Google London | L4 | Aug - Oct 24 [Offer accepted]

Hi!

I've recently interviewed for an SRE role in Google for L4.
About me: 6+ YoE, 2+ as Senior C++ at the last company, MS in Computer Science.

The process is usual - phone screen, 4 onsite rounds (3 DSA, 1 behavioral).

By the time of the phone screen I had around 180 - 200 solved problems here. Really liked this leetcode list, I strongly recommend solving everything in it before your interviews.

Phone screen:
Question: find avg of the last n elements in a stream, provide an interface for users. (I've seen this problem here somewhere, but couldn't found the link)
Follow-up: ignore a few of the highest values.

I came up with a solution pretty fast, explained it to the interviewer, and implemented it, same with the follow-up.
Feedback: positive, move to onsite.

I waited for feedback for a few days. Then, I received an email to schedule on-site rounds. I chose four consecutive days, but selecting interview days with any time in between is okay.
I continued preparation for onsite rounds and had around 300 solved problems in time for interviews.

Onsite 1 (DSA):
Follow-up was this. In original question there was no k as a variable, it was always 1.
I've come up with O(n) solution for the original question and *O(n\logn) for the follow-up. The interviewer was okay with this complexity, unlike this leetcode problem:)

I felt quite good and confident after this round.

Onsite 2 (DSA):
Question for finding a shortest path in a graph. Not a hard one, but you have to write not only algorithm, but read a graph, process and return a result. Solved with BFS.
Follow-up required to run a few BFSs.

The recruiter was really friendly, and I felt like he was happy with my solutions. I was happy after this round, but a few hours later, I came up with a better solution that did not require saving the shortest paths. So, I was a little disappointed and unsure at this point.
\xAF\\\(\u30C4)\/\xAF

Onsite 3 (DSA):
This round was the hardest for me. The question was on the topic of topological sort, which I haven't had much experience with. I've suggested multiple different approaches, and they didn't work quite well. During the interview, I was thinking out loud and suggesting and discovering that my suggestions weren't good enough. Sometimes, the interviewer said something about why it was not good enough. I found this a little bit helpful, as I wasn't concentrating much on wrong approaches.
Anyway, about 20 minutes into the interview, I came up with some sort of solution and spent the rest of the time coding, verifying, and fixing a few bugs.
In the end, I was told that this problem is actually a graph problem, and it would be nice if I recognized it.
Obviously, there was no follow-up, as the time had ended.

I felt like I completely screwed this interview. Later, I found that not all the questions required follow-up, which made me a little more comfortable.

Onsite 4 (behavioral):
Standard questions like we all have seen on the internet.
I felt like the interviewer was happy with my answers.

About a week later, I received a call from the recruiter, who said that I did well and that all of the feedback was positive. I haven't asked for specific grades, but he said that almost all were perfect, and one was okay. So, I think it could be 3 Strong hires / hire and 1 hire / lean hire. The recruiter said that Google wants to go forward with me.
That was the good part of the call. Next he said, that Google does not have open positions right now and all I can do for now is wait for openings.

About one month later, the recruiter called again and said that there was an opening and the HM would like to have a quick chat with me, nothing technical. We scheduled a call with the HM, and a few days later, the recruiter called again and said that the manager liked me and that if I was okay, they would continue with my application and move it to HC. The recruiter said that he does not expect any troubles with HC as all my feedback is positive.
So, now I'm waiting and hoping for good news :)

UPD:
I accepted the offer:)