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Senior Machine Learning Engineer Interview Preparation Guide - FAANG Standards

Machine Learning Engineer
Senior
7 rounds
Updated 11/23/2025

This guide is based on general FAANG interview practices and may not reflect specific company procedures.

Senior Machine Learning Engineer interviews at FAANG companies are comprehensive, typically spanning 5-7 rounds over 4-8 weeks. The process assesses deep technical expertise in ML algorithms and optimization, system design for production ML at scale, coding proficiency, leadership capabilities, and cultural alignment. Senior-level candidates are expected to demonstrate not only strong technical skills in model development and deployment but also the ability to design scalable ML systems, mentor others, make architectural decisions, and drive technical strategy. Interviewers evaluate your understanding of the complete ML lifecycle: data pipelines, feature engineering, model training, serving infrastructure, monitoring, and retraining strategies.

Interview Rounds

1

Recruiter Screening Call

2

Technical Coding Round - Data Structures and Algorithms

3

Machine Learning Fundamentals Interview

4

ML System Design Interview - Production Architecture

5

ML System Design Interview - Advanced Topics and Edge Cases

6

Behavioral and Leadership Interview

7

Hiring Manager Interview - Role Fit and Vision

Additional Information

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