As a job seeker in the North American tech industry, I went through a nearly 6-month journey from initial HR outreach to finally receiving the official Meta offer. The process included supplementary interviews and a long Hiring Committee (HC) review — definitely not a sprint, but absolutely worth it.
In this post, I’m sharing a complete Meta interview guide, including:
- Full interview timeline
- Real coding and system design questions
- Solution approaches and key logic
- Behavioral interview tips
Hope this helps anyone targeting Meta or other big tech companies.
1. Full Meta Interview Timeline (Long but Rewarding)
The entire process spanned almost 6 months and included two supplementary interviews. Patience is truly key.
- 06.05 – HR reached out for background discussion and role fit
- 08.21 – Technical interview with Hiring Manager (experience deep dive + behavioral)
- 10.15 – Full Loop Round 1 (2 coding interviews)
- 10.17 – Full Loop Round 2 (2 system design + 1 behavioral)
- 11.03 – HR notified coding supplementary interview required
- 11.17 – Coding supplementary interview (core algorithms)
- 11.25 – Materials submitted to Hiring Committee (HC)
- 12.09 – Official offer email received
- 12.10 – TC expectation & negotiation call
- 12.12 – Final TC confirmation call
2. Real Interview Questions & Solution Approaches
(1) Round 1 Coding Interviews – Logic Over Syntax
Meta’s coding interviews emphasize clear logical thinking over perfect syntax. You’re expected to explain your reasoning while writing code.
Merge Intervals
Question: Merge all overlapping intervals from a given list.
Core Approach:
- Sort intervals by start time
- Iterate and merge overlapping intervals
Example: [[1,3],[2,6],[8,10],[15,18]] → [[1,6],[8,10],[15,18]]
Course Schedule (Cycle Detection)
Question: Can all courses be completed given prerequisites?
Core Approach:
- Topological sort using in-degree counting
- Continuously remove nodes with in-degree 0
(2) Coding + Behavioral Interview
Behavioral Questions (Meta Favorites)
- Resolving team disagreements that blocked progress
- Learning and applying a complex new technology quickly
- Setting and achieving a high-impact goal
Tip: Use the STAR method and focus on your decisions and impact.
Buildings With an Ocean View
Question: Return indices of buildings that can see the ocean (right side).
Approach:
- Traverse from right to left
- Track max height seen so far
Time Complexity: O(n)
(3) System Design Interview – Decision Making Matters
Meta’s system design interviews focus heavily on trade-offs and business alignment, not memorized templates.
Real Question
Design an Amazon-scale product catalog system supporting billions of products.
Key Focus Areas
- Massive scale & concurrency
- Consistency vs availability trade-offs
- Business impact of design decisions
- Fault tolerance and disaster recovery
3. Meta Interview Tips & Common Pitfalls
- Understand Meta products and tie answers to real use cases
- Always explain your coding thought process
- System design answers must explain why, not just what
- Behavioral answers should be authentic and specific
- Expect a long process — supplementary rounds are common
4. Interview Resources & Support
Preparing for big tech interviews is tough. I’ve curated the following resources:
- Meta high-frequency coding & system design questions
- Real Google interview questions (coding, system design, BQ)
- North American big tech interview timeline templates
If you’re preparing for Meta or other North American tech roles and want access to these resources or tailored support (coding plans, system design mocks, BQ refinement), feel free to reach out.
Follow ProgramHelp — we specialize in North American tech interview preparation and help candidates avoid pitfalls and land offers more efficiently.
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