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Got the offer

Software Engineer Intern at Google

Difficulty
Process took
2-3 Weeks
Rounds
3
Format
Remote
Applied via
Walk in

How it went

  • Clarity is key: Always start by explaining your approach before jumping into code.
  • Use descriptive variable names when coding in documents (e.g., movieRatings, not mr).
  • Edge cases matter: Always think and mention how your solution handles edge cases.
  • Ask clarifying questions: If the problem statement isn’t 100% clear, confirm the assumptions, you can ask if input is sorted or not , or constraints etc.
  • Optimize only after correctness: Write a working brute-force solution first, then work on optimizing it if time allows.

What they would tell you

  • Clarity is key: Always start by explaining your approach before jumping into code.
  • Use descriptive variable names when coding in documents (e.g., movieRatings, not mr).
  • Edge cases matter: Always think and mention how your solution handles edge cases.
  • Ask clarifying questions: If the problem statement isn’t 100% clear, confirm the assumptions, you can ask if input is sorted or not , or constraints etc.
  • Optimize only after correctness: Write a working brute-force solution first, then work on optimizing it if time allows.

How to prepare

  • Practice Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA) Thoroughly : Try to complete Strivers sheet first to get a strong grip on concepts and then practice company wise question.
  • Learn Graph deeply : Google is known to ask graph question so get a strong grip on graph .
  • Simulate the Interview Environment : Practice coding in Google Docs or plain text editors

Their background

I am a Third year undergraduate student .

Round by round

  1. 1

    Online Assesment round60 min

    Google came on-campus for the SWE Intern position. The online assessment was conducted in the college lab under strict supervision, so there was no scope for cheating. We were given 2 questions to solve in 60 minutes.

    • The first was a medium-level dynamic programming question where we had to find the number of subsequences that do not contain more than 3 consecutive odd or even numbers.
    • The second was a hard problem based on segment trees, where we were given multiple queries, and for each, we had to find the minimum number of swaps required to sort the array after applying the query. I was able to fully solve the first question and got shortlisted for the interviews. Out of 186 students, 25 were shortlisted.
  2. 2

    Interview Round 145 min

    The interview began with a brief introduction, after which the interviewer gave me a coding question. We had to solve the question on a Google Doc, no access to a compiler was provided, so everything, including the dry run, approach, and code, had to be written directly on the document. The question was to find the longest "super streak" in an array. There were two conditions to determine whether a subarray qualifies as a streak, and then two additional conditions to check whether it qualifies as a super streak. After solving the main problem, I was given a follow-up, where I used a map to complete the solution efficiently. Important Points:

    • Be clear and to the point. Think out loud, first explain your approach, only then move on to the code.
    • If you’re preparing for a Google interview, practice coding on Google Docs.
    • The interviewer didn’t allow me to use pen and paper for any rough work.
    • Have a strong command of time and space complexity.
    • Always justify the choice of data structures you're using.
  3. 3

    Interview Round 245 min

    I cleared the first interview and was called for the second round just 15 minutes later. The question in this round was based on graphs, specifically involving BFS and a priority queue.

    Problem Statement: I was given a list of movies along with their ratings, and also a set of movie similarities, like:

    • Movie A is similar to Movie B

    • Movie B is similar to Movie C

    • and so on... Given a movie name, the task was to find the top K highest-rated movies that are similar to the given movie (directly or indirectly connected through similarity). I was able to code the complete solution in 25–30 minutes, using BFS to explore similar movies and a priority queue to track the top K rated ones. Since I finished early, the interviewer asked a few behavioral and managerial questions related to:

    • My experience

    • Strengths and weaknesses

    • Projects I’ve worked on After this 8 were selected finally .

What came up

Medium HardRemote0 1 years

A candidate-reported account, lightly edited. Interview processes change by team and date.

Sources