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Meta E5(Infra)- Reject
Summary
I interviewed for an E5 Infrastructure Engineer role at Meta and regrettably received a rejection. The interview process spanned a screening round and a full onsite loop, assessing my skills in coding, system design, and behavioral aspects.
Full Experience
My interview journey at Meta for the E5 Infrastructure Engineer position began with a screening round. In this round, I encountered two coding problems. The first was a variant of 'Merge Sorted Arrays,' where the input sizes 'm' and 'n' were not explicitly provided, which I believe caused me to lose some points. The second coding question was a 'Random pointer' problem, which I handled as a standard instance.
Following the screening, I proceeded to the onsite loop. The System Design round focused on designing a system similar to Dropbox. I felt I could have elaborated more effectively on the file synchronization mechanism post-upload. Additionally, there was a discussion around 'Top K Heavy Hitters.'
My first Coding Interview session included two problems. One was a variant of 'Random Pick with Weight,' which I felt confident about, aligning with similar problems I'd practiced from @codingwithminmer's playlist. The second problem asked me to find the 'Highest Sum in a Subtree,' which could also contain negative values. I later realized I might have missed a detail regarding whether it was specifically a Binary Search Tree (BST).
The second Coding Interview also featured two questions. The first was another variant from the 'Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock' series, again something I had practiced. The second question, 'Counting nodes equal to average,' presented a true/false variant, which was a bit ambiguous.
Finally, the Behavioral round covered standard top K behavioral questions commonly found in other posts. Despite my efforts, I ultimately received a rejection for the role.
Interview Questions (6)
Merge two sorted arrays. The problem included small enhancements where the sizes 'm' and 'n' of the arrays were not explicitly provided, requiring me to infer them or handle edge cases related to their absence.
Design a system like Dropbox. The interviewer particularly emphasized the file synchronization mechanism once files are uploaded, which I felt I could have explained more thoroughly.
Design a system or algorithm to find the Top K Heavy Hitters.
Implement pickIndex method to randomly pick an index based on given weights. The problem was a variant of the standard 'Random Pick with Weight' problem.
Find the subtree with the highest sum, where nodes can have negative values. I noted that the problem might have specified a Binary Search Tree (BST), a detail I might have overlooked during the interview.
A variant of the 'Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock' problem series, requiring an optimal strategy to maximize profit.
Preparation Tips
My preparation primarily involved practicing the top 150 LeetCode problems. I found @codingwithminmer's playlist particularly helpful for tackling various coding challenges and their common variants.