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Facebook senior software engineer interview

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Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#161

Post by joe_fishfish »

jonnypotty wrote: post #150

I'm not interested as I think it would be hypocritical and immoral for me to persue a job at Facebook. Considering Facebooks current issues I'd be interested how people would justify this career path to themselves. It's like wanting to sign up for the UK armed forces in the middle of the Iraq war. Like, it's a really bad idea. What are your principle, are they summed up as "I want as much money as possible and who ca…

I'm surprised how far down I had to scroll before I found a comment like this. I was approached by a Facebook recruiter twice in the last year, both times I gave a polite "not interested", with a list of reasons why.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#162

Post by pseudalopex »

LordHumungous wrote: post #130

Leetcode problems are good because they select for people who are willing to put in the hours to get good at them. Aka, hard workers. Above all else, what predicts success at a job is work ethic. This is even more true at FAANG.

The hardest workers I know put up with the least bullshit.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#163

Post by scottlamb »

janoc wrote: post #91
arihant wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author mentions CLRS. It’s an introductory level algorithms book and is used in Junior/Senior years of undergrad. Expecting a senior engineer to be well versed in undergrad level algorithms is not a monoculture problem.

The problem is not the expectation but that something like that can even come up during an interview for a senior position! It is like testing a surgeon's suturing skill during a job interview. Of course, it is an essential skill for them to have, but that's something for a school exam and not job interview for someone with verifiable credentials. Or do you think that surgeon didn't suture in their previous job and j…

> It is like testing a surgeon's suturing skill during a job interview. Of course, it is an essential skill for them to have, but that's something for a school exam and not job interview for someone with verifiable credentials. Or do you think that surgeon didn't suture in their previous job and just "winged it through" for years?

Yes, absolutely, I think that some surgeons can be less skilled at suturing after years of experience, and it'd be wise to have them demonstrate these skills in an objective way during a job interview rather than relying on credentials. eg:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187887501...

> Most methods currently used to assess surgical skill are rather subjective or not adequate for microneurosurgery. Objective and quantitative microneurosurgical skill assessment systems that are capable of accurate measurements are necessary for the further development of microneurosurgery.

and

https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/a-vital-measure-yo...

> To the researchers’ surprise, there were huge variations in operative skill between the practicing surgeons, with the lowest ranked surgeons working at what the reviewers considered a level only slightly better than a trainee at the end of residency, and the highest-ranking surgeons working like “masters” in their field.

Software engineer interviews are absolutely imperfect, but I don't think other professions have this figured out either.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#164

Post by hinkley »

UncleMeat wrote: post #48
logicchains wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>in most cases doctors have many, many thousands of hours under their belt in training before still needing to study a ton to pass their boards The difference is that what the doctors put so much time into learning can actually be quite useful for their job. The vast majority of competitive coding stuff isn't. Interview procedures based around it completely fail to assess some of the most important abilities in softw…

Is that true? I don’t know anything about medical licensing, but after having a few friends take the California bar exam, I’ve heard endless complaints about having to study things like divorce law in order to become a privacy advocate.

But in the case f doctors and lawyers, they pass it once, not every time they interview for a new job. Software doesn’t have licensing, so we do this bullshit every single time.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#165

Post by throw_me_2020 »

jakearmitage wrote: post #127

I think we have a thread about software interviews every week, with the same discussion topics. Isn't this a problem solved by technical certifications? I mean, if the Top 100 companies do the same tests over and over again, with a very similar mindset and process, why not delegate that to a third-party? Then you just hire people that have Certification X, which matches your lust of algorithmic puzzles or whatever. I…

That seems like something you could build. There's a handful of YC companies working on that.

I don't think FANG companies are likely early adopters of that. They are all relatively conservative with hiring. Navigating the organization to find an internal champion who's incentives are aligned seems really tough. Internal established recruiting teams seem disincentivized to use a 3rd party certification. Using that might reduce the number/importance of the internal recruiting team.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#166

Post by LordHumungous »

pseudalopex wrote: post #162
LordHumungous wrote: post #130

Leetcode problems are good because they select for people who are willing to put in the hours to get good at them. Aka, hard workers. Above all else, what predicts success at a job is work ethic. This is even more true at FAANG.

The hardest workers I know put up with the least bullshit.

Putting up with bullshit is also a desirable characteristic for FAANG

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#167

Post by mylons »

onion2k wrote: post #2

There are two interesting things in this post. The first is that a senior developer at Facebook believes every single senior developer looking for a role at Facebook can revise the same things. Clearly the author believes that Facebook are looking for programmers who fit a very specific mould, to the point that they're willing to go out in public and state exactly that. I'd argue that points to a massive monoculture…

Your points are basically true across $MANGA as well. (Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, Google, Amazon)

I think it’s more a symptom of interviewing being broken than just being a monoculture. They’re probably very related, though. Bad interview practices produce bad results, etc.

Why is interviewing so broken? Why isn’t there something like certifications? Do things like unions address this? They seem to in construction, plumbing, and trade jobs as well as even acting.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#168

Post by philliphaydon »

wan23 wrote: post #83
robjan wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article it would appear that anyone with a computer science background and a decent amount of experience as an engineer should pass the technical test without the need to spend the whole month revising. If you don't have a computer science foundation it's probably a good idea to learn the basics anyway, rather than learning just to pass the interview.

The bar for Facebook is something like being able to solve two medium-difficulty problems in 45 minutes. If you want to test yourself, you could try these, which are popular questions: https://leetcode.com/problems/find-all-anagrams-in-a https://leetcode.com/problems/subarray-sum-equals-k/-string/ Note that it's not enough to present any solution - you need to present a solution that is efficient. Also, you should be…

Those links get 404?

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#169

Post by NeverFade »

sj3k wrote: post #145
NeverFade wrote: post #7

Besides the usual advice, this observation is very interesting: > Applying for senior engineering positions (>E4) in FANG companies is one of the best ways to get into them. This comment by a veteran senior engineer confirms to me that Facebook, just like most other FANGs, does a poor job of promoting from within. There are multiple comments to the same effect from many other FANG employees: It's much easier to get r…

I interviewed at FB and Amazon last summer and I asked how long people stay once they are hired. At both companies I was told the average tenure is about 1.5 - 2 years. That was a big yiiiiikes moment for me. People don't stick around long enough to get promoted.

> People don't stick around long enough to get promoted.

Why do you think that is? Perhaps because the odds of getting promoted are smaller than hopping to a better position in a different company, which is what I argue.

If the odds of internal promotion were good enough, why would these employees take the risk and hassle of hopping?

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