**Meta Full Loop E5 Bangalore - Interview Experience (Reject)**
Summary
I interviewed for an E5 Senior Software Engineer position at Meta in Bangalore. The full loop consisted of five rounds covering coding, system design, and behavioral questions. Unfortunately, I was rejected due to my performance in the Product Architecture and Behavioral rounds.
Full Experience
I had a comprehensive interview experience for an E5 Senior Software Engineer position at Meta in Bangalore. My current role is Senior Software Engineer at a Tier 2 Retail Firm.
Round 1: Coding
This round involved two coding problems:
- Next Greater Number: A standard problem to find the next greater element.
- Equilibrium Index in O(1) Space: I was asked to find an equilibrium index in an array, ensuring an O(1) space complexity solution.
Round 2: Coding
This round also had multiple parts:
- Moving Average in Every Window of Size k: I first tackled the moving average problem for fixed-size windows.
- Print Summaries for Every Window in an Unlimited Stream: This was an extension of the previous problem, adapted for an iterator-based unlimited stream.
- Clone Graph: A classic graph problem. We had a lot of discussion around corner cases, cycles, and handling other related concerns.
Round 3: Product Architecture
This was a system design round where I was asked to design an Audio Channel System, specifically for versions 2.1 to 5.1. The requirements included identifying all subsystems, ensuring compatibility with multiple operating systems, and supporting platforms like WhatsApp (audio/video), Facebook Live, and Instagram Reels, with considerations for live streaming and similar use cases. I particularly struggled with designing client interfaces like codecs, handling multiple operating systems, and designing hardware interfaces in this round.
Round 4: Pirate Round (Behavioral)
The interviewer focused heavily on my past projects and achievements. Unfortunately, it seemed like my responses didn't fully convince him.
Round 5: Coding
The final coding round presented two more problems:
- Merge Two Arrays with O(1) Space and Linear Time: I was given an example: input arrays
[1, 2, 5, 0, 0, 0]and[3, 4, 6]should result in[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. - Power Function (a^b) in O(log b) Time with O(1) Space: Implement a power function with specific time and space constraints.
Final Verdict: Rejected
Unfortunately, I didn’t perform well enough in the Product Architecture and Behavioural rounds, leading to a rejection. I now have a one-year cooling period.
Interview Questions (9)
Find the next greater element for each element in an array.
Find an equilibrium index in an array such that the sum of elements at lower indices is equal to the sum of elements at higher indices, doing so in O(1) space complexity.
Calculate the moving average for every window of a given size k.
Given an iterator-based unlimited stream, print summaries for every window.
Clone an undirected graph. The discussion involved various corner cases, cycles, and related concerns.
Design an audio channel system supporting versions 2.1 to 5.1. This involved identifying all subsystems, ensuring compatibility with multiple operating systems, and supporting platforms like WhatsApp (audio/video), Facebook Live, and Instagram Reels, considering live streaming use cases. I specifically struggled with designing client interfaces (codecs), handling multiple operating systems, and designing hardware interfaces.
The interviewer asked a lot of questions about my past projects and achievements, and it seemed like my responses were not fully convincing.
Merge two sorted arrays (one with sufficient buffer at the end) into a single sorted array in O(1) extra space and linear time. Example: [1, 2, 5, 0, 0, 0] and [3, 4, 6] should output [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
Implement the pow(a, b) function to calculate a raised to the power of b, achieving O(log b) time complexity and O(1) space complexity.