I applied online. I interviewed at Meta (Tel Aviv-Yafo) in May 2017
Interview
Applied online. It took a week to set up the first phone call, since instead of offering a time frame for the call or just call, there was an email chain asking for when it is convenient to call. Any of my emails was answered after 1-3 days.
Next was an on site 45 minutes interview with a Data Scientist. Also here it took unnecessarily long to schedule (around 3 weeks). The questions were quite easy and fully solvable with a little SQL.
Another 2 weeks later was the 5-hour interview day with three interviewers per video and two on site. Questions themselves were not very complicated but the interviewers dug a lot without obvious reason.
Every interviewer spent at least 5-10 minutes talking about himself without any questions about the applicant's work experience or skills. In the end of most of the interviews there were few minutes to ask questions, which was fairly annoying as there were two extra people to answer all the possible questions when accompanying the applicant on lunch break and another 15 minutes break before the last part.
Eventually two days later I got a full automated email encouraging to continue my search.
Minor issue: While talking to HR on the day before the interview, I mentioned Kosher food. She assured me that it will be available at lunch. However, at lunch I found a small Kosher section with almost nothing left as lunch was almost over by the time of my lunch break. I'd expected better.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
SQL with joins, Basic Probability, general approach to KPI
Conversation with recruiter in email. Technical screening round where they ask about SQL and product sense. Onsite-Loop with four rounds. They ask about SQL, Product Sense, Statistics, Behavioural questions. The difficulty is average.
The technical round kicked off with a design question about A/B testing for Facebook Reels, which I found engaging. Then, I tackled a SQL query on user comments and how to account for novelty effects in ongoing experiments. Thankfully, I had prepared with the company-specific questions on PracHub, and it made a real difference in my confidence. The entire process felt smooth, and after some behavioral questions, I received an offer that I happily accepted.
Interview questions [3]
Question 1
Design an A/B test for a Facebook Reels ranking change and describe how you would interpret the results
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