I applied online. I interviewed at Meta (New York, NY) in Mar 2020
Interview
A recruiter contacted me over email and set up a phone interview for the following week for a 15-minute call. I guess next round would have been with a hiring manager
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
PLEASE DON'T TAKE THE PHONE SCREENING LIGHTLY! I did and got rejected. I was expecting SQL questions and in general talk about my resume but she asked me a question on product sense and I was completely unprepared for it. Creation of Facebook user groups has gone down by 20%, what will you do? sounds simple but I messed it up so badly. I was just blabbering anything in an unstructured way, I sounded so stupid and not even fit for a small company forget Facebook. The recruiter was nice and she did not say anything but I were to hear my own answer, I would reject myself on spot. I regret it so much wish I could have prepared for it. I hope someone sees this and it helps them.
The SQL questions were easy and I did answer them correctly- what kind of joins to get only common rows, what the natural sorting order etc.
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.