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:

1. 5 mins → Understanding the problem
2. 15 mins → Discussing approach & edge cases
3. 20 mins → Coding on the whiteboard
4. 5 mins → Complexity analysis and wrap-up
5. 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 💪