Interview Experiences

Real candidates, real loops: every round, what was asked, and how it ended.

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110 stories

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GoogleSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Google Software Engineer interview: unclear live DSA communication

This interview was hard in a particular way. It was not only the complexity of the DSA questions, but also the interaction with the interviewer. I got directional array questions involving dynamic programming, though I could not clearly recall the full second part of the problem afterward. The interviewer did not speak clearly enough for me to ask clarifying questions effectively. I spent extra m…

Technical Screen0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Google Software Engineer interview: compact developer algorithm loop

I went through a full-loop format with an online assessment and a recruiter call before the technical rounds. Once I reached the developer loop, I had to solve medium-to-hard LeetCode-style problems, and it felt designed to test real problem solving from start to finish. The structure became intense and compact after the earlier screening steps. The interview was essentially developers only, with…

Online Assessment0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Google Software Engineer interview: referral, six coding questions, and support

A referral started my loop and moved me to a recruiter call sooner than I expected. The process then had three coding rounds, each with two LeetCode-style questions, a system-design interview, and a behavioral interview. The overall vibe sat in the middle: challenging but not cruel. In the coding rounds, I needed to solve cleanly, communicate clearly, and handle follow-ups instead of treating the…

Technical Screen0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Google Software Engineer Interview Experience: A one-hour two-problem OA and eliminatory DSA rounds

This was a fast onsite-style process centered heavily on DSA. I started with an OA containing two data-structures-and-algorithms problems to solve in about an hour. The time pressure made it intense, and I noticed there was no audio or video proctoring. Then I went into the interview portion for the onsite opportunity. The interviews focused only on DSA, with medium-to-hard LeetCode-style problem…

Online Assessment0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Google Software Engineer Interview Experience: Median of two sorted arrays and autocomplete design

I expected the technical rounds to be tougher, but the interview felt much easier than I thought it would. The first main question was finding the median of two sorted arrays, and I got through it fairly quickly. Then the conversation moved to a system-design problem about building autocomplete for a search engine. The coding questions were written in a shared document rather than an editor where…

OfferTechnical Screen0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Google Software Engineer interview for a PhD ML-focused role with spam-classifier design

I interviewed for a PhD SWE, ML-focused role, and the first real test came in the first interview round. It combined an ML domain section with behavioral questions. In the ML part, I was asked to design a spam classifier and write pseudocode for a bi-gram model. My recruiter had told me the domain round would connect to my projects, but the questions were more design-focused than I expected. When…

Rejected0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Reported Jul 2026

Google Software Engineer interview with four rounds and onsite C++ implementation

The process felt steady and not especially punishing. I started with a recruiter phone call and, about a week later, a technical screen. There were four interview rounds in total: two coding rounds, a behavioral round, and a system-design round. The coding was LeetCode-style medium algorithm and data-structure work, with the usual need to communicate clearly, get the code right, and think through…

Technical Screen0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

Sunnyvale Onsite, No Hire Despite Optimal Solutions

I got a bad feeling at the onsite from the start, and sure enough, in the end I got a no hire even though I got optimal solutions on both questions plus the follow-ups. The stated reason was lack of communication. I feel like I got screwed, because the whole time I clarified everything first and then talked while I wrote, and the phone screen had explicitly said my communication was outstanding.…

RejectedOnsite0
GoogleSoftware EngineerNew Grad
Jun 2026

Three EU Onsite Rounds, Then Stuck in Team Matching

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In progressOnsiteXP0
GoogleSoftware EngineerSenior+
Jun 2026

Three Coding Rounds, One BQ Round, and a Declined L3 Downgrade

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WithdrewOnsitePremium1
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

Two Technical Rounds, Meeting Room II and Top K Variant

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Technical ScreenXP0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Jun 2026

A Cake-Splitting Binary Search and a Mahjong Hand Puzzle

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In progressTechnical ScreenXP0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Reported Jun 2026

Google Software Engineer interview: language-library technical round

A recruiter first reached out, then I had a scheduled technical round. Early on, the interviewer focused on a very specific library connected to the language I had chosen. I could not fully remember the details on the spot, and that threw me off. The process then expanded into several technical rounds: DSA interviews, a high-level design discussion, and a Googliness-style behavioral interview. Th…

Technical Screen0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
May 2026

Three Coding Rounds and a BQ on AI Ethics

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OnsiteXP0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
May 2026

L4 Loop Down-leveled to L3 After HC

It's been a while, so I'm sharing my full Google loop. I have 2 years of experience, applied to countless places, and got reached out to. After I finished the personality test, a recruiter moved me over to a US-based recruiter and the interviews started. R1 Coding: Classic Dijkstra, but with a twist. The original shortest path is the sum of edge weights, but here the question was the minimum prod…

RejectedOnsite0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
May 2026

L4 Onsite, Rejected After Falling Back to Brute Force

I interviewed for Google L4 a few months ago and got rejected after the onsite coding rounds. Sharing it here as a reference for anyone coming after me. R1: Merge two nodes (each node has three fields: name, value, children). The core rule is to use t1's node order but t2's node values. 1. In the merged node, name comes from t1 and value comes from t2. 2. Children with the same name are matched o…

RejectedOnsite0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
May 2026

Two Onsite Rounds, Now Heading to Team Match

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In progressOnsiteXP0
GoogleSoftware EngineerNew Grad
May 2026

Technical Screen With a Verbal-Only Second Question

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Technical ScreenXP0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
May 2026

Coding Rounds That Keep Changing the Requirements

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OnsiteXP0
GoogleSoftware Engineer
Apr 2026

Hacker Rank OA With an AI-Assisted Coding Question

As the title says, I applied around the end of February this year. Last Tuesday I did the hiring assessment, and right after that the OA got sent out. It's a Hacker Rank test, and it feels pretty different from the CodeSignal OA that the earlier new-grad wave got, so I wanted to write it up and share. There are two questions total, and they explicitly said some questions let you use an AI tool, w…

In progressOnline Assessment0

What are interview experiences?

An interview experience is a candidate's own account of a hiring loop — not a question bank entry. It tells you the shape of the process: how many rounds there were, what each round actually tested, how long the gaps between them ran, and what the recruiter said at the end. That context is the part a question list cannot give you.

How to read them

Weight recent write-ups more heavily — interview loops change, often within a year. Read several for the same company and role rather than one: a single account tells you what one interviewer asked, while five tell you what the bar is. Note the outcome badge too, since a rejection write-up usually explains the gap far more precisely than an offer one.

Share your own

Every published experience earns 50 XP, and each of the first 3 likes it receives in a day earns you 10 XP more. Likes must come from established accounts; like-for-like swaps and likes from your own second account are not paid. Write it while the details are fresh — the round order, the exact prompts, and how much time you were given are what the next reader needs.

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