can confirm that ACE is very selective and competitive.

had friends who had interned/worked at top companies (FAANG-level/banks/sg big tech) in data roles that didn't pass the f2f (zoom/teams) interviews with the DBS data scientists (2 didn't even pass the hackerrank coding test. note that the questions in coding test were average difficulty, but we think cut-off is high)

f2f interview questions ranged from projects in your resume to technical questions about algorithms, statistical methods, linear algebra, math, etc. interviewer asked for a deep dive explanation of certain algorithms too. prepare well for the interviews!

looking at the data scientists in DBS on LinkedIn, most have graduate-level degrees so I believe they are looking for people who can demonstrate a good ability to work with these people at a certain level.

can also confirm that SEED and ACE pay and progression are the same. just that it seems they are more selective with the people who are accepted into ACE (could be due to a smaller head count?)