Meta - Software Engineer Screening Interview - US
Summary
I had a 45-minute screening interview at Meta for a Software Engineer role. I was asked two LeetCode questions, but I couldn't complete the second one, so I'm not expecting a positive outcome.
Full Experience
I had a 45-minute screening interview at Meta. Two questions were asked: Valid Word Abbreviation and Binary Tree Vertical Order Traversal. I wasn't able to complete the second question, and based on what I've seen from other candidates' experiences, I'm not expecting a positive response.
This was actually my second time taking this screening in one year, and through this experience, I've realized a few important things:
- Autocomplete settings in CoderPad are usually off, so it's critical to be in practice of remembering syntax. If you write code frequently, you should be fine.
- The interviewer doesn't expect you to talk while you are writing your code; this approach saves you time and allows you to focus on completing the code quickly.
- At the end of a question, they typically ask you to walk through your code with a given input example and its expected outcome.
- This is also the time to fix any bugs if you can spot them yourself.
A very important point is that you should write the first version of your code as fast as possible. This is because the interviewer will need some time to understand your approach and point out any bugs they might find. All the best!
Interview Questions (2)
Valid Word Abbreviation
Given a non-empty string s and an abbreviation abbr, return whether the string matches with the given abbreviation.
An abbreviation can represent a substring by a number, where the number signifies the count of characters to be abbreviated. For example, "word" can be abbreviated as "w1d" or "4".
Binary Tree Vertical Order Traversal
Given the root of a binary tree, return the vertical order traversal of its nodes' values. (i.e., from top to bottom, column by column).
If two nodes are in the same row and same column, the order should be from left to right.
Preparation Tips
Based on this screening experience, especially taking it for the second time, I've realized the critical importance of practicing coding without autocomplete to remember syntax quickly. Focusing solely on writing the code efficiently to get a first version done fast is also key, as interviewers need time to review. Lastly, preparing to walk through my code with examples and self-identifying bugs under pressure is essential.