Google Warsaw | SRE-2 | Offer
Summary
I successfully navigated the Google SRE-2 interviews in Warsaw, ultimately receiving an offer after several challenging rounds, including behavioral questions and advanced data structures and algorithms problems.
Full Experience
My journey to Google Warsaw for an SRE-2 role was both challenging and rewarding. I had been preparing intensely since March 2024, having already solved over 1500 LeetCode questions. This was my first MAANG interview, so I was quite nervous during the onsites.
My screening round was detailed, as described in this LeetCode post.
The first onsite round was a Googlyness (behavioral) round with an interviewer from Switzerland. I was asked to describe a time when I had to pivot midway at work, and another time when my actions positively impacted my team. There were in-depth follow-up questions on both scenarios. From what I could tell, my performance was 'SH' (Strongly Hinted).
Onsite 2 was a coding round with an interviewer from the US. The main question was challenging, relating to filesystem size calculation. I solved it using DFS. The interviewer asked many clarifying questions, such as how to handle cycles in the filesystem. For follow-ups, I discussed caching results for multiple queries on the same filesystem, and how to reduce space by only storing folder sizes, as file sizes had O(1) lookup. I also suggested using a visited set for cycles and considered Union-Find for multiple filesystems. However, I felt I overcomplicated the solution and might have missed a bug, resulting in a 'LNH' (Low Not Hire) performance.
Onsite 3, my second coding round, was truly the best for me. The interviewer, also from the US, was incredibly cool. The problem involved validating a string based on its length l, a maximum of k similar consecutive characters, and a given set of alphabets. I solved this with a stack in O(N) time and O(N) space, mentioning that an O(1) space optimization was possible. The interviewer actually helped me with the O(1) solution without me getting stuck, and I quickly coded it.
The follow-up was to count the number of valid strings under the same l, k, and alphabets constraints, but without being given an initial string s. I initially misunderstood and began discussing Monotonic Stack and DP, assuming s was still an input. When the interviewer clarified, I realized my mistake and quickly switched to a backtracking approach, explaining its complexity and implementation. The interviewer was very happy with my quick adaptation. I even suggested an optimized solution as time was running out. My performance here was 'H' (Hire) despite the initial misunderstanding.
I received positive feedback from HR and am now moving forward to Team Matching.
Interview Questions (5)
Describe a situation where I had to change direction or strategy midway through a project or task at my workplace.
Share an experience where my actions or behavior positively influenced my team.
Given a string s, an integer l, an integer k, and a set of alphabets. A string s is considered valid if it meets these criteria:
1. Its length is exactly l.
2. It does not contain more than k similar consecutive characters.
3. All characters in the string s are present in the given alphabets set.
Given an integer l, an integer k, and a set of alphabets (without string s). Count the total number of valid strings that can be formed, where each string must meet these criteria:
1. Its length is exactly l.
2. It does not contain more than k similar consecutive characters.
3. All characters in the string must be present in the given alphabets set.
Preparation Tips
I started preparing intensely since March 2024 and have solved over 1500+ questions on LeetCode.