Meta Three-Round Interview Experience: Finally Landing the IC5 Position!

Background：
I have 9 years of work experience, mainly in full-stack development at some lesser-known companies. I have been working at my current position (a startup) for 2.5 years and have never interviewed at other companies during that time. I have also never participated in Leetcode-style interviews in the past. The entire process, from the initial phone call to the final hiring decision, took 8 weeks.

Preparation:
In the first two weeks, I completed all the preparatory materials on Meta's career website. I watched the corresponding videos on the HackerRank YouTube channel, which were produced by Gayle and were of high quality. Two weeks later, I took a mock interview. Finally, I spent two weeks practicing the questions most frequently asked on Meta.

The Interview Process:
Round 1:Coding
Problem:
Design a program that receives two CSV files. Requirements are as follows:

1. The first file contains the names of dinosaurs, their leg lengths, and their dietary habits.
2. The second file contains the names of dinosaurs, their stride lengths, and their postures.
3. Provide a formula for calculating the speed of dinosaurs.
4. Sort the dinosaurs according to their speed and output the sorted results for all bipedal dinosaurs. Solution: This question is more focused on data processing. My approach is to design an appropriate data structure (such as a dictionary or class) to store and process the data. Pay attention to edge cases, such as missing data or inconsistent data formats. It is advisable to prepare some common data processing questions in advance and become familiar with how to handle CSV files. If time permits, you may briefly mention how to handle edge cases.

Round 2:Behavioral
Questions:

1. Describe a time you faced a conflict in a project and how you resolved it.
2. Give an example of when you had to deliver under tight deadlines with limited resources.
3. Tell me about one biggest challenge. Why is it challenging and how did you overcome it?
4. Tell me a time when you lead a team. BQ questions are often unpredictable, and different interviewers ask questions in different styles. It is essential to prepare in advance, prepare many stories, and familiarize yourself with them. Meta behavioral interviews mainly assess five aspects: conflict resolution, continuous development, embracing ambiguity, results orientation, and effective communication.

Round 3:System Design
Problem: Design FB Post Search
The core requirement is that the system must be fast, with median queries returning in less than 500ms. It must support a large number of requests. Newly posted content must be searchable within a short timeframe (less than 1 minute). All posts must be discoverable, including past posts or less popular posts. The system must have high availability.
High-level design should include functionality for users to create and like posts. Set up an API gateway for authentication and rate limiting, along with a horizontally scalable search service to handle requests and query indexes. Enable users to search for posts using keywords.

Interview Summary & Suggestions
Ensure your code is clean, avoid unnecessary if statements and variables, and use clear function/variable names. Proper indentation enhances readability. Stick to manually running test cases. This is a great opportunity to identify and fix bugs before the interviewer intervenes. It is crucial to verbalize your thought process, as this allows the interviewer to understand your reasoning. Sometimes your mind may be focused on one thing, but you end up writing something else—at least this way, they know what you were trying to achieve. You can directly read aloud what you are typing. This is acceptable and helps convey your thought process. It also helps alleviate tension; remaining silent only makes the situation worse.

Interviews are indeed challenging, but interviewers genuinely want you to showcase your best self and have provided ample time and materials for preparation. If I can do it, so can you! Any questions or confusion can be addressed here.