Interview Experience: Meta | Software Development Engineer | E5

📌 Job Role: Software Development Engineer | E5
🔢 Number of Rounds: 6
📜 Offer Status: Offered
📍 Location: London
👤 Candidate Name: Not disclosing due to signed NDA

Interview Process

The hiring process started with a call from HR, who explained the entire interview process, what to expect, and shared useful preparation resources. The HR was friendly and recommended taking at least a month to prepare, which I found helpful.

Round 1: Introductory Call

• Complexity: Easy

• Experience:

  • HR called and gave a detailed overview of the process.

  • Explained the expectations from each round.

  • Shared useful resources for preparation.

  • I requested a month for preparation, which HR recommended as well.

Round 2: Phone Interview - DSA

• Complexity: Medium

• Experience:

  • The interview consisted of two medium-level coding problems related to arrays and hash tables.

  • The problems were standard and could be solved if you had practiced enough Leetcode problems.

• Questions:

  1. Medium question - Arrays.

  2. Medium question - Arrays + Hash Table.

• Learnings:

  • Practicing Leetcode questions extensively helps in solving similar problems efficiently.

Round 3: DSA

• Complexity: Medium

• Experience:

  • The first onsite round had two questions:

    1. Medium/Hard question - Strings: Required some tricks/techniques to solve but was manageable within the given time.

    2. Medium question - Standard number problem: The only tricky part was handling edge case scenarios; otherwise, it was straightforward.

• Learnings:

  • Pay extra attention to edge case scenarios in number-based problems.

Round 4: DSA

• Complexity: Hard

• Experience:

  • The second onsite round consisted of:

    1. Easy question - A standard Leetcode problem that involved strings and interpreting them as numbers.

    2. Hard question - A combination of backtracking and dynamic programming.

  • I initially panicked when I realized it was a dynamic programming problem, but I broke it down into sub-problems and was able to solve it successfully.

• Questions:

  1. Easy question - Strings and numbers.

  2. Hard question - Backtracking and dynamic programming with strings.

• Learnings:

  • Breaking down complex problems into smaller sub-problems can help solve dynamic programming questions more effectively.

Round 5: System Design

• Complexity: Medium

• Experience:

  • The system design question was based on implementing a specific feature from an existing Facebook page.

  • The feature was widely known and frequently used.

  • My performance in this round was average, but I ensured that my design choices were well-justified.

  • System design interviews are always subjective, and clarity in reasoning matters more than just technical knowledge.

  • I strictly used existing technologies and best practices from system design resources.

• Learnings:

  • Be prepared to justify your technology choices in a system design interview.

Round 6: Behavioural Round

• Complexity: Medium

• Experience:

  • The interviewer asked a range of behavioural questions, including:

    1. How do you handle conflicts?

    2. How have you dealt with strong criticism or feedback?

    3. What is your most treasured project?

    4. Describe a time when you made a mistake and how you communicated it to the team.

• Learnings:

  • Be ready to discuss various aspects of your professional experience and how you handle challenges in the workplace.

Final Thoughts

• The entire process was well-structured, and HR was extremely supportive throughout.

• Practicing Leetcode questions extensively, especially focusing on edge cases, helped a lot.

• System design rounds are subjective, so being able to justify design decisions is crucial.

• Behavioural interviews require preparation to articulate responses clearly with examples from past experiences.

Would highly recommend taking the full preparation time before attempting the interviews.