Meta Staff Software Engineer Interview Preparation Guide

Meta's Staff Software Engineer interview process is a rigorous, multi-stage assessment designed to evaluate deep technical expertise, system thinking, architectural leadership, and alignment with Meta's culture. The process spans 4-8 weeks and includes an initial recruiter screening, a technical phone screen with coding challenges, and a full-day onsite loop consisting of two coding rounds, two system design interviews, a behavioral assessment, and an optional project retrospective. For Staff-level (E6) candidates, the evaluation bar is exceptionally high, with interviewers assessing not only technical excellence but also your ability to influence cross-functional teams, mentor senior engineers, drive architectural decisions, and demonstrate strategic thinking about complex systems at scale.