Facebook Interview Questions for Off-Campus Placement

Table of Contents

Introduction

Have an interview coming up on Facebook?. Worried about the different interview processes and the recruitment process at Facebook?. We are going to cover these topics in this blog. Two Facebook Software Engineers have shared with us all the placement process from the recruiting stage to the final stages of the interview and also gave insights to various facebook interview questions asked during the interview.

Recruitment Process

The Facebook recruitment process begins by any one of the below-mentioned processes:

You can send your resume directly to Facebook.
A recruiter approaching you through Linkedin.
A referral by a friend working on Facebook.

Stages of Interview

Initial Screen Interview

This includes recruiter screen interviews and technical screen interviews.

1. Recruiter Screen Interview

You begin the Facebook recruitment process by talking to an HR recruiter on a phone. Here they ask about your background, why you think that you are the best fit in Facebook, your interests, your day as a developer, etc. Once you seem fit in this round, you will have to attend the next round i.e Technical Screen Interview.

2. Technical Screen Interview

This is a telephonic round where you will be in a call with your recruiter at Facebook. They will send you a link that consists of coding problems. There are two problems which mainly consist of data structures and algorithms. This round mainly focuses on your coding style, speed, accuracy, coverage of code, quality of code, etc.

Once you pass this round, you will be called for an on-site interview. Master DS and algorithms with Coding Ninjas here!

On-site Interview

Now the real test begins. In this process, you will spend an entire course of the day going over 4-5 interviews, consisting of the following:

Coding interview
System Design Interview
Behavioural Interview

You will go through 2-3 rounds of coding interviews which is a part of the facebook interview questions, one round of system design interview, and one round of behavioural interview. Detailed information on these interviews is given below.

Coding Interview

This round will be tougher than the initial round. To begin with, there will be an introduction and questions about your interest and background.

Then the coding round begins, which is expected to be a tougher round of coding problems and evaluation will be more rigorous. Topics are DS and algorithms.

As the initial round here they look for speed of coding, quality of code, style of coding, etc. and should be next to perfect.

System Design Interview

Here a total of 45 min is spent. This round consists of no code. Here the interviewer’s main focus is how you solve a significant design problem, be it product design or system design efficiently.

It involves problems related to designing real-time comments, database design, repartitioning and rebalancing, word balancing, etc.

Behavioural Interview

This interview is all about you, your interest, accomplishments, motivation to work at Facebook and your background. Also to assess how you take feedback, how you communicate and collaborate, and how you handle different situations.

This is to check whether a particular individual will thrive in their engineering organization. Apart from this, there will be a small coding interview.

If you get through these rounds you will land your dream job. Now let’s look into some preparation and tips for cracking these interviews !!!.

Here are some ideas for Facebook Interview questions preparation:

Practice your code in a simple text editor without any auto-completion and syntax highlighting
Practice code on a piece of paper/whiteboard.
Try working out code within a limited time frame as time is an important factor.
Work out as many coding problems as possible.
Go thoroughly through data structures, algorithms and time complexity questions.
Do mock interviews to gain confidence.

You can prepare for Facebook interview questions on CodeStudio.

Some points to keep in mind during the interview.

Share your thoughts with the interviewer while doing problems, so they may give you hints while solving the problem.
Speak clearly with the interviewer.
Manage the given time effectively.
Be prepared to explain your code/solution to the interviewer.
Find and fix all bugs yourself before the interviewer finds them for you.

Here are some ideas for Facebook Interview questions preparation (Design interview)-

Know fundamental concepts of system and product design thoroughly.
Think about a system/product you have built. How would you change it if you approach it all over again?
Should know about database design.

Weightage of Facebook Interview question in a coding interview

Arrays / Strings (38%)
Graphs / Trees (29%)
Dynamic Programming (18%)
Search / Sort (9%)
Linked lists (4%)
Stacks / Queues (2%)

Facebook interview question asked in a coding interview

Arrays: Merge overlapping intervals
Convert binary tree into a doubly-linked list
Dynamic Programming: Find maximum single sell profit
Find Kth largest element in an unsorted array.
Evaluation of a postfix expression.
Add two numbers as a linked list.
Find the largest rectangle in a histogram.
Find minimum depth in a binary tree.
Search in a rotated sorted array.
Serialise/deserialise a given binary tree.

Practise Facebook coding interview questions here.

Facebook interview questions asked in System Design Interview

Design a highly consistent database
How would you design Facebook
Design a URL shortener
Design Facebook Messenger
Design Live Commenting
Design a simpler version of Instagram
Design Proximity Server
Design Privacy Settings at Facebook
Design a recommendation system

Facebook interview questions asked in Behavioral Interview

Tell me about yourself
Describe a time when your project failed
Tell me about some of the accomplishment of your career
How will you define goals for your team?
What do you do to stay motivated?
What would you do if your interviewer is not there?
Why do you want to work for Facebook?

Work Culture at Facebook

Facebook is an engineering-driven company. Transparency and diversity are the main highlights of facebook’s work culture. Talking about parks, good food, good offices, travel, freedom, look out for your mental and physical well-being and personal growth.

They have many communities and social events and a lot of BFF activities that we can enjoy with our colleagues.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the interview process like on Facebook?

First, you will get a call from a recruiter to know all about you, then you will get a link for coding containing questions of DS and algorithms. Then comes the onsite interview, which consists of 2-3 rounds of coding interview, 1-2 rounds of system design interview and one behavioural interview.

How hard is it to get an interview on Facebook?

It is quite hard to get a job at Facebook. You should be thorough with DS, algorithms and time complexity problems. Moreover, you should have a depth of knowledge in system design and your behaviour should fit with facebook’s culture.

How many rounds of the interview does Facebook have?

Facebook has two stages of interviews. One is Screen Interview and then is the on-site Interview which further consists of a coding interview, system design interview and behavioural interview.

What is the hiring process at Facebook?

Either you will get a call from a recruiter who looked up your profile at Linkedin, or you have to directly apply at Facebook. You can also get a referral from a friend working at Facebook,

How long is the hiring process on Facebook?

The hiring process at Facebook is about 4-8 weeks.

Key Takeaways

Interviews at Facebook go through many rounds before selecting a candidate fit for their workplace. The interviewee should have deep knowledge in DS, algorithm and time complexity problems. Moreover, they should also have a very deep understanding of the product and system design.

By Ranjul Arumadi