Software Engineer(L3) at Google | Interview Experience
Disclaimer: This experience is specific to L3 position at Google USA. The thoughts in this story are my own and are not affiliated to any company and not sponsored by anyone.
In this I’ll be focusing on four questions that I’ve been asked recently:
1. How did you apply?
2. What was the overall process?
3. What happens after the interview?
How did you apply?
I had applied directly on careers.google.com.
What was the overall process?
Part 1: Online Assessment
I first got an online assessment after 2 months of applying. It had two questions to complete in 60 mins. They don’t have many available test cases on the portal and a lot of them are internal that we don’t know.
So focus on writing a correct code that runs on all types of input. Think of the corner cases and make sure it works for them.
I was able to solve both of the questions within 40 mins.
Part 2: Onsite Interviews
One week later, the recruiter reached out to me to discuss the next steps.
I was moved directly to onsite interviews and there were no phone-screening interviews.
I got it scheduled for two weeks from now. (Had done a good amount of practice a few months back but lost touch meanwhile. so just needed to practice as much as possible. But I had an offer deadline to make a quick decision. You can ask for a longer preparation period.)
Interview 1: Leadership Round (30 mins)
A normal behavioral round to assess the culture fit at Google. It doesn’t have any technical questions as such but be prepared to tell about your experiences that delineate your people skills.
Interview 2: Coding Round (45 mins)
I was asked by a lot of people that do Google ask more than one question in an interview round. Honestly, it depends upon the interviewer and the level of difficulty of the question.
Only 1 question was asked. I was able to solve the question within the time.
Interview 3: Coding Round (45 mins)
Just 1 question. Solved it with an optimal solution. This was the best rounds of all. The key part here was that I was able to find the pattern. The more the questions you practice the better you’ll be at finding the pattern.
Interview 4: Coding Round (45 mins)
Just 1 question. There were a lot of follow-ups in this round. This was one of the tougher rounds but I think I answered them at my best. In case of follow-ups, it is always good to ask clarifying questions so that you know to what extent you are expected to dive deep.
Interview 5: Coding Round (45 mins)
Just 1 question. This was the toughest round. I had to take a lot of hints from the interviewer. The interviewers are there to help you and they want you to succeed at the end of the day.
All rounds took on the same day with 15 minutes break in between each round and a lunch break after the 2nd round.
What happens after the interview?
The recruiter reached out to me after a week telling me that they are moving me to the team matching round.
Part 3: Team Matching
For this part of the process, you are asked to submit the domain interests and your skills. Once you do this, different team managers contact you depending on their interests and explain to you what their team works on. It is a two-way communication round and you have to show interest in the work if you are interested. Often times, related projects or certifications help.
I liked the team in the first match and the Manager also sent positive feedback.
3 days after this, the recruiter told me that I’ve been approved and will be receiving the offer soon.
Please let me know if you’d be interested in knowing about the preparations, the culture at Google, etc.
I hope you found something to takeaway from this story.
