I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Meta
Interview
A recruiter reached out to me, we did an initial phone screen, I passed, and was told I would do a interview online with a member of the Data Scientist team.
I was told by the recruiter that the interview would have three parts: a product/business sense section where you discuss FB products, how you would improve them, and what type of metrics you would use to gauge success; SQL coding to show basic competency in coding; and a section on statistics. I was told that the first section would be the most important, and that candidates who struggle on the SQL coding or statistics sections can continue through the process if they excel at the product section. As a result, I spent all my prep time reading about FB products and thinking about how to improve them and how to quantify success, and brushing up on statistics questions, like many of the ones you can find here on glassdoor.
The actual interview was entirely SQL coding.
I was not really mentally prepared to do live coding for someone else for 45 minutes, and feel like I was gaslighted by the recruiter in being told how I should spend my time preparing for the interview. I also had a lot of problems scheduling the interview; my first attempt to interview fell through because the recruiting team failed to notify my interviewer internally that he was supposed to interview me. (Which I find a bit funny for a social network company.) so we had to reschedule to a few weeks later.
Overall: this was a negative experience, and I hope other candidates read this so they are not caught by surprise during an interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a series of tables; write the SQL code you would need to count subpopulations through joins.
Tough interview overall—definitely not what I expected. The technical rounds were intense, particularly when they had me design an A/B test for the News Feed ranking algorithm. I had to discuss metrics and sample sizes in detail. Lucky for me, the time I spent on PracHub right before the interview helped me nail that deep-dive question as it mirrored what I practiced. The behavioral questions felt standard but were still challenging. After a whirlwind process, they extended an offer, which I happily accepted.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design an A/B test to evaluate a new ranking algorithm for the Facebook News Feed. Walk through metric selection (engagement, time-spent, MSI, well-being), unit of randomization given network effects between friends, sample size and power calculations, how you'd detect novelty effects vs. true lift, and how you'd handle a guardrail metric regressing while the primary metric is up.
Total 7 rounds: first round for resume screening, second for technical screening, then for on-site virtual with 4 interviews back to back, then hiring manager round after team matching and then salary negotiation with HR
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Meta’s evaluation rubrics focus heavily on "Product Thinking over Fancy Math". Interviewers want to see if you can operate like a product owner with an analytical mindset, navigating messy scenarios affecting billions of users
The Interview Process is very structured -
First Tech Screening round - 45 mins (usually can extend a bit depending on the interviewer)
- 2 SQL Questions ( Medium to Hard ) - based on Joins
Full Loop - 4 rounds 45 mins each.
- SQL
- Behavioral
- Analytical Execution - stats & prob, A/B testing, case study
- Analytical Reasoning - Case study
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions on Bayes Theorem, Probability distribution, etc.