My interview experience with Facebook, London

Hello all! I am Sree Theerdha, a fourth year dual degree student of the department of Computer Science and Engineering. I’m headed to Facebook, London office as an SWE intern during summers 2019. This is my journey through the years and a few major factors that led me here today. Bear with me for the long read, but if you still have any queries, feel free to DM.

Preface

Let’s start with the basics! Algorithms-I and Algorithms Lab in my 3rd semester formally introduced me to various data structures and programming paradigms. I believe that I had not put enough efforts to learn programming in my first year and hence was forced to work extra hard in the 3rd semester to compensate for it. This Algorithms book is the best book for beginners. I plunged myself into reading this book and coding up the algorithms for practice. Algorithms Lab really helped me in thinking better, testing my understanding and improving myself by solving more problems. I often find myself referring to these basics to solve problems even today, so a strong foundation here will certainly be a boost in the future.

As the semesters passed by, I gradually lost touch as I was inclined towards research and hence focussed more on projects and courses. I was totally entangled in my search for FTs in my 5th semester. I happened to get a chance to be interviewed by Microsoft for an internship that year. My preparation for the same included solving questions mostly from Geeksforgeeks. This got me back in touch with algos. I interned at Microsoft during summers 2018 and subsequently got a placement offer.

Being highly research oriented, I didn’t exclusively prepare for CDC internships. But trying out things is never bad. I believe that it’s good to keep options open. I was shortlisted for an interview with Google. I practised some questions from interviewbit in the short time I got. Unfortunately, that amount of preparation wasn’t enough to crack Google.

However, after a few days, I was approached by a recruiter on LinkedIn asking if I’m interested in being interviewed with Facebook for an internship. I was also asked to tell if I had any pending offers which in my opinion, sped up my process to a great extent. I got my first round of interviews scheduled. I practised problems on interviewbit and brushed up important concepts esp STL. I also prepared answers for some generic questions like Why Facebook?, Why London office? I was also thorough with the projects I had mentioned on my resume.

Round-1

The interview was on BlueJeans — Video Conference and a coding screen, The interviewer was an engineer at the US office. It started with my introduction. I initially found it really difficult to understand his accent and it took a while to catch things up! I was asked a simple question on string manipulation. It was quite straightforward without any tricks involved, though the code was a bit lengthy with many corner cases. Later, he asked if I had any questions for him. I asked about the work culture and his experience in general.

Honestly, I had no expectations. I wasn’t even anxious about the result for the next 3 days before I got to know it. I was selected for the second round asking for the slots that work for me. I got it scheduled such that I had just enough time to prepare and also made sure that process is not too delayed.

This time, I took it way more seriously than I did for the first round. I practised more problems from interviewbit, geeksforgeeks etc. I looked up editorials and improved my coding style. I brushed up time complexity and usage of the STL Vectors, Strings, Sets, Multisets, Maps, Priority Queues, Stacks, Queues etc. This made me more confident and ready for the second round.

Round-2

It was very similar to the first round but the interviewer was working at the London office. There were 2 questions. The first was on 2 pointers. The second was on trees. I had to use Maps and Sets of STL for the same. I had to explain the time complexity and improvise the solution. We later had a really interesting discussion on how Facebook strives for diversity and focuses on intersectionality.

I heard back from them in the next 5 days saying that I have an offer.

Everything must’ve sounded so simple so far. Well, It’s not as simple as it sounds but not very difficult either! No matter how confusing our undergraduate lives can be with various paths to choose from, always have an open mind and definitely try to give your best in everything you do.

You can keep the following points in mind throughout the process

• Think out loud. Don’t be silent while you are thinking. Walk the interviewer through your thinking process. It helps the interviewer to give hints when he chooses to. Sometimes, even if you can’t come up with the right answer, they consider your thought process.
• Facebook focuses on the right syntax, elegant code and code modularized into reusable functions etc. Similarly, each company looks for something specific to them in the interviewee. Try to get to know them before and inculcate them in you answering style.
• Prepare to ask the interviewer some nice questions in the end. Ask about the work, culture etc. It shows that you are genuinely interested in joining the company.
• Life is unpredictable. You never know what happens next. You never know when the opportunity kicks in. Make sure that you are always ready.

Feel free to reachout to me in case you want to know more / want to have a conversation about literally anything.