This was an interview for the analyst side of Facebook rather than the ML team. A recruiter reached out and discussed the interview process with me, though I did not advance beyond the phone interview stage. Following the discussion with the recruiter, a phone interview was scheduled with a Facebook data scientist. The person I interviewed with was great to speak with and well-versed in how Facebook works (answered all my questions with clear knowledge of the company).
The interview was conducted via video and a code-sharing website. As with most Facebook interviews, there was a SQL question and a business case question. The SQL question was not as difficult as I was expecting, but I flubbed some basic maths in the process by trying to make it more complicated than it needed to be. I'm not sure if that was the sole reason I did not move forward, but I'm sure there were candidates who answered the question flawlessly.
The business case scenario was interesting, and again I think I did reasonably well but not excellent. There were several terms that I was unfamiliar with (e.g., countermetrics) and I was quite upfront about my lack of knowledge during those parts of the interview. I am coming straight from academia and am not going to fake business knowledge. I prepared quite a bit in learning/brainstorming metrics and business case scenarios, so I'm not sure if more preparation would have helped.
In the end, the process was clear, well-managed, and friendly. Facebook does a great job with this compared to other companies I interviewed with, so I was impressed. I was not particularly interested in the position because the side of Facebook DS I was interviewing for was the analytics side and I am much more interested in ML work - something to be aware of if you are applying.
