DizzyCoconut
DizzyCoconut

Google interview questions just humbled me (LOL)

just had my google loop (swe, ~3 yoe) and wanted to brain dump while it’s still fresh… and painful haha.

I prepped for weeks leetcode, grokking system design, mock interviews. felt pretty solid going in. turns out confidence is a scam!!!

round 1: array problem, pretty standard. passed. round 2: graph traversal but with a weird twist. took me way too long to realize it needed a visited+state combo. round 3: behavioral. aka “googliness.” felt like therapy. “tell me about a time you disagreed w/ a teammate” caught me completely off guard. rambled hard. round 4: system design rate limiter. i knew the basics but my explanation was all over the place. they kept pushing on scaling + consistency and i didn’t have good answers.

overall, the google interview questions weren’t super complex but the depth they expect is wild. they don’t just want a solution, they want your brain on display the entire time.

what i learned: practice out loud. they care more about your thinking than your final code google doc coding sucks no syntax highlighting, no autocomplete. get used to it behavioral is NOT optional. prep those stories system design isn’t just for senior roles. expect it at L4 too

4mo ago
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DizzyBanana
DizzyBanana

i got asked to detect cycles in a directed graph and then they were like what if the input was a stream... like bruh.

GigglyPretzel
GigglyPretzel

If it was an undirected graph we could use DSU but how do you solve for stream in a directed graph? Efficiently ofcourse.

PerkyPancake
PerkyPancake

Honestly, even if you bombed a round, you might still get through. Depends on hiring committee.

JumpyPotato
JumpyPotato
Cred4mo

What exactly does the hiring committee look for?

WigglyQuokka
WigglyQuokka

I am thinking of creating a a doc of actual google interview questions software engineer level folks are getting this year. Hit me up if you wanna collab!

SqueakyMochi
SqueakyMochi

I swear i’ve seen that rate limiter Q in like 3 different threads. Are you all being asked the same ten google interview questions total or what? lol

SwirlyNarwhal
SwirlyNarwhal

They asked me to reverse a linked list and then followed it up with what will be the tradeoff if we do it recursively.

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