I was contacted directly by a Google recruiter via email for the New Grad 2026 role. About two weeks later, I received an interview invite. Two rounds were scheduled on the same day, though one was rescheduled at the last moment.

Round 1 (60 minutes — 45 min DSA + 15 min Googlyness)

Problem:

You are given routers with names and their locations in 2D space.
For example:

• Router A → (0, 0)
• Router B → (0, 8)
• Router C → (0, 17)
• Router D → (11, 0)

With a wireless range of 10, when Router A sends a message, it can reach Router B. Router B can then forward it to Router C, but Router D will never receive the message.

Given a list of routers and their coordinates, determine whether a message from Router A can reach Router B.

My interviewer joined around 25 minutes late. Coincidentally, I had another (on-campus) interview that day with only a 20-minute gap between the two, so the delay added a lot of stress.

The problem itself was straightforward, and I was able to solve and code it. However, the overall interaction was uncomfortable. While I was coding and explaining my thought process (as generally encouraged), the interviewer abruptly told me to stop speaking and just write the code. After I completed my solution, she spent around 5–7 minutes checking it line-by-line against what seemed like an internal reference solution. The tone throughout the conversation felt irritated and dismissive, which made the experience quite difficult despite my maintaining professionalism.

Round 2 (45 minutes — DSA Only)

This round went significantly better. My interviewer was someone I recognized from Instagram/LinkedIn (a known tech influencer), and the interaction was smooth and positive.

Problem:
Given a binary tree where each node contains only binary values, count the number of “islands.”
Follow-up: Count the sizes of each island.

The twist was that the island structure was given as a tree (not a grid). I discussed the approach clearly, covered edge cases, and walked through a dry run. The interviewer seemed genuinely satisfied with the solution and the thought process.

Result

After about 1.5 months, my recruiter informed me that I was not selected. I had anticipated the result due to how the first round went, but it still stings when you’ve put in the effort. You can prepare endlessly, but sometimes you simply cannot control the interviewer’s attitude or the environment you’re put into.

Regardless, it was a learning experience.
Thanks for reading, and best of luck to everyone preparing. 🙏