Interview at Meta - Screen - Length
I watched Alan Stein's Crack the Amazon Behavioral Interview: Mock Breakdown and I wonder if my answer was too long or too short at 3 minutes. I also was given a system design question (all of this was upon phone screen with a in-house/internal recruiter from Meta who was pretty junior) and I was not given a whiteboard or ability to use Excalidraw. The interview lasted about 45 minutes and I had like 3 questions from the interview.
Did I go too long winded in my interview? Also is it typical you get a random system design question (as the last one) upon a recruiter screen? This was last year and I wonder how standard it is and I am told it is not.
There were other red flags in the interview, they also told me what total compensation and benefits would be in the beginning of the interview, which I also found confusing since I was always told you can negotiate upon offer, and that would be in the later stages of the interview process.
![Mid-Level Software Engineer [SDE 2] at Amazon company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Famazon_logo.jpg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Dff5f2302-08be-43bc-b7b1-d381ba508d99&w=48&q=75){kind=logo}
Discussion
(3 comments)- 2a month agoFounder @ Yogi Sharma Coaching, Ex-Facebook
they also told me what total compensation and benefits would be in the beginning of the interview, which I also found confusing since I was always told you can negotiate upon offer, and that would be in the later stages of the interview process
You can of course negotiate upon offer, but they can also say anything -- I have been told in interviews things that were flat wrong (this is the best than anybody get paid at this company, e.g.). Here are a couple of things that would help you keep you sane in interview process.
- Accept that sometimes, people say things that are not 100% true, and not everybody has the same level of honesty as you do.
- People don't really mean what they say. Everything is negotiable.
Happy to expand on it further if that is helpful.
About the 3 minutes system design, seems like a bad interviews / recruiter. :-)
- 1a month agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
It's very unusual to have a system design question with a recruiter. And even more odd that you were only given 5 minutes...
This makes me think it wasn't a proper (technical) system design interview, but more of a recruiter pre-screen before you talk to the engineers.
In general, with interviews, you need to judge the interviewer's tone and body language to determine how quickly to go. Are you sensing that they want a quick answer so they can move on? Or do they want something in more detail?
It can help to ask them directly before you go on some long-winded explanation:
How does that sound? Should I proceed?
That way, you don't waste time unnecessarily. Remember, in these types of interviews, It’s A Conversation.
- 0
a month agoSenior Software EngineerTaro CommunityAnd note, the system design question, I had like 5 minutes to answer and it was like what the heck...the 3 minute response was the intro 'tell me about yourself' question.
