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Meta E5 (Senior) Software Engineer Interview Guide
A comprehensive guide to the Meta E5 software engineer interview process.
The Meta E5 senior software engineer interview process starts with an online assessment (OA), followed by 4 interview rounds after an initial recruiter call. You'll complete the OA first, then move to a technical phone screen, and finally the full loop of onsite interviews with 2 coding rounds, 1 system design or product architecture round, and 1 behavioral round. The entire process typically takes 3 to 4 weeks from start to finish, though scheduling can vary.
Meta uses these rounds to evaluate both your technical skills and leadership potential at the senior level. The system design and behavioral interviews carry the most weight for determining your final level and hire decision. In fact, your behavioral interview performance alone can often decide whether you're hired as an E5 or potentially down leveled to E4! Strong demonstration of leadership and architecture skills in those rounds is essential for an E5 hire decision.
For the design round, you'll do either a system design or product architecture interview where the choice is based on the role your interviewing for. "Software Engineer, Infrastructure" will have a system design interview, while "Software Engineer, Product" will have a product architecture interview.
The interview consists of 6 total rounds:
- Online Assessment (OA)
- Technical Phone Screen (Coding)
- Onsite (Usually virtual)
- Coding (2 rounds, 1-2 problems each)
- System Design or Product Architecture
- Behavioral
If you pass, you'll move onto team match and finally, offer negotiation.
Interview Rounds
Online Assessment (OA)
Meta's online assessment is the first screening step, administered through CodeSignal with full video and microphone monitoring throughout the 90 minute session. This is a new addition to Meta's process as of 2025. You'll need to pass this before moving to the phone screen stage.
The assessment consists of a single complex problem divided into 4 progressive stages that unlock sequentially. Recent examples include designing an in memory database with key value operations or implementing a cloud based file storage service. Each stage builds on the previous one:
- Stage 1: Basic core features (simple get/set operations) - tests fundamental correctness and corner case handling
- Stage 2: Additional constraints (TTL expiration mechanism) - introduces new functionality
- Stage 3: Advanced capabilities (point-in-time queries or data versioning) - more complex features
- Stage 4: Performance-intensive operations (deletion with concurrency handling) - the most challenging
You can see high-level overviews of all stages at the start, but detailed requirements and method signatures are only revealed when you unlock each stage by passing the previous stage's tests. The problems focus on practical system implementation rather than traditional algorithm puzzles - think designing working systems with multiple components.
You're allowed to open reference tabs for programming syntax but cannot search for solutions or use AI tools. The platform provides viewable unit tests (which you cannot modify) and includes a separate scratch area where you can write debug code or print statements to test your solution.
Minor inefficiencies are acceptable as long as your solution is correct for each stage's requirements. Environment constraints are provided mainly to prevent extremely slow solutions, but efficiency isn't the primary concern. Your OA performance will be considered alongside your phone screen, so doing poorly here means you'll need to excel in the phone screen to compensate.
Technical Phone Screen
This 45 minute screening round is your final gate before the onsite loop. You'll typically solve 2 medium difficulty LeetCode problems using CoderPad, with about 35 minutes allocated to coding (5 minutes for greetings and questions at the end). If you solve one problem very quickly, the interviewer might give you a third small question, but two solid problems are the norm.
The questions tend to cover core data structures and algorithms ie. array/string manipulation, hashing, trees, graphs, etc. The problems might be unrelated to each other, as Meta interviewers sometimes deliberately choose questions from different topics to gauge your breadth. Dynamic programming is generally not expected at this stage.
Meta values speed and problem solving agility over having a completely polished, bug free implementation on the first try. Minor syntax errors or small bugs won't automatically fail you if your solution approach is sound and you can reason about issues when prompted. It's fine to write a rough solution and then iterate, just make sure you can demonstrate clear thinking and cover edge cases by the end.
If you falter on one of the two questions, there's usually little time to recover, so practice managing the 35 minutes of coding time effectively. This round is essentially a gatekeeper. A strong performance here is required to move forward, and some candidates receive feedback like "not a strong hire decision, but enough to move to onsite," which means you'll need to step up your game in the onsite interviews.
Coding Interviews (2 rounds)
These are just like the phone screen, but with slightly higher expectations. You'll typically solve 1-2 problems per round, though some candidates report getting 3 questions in one round (easy → hard follow-up → another medium) depending on how quickly you solve the initial problems. The difficulty ranges from medium to hard LeetCode problems, with hards becoming increasingly common.
Meta is relatively consistent in the questions asked, especially compared to other big-tech companies. They focus heavily on arrays, strings, linked lists, binary trees, graphs, sorting, and searching. Practicing "Meta-tagged" questions on LeetCode is highly effective since Meta has a pool of favorite questions that appear frequently. Meta likes questions that involve some clever insight or "trick," but overall the problems are slightly easier on average than Google's - they prioritize finding clean, efficient solutions quickly over highly intricate puzzles.
You are evaluated on four main aspects:
- Problem Solving: Demonstrates the ability to understand, analyze, and break down complex problems into manageable parts. Uses logical reasoning and critical thinking to arrive at effective solutions.
- Code Quality: Writes clean, maintainable, and efficient code. Follows best practices and coding standards. Demonstrates a deep understanding of algorithms, data structures, and design patterns.
- Verification: Ensures the functionality and reliability of code by writing comprehensive tests. Understands the importance of different testing methodologies (unit, integration, system) and applies them appropriately.
- Communication: Clearly articulates thought processes, design decisions, and code implementation. Collaborates effectively with peers, seeking and providing feedback when necessary.
Meta values speed and problem-solving agility over having a completely polished implementation on the first try. They explicitly allow minor bugs if you can demonstrate strong algorithmic thinking and can debug issues when prompted. The goal is having working code for the problem by the end, even if not perfectly optimized.
Live, up-to-date
Most commonly asked Coding questions
Meta
Senior
System Design or Product Architecture Interview (1 round)
This 45 minute interview is crucial for E5 level determination and you'll get to choose between two types: System Design or Product Architecture. Both use Excalidraw as the standard whiteboarding tool, so practice with this platform beforehand.
There's significant confusion about these two interview types, even within Meta itself. Many interviewers don't fully understand the distinction, and you might get similar questions in both formats. Here's what actually happens:
Product Architecture
Product Architecture is almost always a user facing product question. You'll design systems like Ticketmaster, Uber, Instagram, or Facebook News Feed. Complete products that users directly interact with. The focus is more so on API design, user experience flows, data modeling, and client server interactions but you'll still design the full backend of the system in the majority of cases.
Live, up-to-date
Most commonly asked Product Architecture questions
Meta
Senior
System Design
System Design can go either way. In theory, System Design focuses more on infrastructure and backend components like distributed caches, rate limiters, ad click aggregators, or data pipelines. But in reality, you'll often get asked to design user facing products too. The difference is that when you get a user facing product in System Design, the discussion tends to focus more on the backend architecture, scalability challenges, database design, and system internals rather than user experience flows.
Live, up-to-date
Most commonly asked System Design questions
Meta
Senior
Both interview types evaluate the same four competencies: problem navigation, solution design, technical excellence, and technical communication. The main practical differences are around team matching. Product Architecture interviews are for "SWE, Product" (fullstack engineer) positions, while System Design interviews are for "SWE, Infrastructure" (backend engineer) positions.
The competency breakdown is as follows:
- Problem Navigation: Effectively identifies and understands the core challenges and requirements of a system. Prioritizes and focuses on the most critical aspects of the problem.
- Solution Design: Crafts scalable, efficient, and robust system architectures. Balances trade-offs between performance, scalability, maintainability, and cost.
- Technical Excellence: Demonstrates a deep understanding of various technologies, tools, and best practices. Stays updated with the latest trends and innovations in system design.
- Technical Communication: Clearly and effectively communicates design decisions, trade-offs, and the rationale behind them. Can explain complex technical concepts in a way that is accessible to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
This choice affects team matching since different teams look for different skill sets. If you get a user facing product question in System Design, expect deeper technical discussions about scalability, database sharding, caching strategies, and handling millions of concurrent users. If you get the same question in Product Architecture, expect more focus on API design, user workflows, and feature implementation.
For more details on the differences and which to choose, read our comprehensive guide.
Behavioral Interview (1 round)
The behavioral interview evaluates cultural fit and leadership potential essential for E5 level. You'll be asked questions about your past experiences and the interviewer will be interpreting these past actions to infer your future behavior.
For E5 candidates, Meta expects stories demonstrating: ownership of projects that impacted entire teams (requiring 3+ people), proactive initiatives you drove from conception to completion, experience navigating ambiguous situations and building consensus among stakeholders, and examples of cross functional collaboration and conflict resolution. The interviewer will dig deep into your role, the challenges you faced, and the specific actions you took. Quantify your impact wherever possible and be prepared to discuss failures and what you learned from them.
You'll be evaluated on 5 core competencies:
- Resolving Conflicts: Handles conflicts and challenging relationships appropriately. Addresses conflicts rather than trying to avoid it. Approaches difficult conversations or situations with empathy for others perspectives, needs, and goals.
- Driving Results: Drives progress towards results by balancing analytics and decisive action. Pushes self and others to deliver against objectives. Is self-directive and proactive in making progress with the most critical work despite obstacles or roadblocks.
- Embracing Ambiguity: Maintains effectiveness operating in unambiguous and quickly changing situations. Comfortable making decisions and sustains high levels of productivity, despite missing information or lack of clarity.
- Growing Continuously: Seeks out and values opportunities to grow and learn, even when it comes from failure or mistakes.
- Communicating Effectively: Provides timely, clear, concise information with others and adjusts communications to be appropriate for the audience.
Our recommendation is to have 2 stories ready for each of the 5 competencies.
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Most commonly asked Behavioral questions
Meta
Senior
1. Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a coworker. How did you resolve it?
2. What project are you most proud of?
3. Give me an example of a tough or critical piece of feedback you received.
4. Tell me about a project where the requirements were not clear or kept changing. How did you adapt and maintain productivity?
5. What is the last constructive criticism you received?
What to Expect
Based on the feedback from our users, here are some insights about what to expect in the Meta E5 interview process.
What Surprised Candidates Most
The biggest surprise for most candidates is how deep Meta goes into system design details. One candidate noted, "The system design interviewer kept asking 'but what if you have 100x more users?' I ended up redesigning the database sharding strategy three times. Come prepared with scaling numbers memorized." Unlike other big tech companies, Meta interviewers really push for specific throughput calculations and cache invalidation strategies rather than staying at a high level.
The behavioral round also carries more weight than many expect. As one successful candidate explained, "My behavioral interviewer was the loop lead and spent 45 minutes on just two stories. They wanted to know exactly what I personally did, not what my team accomplished. The mock behavioral interviews I did really helped me practice getting specific about my individual contributions." Meta specifically probes for examples of leading without authority and driving cross-team initiatives - they're not interested in stories where you were just a contributor.
In coding rounds, candidates were surprised by the expectation to mentally execute code line by line. "Coding interviews felt faster-paced than Google or Amazon. They want to see you get to a working solution quickly, then iterate. I spent too long optimizing my first solution instead of just making it work," shared one candidate. Interviewers often ask "what happens when we run this with input X?" mid-interview, so you need to be comfortable tracing through your logic verbally.
Most Effective Preparation Strategies
The most effective preparation strategy across the board was practicing Meta-tagged questions on LeetCode. Meta has a relatively predictable question pool, making targeted practice highly effective. For system design, successful candidates emphasized memorizing realistic numbers - database read/write speeds, cache latencies, network bandwidth - because Meta expects you to make capacity estimates that actually make sense. One candidate shared, "Doing guided system design practice really helped me get comfortable with the back-and-forth nature of Meta's interviews. You need to be ready for them to challenge every decision."
Having 8-10 polished behavioral stories with quantified impact proved crucial. One candidate advised, "Have specific numbers ready - 'I reduced latency by 200ms for 50M daily users' hits different than 'I improved performance.' Meta loves metrics." The key is being ready for deep follow-ups about your specific role versus your team's contributions.
Top Tips from Successful Candidates
Speed matters more than perfection in coding rounds. "Don't get stuck on perfect variable names or optimal solutions. Meta values quick, working solutions that you can iterate on. I passed with a brute force solution that I explained how to optimize," one successful candidate shared. The biggest adjustment many face is coding without being able to run your code - "The phone screen was make-or-break. I stumbled on the first question and barely had time for the second. Getting feedback on my coding speed through mock interviews was a game-changer."
Meta interviewers love discussing tradeoffs. "They asked about trade-offs constantly. 'Why Redis over Memcached?' 'Why REST over GraphQL?' Have opinions backed by experience, not just textbook knowledge," noted one candidate. Another emphasized, "The biggest difference at Meta is they want to hear your thought process. Even when stuck, explain what you're considering. Silence kills you here."
Additional Insights
A few more patterns worth noting from candidate experiences. The online assessment seems to be a significant hurdle for many, with one candidate sharing, "The OA was harder than I expected. I only got through 3 stages but still passed to phone screen. Don't panic if you don't finish all 4 - most people don't." This suggests that while challenging, not completing all stages isn't necessarily disqualifying.
For those choosing Product Architecture over System Design, the distinction becomes clearer in practice. "Product Architecture was basically system design but with more focus on APIs and user flows. I got asked to design Instagram and spent most of the time on the feed ranking algorithm and caching strategy. Practicing both types beforehand helped me understand which format suited my background better," explained one candidate. The core technical depth remains similar, but the entry point and discussion framing shifts toward user-facing features and API design patterns.
The consensus across all feedback is that Meta values transparency of thought over getting everything perfect. Whether you're debugging code in real-time, explaining why you chose one caching strategy over another, or walking through how you handled a difficult stakeholder situation, the key is letting interviewers see how you think through problems step by step.
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