Meta Technical Interview Generalist

I have three years of experience. I prepared for about two months, spending eight hours a day, solving approximately 300 questions, and conducting numerous mock interviews for system design.

I applied through the Meta careers website and was contacted by a recruiter. All interviewers were friendly and approachable.

Phone Screen:

• Given a sorted array, find the frequency of the target.
• Given an array of nodes, find how many trees the nodes form.

I answered these questions easily, and we spent the last 10 minutes in casual conversation.

Onsite: Coding 1:

• Given an expression that only includes '+' and '-' operators, calculate the expression.
• Given a number, find the next smallest number with the same digits (next permutation).

I had solved the first problem before, but the interviewer's representation took me a minute to fully solve it. I solved the second problem in about five minutes, providing a thorough explanation, as I had solved it previously.

Coding 2:

• Given a string, check if it's a valid number; the string can have '-', '+', '.'.
• Find K closest points to the origin.

This round was interesting. I solved the first problem quickly, as it mainly involved checking conditions. I had solved the second problem before and was familiar with both heap and quickselect solutions. While I explained the quickselect solution and how it works, I indicated that I felt more comfortable solving it with a heap. I coded a Heap class from scratch, believing this would impress them. I solved both problems completely within the allotted time, but they did not seem impressed.

System Design:

• Design Ticketmaster seat holding service.

I dedicated significant time to learning about system design/architecture, tradeoffs, and technologies. I had solved this problem before and had many mock design interviews. I believed I performed well, but they seemed to be looking for something more, as they kept asking me to delve deeper. Even when I explained that something was missing, I felt they were not fully satisfied. They concluded by saying, 'it's good we have a working prototype...', but I did not feel confident at the end.

Behavioral:

• Standard behavioral questions, similar to those in the recruiter's emails.

I connected well with the interviewer and felt positive at the end of the interview.

After about 12 days, I received a rejection email. I am not devastated, but my only frustration is their lack of feedback on what went wrong. After all my preparation, I am unsure of my weaknesses and areas for improvement.

Good luck to everyone.