Based on 43,067 live interview sessions captured through Final Round AI's Interview Copilot between 2023 and 2025, we analyzed how candidate performance shifted at Amazon, Google, Meta, and Apple. The direction was not always what you would expect.
Meta had the steepest difficulty increase in 2025
Meta's average candidate score dropped from 56.5 in 2024 to 50.8 in 2025, a 5.7-point decline, the largest year-over-year shift of any FAANG company in the dataset. The interviewing bar tightened further in 2025, particularly around technical depth and system design. Meta is the only company that declined in both periods measured.
Apple was the only FAANG company where scores improved
Apple moved in the opposite direction. Candidate scores climbed from 50.0 in 2023 to 56.0 in 2024, then to 58.7 in 2025, the highest average of any FAANG company in the most recent year. Apple saw 713 scored sessions in 2025 versus 3,745 in 2024, so the 2025 cohort likely skewed toward more experienced candidates.
Amazon and Google both got harder after a strong 2024
Amazon had its best year in 2024 at 58.5, the highest score for any FAANG company in any year in this dataset. That dropped to 55.2 in 2025. Google followed a similar pattern: 58.8 in 2023, 56.9 in 2024, 55.8 in 2025.
Security Engineers score lowest across FAANG
By role: Security Engineer (51.0 avg) and iOS Developer (50.9 avg) score lowest. Data Scientist (62.4) and Business Analyst (62.3) score highest. Software Engineer, the most common role with 5,145 sessions, averages 55.4.
The 11-point gap between Security Engineer and Data Scientist reflects differences in interview structure. Data Scientist interviews follow known problem types (statistics, ML, SQL, case studies). Security Engineer interviews at FAANG are open-ended, threat modeling scenarios with no single right answer.
What this means if you are targeting these companies
Meta: Over-prepare. Focus on depth over breadth. One well-structured answer showing systems thinking and clear ownership scores higher than three shallow stories.
Amazon: Build specific, detailed Leadership Principle stories. The data shows you need outcome ownership, not just process participation.
Apple: The improving trend is encouraging but Apple loops routinely run five or more rounds in a single day. Practice sustaining performance across multiple hours.
Security Engineer: Technical competence alone does not translate into interview performance. Practice articulating how you think about risk through structured storytelling.
Full analysis with branded charts: finalroundai.com/blog/faang-interview-difficulty-trends-2023-2025
Data from 43,067 aggregated, anonymized live interview sessions. No individual user data included.
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