Meta · Probability & Brainteasers
Compute posterior for accurate-but-rare classifier
TrueInterview
October 7, 2026 · 1 min read
Within a population, 5% of users are 'bad' and 95% are 'good'. A screening model has sensitivity 0.95 for predicting 'bad' () and specificity 0.95 (). (a) When the model predicts 'bad' for a user, compute . (b) When the model predicts 'good', compute . (c) Explain how these posteriors change with the prevalence and why this illustrates the base-rate effect.
Overview: This question tests understanding of Bayes' theorem and probabilistic reasoning for interpreting classifier outputs, specifically computing posterior probabilities given sensitivity, specificity, and prevalence.
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