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Google | L5 | July 2024 | Offer

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Status: B.Tech computer, tier 2
Position: SMTS, OCI YoE 8
Recruiter reached out directly through call for L5 role. I requested a mock interview before starting the actual interviews. Since I was already preparing for other interviews, I started focusing even more on Google and managed to solve 250 questions before the first interview round.

Interview Rounds:

  1. First Round:
    • Question Difficulty: Medium to hard.
    • Experience: I was given a medium to hard problem that wasn't on LeetCode but was similar to one I'd seen in someone else post after the interview. The problem had many edge cases, and initially, I felt it was too difficult to solve the question. However, by breaking down the problem and asking the clarifying questions, I found an optimal approach. The interviewer was very supportive throughout, which gave the confidence, this round went well.
    • Feedback: Positive, potentially strong hire.
  2. Second Round:
    • Question Difficulty: Medium, not on leetcode but there are many similar problems.
    • Experience: This was based on graph with some constraint and I am really good at graph problems so I quickly figured out the solution and coded it in less than 25 minutes. I then ran through some test cases. The interviewer also asked me to write unit tests, which I did. The interviewer was very cool and supportive, and the session went really well.
    • Feedback: Postive, potentially strong hire.
  3. Third Round:
    • Experience: The interviewer didn't join, and I contacted the recruiter and dropped off, after about 30-40 minutes recruiter contacted me and said the interviewer is available and can take up the interview.
      The first part of the question was easy, and I explained the approach and coded it in less than 5 minutes. The second part was very complex. I discussed several approaches with the interviewer and settled on one that was efficient for one operation but expensive for another. Interviewer aggreed to my approach I started coding and managed to write almost workable code. However, I missed an edge case, which the interviewer pointed out but I couldn't figure it out.
    • Feedback: Borderline positive due to the missed edge case, could be a lean hire.

After these rounds, the recruiter told me that my feedback was mostly positive except for one borderline positive round. I decided to take a month to prepare for the system design interview, as I hadn't prepared for it earlier. Scheduling the system design interview was difficult because the interviewers kept rescheduling, so I went for the Googleyness first.

  1. Googleyness Round:
    • Experience: The Googleyness round felt the toughest. The interviewer wasn't very friendly and asked lengthy questions. He was litterly reading the questions from screen and I had to ask for clarifications questions to understand them better. The interviewer was patient in explaining them. Thanks to my preparation for this round, I managed to impress the interviewer.
    • Feedback: The feedback was positive, and I believe it was a strong hire.
  2. System Design Round:
    • Experience: The system design round was daunting for me, as I had failed this type of interview at other companies before. I prepared thoroughly, doing 2-3 mock interviews each week with a friend or random online mock interviewers. This preparation paid off, as I was able to cover all aspects of the design, explain trade-offs, identify bottlenecks, and suggest multiple solutions. This round went really well. I used online resources, youtube channels (HelloInterview, jordanhasnolife5163 etc), Alex Xu volume 1 and volume 2, company blogs and lot of mock rounds.
    • Feedback: Positive, potentially strong hire.

Team Matching Phase:
Finally, I moved to the team matching phase. Initially, I didn't connect well with the first hiring manager, and other managers had specific requirements. Eventually, I matched with a better team in 4th team matching round. I got SoS from HM, I received approval from the hiring committee after about a week and am now waiting for compensation details.

Update: Compensation details: https://leetcode.com/discuss/compensation/5597472/Google-or-L5-or-Hyderabad

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