I was asked to attend an interview next week for the role of a Data scientist with a lottery company and was told there would be an hour of testing prior to the interview.
Is this usually a technical test, personality test or some drug test? Would it be appropriate to ask the recruiter?
Interviews for technical companies can comprise of many different sections such as a Behavioral interview, Cultural fit, Technical interview, Group exercise, and many more pretty much at the discretion of the company.
It is perfectly acceptable (and reasonable) to return to the recruiter that you are in communication with to ask for clarification. It's odd that they didn't give more information on it to begin with as 'hour of test' is very ambiguous, it was perhaps an oversight on their part. It won't put you in a bad light or at a disadvantage to ask for more information on the matter though. Good luck!
If you're interviewing for a technical role, then you can expect the test to be a technical test, unless told otherwise.
If you're unsure what this test involves, then ask.
Always ask the recruiter! Recruiters are people with valuable information that you might find helpful.
As others have already pointed out - this is probably going to be a technical interview that would check whether you have technical skills and abilities necessary for the role. The recruitment team is here for you to navigate the entire process. You might want to ask them about the format of the interview: is it going to be a case interview (you will be presented with a business scenario you will have to propose a solution to), or rather some sort of set of algorithmic challenges in R/Python?
When in doubt, you always should ask the recruiter. It doesn't show that you don't understand what other would find obvious. It shows that you are proactive and want to prepare yourself to the best of your abilities.
