Software Engineering Winter Internship at Google

How it went

What they would tell you

How to prepare

Their background

Round by round

1. 1

   Phone Screening Round20 min

   The recruiter reached out to me, and she asked about my** **previous internship experience. She also discussed the project and its tech stack. However, she did not ask any technical questions. We then discussed my language preference and whether my college will allow me to participate in the internship. She properly explained me the timeline of the interviews and expectations I need to deliver during interviews. Questions asked:

   • Introduction
   • About my courses, college and interests
   • Previous Internship experience
   • Interview coding language preference
2. 2

   Technical Round 144 min

   This interview was scheduled for 45 minutes. The interview started with the interviewer introducing himself, and then I introduced myself. Questions asked:

   • The problem was all about recursion. He asked me print all possible sequences on some condition using recursion. Once I did that, he added a twist: he wanted me to count how many of these sequences there were. I first solved this by using Dynamic Programming (DP) to make it more efficient. Then, I realized I could solve it even faster using a simple math formula.

   • It was a more complex problem. This was a graph problem focused on building a movie recommendation system. I explained how I would use DFS (Depth-First Search) and graphs to connect movies based on user preferences. He then asked how to make the system fast when users search for top recommendations, and I suggested using a heap to store and quickly access popular queries. Similar problems:

   • Generate all binary strings

   • Print all subsequences/Power Set

   • Accounts Merge

   • Generate all binary strings
   • Print all subsequences/Power Set
   • Accounts merge
3. 3

   Technical Round 245 min

   This interview was also 45 minutes, but the interviewer was senior than the previous one. He introduced himself and told me his expectations for me during the interview. Questions asked:

   • The first problem was an optimization problem. I first solved it using recursion, and then, as expected, I optimized it using Dynamic Programming (DP). This part went quickly, taking only about 10 minutes.

   • Then, we moved on to the second problem. This one was a greedy problem, and it was very similar to the famous Meeting Rooms problem. My task was to figure out how to schedule a fun event when all employees were free. We talked through various follow-up questions and different ways to handle complications. Similar problems:

   • Target Sum

   • Coin Change 2

   • Merge Intervals

   One thing that surprised me was that my solution wasn’t quite what the interviewer was looking for, even though it seemed valid to me. I later checked on LeetCode, and indeed, the standard solution for that type of problem was quite different. Even so, I really appreciated that the interviewer listened to my solution very carefully and let me explain my thought process fully.

   • Target sum
   • Coin change II
   • Merge Intervals
   • Meeting Rooms

What came up