Meta Product Designer Interview Guide

The interview process kicks off with a phone screen with a recruiter where you get asked questions about your background and resume. You can expect a mix of both technical and common behavioral questions like "Why Facebook?" OR "Walk me through your experiences in product design"

It's important that you take this opportunity to not only highlight your relevant experiences but also provide context and depth to your design thinking. For instance, if you've worked on a project involving user-centered design, share how you conducted user research, iterated designs, or tracked user satisfaction.

This stage usually involves two interviews back-to-back. One will be a project retrospective interview where you should be ready to discuss your design portfolio. The next segment will be the app critique of an existing app. You'd be asked questions like "Tell me about your favorite app and how you'd improve it."

For the project retrospective part, we'd suggest you don't just present the final outcomes but also walk the interviewer through your design process. For instance, go into the details— how you conduct usability testing and incorporate user feedback, and how it helps you refine your design decisions. 

For the latter half, you'll be given a popular app, like Instagram or Facebook, to critique and provide suggestions for improvement. Here, your focus should be on the user experience—talk about what you admire about the app and where you'd like to see improvements. Make sure you factor in aspects like usability, visual design, and overall functionality—it will demonstrate your eye for detail and your capacity to identify areas that lack in design.

This stage involves a design exercise or take-home assignment—the interviewers use this to gauge your problem-solving and design skills.

The challenge itself can vary, but it typically revolves around solving a specific design problem. One example could be "Design a mobile app interface for a new feature."

You'll be assigned a designated timeframe to accomplish the task and asked to walk your interviewers through your design thinking process.

Here, it is important to focus on clarity and usability. They'll ask multiple follow-up questions regarding your approach and process, for instance, "How do you go about identifying the optimal solution?" OR "What changes would you make compared to your previous approach?" Provide a deep dive into your design thinking—demonstrate how you prioritize user-centric design, ease of use, etc. to deliver desired results. 

Create wireframes that showcase user interactions and consider how the design adapts to different screen sizes. Additionally, if the challenge involves a user flow, map out the steps and interactions to demonstrate your attention to detail.

In the last leg of the interview process, you'll spend about four hours interacting with the interviewers. Here's a breakdown of what you can expect during your on-site visit:

In this interview, you'll be delving into a specific project from your past. For example, when you redesigned a website or undertook a significant product improvement. You'll need to deep dive into the project and share insights into your design process, solutions you implemented, etc. If you conducted competitive analysis, collaborated with developers to implement the design, and tackled technical challenges, be sure to draw focus to them. It will really give you an edge.

Interview Questions 

• Can you describe a project you've worked on, like a website redesign or product enhancement? Explain your design process, challenges faced, and how you collaborated with a team to implement the design.
• Share a time when you conducted competitive analysis for a design project. How did it impact your decisions and outcomes?
• Tell us about a project where you worked closely with developers to address technical constraints. How did you ensure a seamless design implementation?

During this interview, you’ll be asked questions like "Tell me about your favourite app. How would you improve it?" Here, it's important that you demonstrate critical thinking wrt the design, interface, user experience, and functionality of apps. Research beforehand; reflect and create a list of products or apps that you have strong opinions on. Explain your design philosophy highlighting what's important to you and how it helps you evaluate products. Then, based on that, suggest the improvements you'd like to see. For instance, customizations options, layout, more user-centric design, etc.

Interview Questions:

• Discuss your favourite app and mention its design strengths and weaknesses. How would you enhance it for a better user experience?
• Pick an app you think lacks user-centric design. Explain your design approach and suggest improvements.
• Reflect on an app you use often. How would you customise it while maintaining its overall design?

This interview assesses your problem-solving skills. You may be asked to design an app or interface for a product, or even redesign a famous app. For instance, "create a user-friendly notification system for a smart home app." Remember, your solution should be thoughtful and user-centered. The idea is to demonstrate how you can creatively address design challenges, so make sure you outline how you'd ensure the notifications are timely, relevant, and non-intrusive for the user. 

Interview Questions:

• How would you design an interface for an urban bike-sharing system?
• Can you redesign the checkout process for an e-commerce website?
• How would you design an app to help people find parking in a busy city?
• Can you design an interface for a smart home automation system?
• Can you redesign the menu system for a fast-food restaurant?
• Create an app for sending gifts.
• How would you approach solving a design issue for a mobile product?
• Design a ticketing system for public transportation.
• How would you design an interface for a wearable fitness tracker?
• Can you design an app for booking and managing doctor appointments?

In this interview, you'll be discussing your past experiences in leadership and problem-solving roles. Your interviewers will ask questions about your previous roles and specific instances, like when you overcome obstacles, how you've facilitated collaboration between teams, or contributed to fostering a positive team environment. So, make sure  you provide specific examples of actual situations or challenges where your leadership skills have made a tangible impact on projects or team dynamics

Interview Questions:

• Why are you passionate about joining Meta?
• How would you describe your design thinking? 
• Describe a time you resolved a conflict among team members during a design project. How did you approach it and reach a positive outcome?
• Share an experience where your leadership improved collaboration between different teams. How did you achieve alignment?