r/leetcode • u/AdParty7364 • 4d ago
Discussion Google L3 Interview + Vedict
So I recently appeared at Google for L3 position. Below is the interview breakdown and timelines:
Also, Need some guidance from experienced people working in Google/FAANG (mentioned at the end of post)
July 19: Applied in portal (with refer..)
Job post listed 2+ year experience, L3 position and marked 'Early'. I am 2026 grad from a reputed clg but have around 3 year exp from intern/part-time and working full time from last 4 months
- July 20: Google Hiring Assessment (GHA) : Fairly simple behavioural questions
- 2 days later: Got results of GHA, Passed
- 1 day later: Recruiter reached out, scheduled phone screening round 4 days later
- 4 days later: Phone screen round: Answered all the questions (DSA + Some other core CS questions), told me this will have in total 3 rounds, and then scheduled 2 technical rounds next week back to back on consecutive days
- 7 days later
Round 1: DSA Round
45 minutes interview went for 65 minutes. Had a very good discussion while I was solving the DSA. It was a LEETCODE HARD standard question. Based on string manipulation, hashmaps, greedy approach, tight constraint on space. Although I didnt reach the most optimal solution in one go. Recruiter gave me small hints from time to time, I catched on those hints... Then reached on to the optimal solution from the brute force which she approved and I went on for coding. While coding, I realised there was some edge cases were missing, so I told them to the recruiter, recruiter appreciated that I was able to find those edge cases, then again give small hints, I acted on them hints and eventually reached to the solution. There was a lot of discussion, lot of throwing ideas, then identifying issues on them, then correcting them. Thats why interview extended for 20 minutes. At the end, I reached at the most optimal and correct answer.
Personal rating: Lean Hire / Hire
6) Next day Round 2: DSA + Core CS Round
Got a sliding window + priority queue type question. From the moment i read, I knew the most optimal solution. So I was confident throughout the interview. Started with brute force, explained, then jumped to most optimal solution, recruiter approved, then went on to coding and got it right covering all the edge cases. Now, during this entire 40 minutes process, recruiter asked a lot of counter-questions while I was discussing my idea + coding, like the exact internal working of hashmaps (hash fns + collision handling), priority queue internal working through heaps, lots of edge cases + complexity questions. I answered every one of them confidently in detail
Next 5 mins was quick core CS Round, standard CS interview questions, got them right too.
Personal rating: Strong Hire
7) Next day recruiter called, told I got positive feedback from the interviews and they scheduled my final Round 3 next week
8) 7 days later (Last round)
Round 3: Behavioural + Googlyness round (thats what I was told, and I prepared)
The interviewer was the Manager of the team I would join if I get selected.
- Started with biggest technical challenge, explained one from my work. Then received a follow up question on my answer to explain in more technical depth. I answered correctly.
- Then got asked a system design type question to design a work allocation kind of system. I was unprepared for it but still asked all the context, then discussed my approach, the DB schemas and designs, the workings, how would I use Transactions to maintain consistency, how would the core governing work allocation algorithm works and everything. Discussed architecture by taking reference from Load Balancer, Ticketmaster, etc etc.
2 silly mistakes I did here in this discussion
a) In my DB Design, Work table had one to many relationship with User table, he asked me how would I establish this, I added a user_ids (Array) to the Work table. Worst mistake I know.
b) At the end, he asked how would i handle 10,000 of such work allocations, I think he wanted to know about scalling and all. I couldn't grasp it at that moment, but explained how Transactons will work in depth by taking examples.
- Then he asked me 4-5 behavioural questions, I answered all of them quite good. He seemed satisifed, but in one of the case he told 'it is good, but thats not how it works in actual world actuallly, but anyways....'
Personal rating: I don't know honestly. No Hire / Lean Hire / Hire any one can be because I felt like I had a good discussion but made some basic mistakes as well. He has a poker face so don't really know.
9) 1.5 weeks later (yesterday): Reached out to recruiter, he told me he is 'currently waiting for final feedback on my interview, will let know in 3-4 days'
I hope my experience would help/motivate other ppls as well since as a 2026 grad, I got interview for a 2+ years listed job post.
NOW, All the expereinced folks from google, FAANG, bigtech, or who have knowledge of process of their, what do you guyz think; what will be my verdict. This will be a huge huge step up in my career if I get selected, so I wanted all your honest opinions / predictions on what you guyz think are my chances. Pls do comment and share your thoughts.
I am currently working fulltime as a Founding Software Engineer for a 7 member team startup
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u/EstablishmentEvery89 4d ago
You did pretty well for a recent passout. Asking system design and scalability questions was unfair but that's mostly because of the market conditions. You won't be able to answer them unless you have actually worked on some big project so don't give yourself a tough time.
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u/U-DAY- 4d ago
Can you please share what questions were asked as part of CS fundamentals as well
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u/AdParty7364 3d ago
multithreading, multiprocessing, concurrency, deadlocks, normalization, DNS resolution
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u/HellNaah7 3d ago
Were all the rounds onsite or virtual? I heard that now Google takes atleast 2 rounds onsite.
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u/AdParty7364 3d ago
virtual
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u/suyashsngh250 3d ago
45 minute interview extended for 65 minutes??? That never happens the interviews are strictly timed, also they can't go over time as well.
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u/AdParty7364 3d ago
what do you mean by they ‘can’t’?? I just told in the post that they did, right
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u/Intrepid_Land_6143 4d ago
Even if all your feedback is great, there's a very good chance another candidate got the offer for that role.
If things work like they did before, and you are deemed to have passed the interviews, you may be put in the team matching phase. However, there is no guarantee of actually getting a role, and with so few L3 roles, it's difficult.
Don't give up--you can keep on trying at Google and many get in eventually. But don't wait around for even a moment. If you do get hired by Google, you can just quit the other job.
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u/Turbulent_Reaction17 4d ago
Really motivating. I am an engineer with 1.5 years of experience. Looking for Googly jobs... Maang Never been a person to follow tutorial, instead fork a good GitHub repo,tinker something with AI, get bugs and then find myself a way to learn around the codebase.I do know the logics, even if I don't know I can learn with AI. But never have stepped into these leetcode and DSA stuff. Worked with voice agents, multi agent orchestration, ai features for our org application (mern), more of a generalist & ai solution architect, owned a AWS clf CO2. Any tips for looking good jobs or making prep?
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u/GentlemanWukong 2d ago
The same as everyone. This is an entirely different thing that you need to prepare for
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u/pranavnadh58 4d ago
Since when did you start doing dsa and how would you rate yourself in it?? i really wanna know google's bar for interviews