Google SWE Summer Intern Interview Experience 2024 | On-Campus India

Round 1: Online Assessment

• Duration: 60 mins
• Platform: HackerEarth
• Questions: 2 Medium/Hard DSA questions. One was based on Prefix Sum arrays combined with HashMaps, and the other was a Graph problem requiring Multi-source BFS.
• Tip for students: Google OAs have extremely strict time limits. Highly optimized code is required. A brute-force approach will result in TLE (Time Limit Exceeded).

Round 2: Technical Interview 1

• Duration: 45 mins
• Questions: Given a custom class 'Event' consisting of fields like id, type, score, and timestamp. The interviewer asked to find the number of specific streaks for a user within a given time range.
• How to Answer: Never just jump into coding. I initially proposed a brute-force approach, but the interviewer hinted at optimizing multiple queries. I then used Prefix Sums and a HashMap to achieve O(1) query time. I explicitly clarified edge cases like, "What if the timestamp array is unsorted?"
• Interviewer behavior: Very helpful and collaborative. He complimented my variable naming conventions and modular functions.

Round 3: Technical Interview 2

• Duration: 45 mins
• Questions: A problem requiring a Custom Sort using a Comparator Class and a Priority Queue, framed around a real-world Google Maps driver routing scenario.
• How to Answer: Focus heavily on code readability. The interviewer closely monitored my syntax. I used Java and made sure my Priority Queue comparator logic handled equal weights properly to maintain stability.

Key Takeaways for Freshers

Always use camelCase, write meaningful comments, and dry-run your code aloud. Even if your logic isn't 100% complete, your communication and ability to take hints can carry you through!