Did my virtual onsite on the first week of March. I won't post what the questions are but will explain my onsite experience.

1. Behavioral
   Typical / Common behavioral questions, mostly the questions revolve around behavioral responses in certain situations.
   Had one question asked again as it was too similar to another question, and I gave the same answer for both questions. The interviewer rephrased the question and I was able to give a different answer.
   I used different stories and experiences for each question, at most used only 1 story for two answers.
   The interviewer seemed in a really happy mood, and the whole process went great.
   Spent the last 5 minutes to ask the interviewer about work at Meta, team culture etc, and we let out several laughs.

2. Coding #1
   Finished first question under 15 minutes. There was a bit of a confusion on programming language syntaxes as I was using a coding language the interviewer was not used to. I explained the logic step-by-step to make sure my interviewer understood the syntax intricacies.
   Finished second question, totalling 40 minutes for both questions. Tripped up a bit on several looping logics, and missed 1 edge case. But I managed to solve the loops and overall approach optimally, while still missing 1 edge case. The interviewer seemed satisfied and asked me to reduce the code redundancy. I reduced the redundancy and finished the coding part.
   All in all, solved both questions optimally and managed to ask the interviewer in the last 5 mins. The whole atmosphere was very positive.

3. Coding #2
   Finished both questions optimally with 13 minutes remaining plus 5 mins to ask the interviewer. So a total of 18 minutes remaining for asking the interviewer. I asked the interviewer about his work within and between teams in Meta. Also asked the team and work culture, and anything I could think of to fill in the 18 minutes window.
   I had to reiterate second question by examples, as I didn't find the solution immediately. After spending several minutes, I was able to find the pattern and code optimally.

Overall, I had good experience and shared good laughs with all of the interviewers during Q&A (the last 5 mins). The overall interview atmosphere was positive too, which helped calm my nerves. It was one of the most pleasant interview experiences I have had.

I finished my onsite on Thursday, got my formal offer letter on Tuesday/Wednesday and will be joining MPK office this Summer.

My Takeaways

1. Don't panic when you don't have the answer immediately. Iterate through examples to get the pattern that might help you get to the optimal solution. Try to solve everything methodically.
2. Time awareness is important. Make sure to keep track if you're going too slow for a certain coding part. I would've not solved everything optimally within the allotted time in Coding #1 if I did not keep track of time. The interview is divided into 40 min coding and 5 min asking questions. Aim for 15 minutes each question to have a large enough time bank in case you're stuck and need more time to solve the problem.
3. Always speak out loud. If you're stuck, atleast the interviewer knows what you're thinking and might be able to give hints which is better than brute-forcing everything in your mind. Who knows, you might even find the solution by yourself after speaking out loud (rubber ducky method).
4. Comments cleanliness do matter. Always try to make sections for the comments, explaining the examples, constraints, approach, complexity and dry runs. Not only do they look good to the interviewer, but you'll be faster in explaining things and coding down the solution when everything's organized.

My general steps to answer a coding question

• Iterate through examples & find patterns
• Clarify the constraints
• Explain approach & expected complexity, then ask the interviewer if I can code the solution
• Code it down with comments
• Dry runs and verify the complexity