I went through Facebook interview rounds during December 2016 at their California Headquarters, Menlo Park. The process prior to onsite involved 3 rounds :
- Recruiter prescreening round : This is where recruiter asked me a bunch of questions about my visa status, my expected graduation timeline. Most important however was the basic technical questions that is used to screen out the obviously non-technical people
- Phone coding round : This round lasted for 45 minutes & I was asked 2 technical questions. Both question focussed on data structures & algorithms. The interviewer was very easy to talk to & overall a very pleasant interview experience.
- Phone systems round : Round lasted for 45 minutes & went deep dive into Linux concepts
Facebook contacted me couple of days later to inform me of my selection to onsite & coordinated with me regarding my flight timing preferences, hotel stay, dietary restrictions etc.
On onsite day, I was welcomed by the recruiter at 10 am sharp & given a tour of the building I was going to interview in. It was a packed schedule from 10.30 AM-3.30 PM with 1 hour of lunch break in between. In total, there were 5 rounds .
The breakdown of the day was as follows:
- 1 non technical : 45 minute round where I was asked about challenges in my career, toughest problem I have solved so far, how I handled conflicts etc.
- Whiteboard coding : 45 minutes with a Software engineer where I did 2 data structures related question
- Lunch : Accompanied by an engineer, who took me to one of the fanciest cafes in the Menlo park campus
- System round ( discussion ) : Curveball question on Linux debugging skills to gauge how I can handle production issues
- Whiteboard coding : 45 minute round with Software engineer , more data structures questions
- Whiteboard coding : 45 minute round with Production engineer, “how to code for operating systems” related questions
The recruiter reached out to me a couple of weeks later, & grandly announced that I was selected. Overall, compared to all the silicon valley giants that I have interviewed with, Facebook’s process was the smoothest & the recruiters were the most understanding. Needless to say, I joined here & its been a happy 3 years so far 🙂