My Facebook Interview Saga

My Facebook Interview Saga

The following is a retelling of the interview process I underwent with Facebook at 1/April/2010 for a Software Engineer position. I didn't get the job. It was my first interview process I have ever gone through and, despite reading all the other interview recaps others have written about companies like Amazon, Microsoft, or Google, I wasn't quite prepared. In any case, I hope the following is useful to others who may be preparing for the whole job game. Note: I've been careful to leave anything sensitive out of this entry for NDA purposes.

2010-March-23: Derek (Technical Sourcer at Facebook) contacted me by email:


Then i replied:



Then we added each other at google talk and here was the chat:






But two days passed and i couldn't wait, so i sent a cover letter to him: (some parts under NDA were hidden)




Then Derek replied:


Then we talked about interview time:


Here is the email confirming a telephone screening interview:


two days waiting for calls and getting nervous....
on 1/April/2010, 19:40 UK time (around 10 minutes late than expected), Jerry phoned me.
he asked me to open a browser and go to http://collabedit.com/ then he asked me if there are any languages i prefer... i said Pascal... he seemed doesn't like Pascal and asked me other languages... I said i can program in C++ unless I have to... so at last he agreed.

Two questions:
1. Implement explode, but with slight details changed. (i implemented in 5 minutes, but he argued with me with some details: he was not convinced that the algorithm was perfectly right...
2. Build a unbanlanced 'heap' tree from its inorder. (i implemented in around 3 minutes, and he asked me about time complexity,,, i said O(log(n)), he corrected me, it is nO(log(n)), then he asked me in worst cases its complexity,,, i said O(n2) when the maximum value is at the end of the order, he seemed satisfied..









he then asked me if i had any questions..
i asked him other than US,,, is there any facebook office in the world... he said in London there is one but not a development office..

i then asked him how many hours does he work.. he said he is 50% at facebook... so normally at full time 40 hrs more per week..
i asked him is it flexible working time, 24/7 access, he said yes...

he asked me to wait for more updates... but i told him that it is impossible for me to fly to US for interviews because of the visa limitation... he said they probably will work this out... they probably will ask the office in London to do the interview...
But, unlucky,, i didn't get it.... they replied me the second day... it seemed i was not good enough...