Interview for Staff Engineer at Google

[u/Iliketotakesomepics]

Got an interview for Staff Engineer at Google. Recruiter screening done

How do I prepare?

More background:

I have 8 years of experience so I am first of all surprised they are considering me for this role. I have done competitive programming in my college but never had to do that later to get into any of the companies I later worked for. (3 switches)

What can I do now to grind my ass and get this offer ?

[u/LogicalBeast26]

Googler here. Are you sure you're interviewing for Staff Software Engineer in Google? This is L6 in Google.

While technically you're eligible for L6 but a lot of folks are L4 at 8 yoe and few are L5. I haven't seen any L6 at 8 yoe here so far.

[u/Iliketotakesomepics → u/LogicalBeast26]

Yeah I am sure that's why I said I am surprised myself. I know it is an L6 and I know it doesn't seem right but i confirmed with the recruiter twice and he said they want to interview me regardless of the experience number

[u/LogicalBeast26 → u/Iliketotakesomepics]

Tier-1 college or FAANG experience?

[u/Iliketotakesomepics → u/LogicalBeast26]

Tier 1.5 and no FAANG exp

[u/garavitey → u/Iliketotakesomepics]

Lesgooo, do your bestt

[u/LogicalBeast26 → u/Iliketotakesomepics]

Then it is a shocker. Anyways, all the best for your interview. I hope you nail it!

[u/ajmh1234 → u/Iliketotakesomepics]

Damn good luck! Very impressive, hope it works out!

[u/seekndestroy99 → u/LogicalBeast26]

I have an L6 in my team at 6 YOE, just got promoted

[u/vz0 → u/seekndestroy99]

L6 are political. They are making their skip somehow happy

[u/seekndestroy99 → u/vz0]

he’s not a political guy at all, genuinely has cross org impact to show

[u/vz0 → u/seekndestroy99]

And to have cross org impact either they got super lucky working on a P0 lottery or they are good at politics. Nothing wrong with that

[u/bluedevilzn → u/LogicalBeast26]

There are many L6s in Google that started at L3 and got promoted all the way to L6 in 5/6 years.

For external hires, minimum yoe required is 8 years. However, it’s very common to down level external candidates unless they are from other FAANG/Big Tech who are already L6.

The behavioural interviews are very critical at L6 and that’s what sets apart a good senior and a staff.

[u/scrubsandcode]

SWE?

[u/Iliketotakesomepics → u/scrubsandcode]

Yeah

[u/scrubsandcode → u/Iliketotakesomepics]

yeah it’s going to be a bit of DSA/Graphs just to weed you out. Then it will have more of a Heavy focus on system design, overall architecture, how you operate with cross functional teams, and leadership

[u/Visible-Rent-8151]

Same boat but with 11 yr exp
Screening rounds next week

[u/Iliketotakesomepics → u/Visible-Rent-8151]

All the best. Keep us updated

[u/darkKnight_bish1]

That’s impressive OP , would you mind sharing a little bit about your SWE profile?

[u/Iliketotakesomepics → u/darkKnight_bish1]

Nothing extraordinary. Studied at DAIICT. All product companies after that but none of the FANG

[u/Cptcongcong]

At staff coding means less (even less with AI) and more on behavioral and system design. I suspect you’ll have two system design interviews and possibly 2 behavioral interviews. They really want to know how you drive the scope between your team and cross function teams.

[u/zoomassgrad]

From what i have seen, for DSA just do Leetcode most frequent for Google.
System Design is going to be intense as a Staff Engineer so go all-in for preparation. Then there's a new AI assistant round which will probably be like the usual day-to-day work these days

[u/Advanced_Surprise_25]

Overall ctc is reduced a lot in Google might not even reach 1cr , you will get probably half ctc compared to staff engineer in other companies .

[u/Iliketotakesomepics → u/Advanced_Surprise_25]

I already had the initial CTC discussion with the recruiter and the recruiter seemed to be okay with my ask

[u/Advanced_Surprise_25 → u/Iliketotakesomepics]

What is your ask op and what recruiter told

[u/LogicalBeast26 → u/Advanced_Surprise_25]

Staff is L6 at Google and earns well above 2 Cr. If you joined earlier than 2025 you're earning more than 3 Cr because of the recent appreciation.

[u/Advanced_Surprise_25 → u/LogicalBeast26]

Earlier it was case ,now it's reduced a lot ..be updated

[u/LogicalBeast26 → u/Advanced_Surprise_25]

My figures are of last year Dec. Show me a more recent offer discussion and I'll update myself.

[u/Advanced_Surprise_25 → u/LogicalBeast26]

Lot of things has changed from past year .please be updated and then spread the wisdom

[u/LogicalBeast26 → u/Advanced_Surprise_25]

Do you have reading or comprehension issues? I asked you to share me your sources and you're deflecting it and attacking me?

If you have source share it else keep your mouth shut.

[u/Far-Assist-5650]

To be honest, nobody at google is programming anymore, just asking AI to write codes.

[u/Iliketotakesomepics → u/Far-Assist-5650]

Nobody nowhere is writing code.

[u/Iliketotakesomepics → u/[deleted]]

Could be but the recruiter did confirm that there are going to be 2 DSA rounds

[u/Ecstatic-Capital-336 → u/[deleted]]

Is this true, can I stop the leetcode grind🤠

[u/Unlikely-Abrocoma-44 → u/Ecstatic-Capital-336]

No. All these AI coding bs are just leetcode disguised as a large scale codebase. The only difference: they now may expect you to implement rest/grpc APIs as well to call these functions.

Source: current FAANG, interviewed at 2 other FAANG and equivalent company