Your Initial Leadership Interview

What to expect

Your initial interview with Facebook consists of a 45-minute discussion with one of our
engineering leaders.

Facebook seeks leaders that have the intellectual capacity and technical expertise to solve deep,
challenging problems. Additionally, we look for managers that can communicate clearly and in a
compelling fashion to a wide variety of stakeholders and across diverse subjects.

To assess these skills, the interviewer might ask you to talk through a situation where you
worked cross-functionally to remove a significant barrier for your team. On the other hand, your
interviewer may want you to describe a work experience that you think was particularly
interesting, challenging, or relevant to leadership opportunities at Facebook. In short, you will be
asked to tell a lot of stories about relevant experiences.

When it comes to managing people, hierarchical or top-down managers aren't the norm at
Facebook. The most successful managers support and motivate their teams, provide career
guidance, and work to ensure their success. You'll want to think about how you embody these
qualities and be ready to answer questions in a compelling, inspiring way that makes an
interviewer think "I would love to work for or with this person.”

The interview will cover 3 areas:

1. People Management & Cross-functional Collaboration

2. Technical Design & Architecture
3. Q&A

1) People Management and Cross-Functional Collaboration

This part of the discussion will focus on behavioral or situational questions. (i.e. “Can you provide
an example of...?” or “Tell me about a time that...”)

• How do you help people manage their careers?

• What's an example of a tough management situation you’ve dealt with?
• A Tech Lead on your team tells you “I want to be a manager.” How do you respond?
• How do you approach 1:1s with your team, and what do you talk about?
• What’s the value of 1:1s with your team members?
• Give an example of a conflict between teammates and how you resolved it.
• Have you ever had to fire someone?
 • Give an example of when Eng. wanted to prioritize Project X but data science or design
disagreed?
• How do you reason about Engineering Excellence-type work with less technical partners?
• Talk me through a conflict with an XFN team member and how your resolved it
• How do you work with less or non-technical colleagues such as designers or PMs?

2) Technical Design & Architecture

The technical portion of the interview will focus on your past experiences designing & building
systems/products.

• Describe a system/product/app you or your team built.

• How did you evaluate the design of your system?
• How did you test performance and scalability?
• Did you have to iterate on the design?
• Looking back, what would you have done differently?

3) Q&A

This is a chance for you to learn more about what it’s like to be an engineering leader at FB,
specific leadership opportunities with us, and anything else that you’re curious about.