Google Interview L5 | India | Rejected
Summary
I interviewed at Google for an L5 role in India but was rejected after the DSA rounds. Despite what I perceived as relatively easier questions, I struggled with effectively explaining my thought process and handling interviewer interactions. The overall hiring process was notably slow, spanning over a year.
Full Experience
Recruiter reached out to me via LinkedIn in 2023. The process was painfully slow. This is from Nov, 2024 till June, 2025. I got rejected in the DSA rounds and didn't make it to the system design round. I have 8 YOE.
I got relatively easier questions and still managed to mess it up by not explaining my thought process properly.
Googleyness: The common Googleyness questions.
DSA Round 1:
- https://leetcode.com/problems/top-k-frequent-words/?envType=company&envId=adobe&favoriteSlug=adobe-six-months
- Another post I found : https://leetcode.com/discuss/post/5075278/google-phone-screen-by-anonymous_user-qens/
Exact same question and I gloriously f*ed it up. Not blaming the interviewer at all, I wouldn't have cleared this round anyway but the interviewer was not responsive at all. He came late and gave the question. I asked him a clarifying question and he said let me check, I have forgotten. Then he read something and answered. In general, he wasn't responsive at all but I could have handled this better.
DSA Round 2: https://leetcode.com/problems/top-k-frequent-elements/description/ Question was very similar to this. It was worded as some search words are given and you need to find some top frequent elements and lots of ambiguities were there. I asked clarifying questions. The interviewer was pushing me hard to come up with the Bucket sort and then Trie solution.
The interviewer was so nice. I enjoyed this round. Felt more like a discussion.
DSA Round 3: Given a > b, b > c (Valid) or a> b, b > c , c > a (Not valid)
List of List of String is given with each list having 2 elements eg. a and b. ">" is the only relation b/w them. Find out if it is valid or not.
I should have given the detect cycle solution first but I feel I jumped too quickly to Kahn's as I was expecting the follow up to be finding the order. The follow up was that that but I didn't explain too well. I was trying to communicate with the interviewer but he stopped and told me you are driving this and do what you feel like. And I panicked to say the least! Again, I should have handled this better.
If you came to the post for the questions then you may stop reading here. And all the best!!
Some random thoughts
Process was painfully slow and recruiter didn't respond for 2 months in between. At this point, I thought I was ghosted and stopped preparing but she reached back again with another round of interview. I was preparing on/off during the 1.5 years as I kept losing interest. That was a mistake I made. Luckily, I got into another FAANG while preparing for Google. I am currently happy with the role. I want to focus on the job and my health (which I neglected) and a second source of income given how the market is. The recruiter asked me to reach back again after 6 months (which I think they do for everyone).
Interview Questions (3)
Question was very similar to https://leetcode.com/problems/top-k-frequent-elements/description/. It was worded as some search words are given and you need to find some top frequent elements with lots of ambiguities. I asked clarifying questions.
Given a > b, b > c (Valid) or a> b, b > c , c > a (Not valid)
List of List of String is given with each list having 2 elements eg. a and b. ">" is the only relation b/w them. Find out if it is valid or not.
Preparation Tips
Thanks a lot to the community for helping me during the preparation! This is the smallest way I can give back. I was preparing on/off during the 1.5 years as I kept losing interest, which I consider a mistake I made.