went through this two months ago and was surprised by how different it was from what I expected based on posts I'd read.
the recruiter phone screen is typically 30 minutes. mine ran 35. my recruiter was friendly but efficient. here's how it actually broke down:
first 5-8 min: quick background. where are you, what are you working on now, why Meta why now. these aren't gotcha questions, just calibration. answer honestly and briefly. don't launch into a 10 minute life story.
middle: interest/motivation. they want to know you have a reason to be at Meta specifically, not just "big tech." I mentioned two specific products (Threads growth and Reels infrastructure) and the specific team I applied to. that landed well. generic "I love the scale" is fine but not memorable.
logistics block: this is what surprised me. they went through the full process upfront. how many rounds, rough timeline, whether there's a coding assessment before the loop, what the loop rounds are. some interviewers ask if you have other offers/timelines. I had one other screen, mentioned it neutrally, they noted it.
they do NOT: ask technical questions in this round (usually). there's sometimes a very light screening question like "describe a challenging project" but I've now talked to about 8 people who went through Meta screens in 2025-2026 and zero got a leetcode-style question in the recruiter screen itself.
one thing I wasn't ready for: they asked "what level are you targeting?" I hadn't thought about this carefully enough. if you say L5 and they see you as L4, that's a conversation. know roughly where you land and why. levels.fyi is useful here for calibrating expectations.
after the call: I got a follow-up email the same day with the coding assessment link. that part is timed (90 minutes, two problems). that's where the technical gating happens, not the phone screen.