I interviewed with Google a few days back for the SWE role. I was asked a simple dp problem, I quickly gave the logic, the interviewer said it looks fine and asked me to code it, I quickly coded it, he asked me the time and space complexity of the problem and asked me to dry run it, which I did. I was totally confident as the problem was dead easy and I practically faced no hiccups, got feedback that my code has an implementation bug and they rejected me. My bug was not logical but more of a silly implementation bug So my questions are 1) I have seen Google interviewers give hints to candidates, I didn't get any, is this specific to the individual or this is the new norm ? 2) Should I not expect any hint for optimization also ? I mean even if interviewer did not ask for it, should I produce the most optimized solution on my own ? If yes, how do you guys know when to stop ? I mean this prob is easy to solve with O(N^3) https://leetcode.com/problems/guess-number-higher-or-lower-ii/ but it can also be solved with O(N^2) using convex hull optimization, but such things are not usually expected in interviews, so how do you guys know when to stop ? YOE : 0 PS: Yes, interviewer was from India #googleinterview #googleinterviewfeedback #google
Let's differentiate between superpowers and your not noticing a bug in your own code.
Come on, YOE is 0, thru needed hints if it was that big of a deal
Updated the post, with my questions
Did you Apply at Google India office?. If not, was your interviewer was Indian?. Usually Indians have this attitude to make other people feel bad by Asking insanely hard question, I'm an Indian and I feel bad for my race.
Yes Indian
Well I guess I already answered it then
Have similar experience in one of my recent onsites but here I would say it is quite subjective to the interviewer not to the company as a whole. Also, was this the only round they took? In my experience, they don't decide failure basis on only one round.
It was my first round
Must be either Indian or Chinese interviewer. Their education system is based on cracking difficult exams, and they learn to rank people based on these small mistakes.
updated the post
That’s an interesting insight, hadn’t thought about that connection
sometimes i wish i went to be a doctor instead of a coder
I think not noticing a bug in your code despite finishing the code early and doing dry run is basically a red flag. PS for next interviews - check for bugs by proactively running through corner cases and few dry runs if you finish early. Self testing is a trait one needs to develop. There are so many candidates who come up with perfect code now-a-days. Hence, anyone who falls short, e.g. with a bug, will obviously receive a negative point.
The point is the interviewer didn't notice the bug too. If he did why he didn't point it out during the interview. If he was not supposed to, then why have an interview, why not just send an online assessment?
Correct if I am wrong, but I have seen cases where Google interviewers do give hints to candidates if they go wrong, I didn't get any, so I wanted to know if this is the norm ?
DAE try running their code before checking for bugs line by line? Asking for an entire industry.
I tried running the code line by line, but my bug is implementational and not logical
There are so many other companies that you can go to that pay the same or more without being obsessed about coding interviews. My first interview experience after college was with Google too. Some of the interviewers were outright disrespectful.
You faced it too ?
Who doesn't?
Recently had a virtual onsite, imagine getting 4 Chinese interviewers with thick accents in a row.