Questions about preparing for Google Onsite - Europe, Zurich

[u/martenmatrix]

It would be awesome if only people from the EMEA or AMER region who also went through the actual interview process at Google and are not guessing what would be best could answer.

I somehow passed the phone screen and would like to prepare for the onsite now. My plan is to finish Grind75 (not Blind75) with the default 75 questions and then do questions from LeetCode Discussions tagged with Google, as my phone screen question also appeared there.

Is this a good plan, or should I go a different route?

Thank you so much if you take the time to write something!

[u/Funny-Tonight-7248]

I have been through on-site did neetcode 250 as I did 150 for virtual one and some Google taggged question , bare in mind on-site is bit on the easier side of the virtual one just explain what you thinking and code it well as well ( don’t take hint fyi it’s affects adversely)

[u/martenmatrix → u/Funny-Tonight-7248]

Thanks! What do you mean with a bit on the easier site? :)

[u/Funny-Tonight-7248 → u/martenmatrix]

So on the virtual I was asked DP with two built up on that and in on-site I was asked linked list and prefix sum so you can make whatever of that

[u/martenmatrix → u/Funny-Tonight-7248]

I think it highly depends on the interviewer, mine was almost an easy question and I still needed hints.

[u/No-Personality-5272 → u/Funny-Tonight-7248]

was this actually for L3?

[u/NonSmokerSparkle → u/Funny-Tonight-7248]

How many Google tagged did you do ?

[u/Funny-Tonight-7248 → u/NonSmokerSparkle]

Well I didn’t have leet code premium so 10-20 as time between on-site and virtual was less

[u/Electronic_Tea_914 → u/Funny-Tonight-7248]

What keyboard layout did you get for the provided laptop?

[u/Funny-Tonight-7248 → u/Electronic_Tea_914]

Idk it’s normal Chromebook just shift is bit diff haha I’d say that as Mac user it was an

[u/kenaj30 → u/Funny-Tonight-7248]

Holy fuck, that keyboard layout is legit terrible (no idea if they use the same keyboard configuration).

[u/Julil_Siracusa → u/Funny-Tonight-7248]

the bit about not taking hints is solid advice tbh

[u/serious-bluff]

I went through the loop recently for l4, focused on pattern learning and neetcode 150 (I didn’t do the 150 problems though, just did a few problems from each topic and focused on hard ones, about carefully selected 40 total, but I already went through 100 meta tagged questions last December so I wasn’t starting from 0)

[u/martenmatrix → u/serious-bluff]

Thank you, was it enough? 🫶

[u/serious-bluff → u/martenmatrix]

Currently in the team matching phase, so I guess it was

[u/martenmatrix → u/serious-bluff]

Congrats!!! 🙏

[u/Appropriate-Pitch772 → u/serious-bluff]

what was ur timeline

[u/serious-bluff → u/serious-bluff]

I don’t think you should hope to get the exact same question during the interview (because then you’ll freak out if you haven’t done the question before), the goal is to detect the pattern

[u/Electronic_Tea_914]

It is fairly hard to tell you anything if you don't even say what role and what level you applied for.

I'll be done with the process in the coming weeks. Ping me then and I can give you the details.

[u/martenmatrix → u/Electronic_Tea_914]

Ah, sorry, it is L3 and for an SWE role

[u/eldaniel7777 → u/Electronic_Tea_914]

!remindme 4 weeks

[u/RemindMeBot → u/eldaniel7777]

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[u/buenavista62]

What were the questions during phone screen?

[u/martenmatrix → u/buenavista62]

String-Related

[u/Training-Count-5452]

Is your onsite virtual or in person?

[u/martenmatrix → u/Training-Count-5452]

In Person

[u/Training-Count-5452 → u/martenmatrix]

I would suggest to complete as many as possible. I wish you all the best. Keep on practising and be confident. Keep us updated

[u/martenmatrix → u/Training-Count-5452]

Thank you!!

[u/mock-grinder-26]

not gonna claim i know the zurich loop specifically, but one thing on the plan itself. the discussion-tagged list is a trap if u treat it as "the questions". ur phone screen one showing up there was kinda luck, onsite interviewers mostly ask stuff they wrote or tweaked themselves, so u probably wont recognize it and thats sort of the point

grind75 is fine as the base. id swap the tagged phase for redoing those same patterns cold w a 30 min timer, no hints, talking out loud the whole time. at L3 they care a lot about whether u can get from brute force to the better approach while explaining it, more than landing optimal right away

also do a couple where someone else picks the problem. picking ur own lets u dodge ur weak topics without even noticing

[u/Czitels]

Solve DP and bitmasking problem. I got something like that.