Google SWE Interview Experience

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview with Google both on-campus and through an off-campus application. The interview process involved an initial online assessment consisting of two Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) problems. Once I was shortlisted, I proceeded to three back-to-back technical interview rounds.

Round 1: DSA (45 Minutes)

During this round, I was asked a question that was supposed to be solved using graphs, but my initial approach was based on Dynamic Programming (DP). While dry running my solution, I realized that some edge cases failed on the DP approach, so I switched to using graphs after some thought. I provided my solution to the interviewer and discussed the time/space complexity, as well as answered follow-up questions related to my projects.

Round 2: DSA (45 Minutes)

This round consisted of two problems. The first one was an easy warm-up problem that took me only 2-3 minutes to solve with code. The second problem was difficult and based on priority-based selection, which required the use of heaps. I knew the DSA solution suitable for this, but finding a holistic approach was challenging. I kept improving my solution for 30 minutes while having discussions with my interviewer. Although I made a few mistakes while writing the code due to time pressure, I completed the problem successfully in the end.

Round 3: DSA (45 Minutes)

This was the best round of all three rounds. I was asked a question based on a tree, which I solved in 25-30 minutes, along with answering follow-up questions. The interviewer also gave me an additional problem that was not planned beforehand, and although I couldn’t come up with an optimal solution, we had a good technical discussion about it.

What helped me the most during the interviews was having a structured approach to problem-solving. I had identified my weaknesses during preparation and had become comfortable with those topics while focusing on my strengths to maintain my momentum. Additionally, I received mentorship from my college seniors who had already secured jobs with dream companies, and I found mock interviews to be helpful in improving my technical communication skills.