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Meta | E5 | London | Passed

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Applied through LinkedIn since January and got response back on March.

Phone Screen

  1. https://leetcode.com/problems/3sum
  • Solved optimally with dry run
  • was asked a follow up question about how to avoid duplication. I was able to explain the solution but didn't code it up.
  1. https://leetcode.com/problems/simplify-path

  • A variation of this problem. Given a current directory path and cd command with path for entering a new directory. Return the current path after cd

  • I was struggling on this and asked a lot of clarification questions

  • I was able to solve it optimally with dry run with interviewer's hints.

Onsite
Coding Round 1

  1. https://leetcode.com/problems/merge-sorted-array
  • Solved optimally with dry run without any hints.
  1. https://leetcode.com/problems/diameter-of-binary-tree

  • Solved optimally with dry run without any hints.

Coding Round 2

  1. Given a list of integer, return a list of average window size k
  • Solved optimally with dry run without any hints.
  1. https://leetcode.com/problems/missing-element-in-sorted-array

  • I solved this question before but forgot how to solve it. Asked a lot of clarification questions and could come up with optimal solution (BinarySearch) as I saw that the given array input is always sorted.

  • However, there were some bugs in my code when I dry run. The interviewer gave a hint and I was able to grab that hint and fix it but the time was up. The interviewer said that there might be a follow up coding round because of this.

  • Honestly, I was so lucky that this question was asked as a 2nd question otherwise I would have totally bombed this round.

Product Architecture Design Round

  • Design Dropbox/Google Drive

  • I drove this interview by using the solution from https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/answer-keys/dropbox

  • Able to provide 1-2 deep dives but the interviewer asked a follow up question regarding synchronization between multiple machines.

  • I gave the interviewer tradeoff between Request-Response, SSE and WebSocket.

  • Honestly, I'm not sure how good I was in this round as it was like a discussion rather than only myself driving the interview.

Behavioral Round 1
Behavioral Round 2

  • My recruiter told me that one of them are training round for their interviewers but I don't know which one.
  • I think both rounds went great as the discussions were smooth and those interviewers didn't ask many follow-up questions.

Result

  • Got a result from recruiter 1 week later that I passed the virtual onsite interview (Hooray!).
  • I was a bit shocked as I nearly bombed the 2nd coding round. It seems like the result of the 1st coding round definitely save my life.
  • Moreover, I was also able to provide/solve all the questions optimally. I think this is one of the reason why I passed as well.
  • I'm currently in team matching process but my recruiter couldn't tell me how long it will take. After doing some research, it seems like a lot of people are stuck in this TM process and it could take up to 2-3 months to find a team.

Preparation

  • Coding

  • I used https://neetcode.io/practice to study DSA from scratch. It's beginner friendly and NeetCode is definitely my life saver.

  • solved 103 NeetCode questions.

  • I moved to https://leetcode.com/company/facebook/ when the Meta interview was begun

  • solved 132 Meta tagged questions

  • Product Architecture Design

  • https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/in-a-hurry/introduction HelloInterview is a gem for studying System/Product Architecture Design

  • I also booked 2 mock interviews with them and the experience was amazing. The interviewers are from Meta and they are able to spot my strengths and weaknesses.

  • Behavioral

  • Study Meta core values https://www.metacareers.com/culture/ and apply them in your answers.

  • Here are my questions that I prepared before the interviews. Surprisingly, it all covered in those 2 behavioral interview rounds.

  • A project that you’re proud of

  • What was the project trying to achieve?

  • How much resources have you saved by implementing this?

  • What was the learning?

  • What were the challenges?

  • What was the result?

  • When you disagreed with your senior and ended up listening to him, i.e. going with his suggestion

  • A time when you were misunderstood at work

  • A time you had a misunderstanding with your colleague

  • A time when you had to work on a project where the requirements were missing

  • Think about the career transitions you’ve made so far. Write about recent ones: what motivated them, what you felt like went well, and what could have gone better.

  • Write about how you’ve taken the initiative on teams you’ve been a part of. Where have you gone beyond what was expected?

  • Write about the managers and coworkers who’ve impacted you the most. Consider also the most difficult work relationships you’ve encountered.

  • Write about what roles you’ve played on recent teams you’ve been a part of. How did you end up playing those roles? What has worked out well and what hasn’t been the best fit?

  • My 2 cents from Behavioral interview is to focus on impact and lesson learned when you think about STAR method.

  • I also asked this question list in ChatGPT 4.0 as well and adapt its answer to my experience.

Closing Thoughts
I hope my experiences can assist others navigating this intense and challenging interview process. I must acknowledge that I wouldn't have succeeded without the LeetCode community. If there's anything I've missed, feel free to reach out with any questions—I'm happy to help.

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