I recently had the opportunity to interview with Google for a software engineering role. Here’s a detailed breakdown of my journey and each round of the interview process 👇
📩 Application & Initial Discussion
I applied through Google’s career portal. Two weeks later, I received a call from the recruitment team.
We had a 15–20 minute discussion covering:
- My background, soft skills, and projects
- My current role and salary expectations
- Basic fit for the position
After the call, I was asked to fill out a candidate form.
The next day, they explained the complete interview process and shared preparation resources for DSA (Data Structures and Algorithms).
Since I’m currently a working professional focused on development, I requested 2 weeks to refresh my DSA fundamentals, which they gladly approved.
After 1.5 weeks, they checked in on my progress and scheduled my Preliminary Phone Screen.
📞 Preliminary Phone Screen (45 mins)
Platform: Google Meet
Duration: 45 minutes
Question Type: Medium–Hard (Trees)
Process:
- 5 mins → Understanding the problem
- 15 mins → Discussing approach & edge cases
- 20 mins → Coding on the whiteboard
- 5 mins → Complexity analysis and wrap-up
- I handled all edge cases and optimized the code. The interviewer seemed happy and gave positive feedback.
📢 Result: Shortlisted for Onsite (Online) rounds.
💻 Onsite Interviews (3 DSA Rounds in One Day)
Round 1 — DSA (Google Germany)
Topic: Directory structure creation (Design + Edge cases)
Difficulty: Medium
Highlights:
- Provided an optimized solution quickly
- Explained choice of data structures and handled follow-ups well
- Discussed time and space complexities confidently
- Couldn’t complete a follow-up question due to time but explained the approach clearly.
✅ Outcome: Went very well — interviewer was satisfied.
Round 2 — DSA (Google India)
Topic: Complex tricky problem (Graph Problem)
Difficulty: Hard
Highlights:
- Started with project discussion
- Took 10–12 minutes to understand the question properly
- Initially gave a suboptimal approach
- Found the optimal solution after discussion, but time ran out before full implementation
❌ Outcome: Couldn’t complete coding; interviewer seemed unsatisfied.
Round 3 — DSA (Google California)
Topic: Hard problem involving Strings
Difficulty: Hard
Highlights:
- Discussed approach thoroughly
- Identified failure cases and refined the logic
- Wrote complete working code with 10 mins left
- Answered most follow-up questions confidently
✅ Outcome: Interviewer was happy with the overall solution.
📬 Final Result
Two weeks later, I was informed that I didn’t make it to the next stage.
I believe the second interview was the deciding factor.
💡 Reflection
Despite the rejection, the entire process was an incredible learning experience.
I learned:
- How structured and professional Google’s process is
- The importance of clear communication and handling edge cases
- The need to stay consistent with DSA even while working on development-heavy roles.
I’m grateful for the opportunity and looking forward to preparing better for my next attempt 💪
