Recently interviewed @fb. Onsites went well. Based on recruiter feedback it was positive in both the coding rounds and the behavioral round. For design, they conducted another interview, and the feedback was positive, so the packet was sent to HC. Unfortunately that's where I got Rejected, saying it was borderline (don't know what that means). I am not from the tech-domain, been working in Algo-trading for a couple of years. Do you guys think that might sway the decision? I am pretty sad with the outcome, even though recruiter was generally quite soothing telling me how the conversion rate for second trial is so much better. Guys, any thoughts pls! (no trolls)
Been through a couple of these myself and the hard truth is that recruiter weasel words like “It was close” / “borderline” don’t mean much. Introspect a little and figure out what went wrong and do better next time. Going to the HC just means that you didn’t completely bomb the interview. Your background matters little - as long as you can ace your leetcodes and sys design, you will get in. Fb is notorious for expecting you to solve two leetcode mediums or generally have a pattern of one warm up which they expect you to solve in 5-10 mins and another meaty question that they want a full implementation for. Maybe that’s what went wrong? Only you can tell.
It's hard to be introspective without someone's feedback. I would be so anxious trying to analyze my interview "failure." Probably next time I would do Gainlo or interview.io mock interviews to get true, actionable feedback
I got "hire" feedback for 2 coding and behavioral rounds. Design must have been the issue. But having said that I can't really think of any possiblity of having improved my follow up design interview (don't wanna sound pompous), infact even the interviewer seemed pleased at the end and had a "hire" feedback!
Sad true is that algo trading is not relevant to FB. Patterns and design are completely opposite. FB people just can't evaluate your skills.
Haha what? Sounds relevant to ad bidding, for one thing.
@op why do you wanna work for FB in the first place ?? Why do you wanna work for anyone else?? You have what it takes. You know it. You don't need FAANG. Work for yourself. Make your own destiny.
How many questions did you get in each round? How did you prepare?
Round 1: Q1 I had seen before, so I told him. He gave me another. So had only 1 in this round. Round 2: interviewer gave 4 qns one by one, all of them I had seen - told him. Finally gave a qn I hadn't seen, solved that.
You practiced by solving leetcode?
OP what's your YOE and what level was this for? I believe design round weighs heavily for E5 and above. Ppl from FB can correct me.
YOE is not relevant since I am from algo trading industry. Not sure what level.
What’s hc
Hiring committee
I think you should definitely try next time and would get through.
I asked my friend about interviewing at fb and showed him your message. He said that each interviewer submits a detailed report of their decision and their level of confidence. In your case he thinks there is at least one interviewer who said *NO HIRE* and at least one or two who rated you as *HIRE* but w weak confidence.
Possibly, but as far as the recruiter told me all interviews had hire feedback ; but of course I wouldn't know about the confidence levels
you did great then. Sometimes it’s a matter of luck and it didn’t quite work out for you this time. You must’ve gained some level of confidence to try it again soon.
I have a similar experience. Looking for a FB insider perspective. Been a data engineer but looking to transition into SWE. I did well in 2 separate onsite interviews (1 for BI engineer, 1 for generalist SWE), though I didn't "get enough signal" in the behavioral modules. I'm guessing FB is lucky to be super picky with their candidates, so even if you did well, you need to do exceedingly well to be picked.
Was this recently, just out of curiosity?
This was about 5 months ago.