Meta | E4 | Menlo Park | Feb 2022 [Offer]
Anonymous User
5975

Will not share specific questions because of NDA.

Info:
YoE: <3 years
Dates: Phone screen early Jan, Onsite week of Feb 7th.
Level: E4, considered promotion to E5 but given YoE, settled for E4.

Phone screen
Spent less than 2 mins with introductions and jumped right into the problems. I had done the 2nd question the week prior. Let the interviewer know and was asked a difficult variant.
Finished 1st question in ~13 mins.
Finished 2nd question in ~15 mins with additional optimizations proposed by the interviewer, discussed and implemented.
Ended with 3 mins to my questions.

Onsite
Behavioral 1 with an Engineer
The interviewer was very friendly. He asked 3-4 questions in total but there were follow ups to each.

Product Design/System Design
Was initially scheduled product design, but after reading the article here, I asked the recruiter to change the round to system design as I was prepared for it. The interviewer asked a very interesting design question. I was able to design the entire system and discuss the data flow (in depth) for different scenarios with error resolution, APIs, and trade offs. The interviewer was very collaborative and asked questions that were unclear. I was able to provide an answer for each.
Finished with time to spare. Asked a few questions.

Coding1
Spent about 3 mins on introduction.
Finished 1st question in 15 mins.
Finished 2nd question in 10 mins. The interviewer asked if I can find any improvements. We discussed a few options and agreed upon one. Finished the implementation and was asked a slight twist. I realized the existing code would work for the twist and explained why.
Finished with more than 5 mins left for questions.

Behvaior 2 with a Manager
Rapid fire round on typical behavioral questions. There were no follow ups to each question, but the interviewer was looking for specific actions taken in each scenario.
Finished all the questions with 6 mins to spare. Asked a few management related questions.

Coding 2
Spent about 1 min on introduction.
Finished 1st question in ~8 minutes.
The 2nd question was slightly difficult. Proposed a solution and the interviewer asked me to think about how to get the implementation right as it was tricky. Worked about 4 mins until I realized I was confusing myself. Analyzed the solution again and was able to finish implementing it in 5 mins. Worked through the test cases and interviewer said it made sense.
Had 5> mins left for questions.

Overall, I felt very good in all 5 rounds. Offer decision came 3 days later.

Tips

  1. Practice to be efficient, in coding and explaining. It is difficult to solve 2 questions in 40 mins, especially when you are talking your thought process out loud. Time and record yourself while preparing. Does your explaination make sense to you?
  2. Practice with a friend. I had done 30+ mock sessions with my friend on all interview types. It helped me to feel natural in an interview setting.
  3. Be confident. Interviews are not tests. They are supposed to simulate a regular collaborative session. Imagine the interview is your co-worker, how would you work with them?
  4. Ask any clarifying questions that you might have up front. This sends out a signal that you are thorough in your analysis.
  5. Be honest, humble, and open to learn.
  6. Yes, the technical rounds are very important, but do not neglect the behavioral rounds. Have concrete examples prepared for the common questions. You don't need a lot of scenarios, but do think about how they can be used to support your answers to different questions.

Good luck and happy preparing!

Edit: My LC stats
image

Edit:
Feel free to ask any questions! Keep in mind I will not disclose the actual questions. The LC community has helped me tremendously in my preparation and I would like to give back to the community.

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