

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

What exactly does the hiring committee look for?

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!

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

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