Just finished the Meta frontend SWE loop for an E4 role on one of the Reality Labs teams. Going to write this up while it's fresh.
First: Meta frontend interviews are not like most company frontend interviews. There's no 'implement a debounce function' or 'build a modal in React.' At Meta it's core CS/algorithms, same as the backend loop. They do not test JavaScript-specific skills in the coding rounds. Zero.
What the loop looked like for me: Initial recruiter call Two coding screens (video, 45 min each, LeetCode style) Virtual onsite: 2 more coding rounds + 1 Jedi behavioral + 1 system design
The system design round for frontend is different from backend SD. They're going to ask you to design a client-side system: something like 'design a live commenting component that works at scale,' 'design a photo upload flow,' or 'design the architecture for a real-time collaborative doc.' They want to see: state management thinking, API contract design, pagination/virtualization for large data, accessibility considerations, and where you put logic (client vs. server).
I got a question about designing a notification feed with read/unread state that had to work offline. That was interesting. They cared about local state, sync conflicts, and how to reconcile with the server when you come back online.
Coding rounds: Both onsite coding rounds were graph or tree problems for me. One sliding window, one graph with state. Nothing React-specific. If you're a frontend dev who's been avoiding DSA because 'I don't do backend,' this is your wake-up call.
What helped: LeetCode Meta tag (the 75 most common ones) Reading through articles on how Facebook.com handles feed rendering -- not to regurgitate, just so I could talk intelligently in SD Practicing the client-side SD format specifically
Timeline: 5 weeks from first recruiter contact to verbal offer. Debrief took 8 days which felt like forever.