After having received so much from this community, it is time to give back something.
YOE : 4
Before Google I did ~120 LC (20,80,20). Will not be going into specifics due to NDA etc.
Language used : C++
Phone:
Basically a simple DFS problem similar to islands one. Follow up to the same question needed Disjoint set approach. Did well here as DFS and Disjoint sets are both super easy to implement.
Virtual onsite
Round1:
A trie based question with added complexity of generating random numbers with trie. Did well here, took me some time to come up with a good solution for randomness. The credit also goes to interviewer who helped with hints at right places.
Round2:
Question that has topological sort at its core. Also the follow ups needed some modifications to the same implementation. Not very difficult if you are thorough with all variants of top-sort implementations. This turned out to be my best round.
Round3:
An array problem that has prefix sum at its core. I struggled a bit with different approaches, but with hints from interviewer, could come up with the wanted solution.
Round4:
A medium variant of merge intervals problem. Did well to come up with all edge cases and this worked well. The interviewer did help with drawing diagrams for the proposed solution and cases which looked good in the end.
Round 5: Googlyness - Easy round.
Result - L4 approved.
My tips (apart from coming up with optimal solution):
- Communicate your thought process as much as possible. This really leaves a good impression.
- Write structured code and use OOPS wherever needed.
Thank you.