What should I expect in the interview? Is it easy, medium, hard? How high is the bar? System design?
Depends on the org/team, but typically pretty standard compared to other top companies. 1-2 LC mediums in early rounds, then OOP and system design on topics related to your resume, then more behavioral to help leveling. Less about speed - it’s not FB. The bar varies because there’s no hiring committee or bar raiser or centralized process, it’s 100% up to the interviewers to ask whatever they want and the AA can decide level pretty much unilaterally. So sometimes you can write a little bit of recursive code and be fine, but other times they want a complete DP solution with no bugs. Because the bar isn’t as clear, I think it’s extra important to read your interviewers and connect with them and try to understand their expectations or what would impress them personally. Why are you leaving G? What level are you currently/targeting?
Thanks for the detailed response. I'm looking for higher level and hence looking to leave. Hired at L3 and have 4 yoe now (1.25 at Google)... So I guess I should target 62, 63 (correct me if I'm wrong). What can I do to convince for higher level? What is AA?
63 is extremely unlikely with 4 yoe, even coming from Google. I think 61-62 would be the target. The AA is the As Appropriate, basically the most experienced or highest level interviewer and often the hiring manager. The only way to level higher is to do really well in the interviews!
I thought they were stopped hiring for most groups.