Meta is one of the top organizations in the world today with a variety of products and platforms. I won’t be surprised if you are one of the millions of aspirants longing to be a part of the organization. We want to know what is the eligibility criteria to get a job in Facebook. We want to know what kind of questions we need to answer to be a part of the teams building Instagram. The overall process can take between 1-6 months. In this article we will cover comprehensively how to prepare yourself and what you can expect during the recruitment process at Meta.
Do you love rich informative articles? Want to stay updated with similar latest news and updates from Rahul? Submit your email below. Discover quality contents with a diverse set of perspectives. Learn from Rahul’s writings how to analyze a news or an event. Rahul specializes in featured writing which is much harder than journalism. Read news that do not get reported and semantic impacts that cause ripple effects.
What do you get as a Premium Subscriber above? The finest featured contents which you will not find anywhere else. This is news analysis and premium contents beyond investigative study. Enriched with Rahul’s industry experience over multiple countries over the years for different clients and technological landscapes, you get to experience from a seasoned professional how to thrive in today’s world.
Meta Practice Tests for Essential Concepts
• The Practice menu above has over 3000+ questions curated by me for every category. It includes previous years topic-based contents, along with my unique addition of questions. I have decades of experience in the IT industry. You get 30 curated new questions in every attempt. Enhanced with continuous additions by me, you are guaranteed with the latest quality questions in each topic that are rich in quality. It is the best-in-class topic-wise collection of questions guaranteed to improve your preparation.
• The exams will provide you real-time explanations during the exam. You get the opportunity to improve yourself and learn from your mistakes along the way. Now you can focus on specific subjects and review the concepts for free with ease. Let me know if you have queries regarding any specific topic and I will try to assist you.
The above practice tests are essential to evaluate yourself as we will learn further in this article. So make sure to score well in the practice tests above before the actual exam. Whether you get a good score or an average score in the above exam, you can be sure you will achieve similar results in the actual exam.
Steps of the Meta Hiring Process
The Meta or the Facebook hiring process as we often call it, consists of major 4 steps.
Step 1: Meta Resume Screening
The initial stage of the Meta hiring process is the resume screening. In this step, the interviewer will analyze your resume and decide if you are a good fit for the role. Your background and education is taken into consideration, along with the required skills that the role you are applying for demands. I have deep experience in the software engineering industry for different domains. If you want to get your CV reviewed by me and learn how to improve your resume, upload your CV below.
There is a definite standard of quality expected for resumes submitted to Meta. We will learn about it here, but it goes beyond that with the overall impressibility factor that maybe missing even after following all the theoretical rules. So I always suggest getting the resume reviewed by professionals with experience in this field. Here are some great tips, implement them, and then get your resume reviewed above.
Step 2: Meta Phone Screening
As we know in the software engineering industry, we will have a preliminary screening with the recruiter, and then a more detailed interview. The preliminary interview round will be discussions on your background, your aspirations, your achievements, and overall personality, that will help the interviewer determine if you are a good fit for the role. There can be one or two rounds of phone screening. Meta will notify you via email and will request you to provide your availability if that is the case. If all phone screenings looks good, we move to the next round of the Meta interview.
Step 3: Meta On-Site Interviews
The next round is a technical round. Here is where the Meta Practice Tests for Essential Concepts I shared above will help you succeed. Be prepared to answer questions on projects and topics that you have mentioned in your resume. You will also be asked coding questions from any of the common programming languages you are comfortable in. Questions will also be from data structures, data analytics, data interpretation, and algorithms. Assess these skills in the Meta practice tests above. The coding rounds are often termed Ninja, design rounds as Pirate, and behavioral round as Jedi.
The next round is a behavioral round. Note that the behavioral round of the Meta on-site interview can also take place before the technical on-site round. There is no fixed rule in place for this. Also, the rounds are often virtual on-site, so you can participate remotely. The behavioral questions help the Meta interviewer understand your personality traits, your team skills, how well you thrive under pressure, how you handle multiple tasks, how you handled past challenges, and how you react in different situations. Take the Meta practice test above to be ready for this round as well. The problems are often asked to solve using some collaborative editor like coderpad.io.
Step 4: Review and Meta Offer Letter
When you have passed all the on-site interviews successfully, you will be on the team assignment period for a while. This is common practice for other companies like Google as well where you will be assessed for multiple teams if you can fit in to before finalizing. You will get to meet various different team members and team leads during this period who would want to know you better. If everything gets settled, you will receive a formal offer letter via email which you can then accept and proceed with the next steps.
Meta and Facebook Values in Details
Meta has six core values. Meta defines these values as the driving force that guides their work, how they spend their time, and how they work together.
Meta Practice Test for Meta Core Values
- Moving Fast - Moving fast enables you to learn faster, make mistakes faster, and improve faster. I believe this is a key to how growth what Meta looks forward to, both at an individual level, and at an organization level. Meta encourages individuals to move fast and be able to prioritize things that are of higher priority, and aim at removing barriers helping the company move forward.
- Focusing on Long-Term Impact - Meta aims at focusing on long-term impact that emphasizes long-term thinking and encourages everyone to work harder on making the time frame even longer. Meta wants to focus more on long-term wins than near-term successes. The Meta Core Value on long-term impact also specifies that they would even opt for something long-term, the results of which may not be seen for years in the immediate future.
- Building Awesome Things - Meta values focusing on things not just good, but that are awesome. Meta wants to build something that is not just loved and used by all, but something that will also inspire people. The path to inspiring people is tricky, and of course challenging. I believe inspiration is a qualitative factor that would need analysis beyond the immediate UI and UX of a product.
- Living in the Future - Meta cherishes the opportunity of distributed work where we are not limited by our physical and geographical presence. This is the belief that also helps drive Meta as an organization, where it looks forward to be one of the early adopters of a distributed-first company. Meta aims to be come an organization where people feel like a team and connected regardless of their actual location.
- Being Direct and Respecting your Colleagues - Meta believes in a culture where professionals are straightforward, and open enough to challenge each other and have hard discussions. Meta emphasizes that it is critical to be respectful when providing feedbacks. The world’s leading experts in various fields work in Meta, so it is expected to have deep and quality debates on various topics.
- Meta, Metamates, Me - Meta is about being taking care of each other and the company. The phrase Meta, Metamates, Me comes from the naval phrase Ship, Shipmates, Self. By this phrase Meta shares the sense of responsibility and care that we have towards the organization, towards each other, and towards one’s own self. Meta thus values inclusivity and collective success of the company as a whole. Make sure to learn what the Metaverse is here.
Meta and Facebook Interview Tips
Succeeding in a Meta and Facebook Interview requires preparation. I can show you how exactly how to approach such an interview.
Be a Storyteller
Reminisce your work experiences. Pick up 4-5 major accomplishments you have done, and then practice elaborating and explaining them to yourself or someone. These achievements and stories should highlight the required skills that Meta and Facebook will be looking for in you as an applicant. The stories should focus on your different skills, like problem-solving, challenge-handling, leadership, managerial, coding, and similar such skills as applicable to the position you are applying for. Being ready with the stories will thus help you be flexible enough to answer any questions.
Focus on Meta Values
We already learned the Meta Core Values. Enrich your interview answers more with the values you stand for, and make sure these align with the values in Meta and Facebook as well. The qualities of respect, empathy, learning ability, team work, and humility are of paramount importance. Leadership skills and managerial ability are also key skills that the Meta interviewer will focus on. There are a number of different teams in Meta that are constantly in need of strong visionary leaders. Being adaptable to learning new and different things is also one of the key important qualities.
Follow the STAR Method
Situation. Task. Action. Result. This is abbreviated as STAR. Situation refers to any project, task, or challenge that you faced. Task refers to your actions and responsibilities in that scenario. Action refers to the steps you have taken to resolve the situation. Result refers to the final outcome of the situation. Explain all answers that you give in this approach. This will give the Meta interviewer a clear visibility of what you handled, how you handled, and the outcome that you managed to achieve. Try to provide measurable figures and metrics as and when possible to quantify any details in your STAR method. The below video explains more on the STAR method.
Meta Interview Questions
The questions that are asked during Meta and Facebook interview often focus on Computer Science fundamentals, Data Structures, and Algorithms. You will be provided sufficient time to complete the coding questions. Here I will share some of the important topics:
- Binary Tree - The questions will need you to be familiar with what a Binary Tree is and how the different nodes in a Binary Tree are arranged. Based on that you can answer the different questions like values returned when traveling from top to bottom.
- Binary Tree traversal - Questions on Binary Tree traversal are common for the Meta interview. You should have good clarity on Depth First Search and Breadth First Search. You can choose a method of BST traversal like the Iterative Inorder Traversal pr Recursive Inorder Traversal.
- Array of numbers - Questions on handling arrays of numbers are important for Meta interview. You may be asked to return the most frequent elements that occur in this array. The algorithm’s required time complexity may also be given.
- 32 bit Integers - Questions on 32 bit integers that you need to reverse can be asked in the Meta interview. You may be tasked to reverse the number similar to reversing a string. The required time complexity and space complexity will be provided to you.
- Binary Search Tree - Questions on Binary Search Tree can be of different types like returning the 2nd smallest value among all the nodes. Or returning structurally unique Binary Search Trees having a specific number of nodes and unique values.
- Linked List - Questions on Linked List are popular in the Meta interview. The length may be mentioned as n or may be given a specific value. Now you be asked to create a copy using one of the methods - Shallow Copy, Deep Copy, Combination, Lazy Copy, etc.
- Array of Intervals - Questions on array of intervals can also be asked in the Meta interview. The start and end values may be provided, and you may be asked to merge all overlapping intervals. In the worst case, all intervals will be mutually overlapping.
- Solution Design - The Meta design interview questions are an integral part of the process. It helps the interviewer know how you handle a problem while being cautious about the constraints, resources, challenges, and the end goal. Using your skills to mitigate risks and handling tradeoffs are critical qualities evaluated here.
- System Design - Meta considers System Design as one of the most critical roles of a software engineer. Questions can be how you can plan to improve the Facebook newsfeed, Instagram feed, Comment feeds in the posts, User interface designing, suggesting the development idea of a new System, and so on.
- Questions can also be asking you to suggest something if you want to change about Meta. What you are doing to set yourself apart from others. How you handle workload in your current projects. How do you handle work pressure. How you have managed or led a team. Describe a time when you helped a colleague. Share a failure you experienced. What challenges do you see ahead of Meta in coming years.
How to Prepare for Meta Interview
Preparing for the Meta Interview is a long process that begins several months before the actual interview. I suggest you choose one programming language that you are good at and start getting ready to deliver solutions using it.
- Practice writing correct solutions in the programming language of your choice. Make sure you are able to deliver quality algorithms and solutions within a specific time frame. Take special care to handle exceptions and boundary values before declaring your code complete.
- We often overlook bugs when we attempt to complete writing a piece of code quickly. So it is essential to review your code and make sure it is free of any bugs before presenting it your Meta interviewer. This will help the interviewer get more confidence in your work.
- Think out loud often. I would advise you not to keep trying to complete your task for prolonged periods in silence. Ask questions to your Meta interviewer if you are facing any challenges. This will also help the Meta interviewer understand your though processes in a better way.
- Try to optimize your solutions. Value your years of experience and spend those extra few seconds asking yourself, is this the best solution that I can provide for this questions. Even if you cannot complete the most optimal solution in the given time, let your Meta interviewer know your thoughts on it.
- Always make it a habit to start with clarifying questions. This will give you time to think and understand the problem more. When you ask the right questions it also helps you help arrive at your solution faster. For system design related questions, try to think what you would like to happen as a consumer of the product.
- Meta design interviews can be categorized broadly into Systems Design and Product Design. For both of these rounds, many of the questions may be common. However, System Design focuses more on scalability, reliability, business continuity, and concurrency. Whereas Product Design focuses on API, data modeling, client server architecture, and the overall product stack.
- Meta behavioral interviews are focused more on the Meta Core Values which we learned above. In a highly fast-paced environment, the essential qualities the Meta interviewer will look for are how you can adapt in an unstructured environment, how you can resolve conflicts and challenges, and how fast you can learn and grow.
- The Meta interviewer wants to learn more about you. So with the STAR concept known to you above, get ready to answer questions about your past experiences. What was the most difficult challenge you faced? How do you approach resolving conflict with a co-worker? How do you react to critical feedback? Describe a memorable achievement. Do you prefer working alone or in a team? How would you approach marketing a digital product? How would you focus on building relationships and trust in a team? What would you think of as a challenge you are likely to face in this new role?
- Beat the imposter syndrome. I know it happens, but be confident and do not doubt yourself. Make use of your support system, whether it is your family, or your friends, or your colleagues. You have come a long way in your career and there is no reason why you cannot go even further. Focusing on developing your skills will definitely take you a long way ahead.
- Ask questions to the Meta interviewer as well! Be curious about what a normal day working in Meta would be like. If there is any specific performance criteria for the Meta role that you are applying for. What are the opportunities for growth in this role in Meta. With a clear idea about the role you might also be able to continue a quality conversation with the Meta interviewer. Asking questions will also create a lasting impression on your Meta interviewer and help have a constructive discussion.
