Interviewed for Principal-level Machine Learning Engineer (MLE) roles at both orgs. Had never done coding style interviews before (I have a unique career trajectory) and was unaware of leetcode/blind75 etc until a month ago. (yes, i know that is dumb, but got to start somewhere) Standard Cognition: Offered TC 600k (300 cash + 300 stock) Meta: TC not offered (soft expectation 500-700k) Standard Cognition: Recruiter + hiring manager + system design + Coding Meta: Recruiter + Coding Like i said at the beginning, discovered Leetcode only after recruiters said they need to schedule a coding round. Took about 3 weeks to prepare, but had a lot going on in personal life and didnt really grind at all. SC (Coding): Was handed a LC hard. Managed to solve it decently well, but couldn't recall the class of the problem (it was a BFS). It was my first coding-style interview and talking while thinking is hard :) SC (Sys Design): Screwed up, thought they were looking for kubeflow specific expertise (have been doing kubeflow for a while) - but they were generally looking for video streaming + ML type system, for which there are better options. Preconceived notions were preconceived. Another screw-up Meta (Coding): 2nd coding interview ever. (it was a week later) - this time managed to identify the problem and the algo/data structure (it was binary tree/dfs + recursion). Again a leetcode hard (Interviewer said it was a hard problem) - and definitely not in the FB tagged questions on LC. Solved it, but the lack of a IDE in coderpad (this is supposed to be a whiteboard session) left me with explaining recursion on the fly. I mean, i know it works, that's why i put it there, but I don't have to explain how call stack works in my day job :) Thought this would help folks who are in the interviewing process right now. I have a few cobwebs to shed - the bar is really high and general understanding and ability to write answers isnt going to cut it. There are a lot of candidates out there who ace this kind of stuff, so just general ability and success in existing role isnt sufficient. Current TC: 🥜🥜🥜🥜 YOE: 10+
Thoughts on Standards business? It seems like a tough model and I don't think they will make it in the checkout space with other companies ahead of the game
Was this E6 at Meta, and did you end up with an offer? What are the levels at Standard Cognition?
Yup, E6. No offer. Standard Cognition levels are very FAANG-ish. Engineer/sr/staff/principal.