Google SWE (L3) Interview experience - Selected
Summary
I successfully interviewed for a SWE L3 role at Google, navigating through several problem-solving and behavioral rounds. After a successful team matching process for a backend role, I received an offer.
Full Experience
Current Exp: SDE 2 at US based MNC (2.5 yrs of FTE at the start of the interview process)
Received email from recruiter. Initial discussion round took place on 4th Feb 2025.
After this, I asked for 2 weeks preparation time.
Round 1: 18th Feb
Problem solving (Elimination)
1. Check if 2 intervals overlap (basic version)
2. Follow up - Given a list, check if any 2 intervals overlap (easy - only sorting is needed)
3. Follow up - Given a list, count the number of overlapping intervals
(Line sweep algorithm)
This was the only elimination round. After this, for the next 4 rounds, I was supposed to get an aggregated feedback.
Round 2: 20th March
Problem solving
Given a date and an offset, return the new date which is offset days less then current date
(Easy problem statement, Lot of edge cases, solved most of them. Interviewer was looking for the technique in which this kind of lengthy problem is solved in a short time)
Round 3: 21st March
Problem solving
Given an array of integers, find the sum of all good arithmetic subarrays.
A good arithmetic subarray has a constant diff of +1 or -1.
Ex. [3,4,5] and [9,8,7] are good subarray but [5,6,8] or [4,6,8] is not good
Find the sum of all good subarrays means find the sum of all elements occurring in all the good subarrays
(It was a difficult one TBH, but somehow I was able to solve this)
Round 4: 24th March
Problem solving
You have a database of size M. The dataset is in the form of a binary string. Find the position of all the set bits in the binary string. Database is hidden. You can only query(L,R) which will return true if there is at least one set in (L...R) otherwise false. Minimise the number of queries required to reach the solution.
(Interesting and a new kind of problem. I solved this quickly. Also provided the alternate approach for solving)
In the last 2-3 mins, the interviewer gave a really hard version of the same problem. I was trying to solve that, but ran out of time.
Round 5: 28th MARCH
Googliness
1. Team is not coming up with creative ideas. How to identify the problem, fix the problem,
and check the impact
2. Conflict with teammate
3. Cross functional dependency, other team is not complying to the priority of the task
4. In a tight deadline project, one teammate is sick. How to manage when all other teammates are busy. Motivate the team for cover for the sick member.
I did not receive any kind feedback for any of the rounds, but I knew all rounds went good.
Team Matching Round
After this, a team matching round was scheduled. It was based on Android role based on flutter, but I am more into backend with Java and Spring boot. Hence this round was not cleared.
Next week, another team matching round was scheduled. It was for a backend team only based on Java. The team manager discussed about my past experiences on system design and many other backend concepts. The discussion went really great IMO.
One week later, I received the final offer letter !!
PS: Hardwork always pays off.
(Try solving the problem in round 4 by yourself, it is a good one)
Interview Questions (10)
Given two intervals, determine if they overlap.
Given a list of intervals, determine if any two intervals overlap.
Given a list of intervals, count the number of overlapping intervals.
Given a date and an offset, return the new date which is offset days less than the current date.
Given an array of integers, find the sum of all good arithmetic subarrays.
A good arithmetic subarray has a constant difference of +1 or -1.
Example: [3,4,5] and [9,8,7] are good subarrays, but [5,6,8] or [4,6,8] are not good.
The goal is to find the sum of all elements occurring in all the good subarrays.
You have a database of size M. The dataset is in the form of a binary string.
Find the position of all the set bits in the binary string. The database is hidden.
You can only query (L,R) which will return true if there is at least one set bit in the range (L...R) (inclusive), otherwise false.
Minimize the number of queries required to reach the solution.
Your team is not coming up with creative ideas. How would you identify the problem, fix it, and check the impact of your solutions?
Describe a situation where you had a conflict with a teammate and how you resolved it.
How would you handle a situation involving a cross-functional dependency where another team is not complying with the priority of your task?
In a tight deadline project, one teammate becomes sick. How would you manage the situation when all other teammates are busy? How would you motivate the team to cover for the sick member?