Google | L5 | Bangalore | July 2024

Overall

I have personally received a lot from community and this has made me reach to my dream company. So here I would like to take this opportunity to share my thoughts with the intention to contribute back.

Previous Employment
Amazon - SDE-II (and multiple startups)
Experience
~7.5 years
Process Time
6+ months, since 1st interview round
Attempt
4th
Status
Accepted Offer
Location
Bangalore, India
Position
L5 - Senior Software Engineer

Rounds

Algo-DS (3 rounds + 1 Re-round):
Although 1-2 questions were relatively easy and were focusing on implementation of DS, For my case, I could see majority of questions around Graph: Topological Sort, DFS, BFS etc.
System Design (1 round):
I was asked to design Image Hosting System.
Googlyness (1 round):
Behavioral round. I would strongly recomment to go well prepared for this round, considering your past experience and scenarios, where you may create a bunch of questions in well advanced, on how did you handle certain situations. i.e How did you convince management for certain solution, Time when you worked with your Team on a Project, Challenging Project you have worked on and what did you Learn from it etc.

Verdict
DS-Algo-1: Hire
DS-Algo-2: Lean Hire
DS-Algo-3: Lean Hire,
DS-Algo-Re: Lean Hire,
Googlyness: Lean Hire,
SD: Strong Hire

Google: Things to Know

SOS
Standard Google process is already Documented across the web. I just want to state here Statement of Support (SOS), which is a confidence from Hiring Manager (HM), recruiter can always take before submitting your packet to Hiring Comittee (HC). This just helps as a tie-breaker when HC committee is indeed on fence. However as said, it is just a support, it can not completelly change the outcome of your performance.

VP Approval
If your packet is has indeed good feedbacks, but HC rejects your case, your recruiter always has a way to challenge the decision with VP approval. But you need a support from Hiring manager (HM), who is willing to advocate your case. Please note, such cases are very rare and should not be used as abackup of Negative feedbacks.

Team Match
I have personally gone through 7-8 different team before joining the one. This team can be same as the one from where you received SOS, or can be a different, up to you.

Detailed Feedbacks
Primary feedbacks (Hire, No Hire,...) are just one part of your interview outcome. If process could have been so straighforward, even system could have given Yes/No for the hiring decision of every candidate. Hiring Comittee (HC) always looks for Detailed Feedbacks, which means comments specified by interviewers, which gives supportive evidence to the primary feedbacks each interviewer has given. Sometimes you are on fence, but detailed feedbacks are really good, which may save you ! However, this can be the other way around as well, btw ! In case of dilemma, candidate may receive Re-round as well.

Panel's Support
Your recruiter can always support your case if you really have good feedbacks from interviewers. He and even sometimes Hiring Manager (if you have taken SOS) would play a role of advocate to support your packet. In my case I give credit to my recruiter for making sure that I receive L5 offer, not L4.

Down Level
This is a contraversial question: Should I accept a Google offer with Down-Level? I do not wish to argue on this, as this may vary depending on individual's choice and need. But one thing I would surely say, Higher Level comes with Money, whereas Lower Level brings a Comfort and Time to get adjusted in company with relatively lower expectations. You should definitely give an additional thought before concluding yourself.

Max-Attempts
Maximum 3 attemps are allowed in Google is myth, I personally cleared it on 4th attempt, so that I can confirm that.

Tips for Preparation

1. Focus over Breadth instead Depth
You should always try to cover breadth and clear fundamentals to an extent before jumping to Top questions (Top 75, Google Questions etc). Proceeding with the later one can easily deviate you from your focus, which happens for majority of candidates.

2. Focus over Quality instead of Quantity
I see everywhere people posting now a days number of problems they have solved so far. Let me tell you with my experience, You need not to solve 700-800 problems to crack FAANG. All you need to do is to follow 1st step making sure to cover your bredth of concepts with fundamental understanding of it, and then make sure to practice atleast 3-5 problems in each sub-topic (i.e Graph->Krushkal's Algorithm, Graph ->Disjoint Sets). Even till today there are barely around 200 problems which I have solved over LeetCode. Doing this can prepare you atleast for 90% of the interview rounds.

3. Focus on Key Topics
If you are appearing for Google, you should never miss these topics: Graph, Tree, Heap, Recursion (DP, Backtracking etc), Trie, Monotonic Stack, 2D Array + Graph. However it's always a good idea to look around for recent experiences online, as this may change with time.

4. Mock Rounds
Mock rounds are indeed very useful while preparing for FAANG, especially in case of System Design. There are bunch of sites who helos you with mock rounds, that helps you to do net practice and boost your confidence. But the sad part is they all are pretty expensive for System Design. In worst case you can always give mocks from various employers (where you are not very much keen) or even can make ChatGPT your interviewer. Check this sample.

5. If I can Do, Certainly You Can
Every individual has capability to crack Google, It's just a matter of Time. This was 4th time for mewith Google. As we know, Failures are not Failures, they are just Stepping-Stones for the upcoming Success. You should always do Retrospection of yourself to move a step closure every time. So, Keep Improving & Keep Trying !

6. There is Always a Next Time
As we know, Hardwork and Focus can beat Luck, but there are always edge cases where we get disapointed. I personally had bad experiences with companies including Google, where interviewer has full freedom to ask anything, even if that Question doesn't follow certain industry standards. I was little lucky this time, with a good recruiter who can help remove outliers. However, I would never encourage anyone to Rely on Luck and wait for the Opportunity to Knock the door !! Instead of blaming yourself, Take a Learning, Take a break and Prepare yourself for the Next time.

Useful Materials

Algorithm/Data Structure

LeetCode premium : Its a Gem, start topic by topic
Cracking The Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann Mcdowell : For beginners, to know How to think for any DS/Algo problem
Abdul Bari on YouTube
Pr*mp: Mock rounds of Algo/DS

System Design

Designing Data Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann : A book to clear your fundamentals
System Design Primer by Donne Martin
System Design Interview by Alex Xu (Part-1 + Part-2)
Mock rounds (on various online platforms)

All the very best !!

Reference: Compensation

PS: Trust Yourself, so the Rest Can !