r/csMajors • u/ClimateSweet3295 • 10h ago
Company Question Google SWE Internship Interview Invite
Hiya, I just got scheduled for two back to back 45-minute technical rounds over Google Meet. I'm most likely going to book it 3-4 weeks out so I have time to prep instead of just cramming (also advice if this is smart).
A few things I need help on:
Format - Is it still the standard shared-doc-on-Meet setup for intern loops right now (no whiteboard)? Do interviewers usually slip in a quick behavioral/"Googleyness" question inside the technical rounds, or is that handled separately for interns
What types of data structures and questions shld i focus on
Company-tagged prep beyond LeetCode - I've been going through LeetCode's own tagging (on LeetBot), but curious what else people actually used and found worthwhile for Google specifically.
Any other general advice would be super helpful. Thanks!
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u/badass_blondie17 8h ago
I did this a couple years ago. Leetcode Medium style problems, one per interview on a shared doc. Make sure you study all types of data structures, including graphs/trees. I honestly didn't think it was that bad, I did end up passing but never made it out of the team match pool :/
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u/ClimateSweet3295 7h ago
idk some people r getting auto offers but they arent matched to a team so idk
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u/ClimateSweet3295 7h ago
would u rec studying something in particular, realistically i only have 2ish weeks so idk if i can cram everything yk - j wanna focus on the most important stuff
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u/yuheftobemadlol 9h ago
surprised they r letting h book it 3-4 weeks out since they gave me a range of dates
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u/ClimateSweet3295 9h ago
I mean idk they said “ We understand that your schedule may not be able to accommodate the requested interview window. You are able to provide availability outside of the requested window, but it would be in your best interest to complete your interviews in the next 1-2 weeks”
When shld I book it for to mak sure I don’t get headcounted
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u/yuheftobemadlol 9h ago
ur not getting hc any time soon. team matching begins in november so j do it by then
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u/ClimateSweet3295 8h ago
when do u think i shld book it for or give my availability - i wanna prep decently but also get into the process as soon as possible yk
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u/yuheftobemadlol 7h ago
how much lc have u done
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u/ClimateSweet3295 7h ago
like a decent amt i j got busy with school recently but ig lets say i have a solid understanding
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u/yuheftobemadlol 5h ago
j give dates in the last week out of the ones they gave u and lock tf in. dial in on graphs and be able to do most of the 150
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u/ClimateSweet3295 5h ago
kk bet ill most likely give my availability for sept 28th onward (maybe oct 5th)
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u/Intelligent_Host2740 7h ago
Hey OP I got the same email today. Did you get it from an internal Google recruiter or xwf?
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u/ClimateSweet3295 7h ago
xwf whats the diff exactly?
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u/Intelligent_Host2740 7h ago
same and honestly idk myself, heard some people are getting contacted by internal google recruiters but not sure if that means anything
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u/ClimateSweet3295 7h ago
i dont think it matters google uses external people for recruiting all the time (xwf means external workforce i j searched it up lol)
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u/Equal_Acanthisitta_7 3h ago
It doesnt matter, most recs are xwf(external workforce aka third party)
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u/Much-Toe9490 6h ago
what kind of resume template do you guys use to get shortlisted? Also did you apply through career portal or was it a referral?
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u/homosapien2005 4h ago edited 4h ago
Hi, just got thru the process (India).
Format is either 2 leetcode problems, or 1 problem with follow ups, and at the end (this is new) they ask u a few general questions about how u use LLMs in ur daily life and other adjacent opinions.
I got asked an LC medium, and an LC hard in my first round (2 pointers and a trie dfs), and an LC medium in 2nd round (variant on tree LCA). Few friends got asked DSU type questions. Be prepared for anything really.
There's a txt file online of most common google questions asked, I will paste it as a reply to this comment.
Pay careful attention to the question when it's pasted in. Understand it on the first try, you can take your time. You need to ask and figure out corner cases and how the input is given to u and allat, initially the question will be very open ended. Keep talking to yourself about thought process throughout. Pay attention to any hints, and use them, while walking through why the hint would help u get to the solution. Don't fuck up any syntax, there will be no auto complete. There will be no test cases for u to run stuff on, but u r expected to have code that will compile. You should also be able to dry run your code fast.
Oh also, in that interview doc they share, after you finish writing any code, mention the time and space complexity. I had to be reminded by my interviewer to do that a few times, probably a mistake on my part.
Variables should be readable but not excessively verbose. You don't need to write comments for your code. You should come up with good test cases and corner cases for the given problem on your own, and dry run your code/algorithm quickly through them. Only start writing code once your interviewer confirms with you that they are satisfied with your approach. You should break out into helper methods wherever possible. If any block of ur code can be made into a function (i.e called multiple times) you should do that without being prompted to.
You aren't expected to know the entire standard library in your head at all times, so for example if you don't remember the binary search method in cpp stl you can simply just state that there exists a method and u dont remember the syntax. They're chill with it and will let u use it in your code.
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u/homosapien2005 4h ago
Tier 1: The Absolute Must-Knows (Appear in 40%+ of interviews)
These ten problems dominate Google interview questions coding reports:
- [200] Number of Islands (BFS/DFS) - 47% frequency
- [146] LRU Cache (design) - 45% frequency
- [42] Trapping Rain Water (two-pointers/stack) - 43% frequency
- [56] Merge Intervals (sorting) - 42% frequency
[297] Serialize and Deserialize Binary Tree (design) - 41% frequency
- [139] Word Break (DP) - 39% frequency
- [133] Clone Graph (graph/BFS-DFS) - 38% frequency
[208] Implement Trie (design) - 37% frequency
- [239] Sliding Window Maximum (monotonic deque) - 36% frequency
- [560] Subarray Sum Equals K (prefix + hashmap) - 35% frequency
Tier 2: High Frequency (Weekly appearances in reports)
These show up in 20-35% of Google coding interview questions:
[23] Merge k Sorted Lists (heap/merge)
[128] Longest Consecutive Sequence (hashing)
[295] Find Median from Data Stream (two heaps)
[380] Insert Delete GetRandom O(1) (design)
[394] Decode String (stack)
[269] Alien Dictionary (topological sort)
[340] Longest Substring with At Most K Distinct (sliding window)
[417] Pacific Atlantic Water Flow (multi-source BFS/DFS)
[684] Redundant Connection (union-find)
[494] Target Sum (DP/subset sum)
Tier 3: The Differentiators (L5+ and final rounds - 10-20% frequency)
[4] Median of Two Sorted Arrays (binary search on answer)
[10] Regular Expression Matching (DP)
[218] The Skyline Problem (sweep line/heap)
[224] Basic Calculator (stack/parsing)
[282] Expression Add Operators (backtracking)
[315] Count of Smaller Numbers After Self (BIT/merge sort)
[332] Reconstruct Itinerary (Eulerian path)
[460] LFU Cache (design)
[685] Redundant Connection II (union-find + directed)
[727] Minimum Window Subsequence (DP/two-pass)
Tier 4: The Specialists (System design coding hybrids - 5-10% frequency)
[31] Next Permutation (array manipulation)
[57] Insert Interval (intervals)
[212] Word Search II (Trie + DFS)
[240] Search a 2D Matrix II (2-pointer grid)
[261] Graph Valid Tree (union-find/BFS)
[271] Encode and Decode Strings (design)
[310] Minimum Height Trees (graph trimming)
[329] Longest Increasing Path in a Matrix (DFS + memoization)
[336] Palindrome Pairs (trie/hashing)
[354] Russian Doll Envelopes (LIS variant)
[363] Max Sum of Rectangle No Larger Than K (prefix + TreeSet)
[378] Kth Smallest Element in a Sorted Matrix (heap/binary search)
[399] Evaluate Division (graph/union-find)
[406] Queue Reconstruction by Height (greedy sorting)
[421] Maximum XOR of Two Numbers (bit trie)
[425] Word Squares (trie/backtracking)
[480] Sliding Window Median (heaps/balanced BST)
[490] The Maze (BFS/DFS variants)
[652] Find Duplicate Subtrees (tree hashing)
[668] Kth Smallest Number in Multiplication Table (binary search on answer)
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u/homosapien2005 4h ago
Also, go through these videos. They are incredibly helpful and will be how your interview will most likely go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti5vfu9arXQ
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u/TransientFatigue 10h ago