Meta | on-site | E4/E5 | USA

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e4/e5usaOngoing
December 18, 20230 reads

Summary

I recently completed an onsite interview at Meta for an E4/E5 role in the USA, which involved two coding rounds, one behavioral round, and one system design round. I felt confident about my performance in most rounds, particularly the coding challenges, and am currently awaiting the final feedback.

Full Experience

My interview experience at Meta was structured into four distinct rounds.

The first round was a coding challenge where I faced a variation of the Simplify Path problem, along with an exact problem from Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree III. I was able to explain the most optimal solutions, run them with examples, and implement them within minutes. I also thoroughly discussed edge cases, complexity, and walked through additional test cases. This round went great, and I felt quite strong about my performance.

The second round was another coding session. Here, I encountered the Merge k Sorted Lists problem and a variation combining concepts from Insert Interval and Merge Intervals. Similar to the first round, I quickly presented optimal solutions, implemented them, and engaged in discussions about edge cases and complexities. While I wished for a harder problem to truly stand out, I did my best given the questions.

The third round was behavioral. It involved typical questions, and I felt I handled them pretty well. I made sure not to rely on generic YouTube advice and focused on genuine answers based on my experiences.

Finally, the fourth round was a system design challenge. I was asked to design an 'Ad count aggregation system'. I chose a product architecture approach and provided solutions for both live data and accurate data scenarios, integrating CMS and persistent data storage. I'm honestly not entirely sure about this round's outcome, but I presented my best effort.

I'm currently waiting for feedback from the recruiter. I feel I couldn't have done any interview better than this. Regardless of the outcome, I'm glad I gave it my all.

Interview Questions (6)

Q1
Simplify Path (Variation)
Data Structures & AlgorithmsMedium

A variation of the 'Simplify Path' problem. This problem typically requires processing a Unix-style absolute path (e.g., '/home/', '/../', '/home//foo/') and converting it into its simplified canonical path. Given a string representing an absolute path, I had to simplify it.

Q2
Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree III
Data Structures & AlgorithmsMedium

I was asked to solve the 'Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree III' problem exactly as it appears on LeetCode. This problem involves finding the lowest common ancestor (LCA) of two given nodes in a binary tree, where each node has a reference to its parent.

Q3
Merge k Sorted Lists
Data Structures & AlgorithmsHard

The problem presented was 'Merge k Sorted Lists' exactly as found on LeetCode. The task was to merge k individually sorted linked lists into a single sorted linked list.

Q4
Insert and Merge Intervals (Variation)
Data Structures & AlgorithmsMedium

This was a variation combining concepts from 'Insert Interval' and 'Merge Intervals'. The problem likely involved inserting a new interval into an existing list of non-overlapping intervals, and then merging any resulting overlapping intervals to produce a final list of mutually exclusive intervals.

Q5
Ad Count Aggregation System
System Design

Design an 'Ad count aggregation system'. This involved building a system to count and aggregate ad impressions or clicks, potentially dealing with live data, accurate data cases, and using content management systems (CMS) and persistent data storage.

Q6
Behavioral Interview
Behavioral

Typical behavioral questions designed to assess soft skills, past experiences, and cultural fit. The post explicitly states questions like 'Why Meta?' are unlikely, implying questions focusing on past project experiences, challenges, and teamwork.

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