Google

Role: Software Development Engineer (SDE)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: Not Specified (Article updated Sep 29, 2024)

Interview Type: Off-Campus (Recruiter reached out)

Result: Not Specified

Difficulty: Medium to Hard

Rounds: 6 (Recruiter Call, 4 Technical Rounds, 1 Behavioral Round)

Topics Asked: Tech stack, experiences, String matching (naive to optimized, hashing, Big O), Rope/Cord data structure, finding length of ends from node, substrings, accomplishments, challenges, leadership, inclusion, challenging status quo

Experience:

An experienced Software Development Engineer (SDE) shared their Google interview journey for a 2024 role on GeeksforGeeks. The candidate had a background in full-stack development at a media conglomerate, a SAAS company, and a fintech company. A Google recruiter initiated contact.

Round 1 (Recruiter Call): This was a lengthy telephonic conversation where the recruiter aimed to understand the candidate's background, work experience, and preferred tech stack.

Round 2 (Video Interview - Singapore): The interviewer, a developer from Singapore, presented a problem: "Find all matches of a small string str2 in a big string str1." The candidate started with a naive solution and progressively optimized it. They used whiteboarding to explain the algorithm's flow, including hashing concepts, and discussed its linear Big O notation.

Round 3 (Video Interview - US): This round, with an interviewer from the US, involved a problem that led to the implementation of a rope or cord data structure. Questions included finding the length of both ends from a given node and extracting substrings (i,j) from the structure.

Round 4 (Video Interview - Zurich): The interviewer from Zurich presented the "same question but explained differently" as in Round 3.

Round 5: This was described as the "most hectic round," involving a continuous back-and-forth discussion of problems and solutions, though specific questions were not detailed in the provided snippet.

Round 6 (Behavioral): The final round focused on behavioral aspects, with questions covering cherished accomplishments, challenging career moments, instances of leadership, demonstrating courage by challenging the status quo, and fostering inclusion within a team.