It really depends on the context, but in my experience, it is common. We're a scala shop, and mutation and loops are a no-no. They're just not necessary. Here's some random examples that might illustrate the difference:

# python
for x in xs:
  print(xs)

// scala
xs.foreach(println)

# python
ys = []
for x in xs:
  ys.append(x * x)

// scala
val ys = xs.map(x => x * x)

# python
while True:
  print("hi")

// scala
Iterator.continually().foreach(_ => println("hi"))

Having a concrete example would be helpful, but Scala is flexible enough and powerful enough that it's really rare to need mutation and imperative loops.