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Software Engineer interview questions at Meta

290 verified questions reported by Software Engineer candidates interviewing at Meta. Each one is archetype-tagged so you can see the pattern, slot the right STAR story, and practice out loud against an AI interviewer that pushes back the way a real one would.

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Top 25 verified questions

Sorted by quality score (specificity, clarity, practice-worthiness) with a tie-break on most recently observed.

  1. 1
    Describe a professional mistake you've made and walk me through how you resolved it and what you learned from the experience.
    behavioral·onsite
  2. 2
    Walk me through how you would diagnose and resolve performance bottlenecks in a solution that works for small inputs but breaks down at scale.
    situational·onsite
  3. 3
    Walk me through how you would architect a recommendation list storage system, highlighting your data structure choices and potential performance trade-offs.
    system design·onsite
  4. 4
    Walk me through the CAP theorem tradeoffs you would evaluate when designing a distributed system architecture.
    system design·onsite
  5. 5
    How would you design a message delivery system that ensures exactly-once processing in the event of a system crash?
    system design·onsite
  6. 6
    How would you design a system to safely retry message delivery without causing duplicate processing?
    system design·onsite
  7. 7
    Walk me through your approach to designing a scalable backend architecture that can support billions of concurrent Instagram user connections.
    system design·onsite
  8. 8
    Describe a situation where you successfully persuaded a technical team to adopt a feature they were initially resistant to implementing.
    behavioral·behavioral
  9. 9
    Tell me about a technical project you're most proud of and describe your specific contributions to its success.
    behavioral·behavioral
  10. 10
    Walk me through how you would architect a photo-sharing social media platform that can scale to 1 billion daily active users.
    system design·onsite
  11. 11
    How would you architect a personalized content recommendation system for a large social media platform like Meta?
    system design·onsite
  12. 12
    Walk me through a baseline algorithm for this problem, analyze its time complexity, and describe potential optimization strategies.
    technical·onsite
  13. 13
    Walk me through a technical project where you took ownership and made critical architectural or design decisions.
    behavioral·onsite
  14. 14
    Describe a situation where you successfully mediated a technical disagreement that was impacting your team's productivity.
    behavioral·onsite
  15. 15
    Walk me through how you would architect a messaging application that supports read receipts and offline synchronization.
    system design·onsite
  16. 16
    Walk me through a project where you successfully collaborated with product management, design, or another non-engineering team to solve a complex problem.
    behavioral·onsite
  17. 17
    Walk me through a challenging software project you've completed and describe the key technical or professional lessons you gained.
    behavioral·onsite
  18. 18
    Describe a challenging interpersonal situation you've navigated while working on a collaborative project and how you resolved it.
    behavioral·behavioral
  19. 19
    Table orders(order_id, user_id, amount) lists purchases. Return each user_id whose average amount is greater than 50 and who has at least 3 orders.
    technical·technical
  20. 20
    Describe a post-interview bug you found, how you debugged it, and what process changed.
    behavioral·technical deep dive·onsite
  21. 21
    Walk me through a specific instance where you improved system performance or resolved a scalability bottleneck in a production environment.
    technical·onsite
  22. 22
    Walk me through how you would solve this LeetCode medium-difficulty algorithm problem, and describe your approach to optimizing the initial solution.
    technical·onsite
  23. 23
    Describe a challenging professional situation where you had to make a difficult decision that went against the prevailing consensus.
    behavioral·behavioral
  24. 24
    Walk me through how you would design a distributed rate limiter for Meta's API that can handle millions of concurrent users with per-user request throttling.
    system design·technical
  25. 25
    How would you design a messaging system that ensures reliable message delivery and preserves conversation order?
    system design·onsite

Common questions

How many Software Engineer interview questions does Meta actually ask?

It varies by round — phone screen typically covers 5–8 questions, on-site loops cover 15–25 across multiple interviewers. The full Meta Software Engineer loop tends to surface 30+ distinct prompt patterns, which is what we've banked here.

Are these questions actually asked at Meta?

Yes — every question on this page is verified, meaning at least one candidate reported being asked it in a real Meta interview. We don't pad the list with generic prompts that weren't reported.

What's the best way to prepare for a Software Engineer interview at Meta?

Pick three to five of the questions below in your weakest archetype, run them through the practice tool out loud, and read the per-answer feedback. Most candidates who get an offer report 8–15 practice sessions in the two weeks before the interview.

Does Meta ask different questions for different Software Engineer levels?

The behavioral questions stay roughly the same; what changes is the bar on the answer. At more senior levels, Meta expects more concrete business outcomes, more stakeholder management, and more scope in the stories. The technical bar also shifts upward.

Read them. Then practice them.

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