Meta | E4 | Seattle | Dec 2021 [Offer]
Summary
I interviewed at Meta for an E4 position in Seattle in December 2021 and successfully received an offer. The interview process included a phone screen and several onsite rounds covering coding, machine learning design, and behavioral aspects.
Full Experience
I recently interviewed at Meta for an E4 Software Engineer role in Seattle. At the time, I had 2.5 years of experience, working as an SDE2 at another top tech company. My interview journey consisted of a phone screen followed by a comprehensive onsite loop, ultimately resulting in an offer.
Meta Phone Screen
- I was asked to solve a problem involving validating a Binary Search Tree, which directly corresponds to LeetCode - Validate Binary Search Tree.
- Another problem involved merging two interval lists, similar to the problem discussed on LeetCode Discuss.
Meta Onsite
Coding Interview 1
- The first problem was to add two numbers represented as strings, like LeetCode - Add Strings.
- This was followed by a problem to multiply two numbers represented as strings, similar to LeetCode - Multiply Strings.
- I also had follow-up questions for these problems, such as handling negative string inputs or preceding zeros.
Coding Interview 2
- I was tasked with converting a Binary Search Tree into a sorted Doubly Linked List, similar to LeetCode - Convert BST to Sorted Doubly Linked List.
- Another problem was similar in nature to finding a peak element in an array, referencing LeetCode - Find Peak Element.
ML Design 1
This round involved a discussion centered around my past projects. I was presented with a problem that was a modification of one of my previous projects, prompting a deep dive into trade-offs, data collection strategies, and deployment considerations.
ML Design 2
The second ML design round was an open-ended problem focused on recommendation systems. The discussion covered various aspects including data sources, relevant metrics, feature engineering techniques, potential improvements, and runtime efficiency.
Behavioral Interview
The behavioral round primarily focused on my project experiences. I was asked to describe different situations, including conflicts with managers, my motivations for wanting to work at Meta, how I handled tough deadlines, and my experiences with mentoring others.
Interview Questions (10)
Given the root of a binary tree, determine if it is a valid binary search tree (BST).
A valid BST is defined as follows:
- The left subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys less than the node's key.
- The right subtree of a node contains only nodes with keys greater than the node's key.
- Both the left and right subtrees must also be binary search trees.
Given two non-negative integers num1 and num2 represented as strings, return the sum of num1 and num2 as a string.
You must not use any built-in BigInteger library or convert the inputs to integers directly.
Follow-up questions included: What if one of the strings is negative? What if there are preceding zeros?
Given two non-negative integers num1 and num2 represented as strings, return the product of num1 and num2, also represented as a string.
You must not use any BigInteger library or convert the inputs to integers directly.
Follow-up questions included: What if one of the strings is negative? What if there are preceding zeros?
Convert a Binary Search Tree (BST) into a circular sorted Doubly-Linked List. The list should be sorted in ascending order.
The conversion should happen in-place. The right pointer of a node should point to the next node in the sorted list, and the left pointer should point to the previous node. For the circular list, the left pointer of the head should point to the tail, and the right pointer of the tail should point to the head.
Describe a situation where you had a conflict or disagreement with your manager and how you approached resolving it. What was the outcome?
What interests you about Meta as a company, and why do you want to work here specifically?
Describe a time when you faced a particularly tough deadline on a project. How did you manage the situation, and what was the result?
Describe your experience with mentoring others, either formally or informally. What challenges did you face, and what did you learn?