Position: SWE (E5)
YOE : 18

First contact: I applied online and FB recruited contaced me. He set up telephonic interview.

Telephonic interview: it was 45 minutes interview over BlueJeans. There were two questions. Both FB tagged. First question was about binary search and other one is about array (target sum). I was able to sovle both of them.

I heard after a week that they want to proceed with virtual onsite. I set up virtual onsite after 4 weeks.

First Round (Coding): There was one coding problem about backtracking. I was able to solve it. Interviewer asked about optimizatoin. I discussed couple of ideas and implemented one of it. Interviewer were happy with my approach.

Second Round (Coding): There were two coding problem. First problem is combination of binary search and swapping element in array. I was able to solve it in 20 minutes. Other question about DFS (finding project dependency). I was able to solve it. Interviewer asked about solving any other way. I came up with Union find. We disucssed approach but could not implement it as we ran out of time. Interviewer was happy.

Third Round ( Behavioral): Typicall behavioral interview. Question on innovation, conflict, complext probelm I have solved it. I was able to come up with decent example. There was NO coding question in this interview.

Fourth Round (Design): I was told to design type ahead search system. This round went pretty well.

Fifth round (Coding): First problem was about binary search and second problem was about string matching. I was able to solve both of them. Interviewer hardly talk with me but it seems he was happy with my coding.

I heard from recruiter after a week that they are going ahead with an offer.

Interview preparation:

1. System design primer.
2. Leetcode (about 200 problems)
3. Youtube video about DS and Algorithm.
4. Introductoin to Algorithm (I ignore all math proof)