I applied online. The process took 4 days. I interviewed at Meta (Palo Alto, CA) in Aug 2009
Interview
I had 2 telephonic interviews and the questions are below. Recruiters are pretty cool in facebook.
1. General Resume stuff.
2. Merge Sort - Write code for it. Complexity.
3. SQL - self join: Asked me to write a query, don't remember the exact question.
4. Advantage of B Trees - Used in databases for indexing. Adv. Less number of memory lookups because of less hierarchy. Large fanout.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a set of inputs <number, userid> in a log file:
log: <number, userid>
example:
1,2
1,1
2,1
3,1
1,2
out: <number, count>
1,2
2,1
3,1
The output should be all the unique numbers and the count associated with them.
Took about a month altogether, which felt longer given the intensity of the process. Kicked off with a technical screening, followed by two rigorous coding interviews. The DSA question on binary tree vertical order traversal hit me hard at first, but then I recognized the prompt instantly — I had just worked through something similar on PracHub. The final round was focused on system design, and while I ended up receiving an offer, I ultimately declined it. Overall, a challenging experience that definitely sharpened my skills.
1 leetcode med, 1 leetcode hard. make sure you know your DSA and leetcode questions. I wasn't able to get an offer bc i didnt complete the second question. Got a reply 2 days later saying they would move on
Overall, the process took a little over two weeks, which felt a bit longer than I anticipated. After a quick screening, I went through two technical rounds focusing on coding and DSA concepts. One of the questions was a classic palindrome check; mid-way through, I realized it was something I had practiced on PracHub just days earlier. The final step was a casual behavioral interview. I was relieved to get an offer shortly after, which I happily accepted.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given a string, determine if it is a valid palindrome considering only alphanumeric characters and ignoring case.