Google SDE II (L3) Interview Experience

Note: Due to Google's policy, I can't disclose the questions. However, I have found the closest match to all the questions that were asked in the interviews. The entire end-to-end process may end up taking a couple of months. It took a complete three months from the recruiter reaching out to me to receiving the results of the onsite rounds. After each round, the feedback process typically spans from 1 week to 1 month. This role was for 1+ YOE.

Rounds: 1 resume screening round, 1 phone screening round, 3-4 onsite technical interviews (I had 4), a Googlyness round (behavioral questions), the Hiring Committee, and Team Matching. Each round lasts for 45 minutes and includes 1 to 2 questions on coding and data structures and algorithms (DSA).

Resume screening round (Recruiter's round)

The recruiter will reach out to you either via phone or on LinkedIn. In my case, I was contacted through both phone and LinkedIn. Recruiters will evaluate your resume to see if your experience aligns with the open position. They may ask you various questions such as explaining your role at your current company, discussing your coding profile, especially on platforms like LeetCode, and inquiring about how long you need to prepare for the interviews.

Phone screening round (based on DSA - 45 min)

Two questions of medium difficulty were asked

• The logic was somewhat similar to this example, but the question was a bit more complex: https://leetcode.com/problems/longest-consecutive-sequence/description/
• Variation of painter's partition problem.
  • https://leetcode.com/problems/capacity-to-ship-packages-within-d-days/description/
  • Painter's partition / Allocate minimum number of pages

On-site round 1 (DSA round - 45 mins)

Two questions were asked at a medium-hard difficulty level

• The concept was similar, and there were also a few follow-up questions
  • https://leetcode.com/problems/house-robber-iii/description/
  • Stickler Thief
• Similar to this one: https://leetcode.com/problems/dungeon-game/description/

On-site round 2 (DSA round - 45 mins)

Two medium - hard questions were asked

• The operation focused on a subset, with the logic based on: https://leetcode.com/problems/partition-equal-subset-sum/description/
• Again based on subset: https://leetcode.com/problems/partition-array-into-two-arrays-to-minimize-sum-difference/description/

On-site round 3 (DSA round - 45 mins)

Two questions were presented at a medium-to-hard level of difficulty

• https://leetcode.com/discuss/interview-question/4182238/Maximize-loss-interval-Google-Phone-Screen-Round-1/
• Underlying logic was similar to : https://leetcode.com/problems/maximum-employees-to-be-invited-to-a-meeting/description/

On-site round 4 (DSA round - 45 mins)

One hard question was given

• Similar to this (also solve for the case when you have the output and asked to find the input): https://leetcode.com/problems/count-of-smaller-numbers-after-self/description/

On-site round 5 (Googleyness - 45 mins)

A Googleyness round is a behavioral interview to determine if a candidate is a cultural fit. Questions will be asked to test your thinking, leadership quality, and the way you react and handle the sitatuation. Here are the few googlyness questions which you can practice prior to the round:

• Why Google and what motivates you for the Google?
• Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult team member. How did you handle the situation?
• Describe a project you worked on that didn't go as planned. What did you learn from the experience?
• Describe a time when you had to prioritize multiple tasks with conflicting deadlines. How did you manage your time?
• Tell me about a time when you had to adapt to a new and unfamiliar situation. How did you approach it?
• Describe a challenging situation you faced in a previous job. How did you overcome it?

You have played your role. The Hiring Committee and team matching processes are handled by recruiters.

Hiring Comittee

Following the completion of your onsite interview rounds, your performance undergoes evaluation by each interviewer. Recruiters will reach out to you with your feedback (e.g., "No hire," "Lean hire," "Hire," "Strong hire"). This feedback will be based on the performance from your onsite interviewers, in addition to your resume and feedback from prior phone screenings.

Team Matching

If your application is not specific to a particular team, you'll undergo an additional step to determine which team you'll be assigned to at Google. Otherwise, if it is associated with a particular team at Google, you'll probably bypass the team matching process.

If you've made it this far, you can proudly refer to yourself as a Googler :)

Some tips that you can follow during your interviews

• First and most importantly, it is essential to remain calm throughout your interviews. Nervousness is natural, but one thing I can suggest to help reduce your nervousness is to consider your interviewers as friends instead of viewing them as intimidating figures.
• Clear your questions and ask even the smallest doubts you have. Feel free to ask for the test case, but most probably they will ask you to create test cases.
• Be vocal throughout the process and explain your approach. It would be better if you can explain while writing your code. You can start with the naive and brute approaches and gradually move towards the optimized solution. They will test your data structure knowledge.
• A few things that most interviewers look for in your code are neatness, good variable/method names, indentation, knowledge of time and space complexities, and the ability to choose an optimized data structure for a problem.
• Last but not least, always belive in yourself and in God.

I wanted to thanks Leetcode, GFG, Codeforces and CodeChef families.