Preparing for Meta's Intern / New Grad Interview
A summary of how to prepare for Meta's new grad / internship interview.
As stated in my other article Meta is one of the top companies to aim for in terms of consistently being able to get the interview. But how do you prepare?
Step 1: Set the Foundation
I won’t banter too much on this point, but make sure if not already you have a solid foundation as talked about here
Step 2: Best Resource to Study?
Meta tagged questions on Leetcode are “somewhat” accurate that they are either the exact question or a modification of it (usually a modification).
Let’s take an example what I mean by a modification, which can often get people to FAIL the Meta interview, b/c like my “How Best to Study” article, people often make the common mistake trying to just “memorize” solutions.
For example, this is a question on the top Meta’s Leetcode list - Random Pick Weight, but the actual question is a slightly modified problem statement where they ask you to “pick a city based on population distribution”. (I know this problem says Google, but in general this is a popular problem multiple companies I’ve seen give and have seen given by Meta multiple times).
Still if you know this, I recommend to go through the top 50-100 Leetcode questions on Meta Leetcode tagged, if you only get through 50, is completely fine! The main idea is to set a “foundation” for you to then expand out from. The questions are not going to be again, the actual question that “exactly” shows up (unless lucky), but it should give you ideas on weaknesses to then shore up more on.
In addition, YOU MUST focus much more on analysis and speed. Meta’s questions are often looking for if you have both the speed and insight when you solve.
Step 3: Practice
Mocks + Speed
Meta expects you to go through about 2 medium questions. The first question tends to be a medium, while the second one tends to be a medium to upper medium. Both questions should be solved in about 40 mins worth of time.
The first question must be solved in approximately 15 mins, with the second one taking about 20-25, giving you 5 mins worth of time.
The best way I would do this is mocking with other people, or recording yourself, so you are used to using the framework I talk about.
For Meta, you can focus a bit less on the “explanation” due to a lack of time, and focus more on the coding and validation.
Leetcode Assessment
Leetcode has a page for company assessments, I would go through the Meta onsite simulation to just get a feel of getting random questions and being able to code it. Considering that you won’t have to explain it to anyone, I would give myself a total of 10 - 15 mins a question to be able to code it out, assuming the question is of medium difficulty.
Step 4: Meta’s Rubric
Meta really does focus on:
Communication
How well do you explain and communicate
Analysis
How well do you frame the problem, pro / con, time complexity
Logically able to walk through it
Coding
Clean code
Write fast
Able to test your code
So if you are unable to do what the template tells you to do, or something similar, you will have more difficulty making sure you fulfill the requirements.
Summary
Meta focuses a lot more on being able to solve problems quickly and consistently
You still need to have the framework I recommend, or some methodology similar in order to make sure you check off the rubric of what they are looking for.
Studying Leetcode tagged questions are great, but you still need the analysis and not just memorization
Do a lot of mocks with people + practice recording yourself + leetcode assessments so that you can practice being in an unfamiliar environment and diagramming on a text editor an explanation.