learning, machine learning theory and a easy coding question on TF-IDF
Got opportunity to do onsite interview.
5 rounds total
Round 1: ML depth, the interviewer simply took the problem he worked on in zalando, forecasting and marketing intelligence. I.e. modelling the bidding of Google keywords during search for placing their ads to users. I had no experience with reinforcement learning, he expected multi arm bandit solution.
Round2: Research chat with Director of Casual inference team. This was chat with director of different team to see scientific thinking. Overall went well imo.
Round3: Coding round, had a dynamic programming / recursion question where i had to break strings in given set into smaller strings based on reference set. Eg: if reference set has {pan, cake} then break pancake in main set to {pancake : [pan, cake]}
Was able to code the solution and interviewer was quite happy with solution.
Round 4: Hiring manager round, it had mostly behavioural questions judging team skills in techincal scenarios. Also questions on how do I structure, test and review my code.
Round 5: HR round, non technical behavioural round. Went well.
Overall feedback: Coding excellent, ML stat ok however this is senior position and needs more experience. Very diplomatic feedback from the process that i don't appreciate.
Hey there,
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with the community and for providing us with this feedback on your interview experience! We appreciate any opportunity to improve.
Best,
- Talent Acquisition Team
Other Applied Scientist interview reviews for Zalando
The interview process was poorly organized and unprofessional. Across 5 rounds, multiple interviewers used the exact same question, showing a clear lack of coordination. As a candidate with a PhD in Machine Learning, I was given feedback that my machine learning knowledge was insufficient — yet one of the interviewers was unfamiliar with basic ML terminology and apologized at the end of the interview for his limited English proficiency, which made technical communication nearly impossible. The overall experience suggested a significant mismatch between the stated requirements and the actual evaluation criteria, and raised serious questions about the interview process design and interviewer preparation.
The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Zalando (Berlin) in Oct 2025
Interview
They had overall about 5 Interviews.
There is firstly a 30min introduction.
Then a first 1 hour technical interview. If passed you'll go to, final rounds of interviews consisting of 4 interviews: coding, knowledge depth, collaboration, scope and impact.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Explain a project and go into details.
Explain a situation where you had difficulty communicating.
I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Zalando (Berlin) in Oct 2025
Interview
The process involved a 30-minute HR screening, followed by the hiring manager round and then four final rounds: (1) Science Depth, (2) Science Breadth (coding), (3) Scope (product-focused), and (4) Collaboration. It felt extremely exhausting - especially having four ‘final’ rounds - only to receive an automated rejection email at the end. The interviewers were very pleasant and the HR team was prompt, but the overall process took nearly three months, which feels disproportionate given the offered salary.
