The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Meta in Oct 2011
Interview
Every single interview was exactly the same format: the interviewer gives me two or three programming problems and asked me to solve them in my language of choice in front of him on a whiteboard (or virtual whiteboard
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
FInd the maximum sum of a sub-sequence from an positive integer array where any two numbers of sub-sequence are not adjacent to each other in the original sequence. E.g 1 2 3 4 5 6 --> 2 4 6
The entire process usually takes 3–8 weeks, depending on scheduling and the specific role. Coding interviews heavily emphasize common DSA topics such as arrays, strings, trees, graphs, BFS/DFS, heaps, hash maps, and dynamic programming. System design becomes increasingly important for E4+ positions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given an array of integers and a target value, return the indices of two numbers that add up to the target
Unexpectedly, the first question in the technical round felt familiar. It was about finding a subset of strings with unique character concatenation — same problem I had worked through on PracHub a few days earlier. The interview included a recruiter screen followed by a rigorous pair of technical interviews where I tackled data structures and algorithms alongside system design concepts. After successfully answering a few more challenging DSA questions, I received an offer. The entire experience was intense but ultimately rewarding, and I happily accepted the position.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Given an array of strings, pick a subset whose concatenation contains no duplicate characters, and return the maximum possible length of that concatenation.
