How Long Does It Take For MAANG Interview Preparation?

You must have heard of FAANG—Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google—the five most reputable tech companies interviewing the top coding engineers, software engineers, and software developers to work with their dream companies. 

Since Facebook recently changed its name to Meta, the abbreviation has changed to MAANG. 

Interviews are the one opportunity everyone gets to leave an impression on employers before working somewhere. 

The MAANG interviews are usually the most important interview of your career. Hence preparing for them with proper focus is necessary. 

So let's talk about how you should prepare for the MAANG interviews.

We'll look at the MAANG interview process, MAANG interview questions, and how to prepare for MAANG interviews in an effective way.

👉 Prepare directly with MAANG professionals for personalised interivew guidance.

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What is the MAANG Interview and the Process?

The MAANG (formerly known as FAANG) interviews are one of the most challenging interviews in the tech industry. 

These IT firms choose to invest time and money in hiring skilled experts. 

Hence, you must give your best and prove you are the best fit for the position. 

The skills you gain from interviewing with a MAANG firm may be used by other top organizations such as Microsoft, Samsung, SpaceX, etc. 

The companies provide a positive working environment for all workers while requiring hard effort, passion, dedication, and a winning attitude. 

You can apply for positions like Data Analyst, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineer, Software Developer, etc. 

The interview process for MAANG typically has the following steps-

✅ Apply for the job:

‍It is pretty obvious you have to apply for a job opening at the concerned MAANG company in order to get an interview. 

You may apply with or without any proper recommendations. 

✅ HR Phone Screening:

This is a formal "meet the candidate" round. 

To determine if you are a good match for the post, you will be questioned by the employers or the HR manager of the company. 

The questions can be about your educational credentials, work experience, and a few behavioural questions.

✅ A round of phone interviews:

Following the Phone Screening, there comes a 45-minute phone interview. The candidate will get access to a site where they may develop code. 

After the COVID-induced lockdown, not many companies have the process of having on-site interviews, hence most of the MAANG interviews are completed over phone calls these days. 

Onsite interviews usually consist of four to six rounds, each focused on a different aspect, such as system design, code issues, and behavioural questions.

If the recruiter finds you an appropriate match for the position, they will pass your application on to the senior authorities to decide further.

How each MAANG company hires its employees?

⚡Connect 1:1 with MAANG hiring managers and get insider insights to ace your interivews.

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Now that we have read what the interview process looks like, let us get a quick look at what the MAANG companies' interviews looks like:

🔶 Meta (Facebook)

Here's an example of a typical Facebook screening procedure for engineers.

➡️ A basic resume review.

➡️ A technological phone screening.

➡️ A whiteboard coding test or at-home coding task.

These examinations normally last no longer than 30 minutes, and applicants should explain their solutions properly.

➡️ The last round consists of in-depth on-site interviews to assess the applicant's cultural fit.

For recruiting a candidate, each team member provides a 'yes' or 'no' response, and employees can only read each other's input after submission.

A team of hiring supervisors makes the ultimate hiring decision.

🔶 Apple

A normal Apple screening comprises the following:

➡️ A basic screening of resumes/CVs.

➡️ Two or three technical phone interviews.

The initial phone screening is done by a recruiter. 

They inform the applicant about the screening procedure and go through the candidate's employment history.

A member of the engineering team may then do a second phone screening.

➡️ Interviews using FaceTime: This phase might contain up to five 30-minute 1:1 interviews. 

Because these rounds are intended to examine applicants' technical and behavioural skills, coding questions may be included.

➡️ In-person interviews Apple's employment process is often concluded with a round of on-site interviews lasting 6 hours.

🔶 Amazon

Before the technical phone screening, Amazon may require applicants to complete some pre-interview coding tests.

➡️ Troubleshooting questions, with around 20 minutes to answer seven.

➡️ Programming or Coding questions, with around 70 minutes to answer two extensive problems.

➡️ A work simulation and logical reasoning tasks are included.

The simulation lasts about 2 hours, and the logical reasoning phase consists of 24 questions that must be answered in 35 minutes.

Then we come to the actual interview process: 

➡️ Pre-screening may involve online coding tasks and résumé screening.

➡️ Technical phone screening, comprising 1-2 interviews conducted using Amazon Chime.

The first is performed by a recruiter, and the second by a member of the engineering team.

➡️ During the phone screening, applicants' technical and behavioural abilities are evaluated. 

They may be required to use an online collaborative text editor to address data structure and algorithm coding difficulties.

➡️ On-site interviews with a group of 4-6 persons.

Applicants will be assessed on some of Amazon's Leadership Principles as well as coding difficulties and design concerns.

🔶 Netflix

Netflix’s hiring process looks something like this:

➡️ The procedure begins with a 30-45-minute phone screening with a recruiter.

Applicants are questioned about their interest in working at Netflix, as well as their skill set and experience, as well as questions regarding the Netflix culture.

➡️ A technical phone screen is then done by a recruiting or engineering team manager.

➡️ Engineers are sometimes given a take-home project test instead of a technical phone screen. They will have 6-8 hours to do the assignment.

➡️ On-site interviews are divided into two sections. 

In the first step, applicants participate in four 45-minute technical interviews with various team members. 

Applicants may be required to complete whiteboard challenges or code difficulties (usually related to data structures and algorithms).

The second portion of the session involves three discussions with human resources, the recruiting manager, and the engineering team manager. 

Each session lasts 45 minutes and contains questions about behaviour and culture, however, the engineering team manager may ask some technical questions.

🔶 Google

The following is Google's general recruiting procedure:

➡️ Screening of resumes: Candidates submit their resumes via the internet portal, and Google's talent acquisition staff reviews them. 

➡️ Stage of screening: Google's interview procedure varies by position, but most tech opportunities include coding tests and phone screening. 

Recruiters may also give project work to applicants in order to better grasp their skill set.

➡️ Extensive interviews: Google's interview process is demanding, and they may conduct three to four interviews in a single day. 

The interviews are designed to discover more about an applicant's qualifications, talents, and cultural fit.

➡️ After the screening process is completed, Google contacts successful candidates and begins onboarding new workers.

Questions asked during a MAANG interview

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When preparing for MAANG interviews, it is essential to know what type of questions will be asked during the respective rounds. 

You should know the questions you might be asked and prepare your answers in advance. 

This will show that you were interested in the job and have made an effort to leave an impression in your interview. 

The questions asked in a MAANG interview are categorized into three sections- 

• Behavioural questions
• Situational or competency-based questions
• Technical questions - Coding questions and system design questions

⭐️ Behavioural questions

As the name suggests, these questions are related to your behaviour, skills, and personality. Some examples of the questions that may be asked during the interview are-

• How do you encourage yourself, your coworkers, or your team to work?
• What were your exact positions and duties in the previous experiment you worked on?
• How do you establish and sustain valuable connections with colleagues who work in different locations?
• Tell us about that one project that made you the proudest. What was your contribution to it?

⭐️ Situational questions

Again, as the name suggests, the questions asked in this section are related to some situations that may arise in the companies. 

This is to review how you would handle a complicated situation in your work environment. 

Some examples of the questions that may be asked during the interview are-

• Describe your most tough customer and how you dealt with their requirements.
• How can you ensure that your coworkers are held accountable?
• What would you do if you were requested to execute a task but didn't know how?
• Describe how you would overcome the issue of working on a team project with a tricky coworker.

Read: STAR Interview Method + How to Answer HR Interview Questions

⭐️ Technical questions

In this section, questions regarding your experience in the technical department. 

The questions may vary from conditional questions to actual coding. 

The questions are usually divided into two subsections:

• Coding questions
• System design questions

Some examples of the questions that may be asked during the interview are-

• How would you analyze and resolve a sluggish website with two application servers and one database server? (Amazon)
• Create and implement an algorithm to repair mistakes. What would you do, for example, if an extra letter was added? (Facebook)
• Which coding language are you most familiar with?
• When should you denormalize your database design?
• Find all substrings of a given string (every = every, ever, very). (Google)
• How many gallons of milk do Google employees consume every day? (Google)
• Write C++ code to reverse the order of words in a string without using an additional buffer. (Google)
• What exactly is a SAN, and how does it work?

Questions based on Data structures and Algorithms

🔷 Array skills

• Remove all even integers from the array
• Two Sorted Arrays Should Be Merged
• In an array, find the first non-repeating integer
• Find the second-highest value in an array

🔷 Graph Problems

• Use Breadth-First Search
• Use Depth First Search
• Cycle detection in Graph

🔷 Linked List concepts

• Determine the Length of a Linked List
• Singly Linked List Search
• How to Reverse a Linked List
• Determine the Middle Value of a Linked List

How To Prepare For MAANG Interview?

BTry a free 1:1 mentorship session with a MAANG mentor to ace your interview prep.

In order to prepare for the MAANG Interview, it may take from five months to around a year, depending on your speed and requirement. 

You should have proper command over Data Structures and Algorithms, Database Systems, Object-oriented Programming Concepts, Operating Systems concepts, etc.  

Here is a guide on preparing for the most significant job opportunity of your career and cracking the interview with ease!

➡️  Research about the company:

‍Before applying for the job opening, you should know the company in depth. 

Take a few weeks to study the company you have applied to, getting a deep understanding of how things work there. 

Learn about the items or services the company provides, how frequently new products or services are released, and what their work culture is like. 

Analyze corporate blogs, team member evaluations, and other resources.

Evaluate the interview process and the skills required for the job profile. 

Further, learn and polish your coding and software-related skills in order to have an idea of what the interview might look like.

➡️  Build your resume:

‍Your resume is your selling point. It should be written to highlight all your strengths and unique skill set. 

Your education is not as essential to your resume if you are not from a Tier 1 school (MIT, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, etc.).

Your resume should ideally be one page long and include the following information:

• Work Experience
• Externships and internships
• The highest degree earned
• Technical abilities
• Projects (the more recent, the better)
• Technological achievements

It is essential to have a complete and impressive LinkedIn profile as well. We will be discussing it further. 

Read: Resume Writing Guide for 2023 (With Dos and Don'ts)

➡️  Polish your Data Structure and Algorithm skills:

‍All MAANG firms conduct technical interviews. 

Practising code challenges, whether for the profession of software engineer, software developer, or coding engineer, should be an essential component of your interview preparation.

You should talk about your knowledge of Data Structure and Algorithms in such a way that it shows your intelligence and comfort with the skills. You can talk about a variety of things, such as-

• Computer networks
• Programming language
• Algorithms
• System design
• Data structures

➡️  Practice with mock interviews or a mentor:

Mock interviews are an excellent method to gauge your level of preparation. 

You can start practising with peers, seniors, mentors, or members of your network who have completed MAANG interviews.

Having someone who has experience in MAANG Interviews. 

A mentor will give you the exact knowledge and insights into how the interview process works and what the interviewers usually look for in a team member. 

Luckily, you can find a perfect mentor here that matches your requirement and has the experience which will help you guide towards cracking the interview. 

Importance of a complete LinkedIn Profile

A LinkedIn Profile can get you to places you want. 

Recruiters now usually post jobs on LinkedIn since it has become a hotspot for job-seekers. 

But why is it essential for you to build an impressive profile on LinkedIn?

• The companies hiring or the recruiters come to you if they find your profile attractive and worthy of the job.
• It is a more accessible platform to get job offers from verified companies.
• Recruiters spend hours searching for candidates like you to hire in their companies. Your profile must be impressive enough to shine in front of recruiters.

Since now you know how important it is to have a complete and impressive profile on LinkedIn, let's learn how to build one in simple steps.

👉 Include a professional profile picture:

‍Your profile picture needs to look professional. According to LinkedIn, a profile picture gives your profile your face and provides over 21 times extra views by recruiters. 

Make sure your profile picture is in focus, well-fitted, and recent. 

👉 Provide the necessary contact information:

Providing the required contact information is essential for the recruiters to contact you in case they find your profile impressive enough. 

Add your location, contact number, website, email, and address to your profile if you are comfortable sharing the info. 

Hence make it a bit accessible for the recruiters to reach out to you.

👉 Include a detailed, well-chosen headline:

‍Your headline is the second most noticed part of your LinkedIn profile. 

It can be around 120 characters or shorter, so keep it focused and include the keywords that will help you get the job you want. 

It can be a mixture of your current job title, your creative values, and the target audience. Get creative with it!

👉 Organize your experience in the industry:

Your experience is a massive part of your career growth. 

Since your resume should stay a page long on LinkedIn, you can include as many details about your past jobs as possible. 

Even if you had a career change, do not remove your past experience. Be confident in your past knowledge as well.

Read: How to Make Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out: With Examples

Questions to Ask in a MAANG Interview

After your primary onsite interview, the employers will ask if you have questions for them.

Never miss this opportunity! 

Oftentimes the candidates miss out on the most crucial opportunity to show that they are interested in this job and the company. 

Have your questions ready to be asked since this is one of the most significant ways you can shine during your MAANG Interview. 

Companies usually look for employees who are not afraid to ask questions to show that they understand your job and its responsibilities.

Some topics you should ask questions on in a MAANG interview are-

• Tech:
• System Designs:
• Upcoming Projects:
• Work Culture:

You can prepare for a MAANG interview in three to five months if you wish. 

It ultimately depends on how much time you will spend on the interview preparations. 

And yet you might make mistakes during your interview, which is normal.

You may not succeed on the first attempt. 

It's only when you don't give up on applying and acing the MAANG interviews.

At Preplaced, we are happy to help you understand the process better and prepare for the interviews.

You can choose from 300+ preplaced mentors who are industry experts, for a mentor-guided interview prep experience.

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More helpful guides:

Decoding Amazon AWS SDE Interview - Process and Preparation

The Ultimate Guide to Crack Apple Software Engineer Interview