A recruiter reached out through LinkedIn. I was excited about the opportunity, though I had never considered Facebook for employment. They explained the interview process: a first round programming interview (30 minutes Python & 30 minutes SQL), followed by an onsite interview. I was given documents on what to prepare and advised to review Glassdoor for others' experiences. The call itself was motivating.

I was totally motivated, and my interview was scheduled for two weeks later.

I flunked the first round. I prepared very hard (daily 2-4 hours) but still managed to screw up the interview. I'm still wondering what I was thinking, as in a different setting, I would have answered easily. I desperately wanted to clear the first round and get to the second, but I did not do well. The interviewer was cool and helpful, but it's important to stay in control by taking time to understand the question and answer. I have 11 years of experience and am unsure if I want to try again.

My suggestions:

• Prepare only what has been shared by HR; that's good enough.
• Try giving mock tests with a time limit. I think this is very important (which I did not do).
• Questions are only from what you see here (at least for me).
• Use a monitor if you can during the exam. CoderPad uses only half of your screen as an editor, which I found difficult in hindsight.

I was rushing to answer and chose the wrong solution for the first question, screwing it up from then on. I now realize it was a simple question that I overcomplicated. STAY COOL.

Python: Average length of words in a string.

Validate IP address (e.g., if it has 4 parts, with numeric values not above 255, and so on).

SQL: Group by and average in a single query over values in a single table.