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Status: Junior, BS CS Top 30 CS school
Position: Software Engineer Intern at Facebook
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Date: October 2021
Phone Screen (Round 1):
Quick 5 minute intro, then 2 Leetcode questions
- Leftmost column with at least a one: https://leetcode.com/problems/leftmost-column-with-at-least-a-one/
- Product Array Except Self: https://leetcode.com/problems/product-of-array-except-self/
Both problems were fairly easy. I got on and tackled them very fast. Finished both with lots of extra time and I ended up implementing O(1) solution for #2 after some hints from interviewer. For #1, I was able to shorten the binary search or make it end early (but not changing time complexity). Overall, great experience. Interviewer was super friendly, patient and approachable.
Received email from recruiter to move on to round 2 in 1 day.
Virtual Onsite (Round 2):
Same format as round 1.
- Simple Binary Tree Traversal (not on Leetcode)
- K Closest Points to Origin: https://leetcode.com/problems/k-closest-points-to-origin/
Overall this experience was not great. The interviewer was passive aggressive from start. Never bothered to introduce himself. He kept interrupting me when I am describing my algorithm and asked very very unusual questions such as why does C++ syntax look like XXX, why are you even using C+, why are you not doing new and malloc in C++ (like wtf what?), why does C++ standard libary does this, how is priority queue implemented behind the scenes in C++ STL(I used C++).
Q1 I used DFS, completed in less than 10 lines. Q2 I had a few hiccups and he kept changing the problem as I coded and blamed it on me as not being "careful" with assumptions even though I confirmed the problem with him before I coded. I finished both problems with optimal solution in time anyway, but the interview experience was very negative. I felt like the person hated me or something from the start.
Two days after VO, my recruiter reached out telling me that there were mixed signals and they decided to add a follow up round.
Follow up round:
Same format as previous 2.
1.Some kind of tree traversal problem that is similar to a medium difficulty one on leetcode (like sum of some nodes to leaf), but I thought it was on the easier end.
- Simple string problem using 2 pointers, not on Leetcode (but I would rate it as easy)
Finished both problems fairly fast. Second problem is super easy algorithmically, but had a lot of disgusting edge cases. I listed them out when I coded and walked through like 6 or so cases until interviewer was satisfied.
1 day after the follow up round, recruiter sent me a neutral tone email asking me to connect with her over phone. Over the phone call, I was given the offer. She also revealed to me that round 2 was the one where I had negative feedbacks but due to strong round 1 performance, I was given a chance for an additional follow up round where I performed well.