I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Meta (Menlo Park, CA)
Interview
The onsite consisted of 5 coding problems, 2 architecture/design discussions, and 1 behavioral interview. I got 3 of the 5 coding questions right (with optimal runtime & space complexity), but that was not enough. Based on this, I'd say that prior work experience isn't really a factor. I built apps from scratch that have scaled to millions of active users, something that none of my interviewers have done on their own. But, that doesn't help you get an offer if you don't get all of the algorithms correctly.
They're looking to hire a specific profile--CS major, spent 40+ hours to prepare. This interview should be relatively easy for people like that, but very difficult for pretty much everybody else. I even asked one of the interviewers when was the last time he had to solve a problem similar to this, and he said never (haha).
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I signed an NDA so I won't disclose the questions, but every algorithm I was asked to do should be on Leetcode.
Generic LeetCode-style questions, many tagged as Meta, so extensive preparation is required to perform well in the technical interview. The experience varies significantly - some interviewers provide hints and guidance, while others expect candidates to solve problems independently with minimal assistance.
Spoke with interviewer over video conferencing. He was very communicative . He answered my questions. Asked me BFS question. A question that involved BFS search. Given a matrix, I am suppose to find a path from top left to down right.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A question that involved BFS search. Given a matrix, I am suppose to find a path from top left to down right.
The technical round hit me with a classic array manipulation problem: moving zeroes to the end without disrupting the order of non-zero elements. As I tackled it, I felt a wave of familiarity wash over me; I had just practiced a similar challenge on PracHub. The rest of the interview followed a straightforward path, with some easy behavioral questions sprinkled in. Overall, it felt very easy, but I wasn’t quite the right fit for what they needed, so I didn’t receive an offer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Move zeroes in an array to the end while keeping non-zero element order, in place