Got a lot of help from Blind and I wanted to share some details that helped me succeed. This year, I finally made it as E6 in FB.
I am thankful for Amazon where I worked on really challenging distributed system problems. I not only gained technical skills but also learnt to get work done by others while helping them grow. I had some rough weeks/weekends but overall my WLB was reasonable (6-8 hours each day) and I have a very nice manager. I am leaving only because my TC was embarrassingly low and the next level L7 takes pretty long time.
Was doing prep on and off for last 3 years, and my coding gradually improved. I did ~150 leetcode (mostly easy/medium) and read 'elements of programming interviews' a few times. For system design, I studied using system design interviews insider's guide https://bit.ly/3tUG2ck, https://github.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer, grokking the system design and but real breakthrough came after I did some mocks in late January. After that I kept doing 2-3 mocks every week. Got really good feedback on what I was doing wrong. Mostly around not following a methodical approach & managing time effectively. The turning point in my prep was this blind post:
Facebook E6 - I made it!!!!! (Software Engineering) https://us.teamblind.com/s/pQAFKJ7b
Got ref for the discord group https://discord.gg/RTyVHUtRc2 of the author where I found several good mock partners. Author himself is pretty good interviewer and provided very helpful feedback in a few mocks: https://youtube.com/channel/UCJ8590hU1VY8YcZb7k5-IhQ
I concluded that for system design, mocks (with knowledgeable people who can provide meaningful feedback) are must. After mocks, the real interview feels just like another mock and you may get same/similar questions sometimes. I also did 2 paid interviews on interviewing.io with FB system design & behavioral which were extremely helpful. They told me to focus on highlighting soft skills (creating team roadmap, breakdown large projects and dividing work between SDEs, cross-org/functional collaboration etc) as E6 is more of the leadership role.
Regarding the interviews, had 2 coding rounds (mostly easy/medium complexity problems, some were from LC directly) where I was able to code both problems well within 40 minutes and had spare time to ask questions. 2 Sys design was also straight forward and questions were exactly or similar to grokking or the systeminterview course. behavioral was very similar to the mock with FB interviewer and I was very well prepared for it.
Current: 300k TC, L6 SDE
New TC: 2x
Willing to help especially the Amazon L6+ to help leave at much respectable salary. Willing to help with mocks, advice on prep etc as time permits. Please feel free to DM.
Also, will appreciate any advice on becoming successful as E6 in FB and suggestions for teams in Seattle with challenging problems. I understand it won’t be a cake walk and I am willing to work very hard (and smart). Will appreciate helping hand in terms of mentoring and finding my path in FB.
Update 1: thanks guys for nice comments and encouragement. I have received several DMs and will be working through it over the week. Please have patience.
Also remove some details which revealed my identity.
Update 2: I have included the affiliate link https://bit.ly/3tUG2ck for the systems design interview insider's guide. I will be paid a small amount if you buy the course which I plan to donate for charity. I did find this course more in depth than grokking so I highly recommend it.
Update 3: Hey guys,
Sorry for not getting back to many of you on DMs. Some problem with blind and I am not able to get to unanswered messages and page just disappear. I will try to report it to blind and get it sorted out. In the meantime, please drop me email on m.i.abh2k21@gmail.com and we can continue the conversation there. Sorry for any inconvenience.
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Facebook E6 - I made it!!!!!
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Congratulations friend!!
Otherwise, everyone keeps saying "I got medium/hard" and makes newbies like myself wondering if I would ever pass the phone interview.