Meta | L5 Onsite | Reject

Hi everyone,
I want to give back to this wonderful community by sharing my recent interview experience at Meta for an L5 software engineering position.

Interview Process

The interview process consisted of the following stages:

Recruiter Phone Screen: A brief conversation with the recruiter about my background and interest in Meta.

Screening Round

1. Kth Largest Element in an Array
2. Shortest Path in Binary Matrix - Need to return one of the shortest paths instead of just the distance.

Coding Round 1

1. Range Sum of BST
2. K Closest Points to Origin

My Experience/Suggestions:

• I was a bit nervous since it had been a long time since my last interview.
• I was able to complete both questions but could have done better in explaining my thought process to the interviewer.
• Practice mock interviews to improve communication and explanation skills.

Coding Round 2

1. Pow(x, n)
2. Word Break

My Experience/Suggestions:

• I was able to solve the first question completely.
• For the second question, I managed to code the recursive solution but ran out of time to implement the dynamic programming approach.

System Design

1. Design Instagram upload and feed service

My Experience/Suggestions:

• I am not entirely sure how I performed, but I need to improve my time management.
• Mock interviews should help in getting better at structuring and presenting system design solutions.

Behavioral

• Standard behavioral questions.

My Experience/Suggestions:

• I wasn't as prepared for this part but managed to provide examples for most of the questions.
• More preparation and practice would help in giving more structured and impactful responses.

Overall, it was a great learning experience, and I hope my insights can help others preparing for similar roles. Good luck!