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Google | SWE INTERN 2025 | Bangalore, India | August 2024 | Rejected
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Status: 5th Semester Engineering Student at Tier-1 College
Position: SWE Intern 2025 at Google (Interview Experience)
Location: Bangalore, India
This was an On-campus opportunity
Online Assessment:
The process began with an online assessment on HackerEarth, which included 2 DSA questions. I solved one completely, while the second was only partially completed. The results led to an interview invitation soon after.
Technical Interview 1:
This round began immediately with questions—no introduction, just straight into coding. The interviewer pasted a short snippet in the Google coding interface, and I had to clarify the problem further, generate test cases, and offer a solution. I initially approached it with recursion, but the interviewer encouraged me to use a bottom-up approach. Despite my efforts, I couldn’t fully grasp the question as it was unclear and non-standard. I wrote the recursive solution and explained its time and space complexity before wrapping up.
Two days later, I received an invite for the second round.
Technical Interview 2:
In the second round, I was asked a range query problem, similar to "make all elements in an array equal using +1 or -1 operations." I explained and coded a near-optimal solution, though I couldn’t reach the most efficient answer, which I suspect involved difference arrays. The interviewer also gave a follow-up question, which I solved and implemented while discussing complexities. He wrapped up with some theoretical questions on data structures I’d used.
Verdict:
Result: Rejected.
Reflecting on this experience, I feel that cracking a Google offer requires extensive question practice and deeper understanding of concepts with a strong competitive programming (CP) orientation. Most importantly, I realized the value of thoroughly clarifying and unfolding questions by discussing them in depth with the interviewer. This experience highlighted areas for improvement, and I’m motivated to sharpen my skills for future opportunities.