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Facebook senior software engineer interview

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Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#321

Post by yrimaxi »

strulovich wrote: post #311

As a person working in Facebook for 7 years I feel like this post is incorrectly portraying FB's process and culture: - First, Facebook avoids titles, so there's no such thing "senior software engineer". Levels are generally unknown by people so ICs get judged by their ideas, and not their title. - If there was such a thing as "senior" in Facebook, it's not starting at the E4 level. (If you look at levels.fyi and ali…

> First, Facebook avoids titles, so there's no such thing "senior software engineer".

How egalitarian. Let me guess: you are an IC6, or perhaps IC7? You just give off that vibe.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#322

Post by binarytox1n »

driverdan wrote: post #223
mrits wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But why?" Because most people can't. And they want to make sure you can.

Most people with 20 years of experience can't write basic code? Come on.

You must not have tried to hire a software engineer before. In a hiring cycle I encounter multiple "Senior Engineers" who can't write basic code. Fizzbuzz. Can't do it. Engineers should absolutely expect to write real code in an interview. It's preposterous to think that someone can claim to have 20 years experience writing code and then be offended to spend 20 minutes doing it in an interview.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#323

Post by compiler-guy »

driverdan wrote: post #213
spoonjim wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FB pays astronomically well. You don’t have to work there, but if you do, this is what you have to do. Saying that it creates a “monoculture” is like saying that soccer teams only hiring people who can run this fast, jump this high, and kick the ball this hard get to be on the team. Sure, they might miss the occasional great talent who is unathletic but has some great gift for the game, but it’s not a bad set of hiri…

This is a poor analogy. It's like making a soccer / football player answer a test on the history of the sport, how the ball is made, the geometry involved in kicking the ball, the mesh size of the goal net, etc. There may be some relevance but in the end if they're a good player none of that matters. You'd be testing the wrong things to know if they're a good player.

Sports scouting and evaluations are also notoriously unreliable. For every Messi or Ronaldo there are literally thousands of players who were scouted as having potential but washed out almost immediately.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#324

Post by vechagup »

mrits wrote: post #85
blisterpeanuts wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 20 years in software, I had a phone interview with an Amazon guy who sounded half my age (at most). Asked me to write some kind of function to do something, sort some stuff or some such. I described verbally how I would do it, almost line by line, in pseudo-code. He said "I need you to write it out in [some language]". I said "But why? I just told you how I'd do it." But he needed me to literally write the code…

"But why?" Because most people can't. And they want to make sure you can.

One of my biggest interviewing mistakes was voting "hire" on a guy despite his seeming difficulty with coding during the interview because he was such a great talker and had great sounding experience. He came on board, couldn't deliver on anything, and sapped the team's morale. There are plenty of people out there who have bullshitted their way through a career.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#325

Post by strulovich »

yrimaxi wrote: post #321
strulovich wrote: post #311

As a person working in Facebook for 7 years I feel like this post is incorrectly portraying FB's process and culture: - First, Facebook avoids titles, so there's no such thing "senior software engineer". Levels are generally unknown by people so ICs get judged by their ideas, and not their title. - If there was such a thing as "senior" in Facebook, it's not starting at the E4 level. (If you look at levels.fyi and ali…

> First, Facebook avoids titles, so there's no such thing "senior software engineer". How egalitarian. Let me guess: you are an IC6, or perhaps IC7? You just give off that vibe.

I joined Facebook 7 years ago as an IC3, and am still around so you could probably do the math.

Had the same vibe to me when I was a new grad (well, maybe a less polished one) and got a lot of respect then. I also knew which people I enjoyed working with and trusting without ever knowing their level. I could make an educated guess of course. But those cases when your guess is wrong are the important ones.

This is all not to say there's not plenty of issues with this system, and I totally get where your snark is coming from, but I would personally still stand by this idea over many of the alternatives.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#326

Post by moolcool »

paxys wrote: post #266
LandR wrote: post #30

How can anyone work at Facebooks nowadays and have a clear conscience. Is it just the salary? It is, isn't it? Just money. How depressing.

Not everyone follows American politics and watches sensationalized American news media all day. Facebook is a great place to work, has some of the best tech in the industry and its products have done a lot of good for the world, especially in developing countries.

Facebook's impact on the world today isn't sensationalized (quite the opposite), nor is it exclusive to American politics.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#327

Post by sjg007 »

throw_me_2020 wrote: post #165
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 mi…

The advantage is that it would reduce total recruitment cost and burden. I mean filtering on a CS degree and school should be enough but apparently it isn't. There are also non-traditional programmers. There's a finite set of reasonable problems so there will be some difficulty in hiding the answers when you have access to Google vs in person.

Outside of that, the most important skill is gathering requirements, gathering requirements and gathering requirements. In the startup world this is called finding product market fit.

System architecture design and computational thinking are also necessary but I don't think any software engineer can do those well without gathering requirements which is basically about identifying product market fit within your corporation.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#328

Post by yrimaxi »

strulovich wrote: post #325
yrimaxi wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First, Facebook avoids titles, so there's no such thing "senior software engineer". How egalitarian. Let me guess: you are an IC6, or perhaps IC7? You just give off that vibe.

I joined Facebook 7 years ago as an IC3, and am still around so you could probably do the math. Had the same vibe to me when I was a new grad (well, maybe a less polished one) and got a lot of respect then. I also knew which people I enjoyed working with and trusting without ever knowing their level. I could make an educated guess of course. But those cases when your guess is wrong are the important ones. This is all…

Good that it’s working well for you! :)

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#329

Post by reaperducer »

gowld wrote: post #254
reaperducer wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice affiliate link there. Is that your own book you're flogging, too?

This is not appropriate behavior for HN. There was no affiliate link in the original post. ref= is not an affiliate tag, it's an Amazon ref tag. tag= is an affiliate tag. https://google.com/search?q=amazon+affiliate+code+url https://medium.com/feedium/how-to-tell-if-a-link-is-an-amazo...

I checked before I posted and found two web sites that stated that ref= is an affiliate tag.

Re: Facebook senior software engineer interview

#330

Post by myhf »

hpux wrote: post #16
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 don't necessarily agree with your observation. The issue here is that companies like Facebook hire a ton of entry-level (E3) engineers each year that come from their intern pool. Although many of them get promoted, not everyone can pass the bar. The need for more senior engineers is persistent in the company. Another thing to mention is that typically there is no headcount for E3 engineers at Facebook (besides retu…

What do you mean "pass the bar"? Promotion is a process of supporting and grooming someone for advancement once they have been selected by the promoter. There is no bar to pass.
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