I applied through a recruiter. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Meta in Apr 2022
Interview
Low offer:
Their final offer is 50-60K lower than what I was told originally. So the business is definitely struggling.
Inappropriate conduct with candidates:
One of the interviewers spent 10 minutes pressing me on a question about a subtraction function(A,B). It's either A-B or B-A. I didn't remember, so I said we could look at the documentation. After not getting the answer for a couple minutes, this person got frustrated and yelled at me "I'm the documentation. I'm telling you that..." I was shocked that an interviewer could behave this way.
Variable skills among interviewers:
There are definitely strong technical people, but the data scientists' skills vary greatly. One was struggling to understand how AVG(CASE WHEN ....THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) could calculate the % of certain condition. I was in disbelief.
Tough interview overall—definitely not what I expected. The technical rounds were intense, particularly when they had me design an A/B test for the News Feed ranking algorithm. I had to discuss metrics and sample sizes in detail. Lucky for me, the time I spent on PracHub right before the interview helped me nail that deep-dive question as it mirrored what I practiced. The behavioral questions felt standard but were still challenging. After a whirlwind process, they extended an offer, which I happily accepted.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Design an A/B test to evaluate a new ranking algorithm for the Facebook News Feed. Walk through metric selection (engagement, time-spent, MSI, well-being), unit of randomization given network effects between friends, sample size and power calculations, how you'd detect novelty effects vs. true lift, and how you'd handle a guardrail metric regressing while the primary metric is up.
Total 7 rounds: first round for resume screening, second for technical screening, then for on-site virtual with 4 interviews back to back, then hiring manager round after team matching and then salary negotiation with HR
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Meta’s evaluation rubrics focus heavily on "Product Thinking over Fancy Math". Interviewers want to see if you can operate like a product owner with an analytical mindset, navigating messy scenarios affecting billions of users
The Interview Process is very structured -
First Tech Screening round - 45 mins (usually can extend a bit depending on the interviewer)
- 2 SQL Questions ( Medium to Hard ) - based on Joins
Full Loop - 4 rounds 45 mins each.
- SQL
- Behavioral
- Analytical Execution - stats & prob, A/B testing, case study
- Analytical Reasoning - Case study
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions on Bayes Theorem, Probability distribution, etc.
