Google Onsite Interview
I recently had an onsite with Google (5 coding rounds). The good part: I was able to come up with optimal algorithms in all of the rounds, coded them up, gave test cases and analyzed the time complexity correctly. I had enough time for the followups in all of the rounds and was able to come up with the optimal approach for all of them. The bad part: I took one hint for coming up with the optimal algo for the main question in one of the rounds. In two of the rounds, the interviewer pointed out one minor bug in the code which I fixed immediately. What are my chances of passing the interviews? Do the interviewers make note of each bug they find in the code while submitting their feedback? Does the HC penalize heavily for each bug? I would really appreciate any feedback. Thanks! :) TC: ~250K
Did you also have system design? How hard were the coding question based on Leetcode standards? Medium/hard?
No system design. None of the questions (except in one round) were directly from LC. But most of them were of LC medium level.
Wondering why there were no system design rounds. System design rounds are the hardest for me.
Should be fine if there were no other (behaviour) negative signals.
How do you know you got all the optimal algorithm? I wouldn't tell an interviewee if they couldn't.
I was able to find most of them online with little changes, so verified that way. Also, most of them were in linear time and I am pretty sure logarithmic time wasn’t a possibility.
I had a very similar experience with 4 medium and 1 hard. I was able to solve all of them optimally but made a couple of basic errors while coding that the interviewer pointed out. Ended up not getting an offer :/
Hmm, I too have a similar feeling. I think they need absolute bug free code. :| ISSA_party, did you move to the HC round?
No my application never got to the HC. It came as a surprise to me and the only feedback my recruiter could give me was regarding code quality. But I have a strong hinge they had better candidates from the same day/week with perfect interviews who they decided to move forward with
What's your yoe? And level u interviewed for?
3, L4.
Does everyone get an opportunity to choose between 4C/1D and 5C ? How was the telephonic round?
Umm, sorry, I am not sure. Telephonic round had 1 relatively easy algo question and 1 medium object oriented design.
Bug free is not necessary. I passed hc and I found that there are two bugs after interview. How many questions did you code? I heard that is also an important factor
How many questions per interview? I heard they ask 2 per interview but not sure if that's true
What kind of a bug was it? Something logical, edge case or an implementation issue?
You'll get it! What's your current TC
Fingers crossed :) Updated the post with TC.
Yoe?