Meta | E5 | London | July |Reject

I am sharing my recent interview experience at Meta for an L5 Software Engineering position. This was my second FAANG interview.

Screening:

1. Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree
2. Pow(x, n) Feedback: Strong Hire

Coding Round 1:

1. Minimum Remove to Make Valid Parentheses
2. Validate Binary Search Tree Feedback: Strong Hire

Coding Round 2:

1. Nested List Weight Sum
2. K Closest Points to Origin Feedback: Strong Hire

Behavioral Round:

1. Tell me about your most proud project.
2. Tell me about a time you had to pivot in your current work.
3. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult coworker.
4. Tell me about areas of improvement for yourself. Feedback: Hire

Design Round: Ad click aggregator with 24-hour granularity only. Feedback: Lean Hire

Verdict: Rejected in HC. They were not ready for a redo of the design round.

My Observations: I prepared well for all rounds and had already seen/prepared these questions. However, the outcome was not in my favor. Time management is super important in design rounds. With introductions and questions from the interviewer, you are left with only 25-30 minutes. Even if you have seen the question before, a random question can throw you off. Taking an iterative approach will not suffice; you must come up with the best possible solution quickly. I did not take any mock interviews for this, and I cannot say how effective it would have been. For behavioral questions, preparation is key. I prepared extensive stories and answered accordingly. I don't follow the STAR format but answer questions more like storytelling. For coding questions, I was lucky enough to get straightforward questions.

Competition is tough for FAANG, and one mistake can cost you months of preparation. Interviewing is an exhausting process. My whole Meta process took two months. Luck matters in interviews, especially FAANG interviews. There is a one-year cooldown period. I need to re-evaluate my goals and priorities and see if it makes sense to retry for Meta.