Google Interview Experience — SDE Intern
I was interviewed for the SDE Intern position in Google India. Though I was not selected, the interview experience itself was enlightening for me as I got the opportunity to reflect upon my strengths and weaknesses.
“FAILURE IS THE BEST TEACHER” — I realized it closely in the process. I got to know about my weak areas as well as my strengths as I went through the 3-rounds of interviews. Clearing the first 2 rounds boosted my confidence and made me realize that I have more potential than I think, While the final round gave me the opportunity to realize my weaknesses and the areas where I need to work more to achieve my goals.
I have been asked by many people to share my interview experience, that’s why I am publishing this post. Hoping, it would be helpful.
PS: As per Google’s policy, Interview questions are confidential, so I am supposed to keep those under wraps but I will share the topics of the questions.
ROUND 1 — PHONE INTERVIEW
Time — 45 minutes
Questions asked — 1
The interview started with a brief discussion of one of the projects mentioned in my resume, then the interviewer fast-forwarded to a coding problem. I was coding on a Google Doc which the interviewer was examining at the same time. The solution to the question involved knowledge of queues, hash sets, and built-around logic definitely. I was able to solve this question but was asked to optimize it further. I couldn’t think about the optimization part before a small hint was given to me by the interviewer itself. I coded the additional optimization logic too as I could grasp the hint quickly.
In the end, the interviewer gave me the chance to ask him a question. And with this, the interview ended leaving me with no positive or negative feedback about my performance.
ROUND 2— GOOGLE HANGOUTS VIDEO CALL
Time — 45 minutes
Questions asked — 1
The interviewer straight-forwardly jumped into the question. The question for this round was more tricky than the previous one. It involved playing a game around a Binary Tree, It took me some time to understand the question and I was nervous the very next second because I had no hint of solving it around, but then I picked my copy and pen, drew things, observed and a solution clicked into my mind in just 3–5 minutes, I shared my approach with the interviewers, they seem convinced and I started coding, this time without any hints, I coded the best solution as per time and space complexity was concerned, The interviewer seemed impressed.
PS: There were 2 interviewers in this round.
ROUND 3— GOOGLE HANGOUTS VIDEO CALL
Time — 45 minutes
Questions asked — 2
Question 1: An easy one based on Strings, — solved.
Question 2: Again a not so difficult one based on Linked Lists — This is where my interview screwed, I was probably nervous or something, I built around the logic well, but did a few mistakes while implementing, The interviewer corrected me thrice, I knew I screwed it.
I got the final results around 1 month later.
LESSONS THAT I LEARNT
You should learn from other’s mistakes :)
- Confidence — You are more than what you think of yourself.
- Consciousness — Don’t be over-conscious about being interviewed with Google, it's just gonna put you under more pressure.
- Think more with pen and copy and less in the air (I did that in the 3rd round)
Few pieces of free advice if you want to take :)
1st thing — Don’t underrate yourself thinking that it’s google (too big a thing), the 45 mins of interview forget everything & just focus on the question you have to solve
2nd thing — Think out loud, show the interviewer your way of thinking, make good communication, the 2 of you sit to solve the question & the interviewer definitely helps you with little hints if you go wrong
3rd thing(things to keep in mind while you solve the question) — ask for clarification if you are not clear with the question, think about edge cases after you come up with the Solution, run test cases on the code after you write it(by speaking them in front of the interviewer, not in your mind), all these things add ➕ points 🎯 to your interview
Last but not the least, believe yourself & don’t come under pressure. All the very best 👍💯
