Taking the online assessment for Meta’s Production Engineer role was a crucial part of my job hunt. As an IT student in North America, I prepared not only by practicing coding but also by thinking deeply about system design and how to improve efficiency. This role sits between software engineering and systems engineering, so the test had a mix of coding problems and questions about system reliability and scaling. The difficulty was moderate but required careful preparation.
The test had two coding problems and some multiple-choice questions, all within 90 minutes. The first coding problem involved string manipulation. The solution itself wasn’t too hard, but handling edge cases was important. My first approach was slow, and after submitting, I saw the runtime was longer than expected. I rewrote the code using a two-pointer technique, which made it faster. The second problem was more like a small system design task. It asked me to simulate how a server assigns requests and manages resources. Besides writing correct code, the solution needed to be scalable. Before coding, I spent a few minutes sketching a diagram to organize my thoughts.
The multiple-choice questions covered Linux commands, basic networking (like TCP/IP), and system calls. I prepared by checking Meta’s career site and reading about others’ interview experiences. Knowing practical uses for commands like grep, ps, and netstat helped me answer quickly and save time.
Looking back, the hardest part was managing my time and staying calm. Writing clean and clear code under pressure is important. I recommend practicing timed challenges on sites like LeetCode or HackerRank, especially on topics like multithreading, caching, and system recovery, since these relate closely to the job.
Lastly, even during the test, it’s important to write clean code with clear comments and meaningful variable names. Meta cares a lot about code quality, and these small details might be what helps you get to the next round.
Release time:2025-05-23
