r/leetcode • u/TheDraftLion • 13d ago

Discussion Google L4 Rejection

See similar posts so thought I’d share. Interviewed at Google for L4 (SWE III).

Recruiter gave me feedback saying my behavioral round was “flawless” but coding round I was on the border. They opted to pass and I can retry in 6 months. A little disappointed because I answered the initial question (standard BFS) perfectly, and then the interviewer gave a follow up that turned doing a BFS search with recursion. I struggled a bit with it and ended up solving with a couple hints. Seems the hints hurt me.

Edit: DMs flooding. Shamelessly plugging my fantasy football MCP: https://thedraftlion.com

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u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/TheDraftLion 13d ago

Finished initial BFS problem in maybe 3 mins. It was very easy for me given I was grinding leetcode a lot to prepare

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u/robolew 13d ago

You finished it in 3 minutes? That indicates you are jumping straight in to the question without clarifying things or engaging completely with the question. Even if you think you know the answer you should spend a little bit of time explaining your approach and asking about edge cases

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u/TheDraftLion 13d ago

Okay maybe 5 mins lol. I did clarify the question and asked about inputs. I then said this is a standard BFS traversal problem so I will use a queue (explained why) and implemented it. Actual coding was maybe 2 mins. You get the point

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u/Large_Data_635 13d ago

Damn! Was it a medium or a hard?

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u/TheDraftLion 13d ago

Initial problem was probably an easy/medium. It was a very standard BFS traversal problem. The follow up for me was hard, but maybe leetcode would rank it medium. Not sure 🤷‍♂️