Meta (Facebook) Interview Guide

🎯 Meta’s Interview Process

Typical Meta SWE Interview:
├── Phone Screen (1-2): Coding
├── On-site (4-5 rounds):
│   ├── Coding Round 1: Algorithms
│   ├── Coding Round 2: Algorithms
│   ├── System Design (E4+): Distributed systems
│   ├── Behavioral: Culture fit
│   └── (Sometimes) Resume deep-dive
└── Hiring committee makes decision

📊 What Meta Evaluates

Meta's Core Values:
├── Move Fast
│   ├── Bias toward action
│   ├── Ship quickly, iterate
│   └── Don't wait for perfect
│
├── Boldness
│   ├── Take on big challenges
│   ├── Not afraid to fail
│   └── Think long-term
│
├── Openness
│   ├── Transparent communication
│   ├── Share information freely
│   └── Accept feedback
│
├── Building Social Value
│   ├── Connect the world
│   ├── Impact billions of people
│   └── Think about societal impact
│
└── Continuous Improvement
    ├── Never settle
    ├── Always learn
    └── Iterate on everything

💻 Coding at Meta

What Makes Meta Different

• Speed matters: Meta values fast coders
• Clean code: Readability is important
• Testing expected: Walk through test cases
• Optimization: Discuss complexity after brute force

Common Meta Coding Topics

1. Graphs — Very common (social network connections)
2. Trees — Especially binary trees
3. Arrays & Strings — Foundation
4. Dynamic Programming — Medium to Hard
5. Hash Maps — Used extensively

Example Meta Questions

1. Valid Palindrome II (Easy)
2. Lowest Common Ancestor (Medium)
3. Minimum Remove to Make Valid Parentheses (Medium)
4. Buildings With an Ocean View (Medium)
5. Random Pick with Weight (Medium)
6. Merge Intervals (Medium)

🏗️ System Design at Meta

Meta-Specific Design Topics

• Design Facebook News Feed
• Design Instagram
• Design WhatsApp/Messenger
• Design Facebook Live
• Design a social graph

Meta’s Design Focus

• Scale: Billions of users, massive data
• Real-time: Low latency for social interactions
• Engagement: Optimize for user engagement
• Privacy: User data protection

💡 Tips for Meta

1. Code fast — Meta values speed
2. Be bold — Take on challenging approaches
3. Show impact — Quantify everything
4. Think social — Problems often involve social graphs
5. Move fast — Don’t overthink, start coding
6. Be open — Share your thought process

🔗 Cross-References

• News Feed Design — Classic Meta question
• Chat System — WhatsApp/Messenger design
• Coding Patterns — Graph patterns common at Meta