Meta

Software Engineer Interview Experience - Palo Alto, California

May 1, 2009

Positive ExperienceGot Offer

Process

I had a phone screen on Friday to discuss what I was working on and what I wanted to work on with Facebook.

This moved to an onsite technical interview on the following Tuesday. They moved quickly because of another pending offer with another company.

I did well and then moved to meet with more members of the team on Thursday. This moved to an offer on Friday, and I accepted within one day.

Questions

What do you want to work on?

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 78 interview experiences for the Meta Software Engineer role in Palo Alto, California.

Success Rate

13%

Pass Rate

Meta's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Palo Alto, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive44%

Neutral36%

Negative21%

Candidates reported having good feelings for Meta's Software Engineer interview process in Palo Alto, California.

Meta Work Experiences

Good Pay, Smart People, Poor Culture

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

Pros: Good pay, smart people, interesting problems.

Cons: Work culture is poor. Over reliance on perf reviews. Stressful environment where it seems like a lot of work seems like it's done with very low real output

Good Pay, Smart People, Poor Culture

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

Pros: Good pay, smart people, interesting problems.

Cons: Work culture is poor. Over reliance on perf reviews. Stressful environment where it seems like a lot of work seems like it's done with very low real output

Fun at the engineer-to-engineer level, but brutally long hours and badly disconnected front-line management

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

January 2, 2012

Pros: Huge corporate upside potential (but might not apply to new hires as of 2012). Fun work environment (free quality food, game rooms, frivolity encouraged, etc.). High impact in terms of people using your code and recognition. Good opportunities to try new ideas and move teams.

Cons: Brutally long hours for many, frequent pressure to delay or cancel vacation plans (even outside of release deadlines). Harsh, unjust, and badly cross-team calibrated reviews, coupled with frequent firings, so that the stick is very close to the carrot. It has now grown large enough that internal corporate politics have seeped in. Management, at all levels, is fixated on lots of shiny new features, no matter how broken, and lacks respect for necessary work getting done.

Fun at the engineer-to-engineer level, but brutally long hours and badly disconnected front-line management

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

January 2, 2012

Pros: Huge corporate upside potential (but might not apply to new hires as of 2012). Fun work environment (free quality food, game rooms, frivolity encouraged, etc.). High impact in terms of people using your code and recognition. Good opportunities to try new ideas and move teams.

Cons: Brutally long hours for many, frequent pressure to delay or cancel vacation plans (even outside of release deadlines). Harsh, unjust, and badly cross-team calibrated reviews, coupled with frequent firings, so that the stick is very close to the carrot. It has now grown large enough that internal corporate politics have seeped in. Management, at all levels, is fixated on lots of shiny new features, no matter how broken, and lacks respect for necessary work getting done.

Good Pay, Decent Workplace

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

January 19, 2021

Pros: The salary is a good salary.

Cons: Not the best workplace.

Good Pay, Decent Workplace

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

January 19, 2021

Pros: The salary is a good salary.

Cons: Not the best workplace.

Good Pay, Smart People, Poor Culture

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

Pros: Good pay, smart people, interesting problems.

Cons: Work culture is poor. Over reliance on perf reviews. Stressful environment where it seems like a lot of work seems like it's done with very low real output

4.0
Good Pay, Smart People, Poor Culture
Software Engineer • Former Employee
Palo Alto, California, United States
April 2, 2025
Pros: Good pay, smart people, interesting problems.
Cons: Work culture is poor. Over reliance on perf reviews. Stressful environment where it seems like a lot of work seems like it's done with very low real output

Fun at the engineer-to-engineer level, but brutally long hours and badly disconnected front-line management

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

January 2, 2012

Pros: Huge corporate upside potential (but might not apply to new hires as of 2012). Fun work environment (free quality food, game rooms, frivolity encouraged, etc.). High impact in terms of people using your code and recognition. Good opportunities to try new ideas and move teams.

Cons: Brutally long hours for many, frequent pressure to delay or cancel vacation plans (even outside of release deadlines). Harsh, unjust, and badly cross-team calibrated reviews, coupled with frequent firings, so that the stick is very close to the carrot. It has now grown large enough that internal corporate politics have seeped in. Management, at all levels, is fixated on lots of shiny new features, no matter how broken, and lacks respect for necessary work getting done.

2.0
Fun at the engineer-to-engineer level, but brutally long hours and badly disconnected front-line management
Software Engineer • Former Employee
Palo Alto, California, United States
January 2, 2012
Pros: Huge corporate upside potential (but might not apply to new hires as of 2012). Fun work environment (free quality food, game rooms, frivolity encouraged, etc.). High impact in terms of people using your code and recognition. Good opportunities to try new ideas and move teams.
Cons: Brutally long hours for many, frequent pressure to delay or cancel vacation plans (even outside of release deadlines). Harsh, unjust, and badly cross-team calibrated reviews, coupled with frequent firings, so that the stick is very close to the carrot. It has now grown large enough that internal corporate politics have seeped in. Management, at all levels, is fixated on lots of shiny new features, no matter how broken, and lacks respect for necessary work getting done.

Good Pay, Decent Workplace

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Palo Alto, California, United States

January 19, 2021

Pros: The salary is a good salary.

Cons: Not the best workplace.

4.0
Good Pay, Decent Workplace
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Palo Alto, California, United States
January 19, 2021
Pros: The salary is a good salary.
Cons: Not the best workplace.

Meta Interview Questions

Minimum Remove to Make Valid Parentheses

Given a string with parentheses, determine the minimum number of parentheses you must remove to make the string valid. A valid string has balanced and properly nested parentheses.

StringsStacksTwo Pointers

Valid Word Abbreviation

Determine if a given abbreviation is valid for a given word. An abbreviation can contain digits representing the number of skipped characters.

StringsTwo Pointers

Binary Tree Vertical Order Traversal

Traverse a binary tree and return a list of node values for each vertical line, ordered from left to right. Nodes on the same vertical line should be ordered from top to bottom.

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