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Google

The document describes the experience of an individual who interviewed for a Technical Operations Specialist role at Google in Hyderabad, India. It details the multi-stage interview process, including an initial online test containing 10 technical questions, followed by a telephonic interview with two Google developers. While the applicant performed well on most questions, they indicate they "screwed up" on one math-based ratio question during the telephonic interview due to nerves, though the interviewer was understanding and moved on to the next question.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
362 views59 pages

Google

The document describes the experience of an individual who interviewed for a Technical Operations Specialist role at Google in Hyderabad, India. It details the multi-stage interview process, including an initial online test containing 10 technical questions, followed by a telephonic interview with two Google developers. While the applicant performed well on most questions, they indicate they "screwed up" on one math-based ratio question during the telephonic interview due to nerves, though the interviewer was understanding and moved on to the next question.

Uploaded by

movie reviews
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 59

Contents

1 Set 1 (for Technical Operations Specialist [Tools Team] Adwords, Hyder-


abad, India) 3
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 Set 2 (Placement Questions) 7


Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3 Set 3 (Mountain View) 13


Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4 Set 4 15
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

5 Set 5 (for Java Position) 17


Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

6 Set 6 19
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

7 Set 7 (For Software Engineering Intern) 20


Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

8 Google Summer Trainee Engineering Program(STEP) Interview Experi-


ence 23
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

9 Google’s method for preventing Phishing attacks 26


Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

10 Software Engineer Interview at Google, Bangalore 27


Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

11 The Google Foo Bar Challenge 29

12 My Experience with the Google Foo Bar Challenge 30

13 The Challenge 33
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

1
14 Top College: No, Top Talent: Yes ; Anudeep cracks Google 36
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

15 Exclusive Interview with Ravi Kiran from BITS, Pilani who got placed
in Google, Microsoft and Facebook 39
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

16 Google, Facebook, Amazon, Walmart & PocketGems, All Fighting For


Prasoon Mishra 42
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

17 Interview With Divanshu Who Got Into Google, Mountain View 45


Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

18 Interview with Sujeet Gholap, placed in Microsoft, Google, Samsung,


Goldman Sachs & Tower Research 48
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

19 Rushabh Agrawal from BITS Pilani talks about his Google interview
experience 51
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

20 What it takes to be a Googler? An Interview with Google’s recent hire


Romal Thoppilan 54
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

21 “It’s the best feeling of my life” says Krunal after cracking Google,
Mountain View 57
Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Contents

2
Chapter 1

Set 1 (for Technical Operations


Specialist [Tools Team]
Adwords, Hyderabad, India)

Google Interview Experience Set 1 (for Technical Operations Specialist [Tools Team] Ad-
words, Hyderabad, India) - GeeksforGeeks
My Google Interview Experience, [Hope this is helpful]
I am AnandhaKumar .P – 2012 IT pass out from College Of Engineering Guindy, Anna
University.
As many of the enthusiastic 2012 engineering passed outs, i too applied for a job in Google
jobs page. I know that its very difficult that a resume gets noticed by google.
Suddenly one fine day i got a call from Google HR saying that they are interested in my
profile and asked me if, i was ready to go with the interview process[Come on! who will say
no for Google]. I was surprised.
I was asked to take a initial screen test [Online test].
Online Screen Test [2 hours]
I was asked to take the test at 8.30 pm. They fixed this test, a week back. Nobody will call
you to remind you to take test. Nor the interviewer will call you. It is your responsibility
to check ur mail without fail. On that day I was expecting a call from google from evening
till 8.25 pm. None called me. I thought that they would have forgot that. I planned to do
go out and have food. But suddenly my ipad gave a alert message and it was from gmail
app [thanks for ipad, or else i would not have checked my mail in lap top]. It was from
google recruiter. The mail stated that he has shared a doc with me and i must answer the
questions in it. a google drive link was given. he mentioned that the test was for 2 hours. I
was asked to type answers just below each of these questions.
Questions
1. Given a source array of integers with possible duplicates and a target integer, write
algorithm to find out 2 numbers in source array whose sum is equal to target integer.

3
Chapter 1. Set 1 (for Technical Operations Specialist [Tools Team] Adwords, Hyderabad,
India)

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/write-a-c-program-that-given-a-set-a-of-n-numbers-and-another-number-x-determin
2. Say you have three tables WORK, USERS, MANAGERS
WORK
– work_id
– user_id
– how_much
USERS
– user_id
– team
MANAGERS
– manager_id
– team
If I am a manager, write a select statement to retrieve the work of all users who belong to
my team. The mapping of user to team and team to manager are defined in the USERS
and MANAGERS table.
3. In a Chrome extension, which file contains the most important information of the exten-
sion like version, pattern matches, etc.
4. There are three rooms, and there are Princess, Flowers and Snake in those rooms. The
doors of all the rooms have incorrect nameplates. i.e., the nameplate for the princess’ room
is not Princess. Similarly, the nameplate for the Flowers’ room is not Flowers. You need to
find the room of the Princess without going to the room of Snake. How do you find?
5. Which is faster: finding an item in a hashtable or in a sorted list? And Why?
6. What are some of the most popular Data interchange formats when using APIs
7. Name some popular APIs for each of these
Social
Commerce
Service(llike a photo service etc)
8. How would you change the format of all the phone numbers in 1000 static html pages?
9. If you had an opportunity to design the Google Suggest system, please let us know how
you would approach it and how you would execute the plan in terms of settings up systems
like(data stores or databases, indexing services etc)
10. How do you find out if a number is a power of 2? And how do you know if it is an odd
number? Write code in the language of your choice.
Since i have prepared for tech interviews like amazon, i was able to do it good.
My sincere thanks to geeksforgeeks[You r doing a great Help]. My entire preparations are
only from this site.
After a week i got a call from HR and informed that i cleared the first round .
Then after two days i was told that i will have a telephonic interview with one of the google
developers from adwords team .
They scheduled a telephonic interview the next week

4
Chapter 1. Set 1 (for Technical Operations Specialist [Tools Team] Adwords, Hyderabad,
India)

Telephonic interview[I screwed up here ][Design Thinking Interview ] [1 Hour]


There were two interviewers on phone. First they asked me to run through my resume.
Then the first question came
1) how will improve the revenue of the cafeteria of the office.
Lots of discussions went and i think, i really did that well.
2)[Actual question which i screwed up. Bad Time for me]
Number of users in 2010 for adwords, chrome, gmail, android and picassa are in the ratio
of 6:9:14:13:8, and in 2011 we add 3 lakh more users. New ratio is 8:12:13:11:6. Number of
picassa users in 2011= 1,44,000. Calculate number of adwords users in 2010.
A basic math question that, even a school student can solve. But in that tension i was not
able to do it. I took some time and finally gave him a answer. I myself knew that it would
be wrong. But interviewer said great lets move on to next question[just to boost up me –
good person].
My actual job role revolves around developing tools for the the ad review team
which will review the ad and reject illlegal ones. So third question was related
to that .
He told me that as i am from a tech background, i need to explain him technically wat will
i do. He also said that he did not need the actual solution. They will just see the way i
approach the problem. That an existing problem and they are open to suggestions.
3) In google adwords there are about 30 million ads from 42 lanuages . Wat will i do review
the ads and reject ads that do not comply with specific rules .
Regarding the criteria under which google bans a ad as illegal – i discussed about different
criteria .
Out of the criteria’s i told , he asked me to consider only three criteria .
a) Link not working
b) Drug related ads
c) trademarks[trademark used by the companies]
I gave lot of approaches like for link not working
a) designing a autobot which will automatically click ads link and check whether it is
redirecting to correct page or not . Autobots are used by hackers to get money for the ads
they posted . I suggested that by designing similar autobot we can validate the link.
b) to check drug related ads –
To detect the language we can first check the geographic location from which the ad is
getting posted and can narrow down to some less choices from which we can detect the
language
i suggested him that we can create a trie which some specific keywords (like coccaine ) and
do pattern matching with that and reject the add it contains any of the works in trie .
The interviewer gave me another constraint wat if there comes a ad “coccaine rehabilitation
center” we should reject those kind of ads na . thats for a good cause . So i suggested him
that i can maintain another set of trie which can contain those set of keywords.

5
Chapter 1. Set 1 (for Technical Operations Specialist [Tools Team] Adwords, Hyderabad,
India)

Fist check trie1 if drug related keywords exist .


Next check trie 2 if other types of keyword exist.
– if keyword only present in trie1 [reject ad]
– if both tire return true [can reject . but its better that those ad’s alone can be subjected
to manual evaluation for rejection].
I used trie as it can do the pattern matches faster .
For trademarks also i discussed using similar datastructures and the interviewer was ok with
my answer[i thought].
He said that “We are done with here . The HR will contact u later ” and asked any questions
“i asked few questions about the work they do in google” . and finally i finisehed with “Hope
u r enjoying in GOOGLE ! ” He said “Of course yeah !”
I thought that i did the first and third questions well but screwed the easy second question
. i am sure that i will not get selected for the onsite interviews because of that . I told to
myself ” dont worry yar ! u r not lucky enough to join google !”
a week after i got this mail as expected
Thank you for your interest in Google. We carefully reviewed your background
and experience, and though we do not have a position that is a strong match
with your qualifications at this time, we will be keeping your resume active in
our system. We will continue to use our database to match your profile with
new opportunities and will reach out to you if we find an opening for which you
may be qualified.
Thanks again for your interest in Google’s careers and unique culture; we hope you will
remain enthusiastic about our company.”
I write here because when i got fixed for interview with google for the tech ops specialist
role. I searched in net about the interview experience for that post. But i couldn’t get it.
all i got was the interview experiences for software engineer, adwords posts. SO i think that
it will be helpful for someone in future.
All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-interview-experience-for-the-post-of-technical-operations-specialisttools-team

6
Chapter 2

Set 2 (Placement Questions)

Google Interview Experience Set 2 (Placement Questions) - GeeksforGeeks


MCQ Questions: 20 (+4, -1)
Subjective Question: 1
1) Given four matrices
P = 20×10
Q = 10×5
R = 5×10
S = 10×10
Find minimum no. of multiplication required for PxQxRxS?
a) 4000
b) 2500
c) 3000
d) None Of These
2) Two n-size arays are given . n1 in decreasing order and n2 in increasing order. If c1
is time complexity for n1 using quicksort and c2 is time complexity for n2 using quicksort.
Then –
a) c1 > c2
b) c1 < c2 c) c1 = c2 d) None of these 3) If there is a N sorted array then what is time
complexity of finding 2 no.s having sum less than 1000.
a) O(1)
b) O(n^2)
c) O(n)
d) O(logn)
4) There are some process . In which of the scheduling algo CPU utilization is minimum.
If I/O burst time is 90ms and CPU burst time is 10ms.(question is very long to remember)
5)

int func(int x, int *y, int **z)

7
Chapter 2. Set 2 (Placement Questions)

{
int p, q;
x += 2;
p = *y++;
q = **z++;
q = **z++; //Not a repeated line.
}
void main()
{
int a = 5, *b, **c;
b = &a;
c = &b;
printf(“%d”,a);
}

6) Find the least significant digit of 2^3*google where google=10^100.


a) 2
b) 4
c) 6
d) 8
7) Let w(n) and A(n) denote respectively, the worst case and average case running time of
an algorithm executed on an input of size n. which of the following is ALWAYS TRUE?
a) A(n) = Omega(W(n))
b) A(n) = Theta(W(n))
c) A(n) = O(W(n))
d) A(n) = o(W(n))
8) Consider a complete undirected graph with vertex set {0, 1, 2, 3, 4}. Entry Wij in the
matrix W below is the weight of the edge {i, j}.

0 1 8 1 4
1 0 12 4 9
W = 8 12 0 7 3
1 4 7 0 2
4 9 3 2 0

What is the minimum possible weight of a spanning tree T in this graph such that vertex 0
is a leaf node in the tree T?
a) 7
b) 8
c) 9
d) 10
9) In the graph given in question 8, what is the minimum possible weight of a path P from
vertex 1 to vertex 2 in this graph such that P contains at most 3 edges?
a) 7
b) 8

8
Chapter 2. Set 2 (Placement Questions)

c) 9
d) 10
10) A hash table of length 10 uses open addressing with hash function h(k)=k mod 10, and
linear probing. After inserting 6 values into an empty hash table, the table is as shown
below.

|0| |
|1| |
|2| 42|
|3| 23|
|4| 34|
|5| 52|
|6| 46|
|7| 33|
|8| |
|9| |

Which one of the following choices gives a possible order in which the key values could have
been inserted in the table?
a) 46, 42, 34, 52, 23, 33
b) 34, 42, 23, 52, 33, 46
c) 46, 34, 42, 23, 52, 33
d) 42, 46, 33, 23, 34, 52
11) How many different insertion sequences of the key values using the same hash function
of question 10 and linear probing will result in the hash table shown above?
a) 10
b) 20
c) 30
d) 40
12) The recurrence relation capturing the optimal time of the Tower of Hanoi problem with
n discs is
a) T(n) = 2T(n – 2) + 2
b) T(n) = 2T(n – 1) + n
c) T(n) = 2T(n/2) + 1
d) T(n) = 2T(n – 1) + 1
13) Given three semaphores, S0, S1 and S2 initialized as S0=1, S1=0, S2=0 and processes
P0, P1 and P2.

P0 : while(true)
P0, P1 and P2.
P0 : while(true)
{
wait(S0);

9
Chapter 2. Set 2 (Placement Questions)

printf(“ 0 “);
Release(S1);
Release(S2);
}
P1: while(true)
{
Wait(S1);
Release(S2);
}
P2: while(true)
{
Wait(S2);
Release(S0);
}

Find out how many times the process P0 executes printf statement.
a) At least twice
b) Exactly once
c) Exactly twice
d) Exactly thrice
14) Given the following program construct

{
if ( a == b ) { S1; exit(); }
else if ( c==d ) { S2; }
else { S3; exit(); }
S4;
}

Given 4 test cases, find out which one among the following covers all the 4 statements
T1: a, b, c and d are same.
T2: a, b, c and d are all distinct.
T3: a == b and c != d.
T4: a != b and c==d.
a) T1, T2 & T3;
b) T1, T4.
c) T2, T4.
d) T1, T2 & T4.
15) Which of the following statements are true?
I. Shortest remaining time first scheduling may cause starvation
II. Preemptive scheduling may cause starvation
III. Round robin is better than FCFS in terms of response time
a) I only
b) I and III only
c) II and III only
d) I, II and III

10
Chapter 2. Set 2 (Placement Questions)

16) Sequences of logical pages access :


1232413241
Implemented Optimal,LRU,FIFO Page replacement techniques.
Then no. of page faults in :
a) Optimal < LRU < FIFO b) Optimal < FIFO < LRU c) Optimal = FIFO d) None 17)
Find the no. of page faults for Optimal Page replacement technique in the given sequence
of question no. 16.
a) 5
b) 6
c) 7
d) 8
18) Given a simple graph of 6 nodes (note- it’s a simple graph) then tell which of the
following is a set of valid graph degrees.
a) 4,4,1,1,1,1
b) 4,4,2,1,1,1
c) 4,4,2,2,1,1
d) None
19)

gcd(n,m)
{
if (n%m == 0)
return n;
n = n%m;
return gcd ( m, n);
}

What is the complexity of calculating gcd(n, m) in worst case?


a) O(lgn)
b) O(lgm)
c) O(lg(lgn))
d) O(lg(lgm))
20)

void f(char * x)
{
x++;
*x = 'a';
}
int main()
{
char * str = "hello";
f(str);
cout << str;

11
Chapter 2. Set 2 (Placement Questions)

system("pause");
return 0;
}

a) hello
b) hallo
c) allo
d) empty string
SECTION B – Subjective Question
A knight’s tour is a sequence of moves of a knight on a chessboard such that the knight
visits every square exactly once. Find all the distinct tours of a knight placed on (x,y) of a
NxN chessboard.
X,Y Knight can go to 8 positions.(default rule). Write a running code.
All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-placement-paper/

12
Chapter 3

Set 3 (Mountain View)

Google Interview Experience Set 3 (Mountain View) - GeeksforGeeks


About myself : I was contacted on Linkedin by a google recruiter. I have 4 years of experi-
ence.
Phone screen
Warm ups
1) Manually calculate bits in 146
2) Tell difference between big endian and little endian
Actual questions
1) kth largest element in array
2) Find minimum number of steps to reach the end of array from start (array value shows
how much you can move). DP question
Next day recruiter called me for onsite interview.
I scheduled my onsite interview after 30 days to give myself sufficient time to prepare.
Onsite interview
Round 1
1) Design question based on storing images.Stress on performance and scale.
2) Divide number and return result in form of a string. e.g 100/3 result should be 33.(3)
Here 3 is in brackets because it gets repeated continuously and 5/10 should be 0.5.
Round 2
1) Median of stream of numbers
2) Question like pancake sorting where you can only swap to sort an array of characters.
Round 3
1) Find count of a number in sorted array.
2) Design two player battleship game to be played over internet
Round 4
1) Design question based on wearable devices.
2) Draw a line on 2D array of boolean. You will be given start point and end point co-
ordinates.

13
Chapter 3. Set 3 (Mountain View)

Round 5
1) Compare two documents(string array) based on n grams.
e.g doc1 – Today is Sunday.
doc2 – Today is Saturday
if n = 2 then number of duplicates is 1 (Today is)
if n = 1 then number of duplicates is (Today, is)
if n = 3 duplicates is 0
Final comments – You must do graphs, DP, string, array, bits and Link list questions from
geeksforgeeks.
Design questions are much harder to answer than it seems. Prepare hard for them.
I appeal geeksforgeeks team to post more questions on design.
All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-mountain-view-interview/

14
Chapter 4

Set 4

Google Interview Experience Set 4 - GeeksforGeeks


Though I didn’t clear google but I want to share my Google interview experience , so it can
help other’s . Please find my interview experience below:
My Google Interview Experience for Software Developer Position [Android Core
Team], London, United Kingdom
Like many other enthusiastic engineers, I too applied for a job at Google. I know that its
very difficult that a resume gets noticed by google.
Suddenly, one fine day I received a Mail( “Hello from Google !”) from Google’s HR saying
that they are interested in my profile and asked me if I was ready to go ahead with the
interview process[Come on! you cant say no to Google].
Round1(Phone interview) :
By:Talent Scout @Google:
* Questions from Project :
Spell Corrector:
How it works , Bigram and ngram model approach, etc.
* Why should one use merge sort over quick sort and vice-versa.
* You have a very large array of ‘Person’ objects .Sort the people in increasing order of age .
General :
Then came the exciting part when he asked me to choose location b/w Google Paris(Text-
Speech Team) or Google London(Android Core Team).
He explained how Google work’s on their projects !
About Google interview process ( 2-3 phone interview + 4-5 onsite interview in London ).
Round2:(Phone interview + coding on shared google doc)
By:Software Developer @Google :

15
Chapter 4. Set 4

* Questions from Project:


Bi-directional Sync b/w mysql and sqilte db.
* Given a number , check if it can be represented in 5^n form , where n is positive integer .
* Given a string of words with lots of spaces between the words , remove all the unnecessary
spaces like

input: I live on earth


output: I live on earth

Round3:(Phone interview + coding on shared google doc)


By:Software developer @Google :
* Optimize a^b
* How would you split a search query across multiple machines?
* You need to develop the game Snake. What data structures will you use? Code your
solution.
Some additional hints for the interview:
Clarify the question – make sure you understand everything.
Try to find the most efficient solution.
Come up with solutions quickly: even if its a brute force solution. Always iterate away from
the original solution.
Before you start coding explain why you’re approaching it that way ,its ok to start off with
a naive solution and try to make it more efficient.
Explain the rationale behind the steps you are doing.
Think out loud, keep things technical. The engineers will give you hints: take a hint! They
are there to help you!
Always write “compilable” code.
Mind edge cases. Find bugs in your code.
Note: You can know more about me at www.codedoctor.in

All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-interview-experience/

16
Chapter 5

Set 5 (for Java Position)

Google Interview Experience Set 5 (for Java Position) - GeeksforGeeks


The solution will be evaluated on following parameters.
Object Oriented Design aspects of the solution.
Overall coding practices.
Working test cases of the solution.
You can use Ant/Maven as build tools for the solution, Junit, Mockito or other testing
frameworks.
You may also include a brief explanation of your design and assumptions along with your
code.
Problem Statement: In a Formula-1 challenge, there are n teams numbered 1 to n. Each
team has a car and a driver. Car’s specification are as follows:
– Top speed: (150 + 10 * i) km per hour
– Acceleration: (2 * i) meter per second square.
– Handling factor (hf) = 0.8
– Nitro : Increases the speed to double or top speed, whichever is less. Can be used only
once.
Here i is the team number.
The cars line up for the race. The start line for (i + 1)th car is 200 * i meters behind the
ith car.
All of them start at the same time and try to attain their top speed. A re-assessment of the
positions is done every 2 seconds(So even if the car has crossed the finish line in between,
you’ll get to know after 2 seconds). During this assessment, each driver checks if there is
any car within 10 meters of his car, his speed reduces to: hf * (speed at that moment). Also,
if the driver notices that he is the last one on the race, he uses ‘nitro’.
Taking the number of teams and length of track as the input, Calculate the final speeds and
the corresponding completion times.
All Practice Problems for Google !

17
Chapter 5. Set 5 (for Java Position)

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-interview-question-for-java-position/

18
Chapter 6

Set 6

Google Interview Experience Set 6 - GeeksforGeeks


It was a nice experience to be part of google placement programme. There were 4 Rounds
The online test consists of 4 modules.
For each module, a timer is set (at the right-hand side bottom of the screen).
Total time given is 40 minutes.
Module 1: English (duration 5 min):
It consists of a single passage followed by 5 questions.
Module 2: General aptitude (duration 10 min):
Module 3: Technical questions (duration 15 min):
It consists of 15 questions where some are web based, HTML, protocols Etc. For this section
going through COMPUTER NETWORKS subject will be helpful to a great extent.
Module 4: Test on Analysis (duration 10 min):
This section is the most time consuming one. Here we are asked to Rate certain sites along
with an explanation. The images of these sites are also provided to us for a clear view and
better understanding.

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-interview-experience-set-6/

19
Chapter 7

Set 7 (For Software Engineering


Intern)

Google Interview Experience Set 7 (For Software Engineering Intern) - GeeksforGeeks


Round 1: Coding Sample
In this coding sample, I was given 90 minutes to answer 2 coding questions.
Question 1: Given a string A consisting of n characters and a string B consisting of m
characters, write a function that will return the number of times A must be stated such that
B is a substring of the repeated A. If B can never be a substring, return -1.
Example:
A = ‘abcd’
B = ‘cdabcdab’
The function should return 3 because after stating A 3 times, getting ‘abcdabcdabcd’, B is
now a substring of A.
You can assume that n and m are integers in the range [1, 1000].

Question 2: Consider an undirected tree with N nodes, numbered from 1 to N. Each node
has a label associated with it, which is an integer value. Different nodes can have the same
label. Write a function that, given a zero indexed array A of length N, where A[j] is the
label value of the (j + 1)-th node in the tree and a zero-indexed array E of length K = (N
– 1) * 2 in which the edges of the tree are described, returns the length of the longest path
such that all the nodes on that path have the same label. The length is the number of edges
in that path.
Example:
A = [1, 1, 1, 2, 2]
E = [1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 4, 2, 5]
This tree is shown below. A node follows the form label, value.

20
Chapter 7. Set 7 (For Software Engineering Intern)

----------1, 1

-----1, 2        1, 3

2, 4      2, 5

The function should return 2, because the longest path is 2->1->3, and there are 2 edges
in this path.
Assume that 1 <= N <= 1000 and each element of the array A is an integer in the range
[1, 1000000000].

Round 2: Phone Interview


In this phone interview I was given one question.
Question: Write a function that takes a list L and returns a random sublist of size N of
that list. Assume that the indexes must be in increasing order. That is, you cannot go
backwards.
Example:
L = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
N=3
The function should return one of these lists:

[1, 2, 3]
[1, 2, 4]
[1, 2, 5]
[1, 3, 4]
[1, 3, 5]
[1, 4, 5]
[2, 3, 4]
[2, 3, 5]
[2, 4, 5]
[3, 4, 5]

Round 3: Phone Interview


I was again asked only one question.
Question: Given a list L of video names and their watch rates, write a function that will
return the videos with the top 10 watch rates. Video names may appear more than once.
Example:
L = [(‘abc’, 10), (‘def’, 15), (‘ghi’, 10), (‘abc’, 12), …, (‘xyz’, 100)]

21
Chapter 7. Set 7 (For Software Engineering Intern)

The function should return [‘xyz’, ‘abc’, …, ‘def’, ‘ghi’]


Experience:
I solved all the questions but, unfortunately, I was not selected. Though I was not selected,
I had a very positive experience. My interviewers and recruiters were all pleasant to work
with. I will definitely try again next year and hopefully, I will clear it and get selected for
a full time job.

Tips for Interview:


Ask questions. The interviewer will purposely give you a vague question in hopes of you
asking the necessary questions to clarify it for yourself.
Don’t panic. I know it can be nerve racking to go on an interview, especially if it’s your
first. But, nerves are only going to make it worse. Collect yourself, and if you don’t know
the answer, it’s okay. Think through it for a few minutes and I’m sure anyone can come up
with a solution. These questions are designed for you to be able to solve in the allocated
time for an interview.
THINK OUT LOUD! I can’t stress this one enough. You are also being judged on your
thought process. If your interviewer doesn’t know what you are thinking, they can’t throw
you hints or correct you in any way. And believe me, they want to see you succeed. They
are there to help you and guide you through the problem.
Other than that, study, study, study. Do as many algorithmically challenging problems
as you can. Cracking the Coding Interview and Geeks for Geeks will be your best friends
through the study process. Take advantage of these resources.
Please Improve this article if you find anything incorrect by clicking on the ”Improve Article”
button below.

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-interview-experience-set-7-software-engineering-intern/

22
Chapter 8

Google Summer Trainee


Engineering Program(STEP)
Interview Experience

Google Summer Trainee Engineering Program(STEP) Interview Experience - GeeksforGeeks


Telephonic Interview 1. (Telephonic + Google Docs Shared)
Q1. Given an array of integers, you need to find the local maxima.

Example : [1 3 5 4 7 10 6]

Output : 5 or 10

Explanation : Any of the local maxima can be the output.


Here 5 is greater than 3 and 4, 10 is greater than 7 and 6.

Hint : Referthisarticle.
Q2. Given a sequence of brackets, how will you identify if its valid or not.

Example : ({[][]})

Output : Valid

Explanation : Every opening bracket has a closing bracket.

Example : ({[]]})

Output : Invalid

Explanation : Every opening bracket does not have a closing bracket.

23
Chapter 8. Google Summer Trainee Engineering Program(STEP) Interview Experience

Hint : Referthisarticle.

Telephonic Interview 2. (Telephonic + Google Docs Shared)


Q1. There are 2 arrays . Smaller is of size m and has m elements in sorted order. The
bigger array is
of size m+n, where there are only n elements in initial n positions in sorted order. So, last
m
positions are empty in the bigger array.Insert smaller array’s m elements in m+n array has
has all numbers in sorted order.

Example :
Input Array N[]={5, 9, 15, 20,,,,,, } n=4
M[]={1, 3, 6, 8, 19, 35} m=6
Output array N[]={1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 15, 19, 20, 35}

Hint : Referthisarticle.
Q2. Given a binary tree with integer values, find the sub-path with the maximum value in
it

Example :
1
/   \
2      3
/   \  /   \
4     5 6    7

Output : Max path is 5, 2, 1, 3, 7


Explanation : 5+2+1+3+7=18 is the maximum value that can spanned.

-100
/ \
2 3
/ \ / \
4 5 6 7

Output : Max path is 6, 3, 7


Explanation : 6+3+7=16 is the maximum value that can spanned.

Hint : Referthisarticle.
All Practice Problems for Google !
Please Improve this article if you find anything incorrect by clicking on the ”Improve Article”
button below.
Improved By : ParulShandilya

24
Chapter 8. Google Summer Trainee Engineering Program(STEP) Interview Experience

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-summer-trainee-engineering-programstep-interview-experience/

25
Chapter 9

Google’s method for preventing


Phishing attacks

Google’s method for preventing Phishing attacks - GeeksforGeeks


Technology giant Google has recently revealed the method it uses to prevent phishing attacks
on its employees. Google has told that its employees have been using physical U.S.B security
keys instead of the traditional passwords method for authentication.
What is phishing.?
Phishing is a type of attack where the intruders disguising as trustworthy agents attempt
to gain your personal information such as passwords, credit card numbers or any other
information.
For example: You may receive a mail from some attackers who disguise as bank officials
asking you to reset your password for your net banking account as there has been a data
breach, as you go to the site and login, the attackers get your login id and passwords, thus
they can now access your account.
Physical Security Keys: Physical security keys are replacements for passwords. When-
ever you have to login to some account or get access you insert the usb (which acts as the
key) into your system and press a button on it, that’s it, no need to remember crazy and
long passwords, no OTP worries. These physical keys resemble the vehicle keys that we use.
Google revealed that the use of physical keys has made its employees safer to phishing
attacks. It was revealed that there had been no phishing attacks for almost 2 years now.
Physical security keys look like a promising alternative to the age-old methods of passwords.
With recent attacks revealing that even your fingerprints can be cloned, these physical keys
could be the future of authentication systems.
Please Improve this article if you find anything incorrect by clicking on the ”Improve Article”
button below.

Source
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/googles-method-for-preventing-phishing-attacks/

26
Chapter 10

Software Engineer Interview at


Google, Bangalore

Software Engineer Interview at Google, Bangalore - GeeksforGeeks


Resume filter: I got a call from a recruiter who asked about my work experience. She
also asked some basic questions on complexity, worst case and best case for certain sorting
algorithms.
After this, I got around 20 days for 1st round of telephonic interview.

Telephonic interview: It was a 45 min hangout call with a Google doc shared. He directly
jumped onto the question.
Q: Given a pattern containing only I’s and D’s. I for increasing and D for decreasing.
Devise an algorithm to print the minimum number following that pattern. Digits from 1-9
and digits can’t repeat.
After a short discussion on algo, I wrote the code on shared doc. He was comfortable with
the code and we finished 5 min early.

I was called for onsite interviews 20 days after this round.


Round 1: Given (x, y) coordinates, create a function such that each coordinate is uniquely
mapped to an integer. Also make sure that given an integer, you should be able to find (x,
y) coordinates. So F(x, y) = z and also that inverse F(z) = (x, y).
Round 2: You are given an array of million numbers and provided a range of index (say left,
right). For multiple queries, each with input left and right indexes, output the maximum
in that range.
Round 3:
Q1) Given a room with thief on left side of the room with finite number of sensors. He has
to reach on right side missing the sensors. Each sensor is placed at any random point in the

27
Chapter 10. Software Engineer Interview at Google, Bangalore

room and has its coverage in the radius r. Find out if the thief can reach to the right side
without touching the range of any sensor.
Q2) Given a bench with n seats and few people sitting, tell the seat number each time when
a new person goes to sit on the bench such that his distance from others is maximum.
Lunch break: I was accompanied by a Googler where we had an informal discussion about
projects he is working on, work culture and other stuff.
Round 4: Given a string of 0 and 1, if possible, tell that how many splits would be required
such that each split part is a number which can be represented as power of 5 in binary and
tell the least number of splits.
Please Improve this article if you find anything incorrect by clicking on the ”Improve Article”
button below.

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/software-engineer-interview-at-google-bangalore/

28
Chapter 11

The Google Foo Bar Challenge

The Google Foo Bar Challenge - GeeksforGeeks


The Google Foo bar challenge has been known for the last 5 years or more as a secret process
of hiring developers and programmers all over the world.
It is a secret process and the challenge consists of coding challenges of increasing difficulty
as you go along.

29
Chapter 12

My Experience with the Google


Foo Bar Challenge

The Google foo bar page is not accessible to everyone. Google has a list of what the user
goes searching for and if it finds it relevant to programming,
it gives the user an opportunity to participate in the foo bar challenge.
The message reads like this.
You are speaking our language.
Up for a challenge!
In my case, it didn’t go the traditional way. During the ICC matches a few months ago,
Google had updated their doodle with a small cricket game with players as ants.
Just out of curiosity, I went on for inspecting the page, when suddenly there was a comment
under a ‘li’ tag.
“Up for a challenge. You are invited”. And there was a link and I opened it and it redirected
me to a new page ‘Foo.bar’

30
Chapter 12. My Experience with the Google Foo Bar Challenge

31
Chapter 12. My Experience with the Google Foo Bar Challenge

Its kind of like a linux console where you get to solve the problems one by one upon opening
a new problem directory.

32
Chapter 13

The Challenge

The challenge consists of 5 levels consisting of algorithm problems. I won’t share the prob-
lems, neither the solutions as it would be unfair.
But it was really a great experience so far.
The first few levels were relatively easy, but as the levels peaked up, the difficulty gained
heights.
Currently I am on level 4 and just have one more label to go.

33
Chapter 13. The Challenge

34
Chapter 13. The Challenge

Upon completing level 3 , I had to submit my personal details with a potential recruiter for
a future interview.
The Google Foobar is presumably still hiring and its needed to submit solution either in
Python or Java.
I don’t know about the future upcomings for this, but to be honest I really enjoyed the
challenges.
Looking forward to solve more.
Disclaimer : The information provided in this article is not found on any of the Google
sites. However there is a quora threads about this.
Improved By : Prateek Chanda

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-foo-bar-challenge/

35
Chapter 14

Top College: No, Top Talent:


Yes ; Anudeep cracks Google

[TopTalent.in] Top College: No, Top Talent: Yes ; Anudeep cracks Google - GeeksforGeeks

Anudeep Nekkanti embodies the old adage – there is no


substitute for talent. The 21-year-old coder from Samalkot (a small town near Vishkhapat-
nam) has landed an offer from Google, Zurich.
What makes Anudeep’s feat commendable is that he was not placed out of the cream
colleges of the country. No he is not an IITian, NITian or BITSian! A B.Tech student in
computer science from Anil Neerukonda Institute of Technological Science, Vishakapatnam,
he considers his preparation and performance in programing competitions the reason for
his success at cracking the google interview process.
We at toptalent.in had the opportunity to interact and pick Anudeep’s brain to gain valuable
insights into developing the right skills to be successful at getting recruited at Google.
Toptalent: How do you feel on achieving this rare feat?
Anudeep: It always feels great to achieve something rare. I was happy after knowing about
it, but the real joy was after knowing how much my parents and well-wishers enjoyed the
news. There is a lot of hype about being Googler, excited to see what it is really. Also
excited about Zurich and Swiss chocolates
Toptalent: What made you chose your particular college and course?

36
Chapter 14. Top College: No, Top Talent: Yes ; Anudeep cracks Google

Anudeep: I did not know about IIT-JEE or AIEEE. I did not dream about joining partic-
ular college. I almost never took decisions back then. My dad is cool, he does not believes
that education is everything and he did not want me to only concentrate on studies. So,
when joining 11th standard, he asked me if I want to opt for JEE training. Not knowing
what it is, my initial answer was yes but then he realised that I had no knowledge of what
I was getting into and made me change my mind, and I am grateful to him for that.
My EAMCET (State board common entrance test) rank was in the seven thousands. I had
never lived outside of my town. So I wanted to stay away in a city and study, at the same
time I did not want it to be too far from my home. Visakhapatnam was the best choice.
Initially I was supposed to take Electronics. My sister, who had finished B.Tech in computer
science by then told me “CS is easy, you can start preparation one day before exams and
clear them”. Well, I was looking to enjoy a lot in engineering and this line was perfect! It
had so much impact. I just decided to take Computer science. It turned out to be one of
the best decisions I have taken. CS is not easy, it is fun!
TopTalent: How many interviews were held in all?
Anudeep: Telephonic Interview initially. Then six onsite interviews at Google Hyderabad,
then manager interviews.
Toptalent: Can you give us a brief account of what you felt was the toughest interview?
Anudeep: Hard to pick a single interview. Of the eight rounds I had with Google, couple
of them were tough, one of those rounds lasted two hours on a single question.
Toptalent: What was your preparation strategy?
Anudeep: I did not prepare on anything specific for Google interview, I knew that my
strength is algorithms and data structures. I did not want to read about other topics only
for the purpose of job. I was hoping that only algo related stuff was asked. I was lucky with
Google, all my interviews, all the questions were related to algorithms, data structures and
programming.
Toptalent: What kind of skills do you think helped you getting this job?
Anudeep: It is competitive programming. I should say I was lucky about it. It is true
that majority of hiring is biased towards competitive programming. One can clear these
interviews by having good knowledge only about algorithms and data structures. Open
source contributions, projects and machine learning are 3 other skills I would list.
Toptalent: Tell us a bit about competitive programming and how you became good at it.
Anudeep: It is similar to any other sport. One need to have a lot of interest to perform.
One need to put a lot of effort to top. We say someone is ‘out of form’ or ‘in form’ in sports,
true for competitive programming too, you need to keep doing them to be in good touch.
And most importantly, at some point of time you realize that ‘This sport is not correct for
me’, it can be true with programming too, and when this happens do not hang on to it,
move on there are lot more things to do. How did I become good at it? I played it a lot.
Concentrated practice is all that matters.
Toptalent: What resources did you consult? Where did you practice problems from?

37
Chapter 14. Top College: No, Top Talent: Yes ; Anudeep cracks Google

Anudeep: Firstly, I solved about 300 problems on SPOJ (Sphere Online Judge). I came
to know about online judge for the first time in 2012 Jan. That was because of IOPC
(programming contest by IIT Kanpur).
Practice was my mantra. I used to try a problem for 2-3 hours. If I didn’t get it, I looked for
solutions on forums. I read few tutorials on TopCoder, but I did not know that TopCoder
also has algorithm problems. I participated in following August’s long contest, I was lot
better this time, I could solve 7 problems. Ended 35th in Global ranking.
With this limited exposure to programming I went to participate in ACM ICPC Regionals.
I could solve 4 problems there at onsite. I then understood that knowing how to solve is
not enough, it is the ability to think and code fast is more important.
By August end I solved about a hundred and eighty 500 pointers. I slowly started to
think dynamically. By then I was able to solve four out of five problems. Now I am quite
comfortable with 500 pointers. So, to conclude all that matters is sheer practice.
Programming is fun, programming is easy. My failure at IOPC 2012 made me start it. I
thought, I will do well in IOPC 2013 and stop programming. That is how I started it. Very
soon I started to like it, then I got addicted to it. I enjoy the feel that I get when I see
“Accepted”. That awesome green color. My heart beat raises whenever I submit a solution.
I get goosebumps. It was that fun that kept me going. Don’t do it, Play it. Enjoy it, it is
a fun game. After 21 months, I am still deeply in love with it. Right now I am preparing
for world finals. I am doing problems from various on-line judges like Topcoder, Codechef,
Codeforces.
Toptalent: Were grades a factor in you getting selected?
Anudeep: No. I did not mention much about my grades in my CV. My CV only says
B.Tech 4th year, 8 CGPA till date.
Toptalent: Tell us more about your final location choice, Zurich?
Anudeep: I had to risk my job for Zurich. I was initially offered London, Bangalore and
then Hyderabad. I told I do not want to take those position, and was in a situation of
being completely rejected by Google. But I was okay with that too so I told no to those 3
positions. 70 days after my onsite interview I was finally given Zurich.
Toptalent: Whats your advice to students who are aiming for similar placement offers as
yours?
Anudeep: I see that a lot of Indians are putting a lot of effort into competitive programming
(mainly for placement offers) with not so good results. Trust me, do it with complete
concentration for a month, by then you will exactly know if you have to continue in this
field or not. If you feel you should not continue, stop it, do not hang on to it hoping for
offers. Use your time on other stuff.
All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/top-college-top-talent-yes-anudeep-cracks-google-1-44cr-package/

38
Chapter 15

Exclusive Interview with Ravi


Kiran from BITS, Pilani who
got placed in Google, Microsoft
and Facebook

[TopTalent.in] Exclusive Interview with Ravi Kiran from BITS, Pilani who got placed in
Google, Microsoft and Facebook - GeeksforGeeks

Even if we were to search around the world, it would be a truly difficult job to find someone
like Ravi Kiran. As a Computer Science Graduate of BITS Pilani – Pilani Campus, he suc-
cessfully bagged job offers from an astounding three companies – all being some of the best
and most admired companies in the world – Google, Facebook and Microsoft. We, at Top-
Talent.in, managed to talk to this amazingly humble genius, who hails from Hyderabad.
And before we forget, Ravi has also agreed to share his resume with our users so as to help
them with their preparation. So don’t forget to grab a copy by logging in. Here is the
exclusive interview in its original form.

39
Chapter 15. Exclusive Interview with Ravi Kiran from BITS, Pilani who got placed in
Google, Microsoft and Facebook

Team TopTalent.in: What were the similarities and differences between Google,
Microsoft and Facebook Interviews?
Ravi: All three of them share the prestige of being some of the best tech companies in
the world. As you would expect, their interviews are designed to ensure the recruitment of
top talent. An obvious similarity amongst their interview processes (for undergraduates, at
least) is them being vastly algorithmic in nature.
There are multiple interview rounds in each recruitment process. For Microsoft there were
4 while Facebook conducted 3. For Google, I was a previous intern and, hence, faced just 2
rounds. Another noticeable thing was the presence of design questions in one of the rounds
by both Microsoft & Google. However, by no means, can this be a generalization to the
interview process of any of the companies. At the end of the day, this only reflects how each
of them is aiming to assess a candidate’s potential to the greatest amount in the shortest
period of time.
Team TopTalent.in: How did you choose between Google, Facebook and Mi-
crosoft?
Ravi: The more thought I put in the decision making process, the more confused I got.
One of the major things I believed was that none of them was going to be a bad decision,
so it was always safe to pick any one of them and not go wrong. Ultimately I chose Google,
since I liked it as a company. I must confess that it was mostly a gut-feeling based decision.
Team TopTalent.in: What is the kind of skill-set that companies like these, are
looking for in candidates?
Ravi: Even though I’ll keep one of the companies in mind, that is Google, to answer the
questions further on, I can safely say that this answer of mine applies vastly to the three of
them. The skill-set sought out is that a candidate must be creative, so as to come up with
smarter and newer solutions to problems, which are algorithmically very strong and don’t
waste time solving already solved ones. The candidates are supposed to be, obviously, good
at programming so that they can give shape to their ideas in the form of real code.
Team TopTalent.in: What should one keep in mind while creating a resume for
these tech companies?
Ravi: There are a lot of good references on “What makes a very good resume?” I had
searched the same, and stuck to whatever made the most sense. I highly recommend a
1-page crisp resume, so that it’s easier to make an impression when someone glances at it
for about 3 seconds (I’m guessing that the time spent by a higher-up person on a single
resume is nearly that)
In addition, it’s very important to make the resume highlight qualities and projects that
provide enough reason to believe why you would make the perfect candidate for the job.
Prior programming experience and other achievements would be useful to mention, to further
your chances of making a good impression.
Team TopTalent.in: Your advice to all the students out there who’re aspiring
for job offers similar to yours?
Ravi: I think it’s important to enjoy the field of work, and apply to only the companies
that align with one’s interests. In the long run, it would be hard to work in case the work
doesn’t go with your interests, even if the company is as nice as three mentioned above. I

40
Chapter 15. Exclusive Interview with Ravi Kiran from BITS, Pilani who got placed in
Google, Microsoft and Facebook

had never aimed to get into any of these companies, and it has only been a consequence
of the activities that I was actively interested in (like competition programming, random
problem/puzzle solving, etc) and thoroughly enjoyed.
Team TopTalent.in: What’s the difference between the work allotted in the
Indian Office and the US Office?
Ravi: I will speak about this question with respect to Google, since I have an experience
in both the offices. The work isn’t really any different across the offices. If you have a good
project idea, you’re always welcome to begin on it, and take it forward irrespective of which
office you are from. I myself have had the chance to intern with a very good team back in
Bangalore. Work in MTV is going really great too. That being said, the US office has more
diverse project choices to offer, merely owing to its larger size.
Team TopTalent.in: How can freshers/pass outs apply to these tech giants off
campus? What’s the process involved?
Ravi: Applying off campus is usually a simple process in these days. Most of the companies
have websites for application process, wherein one can just submit his/her resume, and
expect to be shortlisted. It is important to highlight the efforts of other companies that are
providing interview opportunities, through performance in online programming contests.
HR personnel of almost all companies are on a constant lookout for talented programmers,
and students performing well in the online programming contests have great potential. A
good chunk of people also get an interview call through the employee referral route.
Team TopTalent.in: And lastly, what are you working on at Google and how has
the experience been so far?
Ravi: I work in the Search Infrastructure team at Google, and the journey has been great
so far. Google’s a fun place to work for, and they ensure to provide one of the best work
conditions possible for an employee. It is very surprising how they provide so many amenities
– for having fun and indulging in non-work related activities and interests – but at the same
time manage to provide some really challenging work.
All Practice Problems for Microsoft !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/toptalent-in-exclusive-interview-with-ravi-kiran-from-bits-pilani-who-got-placed-in-

41
Chapter 16

Google, Facebook, Amazon,


Walmart & PocketGems, All
Fighting For Prasoon Mishra

[TopTalent.in] Google, Facebook, Amazon, Walmart & PocketGems, All Fighting For Pra-
soon Mishra - GeeksforGeeks

Meet Prasoon, he was just your average guy who studied


at IIIT-Hyderabad but today Prasoon Mishra is one of the most well know names across
engineering colleges across India. Last week we got a request from one of our readers that
he and his friends want us to Interview Prasoon and today here we are fulfilling their wish.
This really tells us how much people are waiting in anticipation for his interview. So, we
went a step ahead, we not only would like to present his interview but we also have his
resume for you to download.
So click here to download his resume by logging in. Here is the much awaited interview of
Prasoon Misra as he shares his thoughts about his interview experience.
TopTalent: Firstly, how do you feel when so many world class companies are
trying to woo you?

42
Chapter 16. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Walmart & PocketGems, All Fighting For
Prasoon Mishra

Prasoon: I am greatly overwhelmed! I never imagined such a scenario, so I am delighted


that so many companies considered me worthy of an offer. It feels good to know that I did
things right. And, it’s always a treat to see your hard work rewarded.
All these companies are highly reputable and they are very selective in their hiring, but a lot
of engineers get hired from across the world. So, its important to keep things in perspective
and not get carried away. I can join just one company, so all these offers are equivalent to
just one good offer. And hence, at the end of the day, I see it as a good job opportunity.
TopTalent: Which company are you planning to join and how did you make that
decision?
Prasoon: Yes, that was a very tough call. It was extremely confusing. They are all top tech
companies, and each had a lot to offer in terms of the role, work and responsibility. Google,
given their array of products – it’s a crime for an engineer to decline their offer. Walmart
& PocketGems have quality work and good growth opportunities. Amazon also offered a
very good profile. But, I chose Facebook because I feel that it is a better cultural fit for me
at this stage. Even after their IPO, they are trying to preserve their startup culture, and
continues to offer a lot of opportunities . That just nicked it in the end!
TopTalent: Can you give us a brief account of what you felt was the toughest
interview?
Prasoon: Its hard to pin-point a single tough interview. Each company had its own style.
Facebook & Pocketgems had very intense and focused rounds, revolving around coding/algo
and system-design. They were looking for speed and accuracy. At Google, as can be
expected, some really tough algo questions came up. I am unsure about the complete
correctness of one of my solutions, even now. In another round, I was able to convince the
interviewer that his solution had the same flaws as my solution. So, that was a confidence
booster. Walmart though, was a bit unexpected. In a design round, my initial solution was
built around a string algorithm. But, the interviewer pointed out some counter-cases. So,
by relying on his hints and the counter-cases, some probabilistic techniques got incorporated
into the system. At the end, the interviewer informed me that my final solution was a model
in machine-learning. So, I feel that mathematical aptitude helps in more ways than just
algorithm design.
TopTalent: What kind of skill-set companies are looking for in candidates?
Prasoon: Well, a strong understanding of data structures and algorithms, along with fast-
and-accurate coding skills are the primary requirement. And companies pay particular
attention to the quality of code -> neat, short & easy to understand.
Moreover, a good aptitude in Computer Science is also desired. The fundamentals of OS,
DBMS, distributed systems, design patterns, etc, often get applied indirectly in the design
rounds. In this regard, I feel that a basic understanding of common systems like search-
engines, spell checkers, trends, etc, helps one greatly.
And, companies inherently dig for creativity. The above mentioned skills are just tools to
come up with smart solutions.
TopTalent: Whats your advice to students who are aiming for similar placement
offers as yours?

43
Chapter 16. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Walmart & PocketGems, All Fighting For
Prasoon Mishra

Prasoon: Do not get burdened by the hype surrounding these jobs. And after that, I think
its extremely important to enjoy the subject and the process of preparation. In my opinion,
there is an element of luck involved with interviews, and candidates must acknowledge
it. Hence, they must not over-pressurize themselves. And, all wise proverbs about success
strictly apply.
TopTalent: What should one keep in mind while preparing a resume?
Prasoon: One must understand that the resume is ones first impression. So, it’s important
to be precise and accurate in terms of what one wants to convey. A lot of tips are available
on the internet, and one can pay heed to them. In terms of the content, I chose to write
projects that had good depth, and discard the lighter ones. I feel that this enhances the
strength of the resume.
Other than these, one must prepare oneself to have a detailed discussion on everything that
is mentioned in the resume.
All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-facebook-amazon-walmart-pocketgems-all-fighting-for-prasoon-mishra/

44
Chapter 17

Interview With Divanshu Who


Got Into Google, Mountain
View

[TopTalent.in] Interview With Divanshu Who Got Into Google, Mountain View - Geeks-
forGeeks
Even if we were to search around the world, it would be a truly difficult job to find someone

like Divanshu. As a Computer Science Graduate of IIIT – Allahabad,


he successfully bagged job offers from an astounding three companies – all being some
of the best and most admired companies – Google, DE Shaw and CodeNation. We at
TopTalent.in spoke to Divanshu from IIIT Allahabad about the Google Interview Process,
how he managed to crack it and what are his suggestions for aspirants looking to achieve
something similar.
You can download his resume by logging in to your account on TopTalent.in.
TopTalent: How do you feel on achieving this rare feat?
I feel elated and happy on cracking the Google, Mountain View offer. It is a dream come
true to work for one of the most prestigious IT organization. I am really looking forward
to be a part of the organization next year. It was possible only due to constant support of

45
Chapter 17. Interview With Divanshu Who Got Into Google, Mountain View

my parents and my elder brother who were more than happy to know that I have achieved
this wonderful feat.
TopTalent: What other offers did you get apart from Google?
I had interned at D. E. Shaw during the summer of 2014 and got a PPO afterwards. I also
got an offer from CodeNation which is a startup under the Trilogy group.
TopTalent: Can you brief us the interview process?
I participated in the Google APAC Code Jam. I stood first in India and seventh globally
by solving three out of four problems. All the problems in this round required good knowl-
edge of Algorithms. Based on the performance, Google called me for onsite interviews at
their Bangalore office. There were a total of four interviews and involved questions from
Programming, Algorithms, Data Structures and Operating System.
TopTalent: Can you give us a brief account of what you felt was the toughest interview?
According to me, all the four interviews had a similar difficulty level. During all the inter-
views, the difficulty bar was raised slowly as we approached the end of the interview. The
interviewers presented a tougher question than what you have already answered.
TopTalent: What was your preparation strategy?
I was preparing for the ACM ICPC contest which played a very big role in improving my
knowledge of algorithms, data structures and mathematical reasoning. It helped me to
code my logic faster and accurately. Apart from that, I revised my Operating System and
Database Management System courses. I also went through my past projects to gain an
insight into each one of them.
TopTalent: What kind of skills do you think helped you getting this job?
My major skill is Programming and Algorithms. I have a good rank on Topcoder and other
websites which was an advantage. Along with that, I have explored many different fields
which helped me a lot. I have good knowledge of web development and mobile application
development. I have also worked on projects involving Machine Learning, Information
Retrieval and Image Processing.
TopTalent: What resources did you consult? Where did you practice problems from?
For algorithms, I practiced on Topcoder, Codeforces and Codechef participating actively in
their regular contests. Introduction to Algorithms by CLRSis a nice book on algorithms.
You can also learn from Topcoder Tutorials and various online blogs written by active
programmers. For Operating System and DBMS, the course books are enough if you read
them thoroughly.
TopTalent: Were grades a factor in you getting selected?
I was required to send all my grade cards after one week of the interview process. Then they
reviewed everything and the offer was given. So, I believe that grades were also a factor
involved in the selection process.
TopTalent: What’s your advice to students who are aiming for similar placement offers as
yours?
Everyone has interests in different domains. One must ensure that they learn more and
more about their area of interests. One should be very comfortable in expressing a thought

46
Chapter 17. Interview With Divanshu Who Got Into Google, Mountain View

process in any programming language of their choice since most of the companies look for
your accurate implementation of the given problem. Also, Codeforces and Topcoder are
nice websites to regularly practice your algorithmic skills and improve your problem solving
as well. Students should also keep a focus on developing good projects to explore a variety
of technologies.
In case you missed, you can also download his resume by logging in to your account on
TopTalent.in
All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/toptalent-interview-divanshu-got-google-mountain-view/

47
Chapter 18

Interview with Sujeet Gholap,


placed in Microsoft, Google,
Samsung, Goldman Sachs &
Tower Research

[TopTalent.in] Interview with Sujeet Gholap, placed in Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Gold-
man Sachs & Tower Research - GeeksforGeeks

It’s not every day that you come across a person who has achieved so much in life at a very
young age which others can only dream of achieving in their entire lifetime. His simplicity
and positive attitude speak volumes for his recent success after facing some tough times.
This is the story of Sujeet Gholap, a IIT Madras grad who received record breaking 6 offers
from some of the best companies in the world namely Google, Microsoft, Samsung (US),
Samsung (IN), Goldman Sachs and Tower Research. We at TopTalent.in had a chance to
interact with Sujeet about his success, preparation, interviews and some hardships. This
interview is an excellent example of how a small town boy can achieve greatness and how
you can do it too.
Also, Sujeet has agreed to share his stellar resume with our users which can help you with
your resume and preparation. So, don’t forget to download his resume by logging in.
Team TopTalent: Can you tell us a bit about your background before joining
IIT Madras?
Sujeet: Sure. I hail from a small town called Kallam from Osmanabad district of Maha-

48
Chapter 18. Interview with Sujeet Gholap, placed in Microsoft, Google, Samsung,
Goldman Sachs & Tower Research

rashtra. I studied in a local school in Marathi medium till 10th standard. I always thought
people from cities would do much better than me as I studied every subject in Marathi.
My mom and dad teach at a local college there. I am currently pursuing my B.Tech in
Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Madras. In IITJEE 2009, I secured an all India
rank of 184
Team TopTalent: Can you give us a brief account of your interview experience
for these companies?
Sujeet: All my interviews (except a couple) were technical interviews. Almost in each one,
I had to tell what I did during my internships at Yahoo! and Facebook, what projects I have
worked on. Many questions followed a similar monotone : arrays of integers, do something
with them, biased coins and their tosses, trees and recursive algorithms, writing code on
paper and explaining it to the interviewer, solving mathematical and logical puzzles etc.
Interviews varied from very easy to very challenging. Some interviewers were impressed by
JEE rank and CGPA while some did not give it even a second glance. Some interviewers
were interested in the projects I did and asked detailed questions about it, while some were
just interested in whether I can solve the problem they have given me.
Team TopTalent: So, how did it feel when you landed six massive offers on that
day?
Sujeet: It felt nice and gave an ego boost when people referred to me as “the guy with
six offers”. People I barely knew, smiling at me and congratulating me! I was on an all-
time-high. Jumping around and laughing all the time. It was such a kick that the next day,
although it was a normal and fine day, as it was down compared to previous day’s high, I
was actually a bit gloomy!
Team TopTalent: What was going through your mind when you had to choose
one out of those 6 offers?
Sujeet: I was supposed to finalize on a company by afternoon and I was in the state of utter
confusion. Whether to take Google, which is the dream job of most of the programmers or
to take Samsung, whose software division is nascent and where my contribution and impact
would be much larger, visible and maybe even play a key part in company’s direction or to
take Goldman Sachs, the challenging job which I always wanted to get a taste of or to go
with Tower Research, the highest paying Indian job (twice as high as the second highest)
which also involves inviting challenges and lots of programming. I was realizing that it
wasn’t really a good idea after all to go for so many options. I was wondering whether I
would have been better off without a choice, as all these companies were such that I would
have accepted the offer without giving it any thought at all had it been the only offer. I
finally decided to go with Google.
(Wasn’t really a surprise for us. Google seems to be the first choice for most Indian pro-
grammers)
Team TopTalent: How did you prepare for these interviews? What suggestions
can you give to our users who might have similar interviews lined up?
Sujeet: I was lucky that I had discussed about similar questions before, and hence was able
to make it through the interviews. I was quite attentive in class which really helped me
a lot. Any questions which were not algorithm intensive questions and were more or less
straight knowledge based, I could just recall the answer straight from the class when the

49
Chapter 18. Interview with Sujeet Gholap, placed in Microsoft, Google, Samsung,
Goldman Sachs & Tower Research

professor taught that particular topic! Being friends with the right people and forming a
peer group with a common interest is something which was critical to my success. I used
to solve coding challenges with Arijit who had a very good Topcoder Rank. I would think
about how I would solve those problem, if I get it, I would call him up and discuss the
answer and ask for more.
In terms of suggestions, I would say be an active member of topcoder, keep solving pro-
gramming problems in other places too if you want like spoj, usaco. I wish I had taken
these things seriously and honed my algorithmic programming skills. Be thorough with
Introduction to Algorithms by CLRS and do problems on one of the above mentioned sites.
All Practice Problems for Samsung !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/toptalent-in-interview-with-sujeet-gholap-placed-in-microsoft-google-samsung-goldm

50
Chapter 19

Rushabh Agrawal from BITS


Pilani talks about his Google
interview experience

[TopTalent.in] Rushabh Agrawal from BITS Pilani talks about his Google interview experi-
ence - GeeksforGeeks
Google is consistently chosen as the best workplace in the world and engineers all around the
world would simply love to be a part of this amazing and innovative organization. Rushabh
Agrawal, a Computer Science graduate from BITS Pilani, recently got recruited by this
dream organization in Mountain View, California Office and we, at TopTalent.in got an
opportunity to talk to him. He speaks about his personal reactions (read jubilation), the
recruitment process and gives out useful tips & suggestions for all aspirants.
First question that anybody would ask – How did it all happen?
The campus placement season at BITS Pilani kicked off with the Google written test on
10th August. He had almost forgotten about it because nobody heard from them for quite
some time. But on August 28th, five of the numerous applicants got calls for interviews at
the Bengaluru office of Google. And by 6th September they were in India’s silicon city for
their interviews. I’m sure he would agree with me when I say it was all worth it. After
all, 2 of the 5 lucky candidates (Rushabh Agrawal and Kunal Lad) actually got selected for
Google’s Mountain View office.
When asked about his reaction to the good news, he clearly demonstrated the fact that it
will remain an unforgettable day for him. “It was in the afternoon and I had just come back
from lunch in the hostel mess; still hungry, given the food that day.” And that was when he
saw an email informing him of his selection. He remembers the moment clearly, “I spent the
next 10 minutes going through the email trying to come to terms with what was written in
the email.” Within 10 minutes he received a call from the Google HR person to personally
inform him about his selection and that was when the joyous feeling finally seeped in. While
she went on to describe the package details and terms of joining, Rushabh was too jubilant
to care about all that she was saying! His friends and ‘wingies’ were already shouting and

51
Chapter 19. Rushabh Agrawal from BITS Pilani talks about his Google interview
experience

cheering around him within minutes – all this while the HR lady was speaking to him. He
declares that the feeling still remains like a too-good-to-be-true thing.
On whether the selection process is different from the usual campus placement
processes.
We’ve heard of those brain teasers and super-tough questions from Google’s interview.
Rushabh disagrees and says the process is more or less similar to companies like Microsoft,
Amazon etc. Only difference was in length of the placement process. Usually, when compa-
nies come for campus placement, the process gets over within a day, on the campus itself.
But Google almost took a month.
There was an initial screening test followed by a series of interviews. All interviews they had
at Google were technical and each interviewer tested a different domain of knowledge and
thinking. There was an open ended discussion as well, in one of the rounds. Rushabh also
had a couple of publications in his kitty and a couple of interviewers discussed about them
as well. A very interesting point is that during the complete interview process, there were no
eliminations after each interview. All of them went through the same number of interviews.
During the interview, the interviewers constantly took down observations/opinions. In his
opinion, at the end of the entire process, all the points are tallied to select the candidates.
He cheerfully tells us that apart from the interview they got to enjoy the lunch at Google
and were put up in a really awesome place for the night.
On the kind of skill-set companies like Google, are looking for in candidates.
He informs us an in a matter-of-fact way that knowledge of Data Structures and Algorithms
are a must, along with decent coding skills. In addition, knowledge of Computer Networks
and Object Oriented Programming (OOP) can come in handy as well. Knowing anything
else is a bonus. Like in anything else, practice (solving problems in this case) helps a lot.
Interviewers generally evaluate a candidate based on his/her response (thinking process,
approach) to unknown problems. So they look for problem solving skills as well, in addition
to experience. It is a fact that companies like Google look for highly intelligent people. And
the resume, along with the interview process, gives them ample opportunities to evaluate a
candidate’s intelligence.
On how to create a perfect technical resume which would stand out.
Companies like Google don’t care about the candidates’ non-technical achievements. So
don’t clutter your resume by mentioning those. Keep your resume short and crisp. No point
explaining everything as they do not “study” your resume (His was a 1 page document).
During the interview, the interviewer may glance through it and on finding something
interesting, would like to talk about it. This will start a discussion and the conversation,
which is now in your hands, offers a good chance to impress the interviewer. Write your
resume accordingly (such that it evokes enough curiosity in the mind of the interviewer).
Also, you’ll obviously want to talk about some of your projects/publications more than the
rest. So highlight your work accordingly. Now there’s some really specific and useful advice,
right?
Interested people would obviously want to know how much preparation goes into winning
such great offers. He gives an honest response and says “I didn’t prepare for Google specif-
ically apart from going through some of the Google interview questions available online, a
couple of days before the interview.” According to him, the questions in general are simi-

52
Chapter 19. Rushabh Agrawal from BITS Pilani talks about his Google interview
experience

lar to what one would encounter in interviews for Microsoft, Amazon or any other similar
company.
“Preparing for placements in general over the summers, worked out good enough for me”,
he says (practice is the key, evidently) This type of preparation is only to channelize one’s
thought process for the problems posed during interviews, which are different in nature
to what one would otherwise encounter. An important point to note is that the range of
questions asked in interviews is not very broad. So the preparation basically familiarizes you
with common tricks and stuff that would come into use frequently. Knowing them won’t
necessarily impress the interviewer but not knowing them would take you a notch below
the rest of your competitors. Beyond that, whatever you have done so far – publications,
projects, coding experience, etc will come into play. You basically use all the knowledge
gained and skills acquired in the past few years.
To conclude we asked Rushabh to give some advice to all the students out there who’re
aspiring for similar job offers. To start with, he clarifies that that the interviews at Google
are not very different from those at Microsoft or Amazon, contrary to popular opinion. He,
personally, did not find them “extra difficult” (and he says this on behalf of all 5 who gave
the interviews from BPPC)
Also, during the interview, you are not judged by simply your success in reaching the most
optimal solution. You are judged on your thought process and failure to reach the final
solution is not the end of it, which is important.
For the 1st and 2nd year students, (and many of them have asked him “the recipe” to get
a job at Google), a lot coding practice and a very good knowledge of Data-structures and
Algorithms to get a job like this is a good way to go forward but not the only way. He,
himself, didn’t possess a great coding profile but his profile was based more on projects and
publications, in things like Machine Learning, rather than algorithms. “What I feel is that
you must try to gain as much knowledge and skills as you can. You never know what will
come handy.” The candidate’s intelligence and problem solving ability would take care of
the rest. You basically pursue whatever interests you or excites you. There is no long term
preparation for getting a particular job and thinking in terms of that would not only restrict
you but, also, is too short-sighted an aim to have.
Of course, every aspirant has to spend small amounts of time preparing explicitly for inter-
views. It’s just a great exercise to streamline the thought process. Like any other interview
process, a lot depends on factors beyond one’s control. As they say, the rest depends on
the day.
All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/toptalent-in-rushabh-agrawal-from-bits-pilani-talks-about-his-google-interview-expe

53
Chapter 20

What it takes to be a Googler?


An Interview with Google’s
recent hire Romal Thoppilan

[TopTalent.in] What it takes to be a Googler? An Interview with Google’s recent hire Romal
Thoppilan - GeeksforGeeks

There is a myth that only grads with high CGPA land in high paying
dream companies. Despite his average grades, Romal with his extraordinary coding talent
and determination succeeded in getting a job offer from Google. “I would like to create
something disruptive in the fields of Data Science and Mining, and I believe Google is the
right place to start my career,” says the myth buster. We at TopTalent.in got a chance to
interact with him about what made this possible and what others can learn from this.
In case you are wondering how the resume of a Google recruit looks like, you can down-
load the resume by logging in.
TopTalent : Could you briefly describe your student days at BITS Pilani ?
Romal : I always considered myself fortunate to be pursuing my degree at BITS Pilani.
The curriculum here is quite flexible giving enough scope to nurture your interests apart
from academics. I tried to make the most of it by being able to complete few higher degree

54
Chapter 20. What it takes to be a Googler? An Interview with Google’s recent hire Romal
Thoppilan

courses in undergrad itself. The faculty here is pretty knowledgeable, I spent some great
time working along with them in projects. Also the students here share great enthusiasm
towards their career and play a big role in your development.
TopTalent : What makes Google special?
Romal : Google certainly ranks among the top companies to work at and the quality of
the products and services they offer is well known. Also working in Google allows one to
pursue his own interest along, since Google has such wide ranges of projects to offer. The
work environment and the culture there adds every bit of fun to it.
TopTalent : How much preparation did you put in to bag this opportunity?
Romal : Unlike most others, I took my time off. My primary objective was to complete
and furnish off some of my incomplete projects, so that I could be confident about them
during placements. For programming, I used to practice codeforces problems. The contests
it organizes contains a real good mix of mathematical, logical and algorithmic problems,
and poses an environment much similar to coding rounds during placements. Besides, I had
completed most of the algorithms from Cormen and then shifted to GeekForGeeks to refer
to past years interview experiences.
TopTalent : Can you describe the complete hiring process of Google?
Romal : The whole hiring process was pretty smooth actually. It had one written round
based on your overall knowledge of the field which basically had a few aptitude and coding
questions. The shortlist was announced after two weeks and we were called for an on-site
interview at its Bangalore office. Then followed four back-to-back interviews, mostly algo-
rithmic. We were allowed to write the code through whichever medium we were comfortable
with. I toggled through all – pen, board and online editor. There was very little delay and
the accommodation and food were pretty good. Finally within a week, I got the CALL!
TopTalent : What topics do you think students should prepare for similar jobs
like that of yours?
Romal : Firstly, they should have regular coding practice as most companies now prefer
using coding rounds for shortlisting. The problems asked normally don’t require any deep
knowledge of algorithms. They are to test your speed and logical thinking. Then comes
personal interviews. Most of the companies prefer asking algorithmic problems. However,
these questions could indirectly test your basics around other topics like operating systems
and database management system as well. Mostly if your basics are clear, they look at the
way you think and reach the solution.
TopTalent : From your experience, what are some of the important factors that
the interviewers will be looking out for?
Romal : Many believe that interview questions keep on repeating every year so they could
just mug up everything to clear such interviews. This brute force way doesn’t even work out
for regular jobs let alone Dream Companies. In one of my interviews, the interviewer asked
me a question which I had never seen before. When I finished reading the problem, he asked
me to speak out everything that came to my mind and to not stop speaking till I reach some
solution. Luckily for me, I did arrive at some solution. It was a mind boggling experience.
These kind of interviews end up testing your thinking abilities more than anything. For
Jobs like the one I am going to join, strong basics in algorithms and critical reasoning skills

55
Chapter 20. What it takes to be a Googler? An Interview with Google’s recent hire Romal
Thoppilan

are essential. These are the two most important qualities that interviewers will be looking
in you. The answer impresses nobody, the way you reach there is what matters.
TopTalent : What role does resume and CGPA play for applying to such jobs?
Romal : Resume serves two purposes. Firstly, getting you shortlisted for the interviews
and secondly, to give a brief idea of the things you have been working around and and are
comfortable with. This generally guides the interviewer to choose what to ask and what not
to ask from. I personally referred to ‘Cracking the coding Interview’ for building my own
resume. It contains a number of Do’s and Dont’s.
CGPA was never a thing to boast about in my resume. For most of the companies it just
plays a role in the initial shortlisting. However for research based companies your CG does
play a significant role. Though a high CG is a good thing to have, its just an indicative of
how disciplined you are rather than a measure of your talent.
TopTalent : Would you like to share something exclusively for job seekers from
elite colleges ?
Romal : Do not restrict yourself to some specific domain or subject, at least not at the
undergrad level, but always have an overall sight of things and how they interrelate. Follow
your interests and be good at it. Make most of the opportunities you get to learn as a part
of your curriculum or through other online sources. And do possess a go-code mindset.
All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/toptalent-takes-googler-interview-googles-recent-hire-romal-thoppilan/

56
Chapter 21

“It’s the best feeling of my life”


says Krunal after cracking
Google, Mountain View

[TopTalent.in] “It’s the best feeling of my life” says Krunal after cracking Google, Mountain
View - GeeksforGeeks
“I will never forget the day I received my offer letter. Its a dream come true.” Landing

a job in Arista Networks would ideally be a dream opportunity


for many but for Krunal Patel from BITS Pilani – Goa it was just the beginning. We at
TopTalent.in spoke to Krunal about the Google Interview Process, how he managed to crack
it and what are his suggestions for aspirants looking to achieve something similar.
You can also download his resume by logging in to your account.
TopTalent: Can you tell us about the interview process?
Google conducted APAC test for 2015 graduating students in Asia pacific regions. I was
8th overall and 2nd in India after Divanshu. I was called for interviews at Google Bangalore

57
Chapter 21. “It’s the best feeling of my life” says Krunal after cracking Google, Mountain
View

office after that. I had 4 interviews in total and all of them were based on data structures
and algorithms. A few basic questions were also asked from OS.
TopTalent: Can you give us a brief account of what you felt was the toughest
interview?
According to me all the interviews were of similar difficulty level. They were testing different
domains in Algorithms and Data structures. The last interview was relatively at a bit higher
difficulty level.
TopTalent: What was your preparation strategy?
I revised all my computer science CDCs before the placement season started. Lecture slides
were good enough for that. I prepared for the GATE exam in the beginning of the year
and it saved a lot of time for me during placement season. In my last 4 years my goal
was to learn as many new technologies as possible. I gained introductory knowledge in
web designing, Machine learning, Network Science, Application development etc. Apart
from that I regularly practiced on codechef and topcoder to improve my programming and
problem solving skills. I also thoroughly revised my projects which were mentioned in my
resume before the interviews.
TopTalent: What kind of skills do you think helped you getting this job?
Mainly programming skills. I like participating in various programming contest and it
improved my knowledge in algorithms as well as my programming skills. For eg. I learned
to spend more time in designing the solution than in coding. Special thanks to my friend
N Hari Prasad (Google Hyd) who guided me all the time.
TopTalent: What resources did you consult? Where did you practice problems
from?
For my computer science subjects I mainly used my textbooks and lecture slides. For
Algorithms I used Cormen and various tutorials on internet.
TopTalent: How was Competitive Programming in the interview?
By participating in such competitions and practicing in topcoder, I improved in terms of
speed , Accuracy , Efficiency , and problem solving approaches. All of them plays crucial
role in interviews where we are asked to design and code the solution for an unseen problem
TopTalent: Were grades a factor in you getting selected?
Google asked for my grade sheet after all the interviews were over. Hence it was part of
their review process. Good grades always make a better impression.
TopTalent: What’s your advice to students who are aiming for similar placement
offers as yours?
1) Writing code after you solve a question or learn a new data structure or algorithm is
equally important. Make a habit to write neat and readable code as that helps your entire
team. Make sure you get your code reviewed. In case of programming puzzles, see the
setter’s solution.
2) Attend your classes regularly.
3) Find your passion and never give up on it. Rest all follows.

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Chapter 21. “It’s the best feeling of my life” says Krunal after cracking Google, Mountain
View

4) Keep yourself updated with new technologies.


In case you missed, you can also download his resume by logging in to your account.
All Practice Problems for Google !

Source

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/toptalent-best-feeling-life-says-krunal-cracking-google-mountain-view/

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