[2025][Meta] E4 Production Engineer Interview Experience
After months of preparation and anticipation, I finally completed my interview process for a Production Engineer (E4) role at Meta. I wanted to share my experience to help others who might be on a similar journey. Here's a detailed breakdown of my process, the types of questions I encountered, and how I prepared for each stage.
Background
I interviewed for an E4 (IC4) Production Engineer position at Meta in March 2025. The entire process consisted of an initial screening round followed by a comprehensive onsite interview loop.
Started Dec, Finished March, total 3ish months and i dont even know if i would accept the offer lol
The Screening Round
The screening consisted of two main components:
1. Coding Questions
File Parsing Question: I was asked to parse Dino CSV data, which involved reading from a file, manipulating the data, and outputting specific results.
Algorithm Question: A LeetCode easy-level problem based on "Goat Latin" (a string manipulation challenge).
My Preparation: I solved Meta-tagged top 100 problems on LeetCode, which proved extremely helpful.
2. Troubleshooting Exercise
Scenario: "Uncle Bernie's Website is down. Figure out why."
The Journey: This was quite interesting as the interviewer kept moving the goalposts throughout the exercise. Eventually, the root cause was identified as the disk being out of space.
My Preparation: I studied "Systems Performance" by Brendan Gregg and parts of OSTEP (Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces). Though these weren't directly applicable to this particular question, they helped build my troubleshooting mindset.
The Onsite Interview
After passing the screening, I moved to the team matching phase and was invited for an onsite interview. Due to an NDA, I can't share specific details, but here's the general structure:
1. Coding Interview
Format: Another file parsing question with numerous follow-ups that tested my ability to optimize and extend my solution.
My Performance: I felt I did really well in this round.
Preparation That Helped: Revisiting the Meta-tagged top 100 LeetCode problems, practicing file I/O in my preferred language, some articles from this site.
2. System Design Interview
Format: Standard Production Engineer system design question.
My Performance: This was likely my weakest round. Looking back, I don't think I demonstrated enough depth in my approach.
Preparation That Helped: I used the traditional Systems Design Primer, HelloInterview practice problems, and worked through sample questions. In retrospect, I should have spent more time on PE-specific design considerations.
3. Linux Interview
Format: Questions spanning various topics including memory management, processes, file systems, security fundamentals, and basic networking.
My Performance: I performed quite well in this round.
Preparation That Helped:
"Modern Operating Systems" Chapter 10
Random chapters from LPI certification materials
ChatGPT for quick reviews and practice questions
"Systems Performance" recap < did really well
4. Behavioral Interview
Format: Standard behavioral questions focused on past experiences, collaboration, conflict resolution, and technical leadership.
My Performance: I felt very confident about my performance in this round.
Preparation That Helped: STAR method practice and reflecting on meaningful projects from my career.