I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Meta (Toronto, ON) in Jun 2021
Interview
Practice your Algorithms, while talking through them:)
Was approached by a Facebook internal Recruiter on Linkedin
first, the TL;DR:
Good experience overall. TOUGH challenges. I made silly mistakes & didn’t emphasize the right things; this is why below I’m sharing these learnings in detail :)
Anyway everybody I worked with was super nice and I certainly may apply again*. (Got a lot of technical candid feedback & was invited to apply again within ~6-8 months rather than 12… probably because I was super friendly but persistent in showing interest in the company itself)
DETAILS:
Got to Screening Interview.
2 easy/medium algorithm questions. 1st was harder (involved a more complex data structure); 2nd was easier (just arrays / stacks / queues type stuff). Overall went somewhat OK, BUT, I was very nervous and made silly mistakes. Interview was VERY short too: 45 mins scheduled; error with Zoom causing a late start, but interviewer did NOT let us go over(!) So, was actually ~37 mins and I rushed and fumbled things. Also for me, MAIN CHALLENGE was, it was hard to think clearly AND TALK through my solution WHILE being watched. I was verbalizing the concepts / solutions decently well, but I felt a pressure to ‘keep talking’/‘avoid awkward silences’ which threw me off. I would have much preferred if I could have simply worked in silence & submitted solutions when done (but that’s not how this stuff works).
TIP: While it’s true you should always ask questions as you go, e.g. “does this assumption make sense?” etc., (as they advise)… NEVERTHELESS keep in mind: the interviewer probably CANNOT tell you how important certain things are, that is, whether what you’re doing “IS GOOD ENOUGH” . YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT - e.g.. whether something should be done the more efficient way rather than the naive/safer/less efficient way (it probably should!)
*DISCLAIMER:
Above I said “Everybody I worked with was super nice and I certainly may apply again.” (SO: While I should disclose my "positive biases" here — the fact that I may apply again, incentivizes me to say nice things! — Still, Swear to God, I'm being completely candid about the fact that everyone was really friendly to me. I think it’s fair to say Facebook has a reputation for treating engineers well - even those who apply then work elsewhere.)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
2 easy/medium algorithm questions. 1st was harder (involved a more complex data structure); 2nd was easier (just arrays / stacks / queues type stuff).
Interviewer also used some of the (already-very-short) interview period to give me the opportunity to ask questions, thus total time I had to solve problems was only about 30 mins.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Meta (New York, NY) in Feb 2020
Interview
Algorithm question does not really reflect one's abilities and if you get that wrong, nothing else matters to them. Not sure why they bother with this, it's really not needed for every position.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Algorithmic question with no relation to the job offered
HR Interview Call
Technical Call
OnSite (virtual)
4 Interviews (Video Conference)
2 Coding Problems
1 iOS Knowledge
1 Design
Facebook was the most helpful company in prepping you for the interview. They really want you to do your best.