Most "hardest tech company interviews" rankings are based on Reddit opinions, Glassdoor reviews, or surveys of a few hundred people. We built a different kind of analysis.
Final Round AI tracks interview practice sessions across every major tech company. We pulled 44,808 sessions from January 2023 through May 2025, calculated average practice scores for each company, and ranked them by actual performance data.
The results challenge what most people assume.
Meta Has the Lowest Average Practice Score of Any FAANG Company
Meta candidates average 55.5 out of 100 across 3,220 sessions, the lowest of any traditional FAANG company in our dataset. Here is how the full ranking looks:
- Salesforce: 50.7 (1,062 sessions)
- Meta: 55.5 (3,220 sessions)
- TikTok: 55.5 (770 sessions)
- Stripe: 55.6 (236 sessions)
- Apple: 56.3 (4,528 sessions)
- Google: 56.8 (16,604 sessions)
- Amazon: 57.5 (18,932 sessions)
- Nvidia: 58.2 (560 sessions)
- Netflix: 59.2 (280 sessions)
Amazon has the most practice sessions by far and the highest FAANG average score. The most feared interview in tech is not the hardest to score on in practice.
Meta Got 11 Points Harder From 2024 to 2025
The year-over-year shift is where things get interesting for anyone currently prepping:
- Meta: 56.5 in 2024 → 50.8 in 2025 (steepest decline of any company)
- Amazon: 58.5 in 2024 → 55.2 in 2025
- Google: 56.9 in 2024 → 55.8 in 2025
- Apple: 56.0 in 2024 → 58.7 in 2025 (only major company that improved)
If you are prepping for Meta using resources from two years ago, you are likely under-prepared for what interviewers are asking today.
Why Amazon Scores Higher Despite Being "Harder"
Amazon has 18,932 sessions, more than Google and Apple combined. The depth of dedicated Amazon prep content (books, courses, communities built around the 16 Leadership Principles) shifts the baseline score upward. More candidates prepare more thoroughly for Amazon than for any other company.
The practical implication: fear of Amazon is well-calibrated for format complexity. But structured STAR-method preparation for Amazon actually works, and the data shows it.
TikTok and Stripe Are As Hard As Meta, With Far Less Prep Content
TikTok (55.5 across 770 sessions) and Stripe (55.6 across 236 sessions) sit right alongside Meta in difficulty. Both receive a fraction of the dedicated prep attention that FAANG companies get. If you are targeting either company, treat the prep with the same depth as a FAANG interview, not as an easier alternative.
Methodology
All data is aggregated and anonymized across real practice sessions on Final Round AI. Scores are automated evaluations of practice responses across relevance, structure, specificity, and completeness. No individual user data is included. Companies with fewer than 100 sessions were excluded.
Full report with charts: finalroundai.com/blog/hardest-tech-company-interviews
Curious what patterns others have seen. Does Meta being harder than Google match your experience preparing for both?
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