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The whole process took around 7 months spanning from August 2020 to March 2021.
Applied on career portal on 18th August, 2020.
Test had 2 coding problems.
1. It was a simple greedy problem
2. It was a DP on graph problem
I was able to solve both the problems quite comfortably.
Received a call from recruiter saying, they have decided to proceed with my application and I need to go through a screening immediately on a phone call :p.
She asked basics of DSA like complexities of various algorithms, when to use which data structure and why etc.
I answered every question quite comfortably and my Telephonic round was scheduled for 10th November, 2020.
This round was conducted from Zurich Office.
Problem was medium level and was able to solve in 20 minutes. The remaining time was spent on discussing projects listed on my CV.
The interviewer was very friendly and it was like chit chatting with my best friend.
On 24th November, 2020 I received a call from from recruiter saying, you compared integer with null in C++ which is not valid (Overdose of Ruby :p) and hence we want you to go through another technical screening.
This round was also conducted from Zurich Office.
This time only DSA was asked and I solved around 4 questions in 45 minutes.
1 was easy, 2 were easy-medium and 1 was medium.
On 10th December, 2020 I received a call from from recruiter saying, you have qualified for the onsite interviews ( 5 more interviews ) and will soon receive the schedule.
All the onsite interviews were conducted from Bangalore, India.
Interview started pretty badly as I misunderstood the problem statement and in the first 20 minutes i came up with an overkill modified dijkstra solution which the interviewer said will work but is too much. The problem can be solved much simply.
He then removed a constraint and the problem became medium-hard and I quickly coded that using DFS+DP.
Then he again asked me to solve the original problem using the solution of the simpler version. I again failed to do so.
The solution was to implement binary search on answer over the the simpler problem.
I performed worst in this round.
The interviewer asked about the previous round and made me a lot more comfortable in the first 5 minutes and asked a hard problem on greedy :p
I first gave a brute force solution and the interviewer gave me a hint for reducing the complexity which I grabbed spontaneously and came up with the most optimised solution.
This all happened in the first 10-15 minutes xD.
Then rest of the time I solved 3 more variations of the original problem.
This was one of the best interview I had with Google.
Super Hard problem on graphs.
This time the solution was indeed a modified dijkstra.
Solving, communication and the coding took 40 minutes. Then the interviewer said let us make things more interesting and started putting additional constraints on the problem and I had to tell the difference in approach to be used.
This round was extended to 90 minutes and my brain was super exhausted as I had 3 back to back interviews with a 10 minute interval in them.
However, this round went pretty well.
On 23rd December, 2020 I received a call from from recruiter saying, you have qualified for the last 2 interviews and will soon receive the schedule.
Again a hard problem on graphs but I had solved a similar problem while practicing AlgoU's assignment problem xD.
Was able to solve the question within 10 minutes and its 3 variations in the next 25 minutes.
Then he asked me about my projects and what team I would want to work with.
This was a non technical round and was conducted by the engineering manager.
All the questions were behavioural like what would you do in so and so situation.
This round also went pretty well.
On 27th January, 2021 my recruiter emailed me, you have done well in your interviews and we need more information on you like university transcript, extra ordinary achievements (scholarships, coding contests like ICPC, Kickstart , Code Jam etc).
On 12th February, 2021 my recruiter emailed me, you have cleared the internal screening from recruiters and your application has been passed on to the Hiring Committee.
And finally on 2nd March, 2021 my recruiter called me and shared my verdict as offered
Applied on career portal on 18th August, 2020.
Online Test was conducted on 26th September, 2020.
Test had 2 coding problems.
1. It was a simple greedy problem
2. It was a DP on graph problem
I was able to solve both the problems quite comfortably.
Recruiter screening was conducted on 16th October, 2020.
Received a call from recruiter saying, they have decided to proceed with my application and I need to go through a screening immediately on a phone call :p.
She asked basics of DSA like complexities of various algorithms, when to use which data structure and why etc.
I answered every question quite comfortably and my Telephonic round was scheduled for 10th November, 2020.
First Telephonic Screening was conducted on 10th November, 2020. (45 minutes)
This round was conducted from Zurich Office.
Problem was medium level and was able to solve in 20 minutes. The remaining time was spent on discussing projects listed on my CV.
The interviewer was very friendly and it was like chit chatting with my best friend.
On 24th November, 2020 I received a call from from recruiter saying, you compared integer with null in C++ which is not valid (Overdose of Ruby :p) and hence we want you to go through another technical screening.
Second Telephonic Screening was conducted on 4th December, 2020. (45 minutes)
This round was also conducted from Zurich Office.
This time only DSA was asked and I solved around 4 questions in 45 minutes.
1 was easy, 2 were easy-medium and 1 was medium.
On 10th December, 2020 I received a call from from recruiter saying, you have qualified for the onsite interviews ( 5 more interviews ) and will soon receive the schedule.
All the onsite interviews were conducted from Bangalore, India.
Three Onsite Interviews were conducted on 21st December, 2020. (45 minutes each)
1st Technical Interview
Super Hard problem on graphs.Interview started pretty badly as I misunderstood the problem statement and in the first 20 minutes i came up with an overkill modified dijkstra solution which the interviewer said will work but is too much. The problem can be solved much simply.
He then removed a constraint and the problem became medium-hard and I quickly coded that using DFS+DP.
Then he again asked me to solve the original problem using the solution of the simpler version. I again failed to do so.
The solution was to implement binary search on answer over the the simpler problem.
I performed worst in this round.
2nd Technical Interview
The interviewer asked about the previous round and made me a lot more comfortable in the first 5 minutes and asked a hard problem on greedy :p
I first gave a brute force solution and the interviewer gave me a hint for reducing the complexity which I grabbed spontaneously and came up with the most optimised solution.
This all happened in the first 10-15 minutes xD.
Then rest of the time I solved 3 more variations of the original problem.
This was one of the best interview I had with Google.
3rd Technical Interview
Super Hard problem on graphs.
This time the solution was indeed a modified dijkstra.
Solving, communication and the coding took 40 minutes. Then the interviewer said let us make things more interesting and started putting additional constraints on the problem and I had to tell the difference in approach to be used.
This round was extended to 90 minutes and my brain was super exhausted as I had 3 back to back interviews with a 10 minute interval in them.
However, this round went pretty well.
On 23rd December, 2020 I received a call from from recruiter saying, you have qualified for the last 2 interviews and will soon receive the schedule.
Next 2 Onsite Interviews were scheduled for 5th Jan, 2021.
4th Technical Interview
Again a hard problem on graphs but I had solved a similar problem while practicing AlgoU's assignment problem xD.
Was able to solve the question within 10 minutes and its 3 variations in the next 25 minutes.
Then he asked me about my projects and what team I would want to work with.
5th Interview (Googlyness) (30 MINUTES)
This was a non technical round and was conducted by the engineering manager.
All the questions were behavioural like what would you do in so and so situation.
This round also went pretty well.
On 27th January, 2021 my recruiter emailed me, you have done well in your interviews and we need more information on you like university transcript, extra ordinary achievements (scholarships, coding contests like ICPC, Kickstart , Code Jam etc).
On 12th February, 2021 my recruiter emailed me, you have cleared the internal screening from recruiters and your application has been passed on to the Hiring Committee.
And finally on 2nd March, 2021 my recruiter called me and shared my verdict as offered
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