WhatsApp Interview Questions
& Process

This FAANG interview was a disaster. The interviewer was late and didn't apologize. They seemed uninterested from the start. The questions asked were not about WhatsApp as the recruiter said. The interview ended after only 10-15 minutes, even though it was scheduled for 30. I didn't get a chance to showcase my skills, despite preparing for days. The recruiter later said the interviewer enjoyed talking to me, which I didn't sense at all, but they decided not to proceed. It felt like a waste of time if they weren't interested initially. Very unprofessional experience.

I don't think WhatsApp is actively looking to add team members. Maybe they want to hire engineers with a specialist salary as a tactic to save costs and they open requisition and keep inviting people on site. Looking at past interviews, they bring candidates on site and don't provide offers, but re-post the requisition. I applied and they invited me for the first interview but I was switching jobs and didn't respond. They approached me after 6 months when I had a job, so I decided to try again. My first interview was a screening. The second was a teleconference, very positive and productive, with tips for the in-person interview. However, the in-person interview was disappointing. I had back-to-back one-on-one chats with four people. The first was general behavioral questions like 'How have you made changes in your job?'. The second was with a coder testing my understanding of OS, iOS memory management, threading, Virtual Memory Management, and SWP files, starting with 'What happens when you press the home screen on WhatsApp?'. I felt my OS background from my bachelor's degree was more than necessary. I answered at a level higher than a specialist, and he didn't confirm or deny my responses. The third interview was the worst, full of pointless questions to make you feel you lack skills. She showed me a staff schedule with missing blocks and asked me to suggest activities for a seamless process. I have extensive training in scheduling and have even trained others. The first step in scheduling is knowing the job process in detail. I suggested missing steps based on common sense. She also showed me a test case and asked me to improve it. I did my best, but there's no right or wrong without doing the job. My approach was to think outside the box and use common sense, but the process felt cliché, designed for recruiters who want you to fail. The ambiguity was intentional, to justify WhatsApp's cherry-picking of candidates based on personal preferences, not the interview process. The fourth interview was with a team member, a nice chat with common ground. I felt the first and last interviews were positive ('Yes'), the second was neutral ('Null'), and the third was a definite negative ('Veto No'). Good luck with your interviews, but be prepared that not getting an offer might be the norm there. It's not necessarily you. I'm an engineer and got a NO for their Specialist Role. No hard feelings! I already had a job and another offer in hand while interviewing.

The whole team, from the recruiter to the founder, was super helpful and really wanted to understand my skills and career goals. It took about 2 months from start to finish, including an initial screen, two phone interviews, and then the final onsite. The onsite was actually pretty good. It kicked off with a 45-minute portfolio presentation, then I had 7-8 one-on-one chats. Everyone I talked to had different expertise and asked a good mix of questions, and not too many were repeated, which was nice. Overall, I had a positive experience.

I got this interview through the on-campus career fair. It was an on-campus interview. First, we talked about WhatsApp and whether I use the product. Then, there were some coding questions about linked lists. The interviewer also asked about how to optimize the solution and remove if statements. Honestly, it wasn't a tough interview, but I haven't practiced data structures in a while and missed a few basic edge cases.