I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Meta (Menlo Park, CA) in Jul 2012
Interview
After I solved a puzzle through InterviewStreet.com, a recruiter contacted me by e-mail and we set up an introductory phone call (15 min). She seemed really nice, she asked me to evaluate my knowledge on several technologies and sublects like C++, Perl, Algorithms/Data Structures, .NET Framework etc. She immediately told me that she was going to schedule a technical interview with an engineer.
The engineer called me several days later and asked me to solve together an algorithmic problem via a workspace sharing website. We could both write code simultaneously and see each other's work. The question wasn't hard and although I had a pretty good idea how to solve the task, I wasn't very smooth and made several mistakes. Maybe because it was my first technical interview ever.
Bottom line, I liked their attitude and they did a good job. It was my fault that I didn't go to a second interview and I've learnt my lessons. It was a very good experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Write a function that finds the square root of a decimal number.
Took about a month from start to finish, which felt longer than I expected. After a couple of initial phone screenings, I faced a challenging technical round focused on system design. It was during this round that I was asked to describe overcoming a major career challenge. Interestingly, I had just reviewed a similar framework on PracHub, which helped me articulate my thoughts clearly. Overall, I appreciated the depth of the process and ended up accepting the offer.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Describe Overcoming a Major Challenge in Your Career
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.
