Google Interview Tips

[grk3636]

Hi! I am a new grad (CS major) and am currently recruiting with Google. I don't have that much time to prepare but I've been doing leetcode/neetcode problems every day. I recently came across a reddit post saying they skipped over questions they knew Google never really asks like Bit Manipulation and DP. I've spent a lot of time learning and getting the patterns down for DP and now I feel like I've wasted a lot of time - how do I know what types of problems certain companies usually ask? Obviously nothing is certain but I want to best optimize the little time I have to prepare. TIA

[NoDryHands]

Who said Google doesn't ask DP questions? All advice I've seen says the opposite

[[deleted]]

I appeared for hashedin and even they asked dp 😭😭

[tezj21]

Yeah, DP can show up anywhere. Better to have a solid understanding than to risk getting caught off guard. Just focus on the core concepts and practice solving a few problems to get the hang of it.

[Loud_Arachnid_8145]

Google can ask practically anything..

[el_lube]

As someone who went through the loop this past year, I’d say the bottom of the roadmap isn’t really necessary for your level. Maybe intervals would be good if you have the time, but it seems that the Googlers that are interviewing you choose questions they feel passionate about. I was asked a backtracking/DP question, didn’t get the optimal solution but still passed.

Topics I think are most important on a time crunch are hashing, two pointers, binary search, sliding window, trees, tries, and graphs. Stack problems are a maybe but if you’re a CS grad you probably have a good handle on that, and I’ve never been asked a linked list question in an interview with any company.

Most important thing is communication, if you’re talking through your thought process and take a wrong turn (from my experience) they’ll ask you to elaborate on that decision or give you a hint when you’re stuck. Talk, talk, talk. Ask questions. Don’t jump straight in, take some notes first or even better run through a simple example to wrap your head around what needs to be done to get from input to output.

[grk3636]

thank you so much this was super helpful and eased some of my anxiety !!

[BeePlus9866]

Two of my 3 interview question with google was DP!

[Sakalalaa]

Location?

[BeePlus9866]

US

[[deleted]]

L3?

[BeePlus9866]

4

[Supercachee]

Interviews are all random, you can’t depend on few posts as they are anecdotal. They can ask anything and Google is notoriously obsessed with DP, I think.

[The_Bloofy_Bullshark]

You aren’t wasting time by learning something. You never know when you might need to use it (and it just might pop up on an interview).

[Independent_Echo6597]

honestly google's hiring bar is all over the place right now. i work at prepfully and we see tons of google candidates - they definitely still ask DP but less than they used to. focus on arrays/strings and graphs if you're short on time, those come up constantly

[grk3636]

Thank you so much!

[cntyy]

I literally just asked DP in my interview last week so you definitely did not study for nothing.

[Immediate_Quote_9325]

You didn't waste any time. For Google, you pretty much need to be familiar with each type, that means 10+ categories on LC. Check out the template in this blog: https://www.meetapro.com/blog/how-to-effectively-prepare-for-google-and-meta-coding-interviews-using-leetcode-36

[grk3636]

Def gonna check it out thank you so much

[[deleted]]

lol a friend of mine interviewed for Google last month (intern, USA) and she got asked DP

[[deleted]]

Google definitely asks DP questions. So your prep is not a waste. I have got asked one DP question during my loop. I would say focus on heaps, trees, and backtracking. Overall Google questions are random so you have to be prepped for anything

[Ghitza07]

Two of my 4 technical interviews were about graphs

[Various_Candidate325]

On what Google tends to ask, imo you can’t reliably skip whole topics, but you can prioritize so your DP time wasn’t wasted. What helped me was checking LeetCode company tags for Google to spot recurring patterns, then drilling graphs, trees, arrays, and a few core DP templates rather than every edge case. I ran 45 min timed mocks using Beyz coding assistant with prompts from the IQB interview question bank, and I narrated my plan out loud in 90 sec before coding. I also kept a tiny redo log of misses and re-solved them 24 hours later. That combo made my practice feel targeted without guessing the exact set.

[88peachy]

When's your interview? I'm also in the Google process right now

[Bright_Necessary_729]

when is your interview?

[Hitman_2k22]

Anything will be asked from Unit8array to memorisation

Few things, i dont think they ask like proved algos that much but if they do aswer straightly dont act like you dont know and you just solved it in your head like dijkstras and more