What is the difference between accuracy and precision?
Accuracy and precision are often used interchangeably but refer to different concepts. Accuracy refers to how close a measurement is to the true value or target. Precision, on the other hand, refers to how consistent a set of measurements are. In other words, accuracy is about being correct, while precision is about being consistent. Both accuracy and precision are important in many fields, such as science, engineering, and medicine.
The interviewer is looking for how you delineate the difference between these two terms. You can reply by either providing an example that illustrates that you understand the difference and can relate it to real-world situations or by simply describing it. To further emphasize your understanding of the terms and their relevance to the position, follow up by saying why both are relevant and important in a laboratory setting.
"Precision is the agreement between a series of measurements obtained from multiple sampling of the same homogeneous sample under the prescribed conditions, while accuracy is the proximity of an individual measurement to the 'true' value as determined by the reference method/gold standard. Of course, accuracy and precision are incredibly important in a laboratory setting."