Had my Virtual Onsite for the New Grad role at Menlo Park for Meta in January 2022. Got an offer after the interview w/ positive feedback according to the recruiter. Check out the Phone Screen post I made here as well. Since this was a new grad role, there were no System Design questions. I will honor the NDA and will not be revealing the technical questions asked during the interviews, but rather my experience.
The Onsite was split over 3 days. First day was a technical interview. Second day was behavioral. Third day was the final technical interview.
Day 1: Technical Interview
Started out with introductions and the interviewer then went straight to coding.
They didn't seem too concerned and was actually very hesitant on giving hints even when I told them I was stuck.
Anyways, when they gave the question, I was a little stumped but I explained my thought process thoroughly.
I made sure to clarify any information that I wasn't sure about as well as any possible edge cases that might occur.
When coding up the solution, I got stuck pretty often and would explain my thought process but I think the interviewer wasn't too happy about it since I kept asking them "does this make sense?" or "are you following so far?" and told me to stop and just code it out lol.
After a while I did manage to code out the solution and run through some test cases, including edge cases and interesting test cases.
Solved it optimally in the end. No follow-ups.
Next question they asked was a little weird. It's a popular question on LC and I've seen the question before, except this was a slight variation.
I was really anxious so I accidentally missed out some details (which he didn't clarify until I finished coding).
Long story short, I gave the output in the format of the LC question and not what they expected. Then he asked why I returned it in that form and I accidentally blurted out that I've seen the question before lol. Thought for sure that ended me.
Anyways, again solved the question optimally but I got the feeling the interviewer wasn't too impressed. Not a good sign.
When it came to ask questions, I stupidly asked if they had any feedback to me which they replied 'be confident' lol. Also asked about interaction between PMs and Engineers again.
Day 2: Behavioral Interview
Started out with the usual introductions. I was asked a couple of basic questions revolving conflict resolution, my proudest project, having to deal w/ a difficult teammate. The actual questions asked were I think:
- Tell me about a challenging interaction with a team member.
- Tell me about your best/most interesting project and why.
- What kind of person would you rather not work with? (dangerous question)
- Tell me about a time where you received constructive feedback.
Overall, it wen't alright. I had some stories prepared for each of the questions. Obviously, some details were exaggerated but all were true. The one question I knew I had to made sure to answer properly was the 'kind of person you don't want to work with.' Anyways, I based my answer mostly on my sense of empathy; always emphatizing with the other party/teammate before making rash decisions.
Interviewer seemed somewhat satisfied. Didn't really 'vibe' with them but they were alright. I asked them my favorite question to ask interviewers which was: "What is one interesting/surprising thing you've found when you just started working?" I think they liked the question and answered it pretty honestly.
Day 3: Technical Inteview
Started out with introductions. Interviewer was really nice actually, they asked me if I was ready/prepped before actually starting.
The first question they asked was a variation of a question I saw in my phone interview so I told them that I've seen the question but if they wanted I can solve it again and explain my thoughts.
They told me to just solve it again and explain the thought process. So I solved it optimally immediately and ran through a couple of test cases as well as some interesting test cases. Then they gave a follow up question which altered the code slightly and gave an interesting case I couldn't solve immediately but eventually got the approach right (didn't have to code it) after they gave some hints.
Second question they gave was exactly the same as one of the questions I've seen before in the tagged list. Explained my solution optimally and ran through some test cases (which took quite a bit of time) as well as clarify any possible edge scenarios. I failed to consider an 'edge' case since I didn't consider that case an 'edge' case but they mentioned I should've clarified it at the start. Otherwise, it went pretty well.
Question time, I asked them about their team specifically, an interesting project they've worked on. I also asked about an interesting/surprising thing they found out after starting. Overall this interview went really well imo. I felt I was really hitting it off with them too when I asked them the questions relating to their team and their experience.
Outcome:
Got an offer. Signed the offer and will be starting soon!
Final Words:
Don't give up! I didn't have an internship and was struggling at a dead-end job for months. I struggled through my DS&A class but with enough practice on LC, you can definitely secure an SWE position at big tech companies and startups too!
EDIT bcs I'm laid off and it's been well over a year
Questions asked:
- (1288) Remove Covered Interval
- (2) Add Two Numbers -- They wanted the integer output instead of the LinkedList
- (314) Binary Tree Vertical Order Traversal
- (162) Find Peak Element -- They wanted the minimum instead of the max. Same approach as the Phone Interview
Obviously the question pool is going to be different because they do rotate it but this was what I was asked in my interview