Facebook reached out to me via email to gauge my interest in a Software Engineering position in Menlo Park. I replied positively and spoke to a kind recruiter who described the role. I continued to be interested, so I scheduled a technical phone screen with an engineer through the recruiter. I was also then referred to work on this team by a developer who currently worked there, and that's how I submitted my formal application.

The recruiter sent me an email containing several resources, including a link to LeetCode ("focus on the 'medium' to 'hard' problems") and two videos, each longer than an hour. The email also contained information beyond the initial technical interview process. I was then sent an email containing information about who I'd be interviewing with and when.

The call came. The pre-interview resources, for being so detailed, felt like a waste of time with respect to this initial phone screen. My introduction felt completely unimportant. As one may expect, we spent a majority of the time on the programming challenge questions.

If you do not absolutely nail these questions, the follow-up optimization questions, and the big-O-notation questions, Facebook will decide not to move forward with your application.

I received no feedback during or after the review regarding what the interviewer was expecting from me, or what they thought of my answers to the questions. My previous employment experience was completely irrelevant. The programming questions I was asked were not relevant to the role for which I was applying.

The time between Facebook reaching out to me and the no-go call from them was one month.