Google Software Engineer Interview Experience — Referral, Team-Specific Loop and a Visible-People Array Problem

Google's process looks like it has changed. I got a referral and interviewed for a specific team.

The interview process was broken into 2 rounds:

1. Round 1
   • a standard Leetcode problem on a text editor that doesn't compile
   • behavioral
2. Round 2
   • solutions design (similar to system design, but less ambiguous)
   • a Leetcode problem

The question I got in round 1 had two parts.

Part 1: Given an array of heights (a line of people), how many people can the last person in line see? Rule: person A can see person B if no one standing between them is taller than both A and B.

Ex: [1 10 6 7 9 8 2 4 3 5] -> return 6 people (5 can see 3, 4, 2, 8, 9, 10)

Part 2: Same array, but now find, for every person in the line, how many people they can see.

The behavioral questions included a project deep dive, collaboration / project management, and conflicts and tradeoffs.

Ultimately, I passed.