Applied through LinkedIn since January and got response back on March.

Phone Screen

1. https://leetcode.com/problems/3sum
   • Solved optimally with dry run
   • was asked a follow up question about how to avoid duplication. I was able to explain the solution but didn't code it up.
2. https://leetcode.com/problems/simplify-path
   • A variation of this problem. Given a current directory path and cd command with path for entering a new directory. Return the current path after cd
   • I was struggling on this and asked a lot of clarification questions
   • I was able to solve it optimally with dry run with interviewer's hints.

Onsite
Coding Round 1

1. https://leetcode.com/problems/merge-sorted-array
   • Solved optimally with dry run without any hints.
2. https://leetcode.com/problems/diameter-of-binary-tree
   • Solved optimally with dry run without any hints.

Coding Round 2

1. Given a list of integer, return a list of average window size k
   • Solved optimally with dry run without any hints.
2. https://leetcode.com/problems/missing-element-in-sorted-array
   • I solved this question before but forgot how to solve it. Asked a lot of clarification questions and could come up with optimal solution (BinarySearch) as I saw that the given array input is always sorted.
   • However, there were some bugs in my code when I dry run. The interviewer gave a hint and I was able to grab that hint and fix it but the time was up. The interviewer said that there might be a follow up coding round because of this.
   • Honestly, I was so lucky that this question was asked as a 2nd question otherwise I would have totally bombed this round.

Product Architecture Design Round

• Design Dropbox/Google Drive
  • I drove this interview by using the solution from https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/answer-keys/dropbox
  • Able to provide 1-2 deep dives but the interviewer asked a follow up question regarding synchronization between multiple machines.
    • I gave the interviewer tradeoff between Request-Response, SSE and WebSocket.
  • Honestly, I'm not sure how good I was in this round as it was like a discussion rather than only myself driving the interview.

Behavioral Round 1
Behavioral Round 2

• My recruiter told me that one of them are training round for their interviewers but I don't know which one.
• I think both rounds went great as the discussions were smooth and those interviewers didn't ask many follow-up questions.

Result

• Got a result from recruiter 1 week later that I passed the virtual onsite interview (Hooray!).
• I was a bit shocked as I nearly bombed the 2nd coding round. It seems like the result of the 1st coding round definitely save my life.
• Moreover, I was also able to provide/solve all the questions optimally. I think this is one of the reason why I passed as well.
• I'm currently in team matching process but my recruiter couldn't tell me how long it will take. After doing some research, it seems like a lot of people are stuck in this TM process and it could take up to 2-3 months to find a team.

Preparation

• Coding
  • I used https://neetcode.io/practice to study DSA from scratch. It's beginner friendly and NeetCode is definitely my life saver.
    • solved 103 NeetCode questions.
  • I moved to https://leetcode.com/company/facebook/ when the Meta interview was begun
    • solved 132 Meta tagged questions
• Product Architecture Design
  • https://www.hellointerview.com/learn/system-design/in-a-hurry/introduction HelloInterview is a gem for studying System/Product Architecture Design
  • I also booked 2 mock interviews with them and the experience was amazing. The interviewers are from Meta and they are able to spot my strengths and weaknesses.
• Behavioral
  • Study Meta core values https://www.metacareers.com/culture/ and apply them in your answers.
  • Here are my questions that I prepared before the interviews. Surprisingly, it all covered in those 2 behavioral interview rounds.
    • A project that you’re proud of
      • What was the project trying to achieve?
      • How much resources have you saved by implementing this?
      • What was the learning?
      • What were the challenges?
      • What was the result?
    • When you disagreed with your senior and ended up listening to him, i.e. going with his suggestion
    • A time when you were misunderstood at work
    • A time you had a misunderstanding with your colleague
    • A time when you had to work on a project where the requirements were missing
    • Think about the career transitions you’ve made so far. Write about recent ones: what motivated them, what you felt like went well, and what could have gone better.
    • Write about how you’ve taken the initiative on teams you’ve been a part of. Where have you gone beyond what was expected?
    • Write about the managers and coworkers who’ve impacted you the most. Consider also the most difficult work relationships you’ve encountered.
    • Write about what roles you’ve played on recent teams you’ve been a part of. How did you end up playing those roles? What has worked out well and what hasn’t been the best fit?
  • My 2 cents from Behavioral interview is to focus on impact and lesson learned when you think about STAR method.
  • I also asked this question list in ChatGPT 4.0 as well and adapt its answer to my experience.

Closing Thoughts
I hope my experiences can assist others navigating this intense and challenging interview process. I must acknowledge that I wouldn't have succeeded without the LeetCode community. If there's anything I've missed, feel free to reach out with any questions—I'm happy to help.