Google Interview Experience SDE-1

I recently had an interview with Google. I applied through their career portal and after two weeks, I received a call from the recruitment team. We had a discussion for about 15-20 minutes where they asked about my soft skills, experiences, projects, and basic background information. During the call, they also discussed my current salary and my salary expectations from Google. After that, they shared a form for me to fill out.

The next day, they called again to explain the complete interview process, shared some resources, and asked how much time I needed to prepare for the DSA (Data Structures and Algorithms). They were aware that as a working professional focused on development, I might need some time to refresh my DSA skills. I requested 2 weeks to get back on track, and they agreed, mentioning that they would check in on my progress after one and a half weeks.

True to their word, they called after one and a half weeks to inquire about my preparation progress. They then informed me that I would have to appear for a Preliminary Phone Screen round. I was given five different dates and times to choose from, and they coordinated with the scheduling department to set up the interview for the following week.

The first phone screen round lasted for 45 minutes and took place on Google Meet. The interviewer joined on time and after a brief introduction, delved straight into the technical question. We had a whiteboard where the interviewer wrote the question, and I had to write my code there. The first 5 minutes were spent understanding the question, and then we discussed the approach and edge cases for about 15 minutes. After that, I began writing the code, which was at a medium to hard level, involving trees. It took me 20 minutes to write the complete code, after which the interviewer described additional edge cases for me to handle. I addressed all the points and completed my code within 40 minutes. We then discussed the time and space complexity of the solution, and with a few minutes left, the interviewer asked me about my thoughts on working at Google. The interview concluded after this discussion.

Two weeks later, my coordinator informed me that the interviewer had a positive response, and I was selected for the onsite round. She told me that my onsite round would be Online and there would be 3 DSA rounds after. If I received positive feedback there, then there would be a Googlyness round. I told her that I wanted all three rounds in one day and she agreed to this. So, after 1 week, all my interviews were scheduled.

The first interview was conducted by someone from Google Germany. We introduced ourselves and then jumped straight into the question. This round went very well for me. He asked me to create a directory with multiple edge cases, and I was able to provide an optimized solution within 5 minutes and started writing the code. I completed the code in the next 20 minutes. After that, we discussed time and space complexity, why I was using a certain data structure, and what would happen if I didn’t use it. After he was satisfied with all my answers, he went for a follow-up question. Although we discussed the question, I was unable to finish my approach due to time constraints, but I explained the complete approach to him. He seemed satisfied with my answer and ended the call.

The second interview was conducted by someone from Google India. This was the worst interview for me. We introduced ourselves, and then he asked about my projects and related technologies. After that, we jumped into the question, which was quite tricky, and I was a bit confused. It took me 10 to 12 minutes to fully understand the question. We discussed the approach, and initially, I provided an approach, but he wasn’t satisfied, so we discussed and found the optimal approach, which took 30 minutes of the interview. This left me with only 15 minutes to write the complete code, and unfortunately, I couldn’t finish it. The interviewer also didn’t seem satisfied.

The third interview was conducted by someone from Google California. The interview started with introductions, and then the interviewer presented the question, which was at a hard level involving strings. We discussed and I came up with an approach. After that, we discussed the approach, and she identified cases where my code would fail. After realizing my mistakes, I came up with another solution, which she liked. I started coding, and although the code was lengthy, I completed it with 10 minutes left. She was satisfied with my answer and asked a follow-up question, but due to time constraints, I couldn’t answer it. However, she was happy with my initial answer and ended the call.

After 2 weeks, I was informed that I had been rejected. I believe the second interview was the deciding factor.