Interview Experiences

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

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22 stories

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GoogleData Scientist
Sep 2026

An Unexpected Forecasting Question and a Fast Offer Timeline

I signed Google's offer a couple of days ago, though I still have a few other issues to resolve. I'm sharing my interview experience and preparation package, and hoping I can start smoothly. First round Stats: Questions about p-values, simple linear regression, confidence intervals, and similar topics. Data: Compare two vendors' models. There are similar questions in other interview reports. Seco…

OfferOnsite0
GoogleData Scientist
May 2026

SQL Funnel, Product Case, and an AI Agent Growth Puzzle in One Screen

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Technical ScreenXP0
GoogleData Scientist
Feb 2026

A Next-Word Predictor Coding Round Plus BQ

This round's interview question: given some training sentences, write two functions — a training function and a predictor function. The predictor function should take a word as input and output what the first word after that word could be. Example: ["I", "am", "Sam"] ["Sam", "I", "am"] ["I", "like", "green", "eggs", "and", "ham"] My approach: in the training function, use a dictionary to count ho…

HR Screen0
GoogleData Scientist
Feb 2026

A Next-Word Predictor Coding Question and a BQ Round

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OnsiteXP0
GoogleData Scientist
Dec 2025

Bootstrap Proofs, Then a Soccer Shot Model and a Selection-Bias Puzzle

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Technical ScreenXP0
GoogleData Scientist
Dec 2025

Rejected After Two Rounds of Stats and Causal Inference Questions

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RejectedTechnical ScreenXP0
GoogleData Scientist
Dec 2025

My Strategy for Passing the Hiring Assessment Personality Test

As the first stage of the interview process, this one's pretty simple — but it would be a shame to get filtered out here. I looked through everything I could find online and combined it with my own experience to put together what I think is the most complete summary out there, to save everyone some time. Just read through this whole post and you should sail through it. What's the Google Hiring As…

Online Assessment0
GoogleData ScientistSenior+
Nov 2025

Rejected Everywhere Else Before Landing an All-Strong-Hire DSR Offer

I've read some experience posts on the forum before, and this is my way of giving back — my first post, sharing some of my own experience here. Some background first: I'm at a big company, I've been coasting for several years, and I felt like I was wasting away, so I planned to switch jobs earlier this year. It didn't go well though — I got rejected at the hiring manager round, then coding/SQL ro…

OfferOnsite0
GoogleData Scientist
Oct 2025

A Two-Part Invoice Matching Coding Screen

We started with quick self-introductions on both sides — no deep-dive project questions. Then came two coding questions built around a single scenario; the questions and the amount of code involved weren't trivial. At the end I got to ask the interviewer some questions. Q1: Given the invoice ID inside a payment's memo, find the matching invoice in the invoice list and output the result. My approa…

Technical Screen0
GoogleData Scientist
Oct 2025

Two Back-to-Back Screens, No Coding

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Technical ScreenXP0
GoogleData Scientist
Oct 2025

Four Technical Rounds, One Interviewer Showed Up Late and Never Apologized

Overall the interview questions were pretty hard, but the interviewers were mostly friendly and did a good job guiding you along (except for one round). Google's interviews feel hard to prepare for — unlike Meta, which has a ton of interview writeups floating around. I think it really comes down to what you've built up over time. Technical: Statistics Question 1: Assume we have a sample with 100…

Onsite0
GoogleData Scientist
Oct 2025

Phone Screen Plus Five Onsite Rounds, Passed HC

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OfferOnsiteXP0
GoogleData Scientist
Oct 2025

SQL, Metrics, and Modeling Across Two Rounds

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In progressTechnical ScreenXP0
GoogleData Scientist
Oct 2025

Two Case-Study Rounds, No Coding, Rejected After 3 Days

Round 1: Measurement & Modeling Concepts A case study: Google Meet has a big customer who complains that meetings keep dropping/disconnecting. They ask how you'd analyze and solve this problem, how you'd put together an analysis plan, and how you'd estimate the impact. If it's affecting retention, how do you build a model to predict retention (contract renewal)? How do you evaluate models, what a…

RejectedTechnical Screen0
GoogleData Scientist
Oct 2025

A Brutal CRR SQL Question with LAG and 4-5 CTEs

This isn't a super fresh write-up, but while I was prepping I noticed there weren't many Data Scientist interview experience posts here, so I'm sharing mine. First was the HR phone screen — we talked a bit about projects I'd worked on before and they asked about my SQL and Python experience. I passed and got scheduled for the first round. The first round had two sessions: they said it would be on…

RejectedTechnical Screen0
GoogleData Scientist
Oct 2025

Five Rounds Covering Stats, Modeling, R, and a Battery-Life Case Study

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OnsiteXP0
GoogleData Scientist
Oct 2025

Second-Round Onsite, One Interviewer Cancels via Late-Night Email

About a month or two ago I did my first round, which had two sessions, but I honestly don't remember what was covered. I guess I didn't do well, because there was no follow-up. Last week I suddenly heard that I'd be moving on to a second round. The second round was supposed to have three sessions, but the interviewer for one of them wasn't available and canceled on me by email in the middle of th…

In progressOnsite0
GoogleData ScientistSenior+
Oct 2025

Cold-Called Into the DSR Track, All Strong Hire

I'd read a small handful of interview reports, and even those helped a lot. A bit of background first: I'm at a big company, I've been coasting for a few years, and it started to feel like I was wasting my time, so at the start of this year I decided to look for a new job. It wasn't smooth — I got rejected by hiring managers, rejected on coding or SQL, rejected at onsite, rejected at the final ro…

OfferOnsite0
GoogleData ScientistIntern
Mar 2025

Percentile Estimation From Bucketed Search Data

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RejectedTechnical ScreenXP0
GoogleData Scientist
Mar 2025

Two Rounds, Rejected Three Weeks Later

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RejectedTechnical ScreenXP0

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.

Share your experience to earn XP