How I Got the Interview
I started applying to Google through the careers page in April. A recruiter reached out to me on April 28th.
Screening Round (TPS)
On May 23rd, I had my first technical interview. The interviewer was a foreigner and had a distinct accent, which sometimes made it difficult to understand his thoughts. The question he asked was a simple one on tree traversal, followed by an easy variation. I would say it was a LeetCode Easy problem. Since I had prior experience interviewing at Google, I knew how to drive the interview, which helped me create a good impression. The interviewer was happy with my approach and code.
Verdict: Positive (Hire)
DSA – Round 1
The recruiter called to inform me that I had cleared TPS and asked me for three dates for the remaining technical rounds. I provided three dates in June, but two of my interviews were rescheduled on the day of the interview itself. This was frustrating, as it was hampering my work. Finally, on June 23rd, the interview took place.
The interviewer was young and very supportive. He started by saying, “Don’t worry, I am not here to grill you. I want you to succeed. Consider this as a peer coding session where we are collaboratively trying to solve a problem.” This gave me a lot of relief.
He asked me a stack-based problem (LeetCode Medium), which had no follow-up. The interview ended within 30 minutes. I asked him one question about Google, and the interview was completed.
Verdict: Positive (Hire)
DSA – Round 2
The next day, June 24th, I had my third technical round. This didn’t go very well and had some awkward moments. The question was on a Binary Search Tree, followed by a variation of Binary Search. I solved the first problem within 15 minutes, but the follow-up caused tension. The interviewer was expecting a different explanation, while I was stuck explaining my own approach. It went back and forth, and at one point, he just went silent. The time ended without me solving the follow-up question.
I asked the recruiter about it, and she said it went positive—since for an L4, it’s not expected to solve follow-up question.
Verdict: Positive (Hire)
DSA – Round 3
This round went well and happened on July 1st. The interviewer asked me to share my screen, which felt unusual but understandable given the existence of AI cheating tools.
The first question was on Heaps (LeetCode Medium). Each time I mentioned a concept, he dug deeper—for example, when I said “Heap,” he asked what a Heap is, what data structure it uses, its time complexity, and how to implement it. I was able to answer and complete the first problem quickly.
Then he pasted another question, unrelated, involving Binary Search + Sliding Window. I discussed both the brute force and optimized solutions. I coded most of the solution, with only one method left unfinished when the time ran out. The interviewer seemed happy with my performance.
Verdict: Positive
Googlyness (G&L)
On July 18th, I had my Googlyness round, which turned out to be a great conversation. The interview started with my introduction, and the first question was “Why Google?” followed by several leadership questions about handling conflicts with other teams.
The interviewer was happy, and I could tell because he told me to choose my team wisely and even gave me some tips for doing so. When the interview ended, he said not to worry about the time—we could continue discussing questions if I wanted. Overall, it was a very positive interaction.
Verdict: Positive
Team Matching
The recruiter told me to wait 3–4 weeks since there were limited L4 SWE openings, most of them for ML roles. Luckily, I soon got a call that a hiring manager was interested in my profile.
On August 8th, my team-matching round was scheduled. It started with my introduction, followed by a detailed discussion about one of my articles. Then the HM felt I was more of a frontend engineer and started asking me backend-related questions, which I was able to answer correctly. By the end of the interview, he seemed happy.
Afterward, the recruiter called me and said it was a green flag from the HM.
Verdict: Positive
Final Verdict
On the morning of August 14th, an EVP (Employee Value Proposition) call was scheduled, where they briefed me about the offer created for my profile. I confirmed that I was happy with the offer. The recruiter emailed me the EVP document, and I replied asking to proceed with the offer letter. By evening, I received my DocuSign offer letter, which I digitally signed and accepted.
My Compensation: https://leetcode.com/discuss/post/7088542/google-l4-hyderabad-compensation-fullsta-jmo9/