michaelnovati

I'm not entirely qualified to comment but can give some information from from what I've observed.

1. There isn't like a single "algorithm" somewhere making decisions. Elon Musk talked about open sourcing Twitter's algorithms after (if) the acquisition goes through and I think this will be really hard. The "algorithm" is a complex set of many pieces. Some of which are indeed more algorithm-like processes that can be written out. Some of them are extremely subtle and nuanced product decisions that impact how people use the product. Knowing just the algorithms I mentioned won't really help anyone with anything, because user behavior is impacted by all kinds of non-algorithmic product decisions. Even seeing the entire source code would not give a good look into this.
2. There are people who care at the companies. The way intellectual property treated in the United States, where most of these companies are based, mean that companies have to keep all information about their processes secret. I actually think people would love to talk more about how things work and I think that would be much more effective than trying to have outside experts examine these algorithms.

It wasn't so giant when I started haha. The people I worked with were really smart, hardworking, and passionate about building things that the people using Facebook loved and found useful. For example, I started a product to support private college campus communities on Facebook and it was really rewarding to see the value that students got from having these safe spaces.

Yeah, I'm friends with Zuck and he's always been really nice and I don't get a lot of the portrayal! He's super competitive, and strategic, but he would ask how I was feeling when I was sick, and send gifts and what not.

Hi nice to meet you. So at the top tier tech companies, a degree really isn't that important or a requirement to get or do a job in most cases. But that said, if you are in South America and would want to move to the United States, where most of these companies are based, then you might have immigration issues not having a degree. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm from Canada originally, and know that not having a degree can make it harder to physically go to the USA.

There could be a few paths. There are some decent engineering markets in South America, like in Brazil, parts of Mexico, Columbia. I would maybe see if you can get a job at a company there is EITHER one of the leading South American based tech companies OR a company that does a lot of work for a big tech company in the USA. Once you have a year or more experience on paper that will get you more interview opportunities and you can go from there.

Additionally, it's a really good time right now to work remotely as many companies, like Airbnb, are supporting remote work. I don't know the laws in your specific country, but if you are employed at a local Airbnb office for example, your country might have employment laws about you should look into (for example if there is a job posting that requires a degree, and you get it without a degree, someone might be able to sue the company because they gave the job to someone not meeting the qualifications... this is a hypothetical but I've seen stuff like this in some places)

Hi! At Facebook the interview process is the same for all individual engineers (ICs) E4+. In the onsite you'll do 2 coding interviews, 1 half coding/half behavioral, and 1 system design (SD) (sometimes adapted to your role, like product or frontend).

The key difference is the expectations in the SD interview. A more junior person will be tested on their approach and more basic knowledge of various pieces of a large system. A very senior candidate will be tested on their ability to give more alternates, more pros and cons, and more thoughtful examples leveraging their existing experience. Experience with big scale products can't really be faked, so this interview is aiming to test and calibrate that experience against Facebook's bar.