Facebook

Role: Senior Software Engineer

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: November 2025 (Video published Nov 2, 2025, experience likely recent)

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Hired (implied, aiming for $500K+ compensation)

Difficulty: Hard

Rounds: 5 rounds (Recruiter Screen, Technical Screen, 2 Coding Rounds, 1 System Design/Product Architecture, 1 Behavioral Round)

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms (LeetCode hard), System Design, Product Architecture, Behavioral (STAR method)

Experience:

This experience is for a Senior Software Engineer role at Meta.

Recruiter Screen: A 15-minute chat confirming biographical information and emphasizing Meta's focus on "moving fast." The recruiter asked about experience with production systems, listening for keywords.

Technical Screen: Two standard LeetCode-style coding challenges. The candidate received two LeetCode hard questions, noting Meta tends to give harder questions than other big tech companies. Important to brush up on DSA fundamentals and practice a lot. Candidates can use Java, Python, C++, C, and TypeScript. No autocomplete, syntax highlighting, or code execution in their notepad; practice manual dry runs and talking through test cases.

On-site (Virtual): Consisted of four 45-minute rounds: two coding, one system design or product architecture, and one behavioral. For coding, candidates cannot execute code and must manually trace through it. Meta is also rolling out interviews allowing AI assistants.

• Coding Rounds (2): Each round has two problems. Meta values "iteration speed over perfection," preferring three working solutions that can be improved over one perfect, still-debugging solution.
• System Design/Product Architecture: Candidates can choose between System Design (scalability focus) or Product Design (APIs and database schema focus). Key is to ask clarifying questions about users, workloads (read/write heavy), scale (DAU, QPS, data volume), geographic regions, latency targets, data storage, access patterns, and "ilities" (security, extensibility, availability, scalability).
• Behavioral Round: Meta looks for self-awareness and a growth mindset. The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Results) is crucial.

The candidate suggests recruiters are allies, not gatekeepers. Cultural fit (Meta's "move fast and break things") is important. The market has shifted, and companies want engineers who can demonstrate immediate impact.