I applied through college or university. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Meta in Aug 2015
Interview
Several engineers came to recruit to my university. I didn't feel the process was aimed at finding out about my thought process. I felt the interview was more about whether I got the answer and how quickly I figured it out. I did figure it out. The interviewer was at several times messaging on his/her mobile phone while I was explaining my reasoning. I felt he/she was rude at time, too. Some friends that interviewed with other recruiters got easier questions and passed to the second interviews. I searched for the question later online and my solution was correct and optimal. Bad taste on the whole experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given two words (start and end), and a dictionary, find the length of shortest transformation sequence from start to end, such that only one letter can be changed at a time and each intermediate word must exist in the dictionary.
For example, given:start =
"hit"
end = "cog"
dict = ["hot","dot","dog","lot","log"]
From: http://www.programcreek.com/2012/12/leetcode-word-ladder/
Recruiter call was pretty standard, first round was 2 Meta tagged LC mediums in 45 minutes. On-site was 2 coding sessions of 2 LC mediums, a system design interview and a behavioral interview with an engineering manager.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How do you answer if someone asks how long a deliverable or project will take?
The entire process usually takes 3–8 weeks, depending on scheduling and the specific role. Coding interviews heavily emphasize common DSA topics such as arrays, strings, trees, graphs, BFS/DFS, heaps, hash maps, and dynamic programming. System design becomes increasingly important for E4+ positions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given an array of integers and a target value, return the indices of two numbers that add up to the target
Unexpectedly, the first question in the technical round felt familiar. It was about finding a subset of strings with unique character concatenation — same problem I had worked through on PracHub a few days earlier. The interview included a recruiter screen followed by a rigorous pair of technical interviews where I tackled data structures and algorithms alongside system design concepts. After successfully answering a few more challenging DSA questions, I received an offer. The entire experience was intense but ultimately rewarding, and I happily accepted the position.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given an array of strings, pick a subset whose concatenation contains no duplicate characters, and return the maximum possible length of that concatenation.
