Google interview guide
Google software engineer interview: process, questions and prep
Google wants to see how you think. Interviewers care about clear reasoning, good tradeoffs and clean code more than a perfect first answer. Here is how the process usually runs and how to practice for it.
The process
The Google interview process
What candidates commonly report. Teams and levels differ, so ask your recruiter what your loop looks like.
- Recruiter screen
A short call about your background, the level you are aiming for and the timeline.
- Technical phone screen
One or two 45-minute coding interviews in a shared doc or editor. Expect a follow-up that changes the rules once you solve the first version.
- Onsite
Usually four or five interviews: mostly coding, one Googleyness and Leadership round, and system design for L5 and above.
- Hiring committee and team match
A group that did not interview you reads the feedback and decides. Then you talk with teams to find a fit.
Questions
Google behavioral interview questions
Questions candidates report from Google behavioral rounds, and what a strong answer shows.
Tell me about a decision you made in the past that you would change now. Why?
A strong answer shows honest reflection on their own judgment.
Tell me about a time a decision came out of people with opposing views and it ended well. What was your part?
A strong answer shows bringing the opposing views into the open.
Tell me about something you learned from someone more junior than you.
A strong answer shows openness to ideas from anyone.
Imagine a teammate on your project keeps missing deadlines and it's starting to hold the team back. What would you do?
A strong answer shows talking to the person first to understand why.
Imagine your team hits a problem nobody on it knows how to solve, and the deadline is close. How would you handle it?
A strong answer shows a clear first step instead of panic.
Tell me about a time you did the right thing for users even though it was harder or slower for the team.
A strong answer shows putting users ahead of convenience.
Tell me about working with someone whose way of working was very different from yours. How did you make it work?
A strong answer shows respect for a different way of working.
Tell me about a time you got people to follow your lead without having any authority over them.
A strong answer shows influence through ideas and trust, not title.
Imagine you're leading a new project with four engineers you haven't worked with. How would you split up the work?
A strong answer shows learning people's strengths and goals first.
Tell me about work you led that changed how people outside your own team worked.
A strong answer shows impact beyond their own team.
Questions
Google coding interview questions
Coding problems candidates report from Google interviews.
Contains Duplicate
Sets for constant-time lookups
LRU Cache
Caching model responses, eviction order
Valid Palindrome
Pointers from both ends, skipping noise
Two Sum II - Input Array Is Sorted
Using sorted order instead of a hash map
Valid Parentheses
Matching pairs with a stack
Daily Temperatures
Monotonic stack in one pass
Binary Search
Loop bounds and off-by-one errors
Search Insert Position
Lower bound on a sorted log
Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters
Growing and shrinking a window
Maximum Depth of Binary Tree
Recursion on a binary tree
Binary Tree Level Order Traversal
Breadth-first search with a queue
Merge K Sorted Lists
k-way merge with a heap
How to prepare
How to prepare for Google
- Say your assumptions first, then your plan, then code.
- Give the time and space cost of your solution without being asked.
- Compare two approaches before you pick one.
- Test your code with edge cases before you say you are done.
Questions.
What is the Googleyness interview?
It is Google’s behavioral round. It mixes questions about your past with “what would you do if” questions. It looks for doing right by users and the team, handling unclear problems and leading without a title.
How many coding rounds does Google have?
Candidates usually report one or two phone screens and three or four coding interviews onsite.
Does Google ask system design questions?
Yes, usually for L5 and above. Reported prompts include video streaming, shared docs, maps, search typeahead and web crawlers.
Can I practice a Google mock interview?
Yes. Orin runs Google-style mock interviews by voice, with Google’s reported questions asked first and follow-ups in its style. Company interviews are on the Pro and Max plans. Your first interview is free.
How does an Orin mock interview work?
You talk with Orin by voice, like a video call. It asks questions, listens and asks follow-ups based on what you said. Coding happens in a live editor and design on a live whiteboard. After the interview you get a report with quotes from your answers, what cost you points and what to practice next.
Practice your Google interview.
Talk through Google-style questions with follow-ups, then see exactly what to fix. First interview free.
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