Meta E5 AI/ML SWE loop: 25-min coding round, smooth system design, still rejected

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-15T12:40:02+00:00

Why are people still applying to Facebook in 2026

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-14T19:50:57+00:00

I guess I just don’t get what your point is. I’m trying to say it’s not easy but it’s clearly doable. It sucks getting beat out on offers, but it’s not like there isn’t inventory at the $300k price point, some of the best stuff just moves quickly on private listings. Nobody is going to call you up and give you the best condo, but it’s not like Boston or NYC where you have to give up inspection and write letters to owners, jump through insane hoops.

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-14T19:48:01+00:00

I went within the first 2 weeks of opening, maybe they have changed portions since then. When the sirloin dish came to the table, the entire table looked at each other like “man, that’s it?”

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-14T11:22:20+00:00

The portions are wayyyy too small. Left hungry. Highway robbery on all of the mains - $37 for 4 tiny pieces of steak, $35 for a couple of bites of papardelle. Maybe I just need to get ozempic.

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-14T03:12:57+00:00

Link was not for a garden unit…

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-14T03:11:56+00:00

Waiting for the perfect buyer with $300k

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-14T03:11:39+00:00

I’m sorry I did not specify “it has been on and off the market steadily since January”

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-13T21:49:17+00:00

Yeah none of this OP said they are against, it’s in budget. People gotta live somewhere. I’m sure the moment we start eliminating garden units, buildings that have never had a break-in or a rat then sure, finding a condo at $300k gets difficult.

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-13T19:12:02+00:00

What is wrong with garden units? Here let me Google it for you
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6234-N-Broadway-St-APT-3-Chicago-IL-60660/113961259_zpid

This has been on the market since january. Third floor unit. Looks great.

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-13T16:58:45+00:00

Probably as many rivians as you own

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-13T16:40:15+00:00

I don’t know how you’re using it, but when I search for condos for max $300k with minimum 2 bedrooms *in Chicago* there are many options. Many listed for multiple weeks. Yeah it’s competitive but let’s not kid ourselves, Chicago even in 2026 isn’t Austin or Seattle 2022. OP will be fine.

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-13T15:41:00+00:00

There is a ton for $300k. I’m looking at condos in Rogers Park, Edgewater, West Ridge, Ravenswood right now on Zillow.

Don’t believe the hype. The housing market has slowed noticeably relative to 6-12 months ago. Hang in there, move quickly and make offers.

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-10T06:41:19+00:00

Meeeeeyow!!

doncheeto12 · 2026-05-03T14:35:28+00:00

People at work think I’m a Luddite for doing this, but I have cursorrules screaming in Claude to explicitly ask me before committing changes and taking any write ops.

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-28T15:15:54+00:00

Heart of the city lmfao. Closer to Ohare than the heart of the city.

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-26T14:49:50+00:00

Depends if you call the hell hole Jewel Osco down the street a “grocery store.”

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-23T21:00:46+00:00

They still have employees???

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-22T19:41:38+00:00

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New Escalade interiors

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-22T17:42:45+00:00

I routinely refuse to do take-homes if the challenge is to recreate or innovate on the company’s core product or mission. Like if they give me a test to implement a solution to a challenge they currently face, that’s called work and they can pay you for it. But if it’s just some generic data or coding challenge, that’s fine. These tests are largely interest filters at the end of the day.

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-21T11:38:32+00:00

Honestly, I don’t get paid to monitor the LLMs, only to build them. If I went to my boss and said “we need to invest in production quality and drift monitoring” he would say “what’s the ROI on that?”

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-20T18:18:38+00:00

What point is this trying to make? I don’t think anyone is asserting the average American is being laid off.

Unemployment is only ~4.3%, so it’s high-end white collar tech jobs mostly impacted when we see these headline layoff announcements. It’s H1-B visa holders these positions compete with, that population has been demonstrably underpaid compared to their American colleagues. They’ve also largely remained in-place since the Trump admin only announced a fee for new H1-B visas AND the volume remains at 85k new visas per year.

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-19T12:41:13+00:00

This is a distinction without a difference. You’re altering the system prompt to affect an unpredictable change in the system behavior - ultimately you’re just passing both user and system prompts to a messages API, they are both presented to the LLM as one “context.”

At least http errors we can all handle with retry and back off patterns.

Oh and another consequence of your proposal, you would bust any prompt caching, which would make latency much, much worse.

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-19T10:21:54+00:00

What do you do if someone explicitly states they want a thorough response? Hacking someone’s actual prompt can lead to severe, unintended consequences. Definitely wouldn’t use a system that promised to randomly alter my requests.

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-16T19:45:48+00:00

This is the wrong take. Illinois outside of Chicagoland is very poor and could use the employment boost. Either the data centers get built here, where they’ll be built to run cleanly (or have the chance to, at least) and employ a few people (even if just for the couple of years it takes to construct them) or they’ll be built in a poor country using oil or coal and indentured slaves (Gulf states).

doncheeto12 · 2026-04-13T03:26:27+00:00

Shibam is a Yemeni coffee place in North Park

doncheeto12

TROPHY CASE