Interview Questions › Root Cause Analysis

Escalations for "late delivery" up 15%. Is it ops or logistics?

Customer support escalations for orders delivered late spiked 15% across several metro areas. Determine whether the bottleneck is Merchant Kitchen Prep (Ops) or Dasher Fleet Dispatch (Logistics).

Context

Average delivery time increased from 32 minutes to 43 minutes in dense dining corridors.

Clarifying questions to ask first

Did restaurants report food ready accurately, or are Dashers waiting at the counter?
Is the delay happening during restaurant prep or during rider transit?

How to approach it

Deconstruct the Order Fulfillment Lifecycle Timeline: Order Placed -> Restaurant Accepts -> Kitchen Prep Time (Food Ready) -> Dasher Assigned -> Dasher Arrives at Merchant -> Dasher Wait Time -> Transit Time to Customer
Compare Kitchen Prep Duration vs Dasher In-Transit Transit Duration across top restaurant categories
Identify whether Dasher supply shortages caused delayed pick-ups or restaurants under-reported actual prep times
Propose dynamic dispatch and kitchen tablet software calibrations

Framework: Lifecycle Milestone Timestamp Decomposition -> Merchant Prep vs Fleet Transit Isolation -> Merchant Tablet Behavior -> Predictive Dispatch Tuning

Sample answer

Restaurants marking food ready prematurely to avoid SLA penalties while Dashers wait 12+ mins
Dasher supply shortage during bad weather causing delayed assignment
Traffic routing engine underestimating peak-hour congestion

Decomposition shows Dasher transit time was normal (14 mins), but Dasher Dwell Time at restaurants surged from 4 mins to 15 mins because restaurants accepted more orders than kitchen capacity

Merchant kitchen prep bottleneck identified (Ops issue); implemented dynamic kitchen throttling and calibrated predictive Dasher dispatch arrival based on actual cooking velocity.

What interviewers look for

Merchant Kitchen Prep Time (Mins)
Dasher Dwell / Wait Time at Merchant
In-Transit Travel Time
On-Time Delivery %