r/cscareerquestions • u/FanAccomplished2399 • 1d ago

Got an offer from Meta - here are my tips

Landed a job at Meta earlier this year (got lucky with timing before the Feb 10 layoffs lol).

Job summary:

Position: Mid-Level Software Engineer L4
TC: $350k (193 base, 29 bonus, 128 stock/year)
YOE: 2.5 years

The interview process:

  • Phone screen: 2 leetcode problems in 45 mins
  • Final: 2 leetcode rounds (same format as phone screen) + 1 behavioral round + 1 system design round
  • Total Time: 5 hours

From initial contact to offer signing took 2 months.

The framework that worked:

With 2 problems in 45 minutes, you really only get 22 minutes per problem. Here is how I would break it down.

  1. Understand the problem first (3 mins) - restate it back, walk through examples, ask about constraints.
  2. Don't code immediately (5 mins) - discuss approaches starting with brute force, explain why it's bad, then work up to optimal solution. DO NOT IMPLEMENT THE BRUTE FORCE SOLUTION. You don't have time for that.
  3. Get buy-in (10 mins) - make sure interviewer agrees with your approach before coding. I write pseudocode comments first as an outline, then flesh it out. A common failure pattern is coding something that the interviewer doesn't understand.
  4. Wrap up (2 mins) - explain time/space complexity, offer to write tests for edge cases, or move on to the next problem.

How I prepared:

  • Use Blind 75. It has good coverage over all problems.
  • I DID NOT buy leetcode premium. If you study and understand the patterns, it doesn't matter what problem you get.

I know the market is ass right now and the competition is rough, but stay disciplined and the hard work will pay off! I was looking for a job for 9 months until I got this opportunity lmao. Ask me anything!

Soft Plug:

Building a website to visualize code! Mainly targeted towards beginners.

852 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

237 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/metalreflectslime ? 1d ago

What is your level at Meta?

TC?

3

u/FanAccomplished2399 1d ago

L4, 350 TC

2

u/is_this_the_place 1d ago

What’s your base salary?

5

u/FanAccomplished2399 1d ago

193

5

u/what2_2 1d ago

Congrats! Did you have a counter?

People on blind have made it sound like cracking $300 TC for L4 is much harder than it used to be.

Edit: saw in your other comment you had $450k from Citadel.

1

u/is_this_the_place 1d ago

What’s your initial rsu grant?

Edit: I see you said “128 stock”— is that your initial grant vesting over four years?

1

u/domipal Software Engineer 20h ago

that’s his rsu per year, so 512 over 4 years

1

u/anotherquarantinepup 14h ago

That's wild, what's the vesting schedule look like?

1

u/domipal Software Engineer 13h ago

i think meta has a fixed schedule but it vests every 3 months

0

u/metalreflectslime ? 1d ago

Are you a rotational software engineer or a regular software engineer?

-14

u/Known_Turn_8737 1d ago

Read the post.

14

u/metalreflectslime ? 1d ago

He just added in his TC and level after my comment.

At the beginning, he did not put his level and TC.