Facebook Data Engineer Interview Process

Facebook data engineering interviews can be challenging to get through. Quality data engineers are also vital to Facebook’s success, given that it is a heavily data-driven company. No wonder the hiring bar is high, as is the compensation. Solid fundamentals, robust preparation, and interviewing skills are needed in conjunction to crack such competitive interviews. 

According to levels.fyi, the average annual compensation of a Facebook data engineer is $244,000. If you are preparing for a Facebook data engineer interview, this article has all the key things you need to know about the Facebook data engineer interview process.

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In this article, we’ll cover:

• What Does a Facebook Data Engineer Do?
• Facebook Data Engineer Interview Process
• Skills Needed to Become a Facebook Data Engineer
• Key Topics for Facebook Data Engineer Interview
• FAQs on Facebook Data Engineer Interview Process

What Does a Facebook Data Engineer Do?

There are several data engineering teams at Facebook, and each team handles different sets of responsibilities. These teams include Facebook App Monetization (FAM), Novi Blockchain Data Engineering, Data Warehouse, Family Ecosystems, Facebook Video Distribution, Partnerships Central Systems, Data, and Tools Team. The responsibilities of a Facebook data engineer include:

• Optimizing, managing, and overseeing data retrieval systems
• Building data pipelines and algorithms
• Building infrastructures, frameworks, and tools to support product teams
• Contributing to product decisions involved in the design, software engineering, product management, research, data science, etc., associated with the product.

To understand more about what the role entails, check out our post on the roles and responsibilities of data engineers.

Facebook Data Engineer Interview Process

The Facebook data engineer interview process typically involves the following stages, which are similar to the stages for most tech roles at Facebook:

Phone Screen Round (30-45 minutes)

An initial HR recruiter phone screen is aimed at verifying the background and skills mentioned in your resume, seeing if you have a shot at the job and can be a good fit for Facebook. If the basics check out, you move on to a technical screen.

Technical Screen Round (About an hour)

The technical screen is often a phone screen but can sometimes be an in-person interview. It is conducted by a peer/Facebook Engineer, and you need to solve several SQL and coding problems in a timed environment to get through. You’ll have a simple editor to solve these problems that will not auto-complete or give syntax suggestions. If you clear this interview, you will be invited for a series of on-site interviews.

You can also read how to prepare for data engineer interviews to get interview-ready.

On-site Round (4 rounds, totaling 4-5 hours)

• Three problem-solving rounds: In these rounds, they want to test your knowledge of data engineering concepts and technical skills like coding. They want to know your thoughts on the data engineering-related issues associated with the company and how you can help solve those issues. You can expect questions revolving around these topics in the problem-solving interviews.
• A behavioral round: This interview tests your professionalism, company/role/team fit, leadership skills and ownership, self-awareness, growth, drive, and willingness to be a team player. You can expect questions involving hypothetical scenarios where you need to share how you’d respond. Behavioral interviews also commonly involve questions related to your strengths, weaknesses, and interests. This round becomes progressively more important as we consider more and more senior-level positions at Facebook.

Don’t forget to prep your resume as well with the help of the data engineer resume guide.

Skills Needed to Become a Facebook Data Engineer

The top/key/essential skills and qualifications required to excel at/for Facebook data engineer roles include:

• More than one coding language and at least one OOP language
• Ability to design and implement real-time pipelines.
• Data quality and validation experience.
• SQL performance tuning and E2E process optimization.
• Ability to query massive datasets using Spark, Hive, Presto, Impala, etc.
• Anomaly or outlier detection.
• Notebook-based Data Science workflow.
• Airflow.

Think you’re ready for your next data engineering interview? Try your hands at these Facebook Data Engineer Interview Questions.

Key Topics for Facebook Data Engineer Interview

Learn as much as you can about what Facebook values in their data engineers and read about the latest developments in tech relevant to your role as a data engineer. Here are some important topics you need to cover while you prepare for your Facebook data engineer interview:

• SQL
• Data modeling
• Product Sense
• Arrays, strings, and linked lists
• Sorting and search algorithms
• Hash tables and queues
• Trees and graphs
• Recursion
• Greedy algorithms
• Dynamic programming

Want to know how much you’d get paid as a Facebook data engineer? Check out our article on Facebook Data Engineer Salaries at Different Levels.

FAQs on Facebook Data Engineer Interview Process

Q1. How many job openings at Facebook can I apply for at once?

According to Facebook careers, you can apply for up to 3 job openings at once. Applying for roles that align with your work experience and specific skills is key to increasing your chances of success.

Q2. Is data engineering a promising career?

Yes. Data engineering is a highly technical field involving programming, maths, analytics, etc. Data-driven companies like Facebook are only increasing in number and will always need and value quality data engineers.

Q3. Is data engineering stressful?

According to some studies, many data engineers feel burnout or desire to switch companies in the next year.

Q4. How much does a Facebook data engineer earn?

The average annual salary of a Facebook data engineer at the level IC4 is $244,000.

Q5. I applied last year for a job at Facebook and was rejected. When can I reapply next?

You need to wait one year before applying for another role at Facebook. Facebook does this to ensure candidates have enough time to develop new skills and gain the necessary experience to crack the interview before applying again.

How to Crack a Data Engineer Interview

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