Google Software Engineer Interview Questions- With Simple Answers

Google Software Engineer Interview Questions

Introduction

Google is a reputed MNC and provides several perks to its employees. Therefore it is but natural to desire a software engineer job at Google. But the process is not that easy, and you have to clear different interview stages. This is why out of thousands of applications received only two percent are accepted. So, if you are a software engineering graduate, and aiming to crack Google interview questions, you are in the right place. We will give you some frequently asked Google software engineer interview questions that will help you polish your preparation. 

But before that, let’s first understand the whole hiring process at Google and what are the different interview stages you have to go through. 

A glance at the whole hiring process of Google 

(Different interview rounds for Google Software engineer candidates)

Starting with the screening technical interview where you have to give an array and a matrix test, you have to clear several online and on-site technical interview rounds having different requirements. It can be a matrix where you have to find the shortest path, or a treasure hunt, etc. After going through almost five such mind-boggling rounds you finally make it to round six which is the behavioral interview round. So let’s look at all these stages. 

Google’s ninety-minute online assessment test (only for interns and new graduates): 

The first stage for becoming a Google software engineer, if you are an intern or a graduate, is to clear this ninety-minute coding test. The test usually has two questions based on data algorithms. Only if you correctly solve both the questions, you will move to the next round. 

The questions that you need to practice for this round: 

  • Algorithm-based questions 
  • Questions on Data structures. 

Screening Technical Interview: 

Round one for those who are experienced software engineers is a screening round wherein you are given an array and matrix to solve. You are given thirty to sixty minutes for the test and is conducted through Google meet or hangout. The task is to determine whether the array is in the matrix or not. You have the autonomy to choose your starting position and then go in any direction. If you conclude that no array exists, you will mark false. 

To practice for this round, remember that the code is to be developed through a Google doc, and you won’t get the option of syntax highlighting. 

Technical Interview Round I:

After screening you through the matrix test, you are given a matrix of digits zero and one. The challenge is to find a path from the start to the end, which is the shortest. Although you can move in any direction, the rule is that you have to travel only through digit zeros. 

Technical Interview Round II: 

Moving ahead is the third stage which is a treasure hunt. There are different rooms, and you have to find the treasure hidden in any one of the rooms. Starting from room one, you will be given some keys but, again you are unaware of the right key for a room. Sounds interesting, know!

Technical Interview Round III: 

The fourth stage is centered around finding an optimal way to schedule a job on a machine. Around n jobs and k machines will be given. You have to schedule the start time and the duration and make sure that matchups are optimal. 

Technical Interview Round IV

The company will not hire you until it’s sure that you have that potential. For the same, it has two more stages for testing your abilities. In this fifth round, you have to plan a city. The task is simple. A city like a real city is assigned to you with some vacant area, different roads, buildings, amusement parks, etc., of different dimensions. Your job is to determine the number of ways in which you can build a building with a given rectangle. 

Expected topics for algorithm and coding questions
  • Sorting algorithm problems like heap sort, quick sort, merge sort, etc. 
  • Dynamic programming
  • Graph and greedy algorithms
  • Recursion 
  • Trees and graphs 
  • Queues and hash tables 
  • Linked lists, strings, arrays. 

Commonly asked questions in a technical interview of Google: 

Ques1: Design a program for implementing a queue using two stacks viz. H1 and H2 

Ques 2: Check if the given binary tree is a binary search tree or not. 

Ques 3: You are given B named binary tree that has unique values. You have to write a program to determine:

A. Which is the longest consecutive sequence

B. What is the length of the longest path which is made of connected nodes and has consecutive values? 

Ques4: You are given a binary tree named B. Your task is to design a program to return the mirror of B. 

Ques 5: Given a binary tree B that has unique values. Determine what is the lowest common ancestor of B’s two nodes? 

Expected questions on Dynamic programming in Google interview

Ques1: If you have to find the square root of a number, how would you design a code for the same? 

Ques 2: To complete a sudoku frame with 9 columns and 9 rows, write an accurate program. 

Ques 3: If you have to convert a long URL into a short one without changing the webpage (i.e. the website should remain the same), how would you write the code? 

Ques 4: If a party has n number of people, how would you determine the number of singles at the party through a code if: 

A. People are represented by integers

B. One integer is used to denote a couple. 

Ques 5: If you want to convert some integers into their roman number equivalents, what code will you write? 

Ques 6: Give a code for determining if a given number is sparse or not. Here sparse means a number if two bits are not in binary representation. 

Expected questions based on Matrices, Array, and Strings: 

Ques1: A boolean matrix with L*M size is to be modified. The cells contain digit zero or one, and the pattern is such that if a cell in the matrix says m[i][k] is one, you will see one at the ith row and jth column. Write a code for the same. 

Ques2: In a given array consisting of n integers, what would be the length of the longest increasing subsequence? 

Ques 3: In a given array, arr[], find the maximum sum increasing subsequence. Also, write a program for the same. 

Ques 4: A is an element in a given array. You have to determine the index of A so that it is both rotated and sorted, by writing a program for the same. 

Ques 5: An array consists of integer elements. Your task is to divide them into two sets. The condition is that the difference between the addition of both sets gives an absolute minimum. 

Ques 6: To reverse the characters of the S string, how would you write a program? 

Ques 7: If a string having several digits is given to you and you are asked to return all possible IP address combinations in ABCD format, how would you write the program? Here alphabets will be represented by numbers starting from zero to two hundred fifty-five. 

Ques 8: How would you determine the most repeated string in the given sequence of strings through a program? 

Ques 9: Given two strings, str one and str two. How would you determine the longest subsequence in these two strings through a program? 

Ques 10: Give a program for determining the longest common substring in given two strings namely K and S. 

Recursion based Technical interview questions

Ques 1: Write a program for determining the number of ways in which a frog can reach the top of it can jump either one, two, or three steps. 

Ques 2: Determine the longest chain that can be formed by the new pairs if the following conditions are satisfied: 

The n pair of numbers given have the second number larger than the first number and if c<f pair [a,b] will take a number from two different pairs namely [e,f] and [c,d]. 

Question for system designing in Google technical interview

If the post that you want in Google is that of senior software engineer, senior software developer, or engineering manager, you necessarily have to focus on system designing questions. 

Some of the most frequently asked things that you have to design in this segment are: 

  • API rate limiter
  • Google’s web crawler
  • Proximity server 
  • An e-commerce website 
  • A service for shortening the URL
  • A chat application such as WhatsApp or telegram
  • Autocomplete features like word suggestions. In addition to this, you might be asked to scale the same so that it can be used by millions of users. 
  • An online bookstore wherein the users have the option to pay through different payment methods 
  • For trading system, make a limit order book 
  • An elevator system that can carry a maximum load 
  • A service for sharing or saving global files 
  • A vending machine through either Python or java only.  
  • A video streaming service wherein the users have the option to see the different videos available in the database. 
  • A traffic control system which can guide the vehicles properly 
  • E-commerce website made through microservices. (Further, you might be asked to explain how the service will handle transactions efficiently) 
  • A booking system for train tickets for helping the consumers to know vacancies and prices. 
  • A service for global ride-hailing where customers have different payment methods available, etc.

Behavioral interview: 

Finally, after making it through all the five stages, you reach the last stage i.e. the behavioral interview. The purpose of this round is to determine your behavior and reaction to certain situations and questions. So you see Google will not only demand a mental sharpness but also some soft skills in its software engineers to handle tedious tasks. 

The company tries to evaluate several psychological traits and the questions are centered around the past relation with colleagues and seniors, the management skills in the past job, challenges that you tackled, etc. 

Most expected Interview questions for the sixth stage i.e. behavioral interview: 

First of all, congratulations if you have made it to the sixth and the last round after clearing five mind-boggling rounds. But again no one wants to go back after coming so far. So here’s a list of the most expected Google software engineer interview questions that you should prepare beforehand. 

Ques 1: Work-life balance is very important in Google. So can you give an example where you used a software developmental project even in your personal life? 

Ans: You can start by telling about your interest and passion in programming and coding. Then you can elaborate on some ways through which the applications can be helpful in personal life also. One example that you can cite is a program that you created for controlling different wifi LTE devices through your phone as in Alexa but with slight variation. You can cite different examples wherein you used technology for bringing comfort to life. 

Ques 2: What is your understanding of Google’s software development life cycle? 

Ans: Software development life cycle refers to a process followed by developers to create a program. The different steps in Google’s software development life cycle consist of defining the needs, creating code, planning development, testing the application, and finally deployment. 

This is a straightforward question and requires some knowledge of the operating methods of Google. 

Ques 3: can you tell us about a situation where you took a risk and unfortunately failed in that project

Ans: while answering this question remember that the recruiter does not want to you be perfect. But he wants you to tell about your experience and how you rose even after failing. So you can tell about your experience without any fear. Just make sure to tell them how that failure helped you in learning and rising above. 

Ques 4: Give details about any new project or task executed by you. 

Ans: In this question, you have to tell about your experience in dealing with a new project. Tell the recruiters about how you used your skills to complete that task and what you learned. Giving vivid details on your approach to executing that project and how you learned while working will create a good impression. 

Ques 5: Name the three most crucial things that you feel are essential for work-life balance. 

Ans: Maintaining a work-life balance becomes tricky when you are working in a very occupied company. So you can tell about your experience in maintaining work-life balance at your previous job. Some things that you can list include: proper planning and sorting, keeping yourself motivated and energized to balance between two spheres, and some activities that refresh you and bring joy to your face. 

Ques 6: can you tell us about any pride moment in your life and why do you feel it is an accomplishment for you? 

Ans: In this question, you can talk about an experience where you put in a great deal of effort and dedication and finally succeeded. You can talk about the team winning moments to show how you value teamwork and try to inculcate the qualities of a good leader. Based on what reasons you give for considering a particular moment as an accomplishment or pride, the recruiters will assess you. 

Ques 7:  What change do you think will come in the team after your inclusion? Or why do you think you should become a member of the team? 

Ans: Here, you have to tell about different qualities that will help in strengthening the team. You can talk about your jolly nature and how you would ensure proper teamwork and coordination between all the members. You can talk about the ability to mix up with others and the ability to motivate others that will help you add value to the team. 

Ques 8: Can you shed some light on any experience where you faced conflict with any team member and how you resolved the same? 

Ans: You can first talk about how you try to keep professional and personal disputes separate. Then you can acknowledge that some small conflicts between members are normal. But whenever you face such conflict, you first understand the cause of the problem and work on the same. I talk with other people and try to appreciate his point of view also. But at the same time, I’ll also try to explain why I am supporting a particular thing. 

Some behavioral questions for you to answer and practice by yourself: 

Ques 1: What are your reasons for working at Google? 

Ques 2: Which product launched by Google is your most favorite and how do you think we can improve it in the future? 

Ques 3: what are your reasons for quitting your present job?

Tips for Google’s behavioral interview: 

  1. Be prepared about your likes, dislikes, passion, dreams, goals, strengths, weaknesses, and every other single detail. The reason is they want to know what kind of person you are. 
  2. Calmness and politeness are the keys to good communication between you and the interviewer. 
  3. Try to answer all the questions with thoughtfulness. It means that you have to take some time to think about a solution rather than jumping straight on it. 
  4. Express yourself and tell them why you believe in a particular thing. 
  5. Practice beforehand for the expected questions in front of the mirror. You can also take help from someone senior who can correct your answers. 
Conclusion: 

Google software engineer interviews can indeed be very challenging because of the difficulty of questions and uncertainty about topics. But remember that hard work always pays off, and if you are putting a great deal of energy into your preparation, you will nail it. So to help you out in your preparation for Google software engineer, we provided you with some interview questions. Practice the questions with all your heart, keep confidence in yourself, follow the above-mentioned tips, and you will pass with flying colors. 

FAQs

Ques1: What is the complete timeline of the Google software engineer interview? 

Ans: Google software engineer interview process is little timing consuming. Starting from the basic steps like a resume, cover letter, etc. you have to pass almost six rounds, as given above. Therefore it can take up to eight weeks for the whole process to complete. 

Ques 2: What are the parameters on which Google interviewers assess a candidate

Ans: There are mainly four things that are assessed: 

  1. General cognitive ability: The ability to adapt according to new situations is tested because Google wants smart and adaptable engineers. So the questions will be a bit hard to understand if you can tackle them and to check if you have the problem-solving capabilities in you. 
  2. Role-specific knowledge: Next, they have to see if you have the right knowledge and experience for a particular position. Since software engineers can be of a different type, you have to make sure that you know every detail of the field you are applying for. 
  3. Leadership: The third quality they look for is leadership because in Google you will work as a team, and you might be required to lead the workforce at any time. 
  4. Culturally fit for the team (Googlyness): Lastly, they want to make sure that your values align with theirs. The purpose is to make sure that the hired candidate will be able to work in the google environment properly. 

Ques 3: What are some tips for acing the software engineer interview at Google

  • Practice is the ultimate key to success and you should solve at least a hundred different questions for the interview. 
  • When you solve coding questions, identify the problem pattern which will help you solve new problems in the future. 
  • Acquaint yourself with important concepts like algorithms, data structures, etc., by solving different degrees and types of questions. 
  • Solve coding problems on a whiteboard for feeling like an actual interview because in the actual interview they will test you through Whiteboard. 
  • Sharpening your communication skills by thinking loudly is also important for a behavioral interview. 
  • Try giving mock interviews with hiring managers. 
Google Software Engineer Interview Questions- With Simple Answers

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