Meta software engineer interview (questions, process, prep)

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Today we’re going to show you what to expect during Meta (formerly Facebook) software engineer interviews, and what you should do to prepare. 

We’ve helped candidates (like Eric H) land software engineer offers at Meta, and here’s one of the first things you’ll want to know:

Array and string questions are BY FAR the most common coding questions asked by Meta, so you’ll want to make sure that you’re ready for them.  

Now let’s dive in.

Note that if you're applying for an engineering manager role, this guide will be more relevant to you. We also have specific guides for the roles of data engineer, front-end engineer and production engineer.

Click here to practice 1-on-1 with ex-Meta SWE interviewers

1. Interview process and timeline

1.1 What interviews to expect

What's the Meta software engineering interview process and timeline? It takes four to eight weeks on average and follows these steps:

  1. Resume, cover letter, and referrals
  2. Recruiter phone screen: one interview
  3. Technical phone screen: one or two interviews
  4. Onsite: four to six interviews

Let's look at each of these steps in more detail below:

1.1.1 Resume, cover letter, and referrals

First, recruiters will look at your resume and assess if your experience matches the open position. This is the most competitive step in the process—we’ve found that ~90% of candidates don’t make it past this stage.

So take extra care to tailor your engineering resume to the specific position you're applying to.

If you’re looking for expert feedback, get input from our team of ex-FAANG recruiters, who will cover what achievements to focus on (or ignore), how to fine tune your bullet points, and more.

1.1.2 Recruiter phone screen

In most cases, you'll start your interview process with Meta by talking to an HR recruiter on the phone. They are looking to confirm that you've got a chance of getting the job at all, so be prepared to explain your background and why you’re a good fit at Meta.

You should expect typical behavioral and resume questions like, "Tell me about yourself", "Why Meta", or "Tell me about your current day-to-day as a developer."

If you get past this first HR screen, the recruiter will then help schedule your first technical screens with a Meta engineer.

One great thing about Meta is that they are very transparent about their recruiting process. Your HR contact will therefore walk you through the remaining steps in the hiring process, and will also share with you a helpful email, listing resources you can use to prepare.

1.1.3 Technical phone screen

You'll go through one or two initial 45mins technical screens which usually happen over the phone. Your interviewers will start with a few behavioral questions but most of the time will be spent on typical coding questions (e.g. data structures, algorithms, etc.)

You'll use a simple online code editor without syntax highlighting or auto-completion for these phone interviews (e.g. CoderPad) and it's a good idea to get used to using one of them beforehand.

Finally, if you live close to a Meta office and are really motivated to join the company you can ask to come onsite for the initial screens. Your recruiter will usually be happy to organize this for you as it's a better experience both for you and your interviewers.

1.1.4 Onsite interviews

Onsite interviews are the real test. You'll typically spend a full day at a Meta office and do four to six interviews in total. Each interview will last about 45 minutes and cover one of the following topics:

  1. Coding interview, where you'll solve general coding questions which will typically be harder than in the initial technical screen.
  2. System design interview, where, depending on your background, you'll be asked a system or product design question
  3. Behavioral interview, where you can expect questions about your background, accomplishments, and motivation to work at Meta.

You'll typically get three coding interviews, one design interview, and one behavioral interview. But as we'll discuss in the next section the exact breakdown will vary depending on the role, team, and level you're applying for.

In addition to these interviews, you'll also have lunch with a fellow engineer while you are onsite. The lunch interview is meant to be your time to ask questions about what it's like to work at Meta. The company won't be evaluating you during this time, but we recommend that you behave as if they were.

And as a note, sometimes the onsite step of the interview process is done virtually instead of in-person. Your recruiter can give you more information when you reach this stage. 

1.2 Differences between levels and roles

The process we have described above will vary slightly depending on what level and role you're interviewing for. Here are some of the most common differences you should expect.

1.2.1 Junior vs senior software engineers

The expectations for junior and senior engineers are different.

If you're an entry-level / junior engineer you'll be expected to do extremely well in your coding interviews. But you'll usually only have one system design interview where the performance bar will be lower than for more senior candidates, and if it's not relevant to your role you might not be given any design interviews.

If you're a senior engineer then you'll both need to do extremely well in coding and system design interviews. You could also have two design interviews in certain situations (e.g. you're applying for the infrastructure team).

1.2.2 Individual contributors vs managers

Meta has two career tracks. You can either grow into a manager where you end up leading teams of engineers (management track). Or you can stay very hands-on technically and specialize as you become more senior (individual contributor track).

If you're interviewing as an individual contributor then you should mainly expect technical interviews and will typically only have a single behavioral interview.

If you're interviewing as a manager, director, or above then you should expect at least two behavioral interviews. Be prepared to answer questions about how you develop people, work with cross functional teams, execute on projects, grow an organization, etc.

1.3 What happens behind the scenes

Your recruiter is leading the process and taking you from one stage to the next. Here's what happens behind the scenes at each of the stages described above:

  • After the Technical phone screen, the interviewers you've talked to have 24h to submit their ratings and notes to the internal system. Your recruiter then reviews the feedback, and decides to move you to the onsite interview or not depending on how well you've done.
  • After the Onsite, the four to six interviewers will make a recommendation on hiring you or not and the recruiter compiles your "packet" (interview feedback, resume, referrals, etc.) If they think you can get the job, they will present your case at the next candidate review meeting.
  • Candidate review meetings are used to assess all candidates who have recently finished their interview loops and are close to getting an offer. Your packet will be analyzed and possible concerns will be discussed. Your interviewers are invited to join your candidate review meeting, but will usually only attend if there's a strong disagreement in the grades you received (e.g. 2 no hires, 2 hires). If after discussions the team still can't agree whether you should get an offer or not, you might be asked to do a follow up interview to settle the debate. At the end of the candidate review meeting, a hire / no hire recommendation is made for consideration by the hiring committee.
  • The hiring committee includes senior leaders from across Meta This step is usually a formality and the committee follows the recommendation of the candidate review meeting. The main focus is on fine-tuning the exact level and therefore compensation you will be offered.

It's also important to note that hiring managers and people who refer you have little influence on the overall process. They can help you get an interview at the beginning but that's about it.

2. Example questions

Here at IGotAnOffer, we believe in data-driven interview preparation. 

We've analyzed 170+ software engineer interview questions reported by Meta candidates on Glassdoor, to identify the types of questions which are most frequently asked. 

And below, we've provided a curated list of real example questions and free solutions.

For coding interviews, we've broken down the questions you'll be asked into subcategories (e.g. Arrays / Strings, Graphs / Trees, etc.), so that you can prioritize the most common ones in your preparation.

For system design and behavioral questions, we've listed 10 example questions that were frequently reported on Glassdoor.

Let's get into the questions!

2.1 Coding interview

Facebook software engineer interview questions

Meta software engineers solve some of the most difficult problems the company faces with code. It's therefore essential that they have strong problem-solving skills. This is the part of the interview where you want to show that you think in a structured way and write code that's accurate, bug-free and fast.

Here are the most common question types asked in Meta coding interviews and their frequency. Please note the list below excludes system/product design and behavioral questions which we cover in the next sections.

  1. Arrays / Strings (38% of questions, most frequent)
  2. GraphsTrees (29%)
  3. Dynamic Programming (18%)
  4. Search / Sort (9%)
  5. Linked lists (4%)
  6. Stacks / Queues (2%, least frequent)

We've also listed common examples used at Meta for these different question types below. To make these questions easier to study, we've modified the phrasing to match the closest problem on Leetcode or another resource, and we've linked to a free solution.

Finally, we recommend reading this guide on how to answer coding interview questions and practicing with this list of coding interview examples in addition to those listed below.

Example coding questions asked by Meta

1. Arrays / Strings (38% of questions, most frequent)

  • "Given an array nums of n integers where n > 1,  return an array output such that output[i] is equal to the product of all the elements of nums except nums[i]." (Solution)
  • "Given a non-empty string s, you may delete at most one character. Judge whether you can make it a palindrome." (Solution)
  • "Implement next permutation, which rearranges numbers into the lexicographically next greater permutation of numbers." (Solution)
  • "Given a string S and a string T, find the minimum window in S which will contain all the characters in T in complexity O(n)." (Solution)
  • "Given an array of strings strs, group the anagrams together." (Solution)
  • "Given a string s containing just the characters '(', ')', '{', '}', '[' and ']', determine if the input string is valid." (Solution)
  • "Given an array nums of n integers, are there elements a, b, c in nums such that a + b + c = 0? Find all unique triplets in the array which gives the sum of zero." (Solution)

2. Graphs / Trees (29%)

  • "Given the root node of a binary search tree, return the sum of values of all nodes with value between L and R (inclusive)." (Solution)
  • "Given a Binary Tree, convert it to a Circular Doubly Linked List (In-Place)." (Solution)
  • "Implement an iterator over a binary search tree (BST). Your iterator will be initialized with the root node of a BST." (Solution)
  • "Given a binary tree, you need to compute the length of the diameter of the tree." (Solution)
  • "Serialize and deserialize a binary tree" (Solution)
  • "Given a binary tree, find the maximum path sum." (Solution)
  • "Given a sorted dictionary (array of words) of an alien language, find order of characters in the language." (Solution)
  • "Check whether a given graph is Bipartite or not" (Solution)

3. Dynamic Programming (18%)

  • "Given a list of non-negative numbers and a target integer k, write a function to check if the array has a continuous subarray of size at least 2 that sums up to the multiple of k, that is, sums up to n*k where n is also an integer." (Solution)
  • "Say you have an array for which the ith element is the price of a given stock on day i. If you were only permitted to complete at most one transaction (i.e., buy one and sell one share of the stock), design an algorithm to find the maximum profit." (Solution)

  • "Given an input string (s) and a pattern (p), implement regular expression matching with support for '.' and '*'." (Solution)
  • "You are given a list of non-negative integers, a1, a2, ..., an, and a target, S. Now you have 2 symbols + and -. For each integer, you should choose one from + and - as its new symbol. Find out how many ways to assign symbols to make sum of integers equal to target S." (Solution)

4. Search / Sort (9%)

  • "We have a list of points on the plane.  Find the K closest points to the origin (0, 0)." (Solution)
  • "Given two arrays, write a function to compute their intersection." (Solution)
  • "Given an array of meeting time intervals consisting of start and end times [[s1,e1],[s2,e2],...] find the minimum number of conference rooms required." (Solution)

5. Linked lists (4%)

  • "A linked list is given such that each node contains an additional random pointer which could point to any node in the list or null. Return a deep copy of the list." (Solution)
  • "Given a singly linked list L: L0?L1?…?Ln-1?Ln, reorder it to: L0?Ln?L1?Ln-1?L2?Ln-2?…" (Solution)

6. Stacks / Queues (2%)

  • "Implement the following operations of a queue using stacks." Note: see more details at the following link. (Solution)

2.2 System design interview

Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp all have 1bn+ monthly active users. Meta engineers therefore need to be able to design systems that are highly scalable and the design interview, consisting of one or two 45-minute conversations, is an important part of the interview process for most (though not all) software engineer candidates.

While you’ll find that most guides and resources usually refer only to '"system design" interviews, Meta makes a distinction and will often offer you the choice between a system design interview and a product design interview. 

What’s the difference?

  • System design interviews ask you to deal with distributed systems on a very large scale. Think availability, scalability, partition tolerance, reliability, storage, databases, core systems, etc.
  • Product design interviews may be more appropriate for candidates who are used to working on a user-facing product. Think APIs, data modeling, how the client and server interact, how a user may interact with it, etc.

Whether you face a system or product design interview, the questions will be very open-ended and feel more like a discussion. You'll therefore want to show that you can both be creative and structured at the same time.

As mentioned previously, if you're a junior developer the expectations will be lower for you than if you're mid-level or senior. In addition, for certain roles (e.g. infrastructure, security, etc.) you will likely have several design interviews.

For a closer look at the system design part of your interview, see our specific guide: Meta system design interview (questions, process, prep)

Here are the most common system and product design questions asked in the Meta interview reports on Glassdoor.

Top 10 system and product design and questions asked at Meta

  • How would you design Instagram / Instagram Stories?
  • How would you design Whatsapp?
  • How would you design Facebook Messenger?
  • How would you design Facebook's live update of comments on posts?
  • How would you design an online collaborative editor (e.g. Google Docs)?
  • How would you design a typehead feature (e.g. Google search autocomplete)?
  • How would you design Twitter's trending topics?
  • How would you design a distributed Botnet?
  • How would you design a system that can handle millions of card transactions per hour?
  • How would you design security for Facebook's corporate network from scratch (Security team interview)?

2.3 Behavioral interview

Meta engineers usually work in cross-functional teams with other engineers, product managers, designers, data analysts, etc. They need to be able to communicate clearly, work with others efficiently, build trust and relationships, etc.

Therefore, the behavioral part of the interview (Meta calls it the 'getting to know you interview') is where you really want to show that you are good at working with others.

As we mentioned previously, if you're applying for a manager position or above, then you'll have multiple behavioral interviews and also cover topics such as leading teams, developing talent, managing the day-to-day, etc.

Below we've listed ten frequent behavioral questions that Meta tends to ask, according to data from Glassdoor. For more information, check out our articles on the Meta behavioral interview and the "Why Meta?" question.

Top 10 behavioral questions asked at Mea

  • Tell me about yourself
  • Why Facebook?
  • Tell me about a recent / favorite project and some of the difficulties you had
  • Tell me about the greatest accomplishment of your career
  • Tell me about a time you struggled to work with one of your colleagues
  • Tell me about a time you had to resolve a conflict in a team
  • Tell me about a time you were given feedback that was constructive
  • Tell me about a time you had to step up and take responsibility for others
  • Tell me about a time you struggled on one of your software projects
  • Tell me about your worst boss and why they were bad

3. How to prepare

Now that you know what questions to expect, let's focus on how to prepare. It's no secret that the performance bar at Meta is high. Some people even go as far as quitting their job to prepare for interviews full-time.

This is obviously extreme and not what we recommend doing, but it shows how much effort some candidates are ready to put in. We've listed the four steps we recommend taking to prepare as efficiently as possible below.

3.1 Learn about Meta's culture

Most candidates fail to do this. But before investing tens of hours preparing for an interview at Meta you should take some time to make sure it's actually the right company for you.

Meta is prestigious and it's therefore tempting to ignore that step completely. But in our experience, the prestige in itself won't make you happy day-to-day. It's the type of work and the people you work with that will.

If you know engineers who work at Meta or used to work there it's a good idea to talk to them to understand what the culture is like. In addition, we would recommend reading about Meta's 6 core values and Facebook's hacker culture.

3.2 Practice by yourself

As mentioned above, you'll have three types of interviews at Meta: coding, system design, and behavioral. The first step of your preparation should be to brush up on these different types of questions and to practice answering them by yourself.

As a starting point, be sure to read Meta's guide to the onsite interview for software engineers. It's packed full of good advice and has some links to useful resources for each of the three interview types.

For coding interviews, we recommend using our coding interview prep article as your one-stop-shop to guide you through your preparation process.

For system and product design interviews, we recommend studying our system design interview prep guide and learning how to answer system design interview questions. These guides cover a step-by-step method for answering system design questions (equally relevant for product design), and they provide several example questions with solutions. 

For behavioral interviews, we recommend learning our step-by-step method to answer this type of question and then practicing the most common software engineer behavioral interview questions.

Finally, a great way to practice coding, system design, and behavioral questions, is to interview yourself out loud.

This may sound strange, but it will significantly improve the way you communicate your answers during an interview. Play the role of both the candidate and the interviewer, asking questions and answering them, just like two people would in an interview.

3.3 Practice with someone else

Practicing by yourself will only take you so far. One of the main challenges of coding interviews is that you have to communicate what you are doing as you are doing it. As a result, we strongly recommend practicing live coding interviews with a peer interviewing you. 

If possible, a great place to start is to practice with friends. This can be especially helpful if your friend has experience with software engineer interviews, or is at least familiar with the process.

3.4 Practice with ex-interviewers

Finally, you should also try to practice software engineer mock interviews with expert ex-interviewers, as they’ll be able to give you much more accurate feedback than friends and peers.

If you know a software engineer who has experience running interviews at Meta or another big tech company, then that's fantastic. But for most of us, it's tough to find the right connections to make this happen. And it might also be difficult to practice multiple hours with that person unless you know them really well.

Here's the good news. We've already made the connections for you. We’ve created a coaching service where you can practice 1-on-1 with ex-interviewers from leading tech companies like Meta. Learn more and start scheduling sessions today

 

Applying for other companies? Check out our other guides for GoogleAmazon, MicrosoftLinkedIn, and Airbnb software engineer interviews.