Now I've cooled down of call from the recruiter and able to create a post about my experience with FB. To be open I don't expect I would fail the on-site, but looks like I did something not extremely perfect. On-Site. Every session about 45 minutes with 15min break. 1. HR. Greeting with HR. Nothing special - just relax and enjoy your interview. 2. 45min: Coding. The session was easy. At least for me - 2 coding questions. Both done in the most efficient way. For the second question forget about one edge case, but was able to figure this out during verification. The third problem was mostly a discussion about HashTable and Trie - and no actual coding. From my personal expectation, I did extremely well with that part --- 15min: break 3. 45: Career & Coding: This part was mostly behavioral, no coding at all. English is not my native and coding ever easy for me than behavioral. I don't think I've crushed this session, but I was open and tried my best. --- 45 min - Long break 45 min - Architecture & Design: We use Google Drawing instead of the whiteboard and lost time because of the interviewer's bad connection (I not sure why California internet is so bad...). As I mention using any kind of tool to present system design is a waste of time. Buy a whiteboard and good web-cam instead. As for me, I did it, but I can do better. Again due to time limit, connection and broken English probably --- 15min: break 45 min - - Coding: Did it. Nothing complicated - simple DFS variation problem. Done in the most optimal way. The second question was actually weird with ambiguity and we have about 5 min to complete. Not done, but discussed a possible approach. 45 min - - Architecture & Design: At this time I've use whiteboard and just share my screen. The system design question was quite tricky not like design TinyUrl or Instagram, but I've enjoyed this session. Not sure how I did it, but I think I can do better than that. --- 15min: break Today recruiters call me without any notification or email and etc. And you just have no time to prepare for such a call and told me "after careful review they decided not to move with me" and I did pretty good on system design which was not expected, but not good on coding which is not expected. But I think this is just a reason to say no. In general process are smooth and positive. Totally I've spent last 3-4 months just to prepare for the interview, have gold star problem-solving on HackerRank, completed all online interviews on Pramp, at this moment about 240 leetcode problems solved and I'm going to continue. The recruiter said I can reapply in a year, but I don't think I want to do this at least now. If the line of candidates starts from here and finished somewhere behind the horizon it is doesn't matter how many candidates you will reject. There is definitely the same good candidate in this long line or maybe even better. #facebook #interview #rejection #fang
I believe it is break unless you were driving during your interviews. No offense. Thanks for sharing the experience and I hope you land yourself a better job/company.
Yes. Fix it. At least it wasn't like a long time ago when I sent "shit" instead of "shift" to CTO and made a lot of fun :)) Still in good relation with CTO from that company.
Maybe they failed you because you don't know the difference between break and brake? Better luck next time.
Maybe. Who know? As I mentioned nail your language is not so easy.
Here are the facts: there are too many applicants and companies would rather hire someone they feel highly confident about than take chances. You might be that person, which brings me to my second point: luck! Interviews are at least 1/2 luck. If something didn’t click with the interviewers about you, then tough luck. Good news is that you can crack FAANG interviews. I recommend you move on and try Google, Netflix, etc. Good luck. Don’t feel heartbroken.
Yes. I have an offer from Oracle and going to onsite with Google in October. And I agree it is 1/2 luck. Just wondering - maybe I shouldn't solve coding so fast :)) Maybe I needed to suffer.
You definitely didn’t fail because of your English. Sounds like you didn’t finish the second problem in the second coding interview. Without a stellar performance in the other interviews, that’s enough to fail. No worries, interviewing is a numbers game
Maybe. Problem nobody give you feedback, but you ever don't know what part you need to improve. The second problem was really weird, maybe I would have some solution in 15-20 minutes, but not in 5 min.
Yeah, you probably had to move faster with the first one.
Did you do both system design or one was product design?
I don't think there is too much difference between System Design and Product. I had both - maybe one of them was Product Design, but all were called - Architecture & Design.
I too was sure I nailed mine. I was sure I solved everything optimally, but rejection. :( That’s life !
Did you do sys or prod design
System design which is what I was told I messed up. Answered 4 questions in one round tho lol.
It is all about luck !!! Hope your prep can go to good use. I also fail FB recently. They said you did well in coding & design, but there is a candidate that profile fits better. I think the recruiter is very honest !!
At least you had an honest recruiter.
I think your recruiter was honest. I was rejected for the same reason - on the second coding round for first problem I made redundant optimization that didn’t work (the solution and code were correct), for second problem I think, that I solved it right, but my interviewer looked disappointed and said that “he got my idea” which is a clear signal, that I screwed up somewhere. And it was enough for rejection, even though I solved everything flawlessly on phone screen and on the first coding round (and on both rounds a year ago :-) ). They just have so many candidates, that even a small mistake lead to no hire. The earliest available slot for my interview was in a month after my phone screen.