Google | SDE | US | July 2023

In early July, my Google interview was scheduled while I was interning for Google US in a Site Reliability Role. The HR contacted me to set up an initial phone screen. The first question was an interval-based puzzle, somewhat similar to the interval list intersections problem on LeetCode. I managed to solve it, along with the follow-up questions.

However, things took an unexpected turn when Google announced a hiring freeze just as my technical interviews were about to begin. After a few weeks, I decided to reach out to HR. They were incredibly helpful and forwarded my resume to other teams. Receiving positive feedback from one of those teams was a significant morale boost.

Interview Rounds

1. First Round - Technical Coding: I was presented with a challenge similar to the "My Calendar III" problem on LeetCode. It was labeled as "hard," and I initially found it tricky because the question had a twist, and I wasn't completely confident about Segment Trees. Despite the struggle, I managed to logically break down the problem and clearly explain my thought process to the interviewer. They seemed satisfied with my approach and asked me to implement it. Although my code had a few syntax errors, the underlying logic was sound. The interviewer overlooked the syntax issues and appreciated the optimal approach I presented, considering various scenarios. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to delve into complexities.
2. Second Round - Technical Coding: This round gave me a tricky task: using four cards with numbers from 1 to 9, create an expression that evaluates to 24 using basic math operations and parentheses. This was quite a challenge, and I initially stumbled. My first solution wasn't up to par, and the interviewer questioned my data structure choices. After reflecting on my approach and discussing it with the interviewer, I improved my Depth-First Search (DFS) strategy, focusing on handling different cases and using a set to prevent duplicates. This time, my solution managed to pass the test cases, and the interviewer seemed satisfied. We even delved into discussing time complexities.
3. Third Round - Behavioral: This round focused on discussing my past experiences and how I handle various situations. I shared insights about my family, work experience, skills, projects, open-source contributions, and achievements in hackathons. It was a more relaxed and positive conversation.
4. Fourth Round - Technical Coding: By this point, I was quite drained. The question revolved around generating a sequence of digits that remains the same when rotated 180 degrees, essentially a number that looks the same upside down. The task was to find all such numbers of a specified length 'n'. While I initially struggled to come up with an iterative solution, I eventually managed to create a recursive solution that passed the test cases. We discussed time complexities and core concepts.
5. Final Round - Googlyness and Logical Puzzles: This round was a mix of fun and challenging puzzles, and I managed to navigate through them fairly well.

After the rounds, I was asked to wait while the feedback was reviewed. After a brief period, I received the news that my feedback was strong and would proceed to the Hiring Committee. It took a bit of time to get the final response due to some team members being on leave, but in the end, I was thrilled to learn that I had succeeded and received an offer.