Google Software Engineer Interview Guide

Interview Process

𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 (20-30 mins) – Non-technical. Chat about your resume and background. Get ready to answer questions like Why Google? What's your biggest achievement? Why are you leaving your current job?

𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝘀 (40-60 mins) – One or two phone screens with the hiring manager or a Google employee. You'll solve a coding question related to data structures and algorithms on a shared Google Doc. Some questions on your background.

𝗢𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗽 (4-5 interviews) – coding and system design questions. Expect questions related to slightly harder data structure, algorithms, and system design.

Google evaluates candidates on 4 criteria:

𝟭) 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲𝘆𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀

Googleyness means putting the user first, being friendly, approachable, humble, doing something nice for others, being proactive, and keeping your eye on the goal. You'll be judged for being a team player and having a bias for action.

𝟮) 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆

Your ability to solve problems and explain your thought process. Expect open-ended questions like how would you optimize this further? The interviewer wants to know how you learn and adapt to a situation.

𝟯) 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽

Your ability to take on tough problems and step back when it's not needed. They'll gauge if you can mobilize a team to solve a difficult problem. Get ready to answer questions like, how have you demonstrated leadership when you weren't the manager? how have you dealt with trade-offs and ambiguity?

𝟰) 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲-𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲

Is your technical expertise sufficient to drive impact at Google? How will you grow and scale with Google?

Interview Tips

• Data Structures - Practice Heaps, HashTable, Tree, Stack, Queue, Graph, and Trie.

• Algorithm - Practice Dynamic Programming, Quick-Sort, Breadth-first and Depth-first search.

• Explain your thought process - Practice describing your design decisions clearly and concisely.

• Collaborate – Don't forget to discuss tradeoffs, present multiple solutions, and take hints from the interviewer.

Top recent Google tagged Coding Questions on LeetCode

Minimum Meeting Rooms (medium)

Number of Islands (medium)

Merge Intervals (medium)

Number of Closed Islands (medium)

Making a Large Island (hard)

Employee Free Time (hard)

Alien Dictionary (hard)

Top System Design Questions

Design Web Crawler

Design Google Docs

Design Facebook Messenger

Design YouTube

Design Twitter/Facebook Message search

For detailed criteria for the interview grading of FAANG companies,

check out:

https://book.aonecode.com/faang/mastering-the-faang-coding-interview-how-the-grading-system-works