Facebook | E5 | Seattle | May 2020 [Reject]
Anonymous User
10982

YOE: 10+
Position: E5 at Facebook

I was not looking for a job or any new position. I was reached out by the recruiter from FB and was invited for a phone screening.

The first phone screening session:
https://leetcode.com/problems/best-time-to-buy-and-sell-stock/
https://leetcode.com/problems/find-largest-value-in-each-tree-row/

Then there was the second phone screening session:
https://leetcode.com/problems/add-strings/
https://leetcode.com/problems/combination-sum/

Then there was virtual onsite interview:

  1. https://leetcode.com/problems/convert-sorted-list-to-binary-search-tree/ (don't use extra memory)
  2. https://leetcode.com/problems/subarray-sum-equals-k/
  3. I saw this on leetcode, but can't find. Basically, you have a restaurant and a time table with the times of guests entering and leaving the restaurant. You need to count maximum number of guests in the restaurant at the same time (basically increment counter on enter and decrement on exit). [Edit: kudos to @vrungel : https://leetcode.com/problems/meeting-rooms-ii/]
  4. Variation of this one: https://leetcode.com/problems/number-of-islands/
  5. Past experience interview
  6. Behavioral interview (This is interesting part. They put a guy with a horrible accent in front of you and he keeps roasting you. Other person monitors your reaction and collects your answers). That was interesting experience.
  7. System design: Autocomplete for a search box for amazon website.

Then there was another round scheduled for the next system design interview because they have told me that they have got mixed feedback on my system design interview.
Last round was: design programming contest web site

Then there was email: Sorry, but no

Basically, I failed both system design interviews. Even though I had a feeling that both of them went well (especially for the second one, I was preparing thoroughly) but my asnwers were not what they have expected. I have a feeling that for each question, interviewer expects you to answer precisely what they have on their answer sheet for this question. I.e. system design questions are not open ended and not a place for discussion. Also for the broad questions like this, 40 minutes was not enough to cover all aspects of the system design, we run out of time near the end.

As for autocomplete question, I have asnwered in the similar manner as this: Thinking about this now, this is not the best explanation for this system design question and it does not cover many aspects.

Overall that was good experience. Coding questions were easy. As for system design - well may be next time :)

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