Google Screening Rounds SWE4
Summary
I underwent two screening rounds for a SWE4 position at Google. The first round focused on a graph problem with follow-ups, while the second round was a comprehensive behavioral and leadership assessment.
Full Experience
ScreeningRound1: Coding
Given a sorted array arr of size N, and an integer diff, construct an undirected graph where each node represents an index. Connect nodes i and j if |arr[i] - arr[j]| <= diff. You are given a list of queries [u, v]. Return a list of booleans indicating whether there is a path between u and v.
Example: arr = [1, 2, 3, 6]; diff = 2; queries = [[0, 2], [1, 3]] Output: [True, False]
Followups:
- what if array is sorted in desc order.
- what is input array is not sorted.
- which sorting algorithm will you use.
Interviewer was very chatty, asked me to hurry while coding, wanted me to discuss the coding approach with time and space complexity for bruteforce/sub-optimal solution and then wanted me to move to optimisation. Completed exactly in 45 mins. Also this was a repeat question asked in prev interviews.
ScreeningRound2: Behavioural and Leadership
- Went on for 40 mins.
- Started with how my work day looks like.
- Then jumped to how do I prioritse work items.
- How do I resolve technical conflict between two junior devs.
- How will I evaluate technical docs.
- Mentoring juinors.
- How will I contribute and scale innovations.
- What do I do in my team to transfer information and knowledge
- Alot of questions about culture, what would I do to improve culture in the team, in my org and etc.
- what is one non negotiable culture for me in a team and how will I work on improving it.
Interview Questions (10)
Graph Connectivity in Sorted Array with Difference Constraint
Given a sorted array arr of size N, and an integer diff, construct an undirected graph where each node represents an index. Connect nodes i and j if |arr[i] - arr[j]| <= diff. You are given a list of queries [u, v]. Return a list of booleans indicating whether there is a path between u and v. Example: arr = [1, 2, 3, 6]; diff = 2; queries = [[0, 2], [1, 3]] Output: [True, False] Followups: #1 what if array is sorted in desc order. #2 what is input array is not sorted. #3 which sorting algorithm will you use.
Describe a Typical Work Day
How my work day looks like.
Prioritizing Work Items
How do I prioritse work items.
Resolving Technical Conflicts
How do I resolve technical conflict between two junior devs.
Evaluating Technical Documents
How will I evaluate technical docs.
Mentoring Juniors
Mentoring juinors.
Contributing and Scaling Innovations
How will I contribute and scale innovations.
Knowledge Transfer in Team
What do I do in my team to transfer information and knowledge.
Improving Team Culture
Alot of questions about culture, what would I do to improve culture in the team, in my org and etc.
Non-Negotiable Team Culture
what is one non negotiable culture for me in a team and how will I work on improving it.