Blind 75 vs LeetCode patterns: Most effective at Meta interviews?

I remember staring at the whiteboard, halfway through what I thought was a standard LeetCode problem, when my Meta interviewer paused and asked, “Now, how would you scale this for billions of updates?” In that moment, it became clear that engineering at Meta isn’t just about solving tough problems. It’s about building solutions that can scale overnight and thrive in real-world ambiguity. The interview reflects this mindset. Questions twist and evolve, rewarding those who can think a step ahead and adapt in real time.

The hardest part of preparing for Meta is knowing where to focus your efforts rather than simply doing the work. With endless lists of “must-know” topics, conflicting advice, and a nonstop stream of coding drills, it’s easy to get lost in the noise. Many candidates turn to familiar resources like Blind 75 or the Meta Top 75, hoping that brute force and repetition will cover every angle. But is doing more problems the answer, or is there a smarter, more Meta-specific way to get ready?

In this blog, I’ll explain how to cut through the noise and focus on what matters for cracking the Meta interview. I’ll examine how Blind 75 and Meta Top 75 stack up against the 28 foundational LeetCode Patterns featured in the “Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns” course, specifically in the context of Meta’s interview process. Using real data, personal experience, and debriefs from successful candidates, I’ll help you build a prep strategy that matches Meta’s spirit of speed, scale, and adaptability.

Quick recap of Blind 75, Meta Top 75, and LeetCode patterns#

Blind 75 is a curated list of 75 essential LeetCode problems. It is known for its focused coverage of common data structures and algorithms such as arrays, strings, linked lists, binary trees, graphs, and dynamic programming. It’s become a popular starting point for many interview candidates because it promises efficiency and breadth.

Meta Top 75 takes a more tailored approach, highlighting the 75 most frequently asked LeetCode problems at Meta in recent interviews. This list reflects the latest trends and challenges specific to Meta’s current interview style.

LeetCode patterns offers a different framework. Rather than focusing on specific problems, it organizes questions into 28 core problem-solving patterns. The idea is to train candidates to identify and apply foundational techniques that appear across various interview questions.

Is Blind 75 enough to crack Meta’s interview?#

Meta moves fast. Features ship to billions in days. Systems scale overnight. Engineers solve ambiguous, high-stakes problems daily. Naturally, the interviews evolve just as quickly.

As soon as a question becomes widely known, like those in Blind 75, it gets retired or replaced. Interviewers don’t want rehearsed solutions. They want to see how you handle the unfamiliar. So the bar keeps moving: newer questions, deeper twists, and less room for rote memorization.

The best way to prepare is not grinding a static list. It is internalizing the underlying patterns and using those repeatable ideas to break down toy problems and code them in 20 to 25 minutes. That’s what gives you leverage. Because when the surface details change, the patterns still hold.

How pattern-based prep suits Meta’s interview prep#

Meta interviewers rarely care if you rote‑recall a trick. They want to see how you recognize underlying structure, choose the simplest tool and articulate trade-offs in a way that mirrors the “focus on impact” value. Patterns give you that muscle memory. Once you can spot a sliding window or top‑k scenario on sight, the problem feels like an old friend. You shift the conversation from syntax to why your approach moves fast and scales to billions which is exactly the narrative interviewers want to hear.

Here are a few Meta‑specific situations that map directly to core coding patterns to ground this idea. Notice how each scenario echoes a real engineering challenge and why recognizing the underlying pattern is crucial:

• Sliding Window / Two Pointers → Detecting story‑view spam bursts: A rolling window over recent view IDs can quickly flag sudden sequential spikes that hint at bot activity.

• Heaps → Ranking comments on a viral Reel: A min heap maintains the most engaging real-time comments without rescanning millions of entries every second.

• Graph Traversal (BFS/DFS) → Suggesting People You May Know: Exploring connections in the social graph lets Meta suggest “People You May Know,” surfacing friends of friends and relevant connections efficiently, even at massive scale.

• Fast and Slow Pointers → Detecting cycles in Messenger chat history: When users sync messages across devices, fast and slow pointers can efficiently identify if there’s a loop in the message chain, preventing duplicate or infinite message displays.

Recognizing these patterns quickly turns a code demo into a conversation about impact, exactly the signal Meta optimizes for. When you train for patterns, you’re training to think and build like a Meta engineer, ready for whatever the interview (or the job) throws at you.

Which coding patterns to focus on?#

A total of 28 coding patterns have been curated over the period. So, it’s natural to ask: Which ones should I prioritize first, and where should I start? To make things easier, I’ve grouped these patterns into four categories based on how often they appear in Meta interviews.

Let’s see what each category means:

• Must‑know: These patterns dominate Meta interviews; fluency here prevents basic stumbles and lets you focus on demonstrating trade‑offs, scalability, and clear problem-solving.

• Very common: While these patterns may not appear in every round, they show up often enough that weak spots will slow you down. Solid coverage here keeps you confident through most of the loop.

• Solid but situational: These patterns target specific production-style scenarios or curveballs. Practicing a few problems each time turns into easy wins.

• Finishing‑line helpers: These are less likely in the first question but are popular in follow‑ups and for senior/staff roles. Mastering them shows you can handle optimizations and design at Meta’s scale.

While Meta interviews tend to emphasize certain coding patterns, the best preparation is still to cover all 28. This way, you’re prepared for any type of question or surprise twist that might come up during the interview process.

A Meta‑savvy study plan#

I’ve seen this approach help many engineers succeed in Meta interviews. It’s not about doing every problem out there; it’s about focusing on the right patterns at the right time. If I were starting my prep for Meta today, this is the method I’d lean on. Here’s how you can make your prep more targeted and effective:

1. Start with the overlap: Work through the problems and patterns that appear in both Blind 75 and Meta Top 75. This solidifies the fundamentals Meta consistently checks, like arrays, trees, and dynamic programming.

2. Focus on Meta-only problems and patterns: Target the questions and patterns unique to Meta Top 75. These will help you prepare for the specific twists that often come up in Meta interviews.

3. Complete the remaining Blind 75 problems: Afterward, go through any Blind 75 problems not found in Meta Top 75. These round out your prep and ensure you’re not missing any basics.

4. Fill in any final pattern gaps: Once you’ve worked through both lists, check for patterns you haven’t practiced. Spend focused time on these so you’re ready for any surprise.

Remember the rubric and point system from earlier: for each pattern, the goal isn’t just to practice any problems, but to build real depth by completing at least one easy, two medium, and one hard question. That’s how you reach the full 15 points for a pattern: 1 point for the easy, 4 points each for the mediums, and 6 points for the hard. And if you want to be fully prepared and walk into your interviews with real confidence, set your sights on the ideal total: 420 points. You reach that score by hitting the 15-point target for all 28 core patterns.

Here’s a quick visual to show how this approach ensures you’re prepared for what Meta asks or can ask.

Why focus on shared problems first in Meta prep?#

Starting your Meta interview prep with problems that overlap between Blind 75 and Meta Top 75 helps you reinforce the fundamentals like arrays, strings, dynamic programming, trees, and graphs. It also maximizes your prep time. Instead of splitting your energy across two lists, you prioritize questions with real, proven value in technical interviews that Meta actively tests.

Let’s see Blind 75 and Meta Top 75 side by side to see how much they overlap.

The comparison shows that about 23% of the problems, 17 out of 75, overlap between Blind 75 and Meta Top 75. This is a solid starting point.

Next, let’s examine the pattern coverage achieved by focusing on the overlapping problems, according to the rubric I’ve established. In the bar chart below, each bar represents a pattern. The length of the bar shows what percent of the full 15 points you’ve earned for that pattern, while the label highlights how many easy, medium, and hard problems went into that score.

The analysis indicates that this overlapping problem set introduces 12 different patterns to you. Applying the 1—2—1 rubric here will already cover 12 out of 28 core patterns, which is about 43%. Getting introduced to a new pattern is a crucial milestone, because it means you can now map the 1—2—1 rubric onto it and work toward true mastery. As per the bar chart above, the main gaps, for most of these patterns, are hard problems and, for some patterns, a second medium. You’ll want to focus on these spots in your next practice round.

Already, you’re making progress that’s both measurable and meaningful, laying the kind of foundation Meta interviewers are looking for at this stage.

What’s the impact of practicing only Meta Top 75 problems?#

Having identified the overlap between Blind 75 and Meta 75, it’s important to consider what you gain by going beyond the common ground. Which essential patterns do you unlock by practicing problems found only in the Meta Top 75 set?

Below is a clear breakdown of the Meta Top 75 set patterns.

The list above shows that by working through the Meta Top 75-exclusive problems, you unlock 13 new patterns. This brings you to 25 out of 28 patterns, i.e., almost 90% of all the patterns you need to know. Focusing on these Meta-specific questions exposes you to a wider range of techniques and prepares you for the unique twists Meta interviewers are known for.

Next, let’s see how well these Meta-specific patterns meet the coverage criteria set by my rubric. The bar chart below highlights the newly covered patterns in green on the y-axis.

This analysis reveals two main advantages:

• You get to practice new problems for patterns you’ve already identified through the overlapping set, which deepens your mastery of those techniques.

• For the newly uncovered patterns, you’ll often need just one or two problems to reach full confidence (per our 1—2—1 rubric). For some quick wins, focus on adding one hard problem to the patterns at 53% to 60% as they already have the two mediums done. For the 40% group, you can first focus on adding two medium problems. Making these targeted additions will quickly turn a lot of red bars into yellow or even green.

By including these problems in your prep, you reinforce core concepts and fill critical gaps that the overlapping set can’t address. This approach helps you master advanced techniques, tackle open-ended challenges, and prepare for unexpected follow-ups.

Does finishing Blind 75 give you a broader edge?#

By unlocking even one new pattern at this stage, you’re getting one step closer to your Meta offer letter. This step means you’re exposed to broader challenges, so you can confidently approach any technical interview, knowing you haven’t overlooked any key pattern.

Let’s look at the patterns you cover by practicing the remaining Blind 75 problems.

The pattern list above shows that by practicing the remaining Blind 75 problems, you unlock two new patterns. This brings your total to 27 out of 28 patterns, which is over 96% coverage. That’s a major milestone and puts you in a great position for Meta’s interviews.

Check how these newly unlocked patterns measure against the 1—2—1 rubric and scores.

Once again, the analysis above highlights two important points:

• You gain additional problems to reinforce patterns you’ve already identified, which means a strong set of patterns is now fully covered according to the 1-2-1 rubric.

• You also get a good number of questions for the new patterns.

Some patterns are just one problem away from full coverage. Most of the rest have partial coverage and just need one or two targeted problems to hit the mark. Only a few patterns, like Heaps, Knowing What to Track, Subsets, and Cyclic Sort, are still underrepresented. Overall, this puts you in a great position. Just a handful of gaps left to fill before you can say you’ve mastered all 28 patterns.

Is the Meta prep done?#

Let’s look at the following bar chart to get an overall picture of how well you’ve covered each of the 28 patterns by following this smart study plan and what still needs your focus.

This chart is a great milestone. Some crucial patterns are now fully covered according to the 1-2-1 rubric. A handful of patterns represented by the yellow bars are just one or two questions away from complete coverage. The ones represented by red bars, such as Hash Maps, Heaps, and Subsets, are clear targets for your next round of focused practice.

The most important highlight from the chart above is that there is one pattern that is not covered by either of the problem sets. It is Sort and Search. Here are a few problems to help you cover the Sort and Search pattern:

Pattern coverage: A quick progress check#

Now, you’re not just grinding problems; you’re strategically closing gaps and moving closer to being fully interview-ready. You’ve covered 96% of the core patterns by working through overlapping problems, Meta-specific challenges, and the remaining Blind 75 questions. To close that final 4% gap in your pattern coverage, focus on the Sort and Search pattern.

By filling in this last gap, you’ll round out your interview toolkit and step into your Meta interview with full confidence.

Your progress toward the 420-point goal#

Let’s quickly review how each problem set contributes to your overall prep.

The bar chart above shows that you’ve already earned 256 points, with the biggest boost coming from tackling Meta-specific problems. The remaining 164 points are your roadmap: focus on closing those gaps with targeted practice, and you’ll have every major coding pattern covered for your interviews.

Final thoughts#

Interview prep isn’t about checking every box or finishing every list. It’s about building habits, learning the patterns that matter, and knowing where your real gaps are. Suppose you plan your prep with intention, use data, focus on the overlap, fill Meta-specific and Blind 75 only patterns, and shore up any outliers. In that case, you’ll confidently walk into your Meta interview.

Remember, it’s not about chasing every problem, but about preparing in a way that gives you the flexibility to handle whatever comes your way. That’s what top teams at Meta are looking for, and it’s the mindset that will serve you well in your career too.

Wishing you the best in your prep. Stay curious, be honest about your strengths and weaknesses, and practice purposefully.

Recommended resources to level up your interview prep#

While this blog gives you a data-driven way to measure and close your prep gaps, the right learning tools can accelerate your progress even further. Here are two highly effective resources to complement your study plan:

• Educative’s Personalized Interview Prep: It’s your tailored prep companion that adapts to your skill level and focuses on the 28 essential LeetCode patterns we’ve been talking about. You can work on the patterns that need the most attention, track progress with clear metrics, and know exactly what to tackle next. Whether it’s adding an easy problem to build confidence or a hard one to push for mastery, you’ll always be working on the right problems at the right time.

• Educative’s Mock Interviews: Practicing is not just about solving problems. It is also about handling real interview pressure. Educative’s AI mock interviews let you simulate actual interview conditions, get actionable feedback, and improve in areas like problem-solving speed. This way, you are not only technically prepared but also confident and ready to perform under time constraints.

Now that you know all there is about Meta coding interview patterns, do you wonder how these strategies hold up at other FAANG companies like Microsoft? The Blind 75 vs LeetCode patterns: Effective for Microsoft interviews resource will come in handy.