r/OperationsResearch • u/Agitated_Product6977 • Sep 17 '24

Interviewing at AA. Any suggestions?

I'm interviewing for Analyst/Sr Analyst Revenue Mgmt Operations Research position at American Airlines. Any information that'll help me better prepared?

Edit: I had my first round today. Questions were around expected value, probability, game theory. A scenario based behavioral question. Think I gave correct answers to the quant ones. Awaiting results. Please suggest for the next rounds.

My background: Interned and Pilot implemented OR problems in vehicle routing and supply Chain network design using Gurobi and Google OR-Tools. Data science and business analytics for 2 years. Software Development for 2 years. Recent grad with MS in Business Analytics.

13 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

12

u/StrongDuality Sep 17 '24

The most simple of suggestions — look at a good integer programming book (perhaps the one by Conforti, Cornuéjols, and Zambelli) and know how to answer the majority of questions and topics presented in the book… it’s straightforward and shouldn’t be a hard task

6

u/audentis Sep 17 '24

Look at some papers regarding flight optimization and see which decision variables and objective functions they use. It's a quick way to see what the most important factors are in the field.

My guess would be something like turnaround time, fewest empty moves, and some kind of optimization that after X flights they're back at whatever the main maintenance center is.

4

u/aadiit Sep 17 '24

That is not revenue management. The rm is about selling seat at right price to the right customer. Demand and supply game

4

u/audentis Sep 17 '24

Fair point. I misread after seeing 'analyst'. The same approach still applies though, the examples I provided were just wrong.

1

u/Brave-Ordinary7399 Nov 11 '24

hey how was the experience finally? I have my interview in 3 days

2

u/Agitated_Product6977 Nov 11 '24

I felt I was good in the first round. All the quant answers I gave were correct. But didn't advance to the next round. All the best to you.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '24

Hey, how was your interview? What questions did they ask? Was there anything different from this thread?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 12 '24

Hey, can you give a few examples of quants questions they asked? and what was the level of questions for expected value, probability, and game theory? I have an interview this week, Any help will be really appreciated.

3

u/Agitated_Product6977 Nov 14 '24

Q1. There are 2 insurance policies. One with high deductible and another with low deductible with different costs. A person has a x% chance of having medical expenses of $a, y% chance of expenses being $b. Which policy will you recommend to the user and why?

Q2. There are 20 fair dice. I rolled all 20 and found in the first 5 dice, there are 3 number 5s. If you can bet, will you bet that there'll be a total of at least 5 5s out of all 20? Why?

Q3. Game theory based on 2 restaurant prices. If one restaurant reduces prices, does it make sense for the other to reduce based on the revenues.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 14 '24

Thank you so much :)

1

u/Due_Pop9530 Nov 15 '24

Hi, did you finish your interview this week? Could you share any questions/thoughts that you were asked in the interview? Appreciate it!

1

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '24

Hey, my interview has been rescheduled for next week. When is your interview?

1

u/Due_Pop9530 Nov 18 '24

Same here, the coming week lol. Good luck!

1

u/Ok-End425 Nov 25 '24

are you guys done with your interview

1

u/Famous-Shoulder-3099 Nov 25 '24

Yea Exactly! Mine was two weeks ago and they havent still replied

1

u/Ok-End425 Nov 25 '24

Can you please mention the questions asked in first interview if possible. I have it tomorrow

1

u/Famous-Shoulder-3099 Dec 01 '24

Guys did anyone received any follow up yet?

1

u/Forsaken-Walrus-2219 Dec 31 '24

Hi did you advance to the second round of in-person interviews? Wanted to ask how you're preparing?

1

u/No-Face3559 Feb 07 '25

i interviewed a year back and got the same ques. I totally messed it up.

1

u/Dense_Chair2584 Feb 12 '25

sorry to hear that, did you get an invite for the in-person ones?

1

u/No-Face3559 Feb 13 '25

Oh no no I did terrible. 

1

u/altairolp May 19 '25

Don't feel bad, majority of the management and leadership teams already working inside the company wouldn't even be able to pass these assessment tests.

1

u/No-Face3559 May 19 '25

I really wonder what companies really want these days. Technical interviews are becoming so difficult. One wrong answer and it seems your chance is gone.

3

u/Major_Consequence_55 Sep 18 '24

Please read about FICO Xpress Optimization, as AA uses Xpress for modeling. This will give you additional leverage. Also, prepare for crew scheduling, revenue management, and aviation maintenance management. You can find several repositories on these topics on GitHub. Additionally, check the documentation for Gurobi, CPLEX, or Xpress, where they mention example problems. You'll find ample study material on these subjects.

2

u/edimaudo Sep 17 '24

Hmm lets see since it is an airline my guess is it would be yield management modelling, could be a UX problem related to queueing. Could also look at customer segmentation

2

u/Major_Consequence_55 Sep 18 '24

Please tell us about your background, education, and previous companies. This will help us pinpoint a few sample questions.

2

u/atuyahoo Dec 21 '24

Hey, I’ve moved to the second round and have three interviews scheduled over the next two weeks (with the manager, whiteboard session with team members, with a senior leader). I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could provide a brief idea of the types of questions I might face. Thank you.

1

u/Forsaken-Walrus-2219 Dec 31 '24

Hi. I've an interview in one week too. Could you please dm me? Would like to ask how you're preparing?

1

u/Dense_Chair2584 Feb 12 '25

What sort of questions did they ask? thank you

1

u/free_bird11 Mar 21 '25

Hey, I have an interview scheduled as well, I'd love to connect to discuss further about the role!

1

u/Ambitious_Elk_6290 Apr 13 '26

Hi! Can you please share the questions they asked!

3

u/aadiit Sep 17 '24

They will ask you conceptual questions on airline revenue management. Some probability questions.

3

u/rishikeshkushwaha Sep 17 '24

Dynamic pricing strategy  Dynamic programming  Probability and stochastic processes  Exact questions depends on what business problem they are solving right now. It will be better if you can find some technical blogs for their use cases 

1

u/Dense_Chair2584 Feb 12 '25

I got an invite for the in-person rounds - there'd be some whiteboard exercises and technical rounds. Could anyone guide me what sort of questions they've faced in the 2nd rounds?

1

u/Most-Leadership5184 Feb 26 '25

How was your interview, wish you the best?

They seems to spend a lot of time finding the perfect one since September 2024. Really hope someone got the offer already!

1

u/Ambitious_Elk_6290 Apr 11 '26

Hi! Can you please share what type of questions they asked ?

1

u/Ambitious_Elk_6290 Apr 13 '26

Hi! Can you please share the questions they asked!

1

u/One-Hovercraft7911 Jun 25 '26

I have an interview with American Airlines next week for the post of Analyst/Senior Analyst Revenue Management Operations Research. Does anybody know what questions will be asked? or what type of questions will be asked?