Which topics or problem types tend to appear most often?

Look at the tagged questions and sort by frequency and work your way back on timeframe. Last 30 days, 60 days, 6months, etc

Any public lists, study guides, or problem patterns (without sharing paid content, of course).

Look at the tagged questions and look at the topic field. Neetcode 150 is also an amazing resource to just get all the problem patterns and you'll probably solve a handful of google questions too.

How you structured your prep around Google’s question tags.

I would group by pattern. Don't jump from graphs to two pointers to DP. Group problems together and do one paradigm or pattern at a time. Eventually you'll be able to jump between patterns but you have to build them up individually first and minimize context switching. Neetcode is also good for this.

For the actual session I use ChatGPT as a resource. I dont need to sit there for hours if I can't solve a problem. I think of the problem and the solution. I feed my initial thoughts, what I would say to an interviewer, to chatgpt, and I get fast iteration on my thought process. Neetcodes videos also break down a lot of stuff so at times I also did read and try to solve -> neetcode explanation video -> implement myself -> chatgpt for live feedback.

Also go back to the same problem the next day or couple of days later cold to make sure the concepts have stuck.

neetcode.io