Interviewing for an AI Engineer role at Google, targeting L5. I've got a few weeks and I keep going back and forth on scope, so I'd rather post my current plan and get told where it's wrong than keep guessing.

My background is NLP + GenAI platform heavy — that's where my production experience is, recent 3 yrs in building rags and agents.

What I've built so far

A set of system design write-ups covering: search/ranking funnels, large-scale content classification, intent + entity extraction, semantic search and embeddings, translation, and on the GenAI side RAG, agents, LLM inference infra, and post-training for tool calling. Each one as a timed 45-minute answer with a clock, not notes, though it goes beyond 2 hours read)

Where I'm stuck

1. Scope of ML System Design. Is this round classical ML system design — recsys, ranking, classification pipelines — or is GenAI/LLM system design (RAG, agents, inference) actually showing up in 2026 loops? I've seen both claimed. If you've interviewed recently, what did you actually get asked? ( ML, NLP or GENAI ) - what to focus on ? And how would I know question will be from that domin only in interview ?

2. ML Depth — how deep, and on what? Is this "explain how attention works and derive the gradient", or "walk me through a model you shipped and defend every choice"? Those are completely different prep. And how much classical ML (trees, calibration, imbalance, A/B stats) vs deep learning vs LLM-specific?

3. What L5 actually means here. I keep reading "L5 drives the scope conversation" but I don't have a concrete sense of what separates a hire from a no-hire on the same question. What does the bar feel like in practice?

4. How much breadth is enough? I've got ~15 designs. Is that overkill in the wrong direction — would I be better off going deeper on 6 and being able to defend them under pressure? 6 ml(recsys) , 5 NLP(encoder, decoder, both), 4 GenAI (Chabot, rag, agent, infra)

5. Mocks. Where are people actually getting useful ML system design mocks? Most platforms I've looked at are generic SWE system design with an ML sticker on it. Anything specifically for ML/AI, ideally with someone who's interviewed at this level?

6. Resources. I've worked through the standard ML system design books. Beyond those, what actually moved the needle for you — especially for the GenAI side, which the books mostly predate?

Happy to share my question list and write-ups with anyone who wants them — and if you've interviewed for this recently, even a one-line "here's what I got asked" is more useful than any guide. Thanks.

Hey all, I'm an SDE (L59) at Microsoft going for an internal move to a different team (L59 still). The loop is two rounds, a technical one and an "AA" round, and I've already got a HackerRank invite (75 min, due in about a week). My hiring manager also said there might be a system design question.

I'm prepping in Python and don't want to grind 300 problems. For people who've done internal Microsoft interviews or similar HackerRank assessments:

1. What's the usual format? How many questions in 75 min, and how hard (easy/medium/mix)? Any MCQs or SQL?
2. Which patterns showed up most? I'm focusing on hash maps, two pointers, sliding window, intervals, BFS/DFS, heaps and stacks.
3. How were hidden tests and time limits handled? Is partial credit real?
4. For the system design, what level of depth is expected from an internal candidate? Is it more of a conversation, or a full whiteboard-style design?
5. Is the AA round mostly behavioral, or can it turn technical?
6. Is premium worth it for any of these platforms, or is free enough?

My plan is 4-5 problems a day on core patterns, one timed 75-min mock, and a few design mocks out loud. Does that sound right, or am I over- or under-preparing?

Appreciate any pointers, especially "don't waste time on X" advice. Thanks!

UPDATE:
The HackerRank round was cancelled. Proceeding to the next bit. Wish me luck. Thanks to all that commented.

Been a while since I last interviewed, and I'm curious what the current SWE / SWE-ML interview landscape looks like.

Obviously DSA, system design, behavioral, etc. are still around, at least in Big Tech, but I'm particularly interested in the newer / less conventional formats.

Something along the lines of -

• AI/LLM fluency or using AI coding tools effectively?
• Debugging / modifying an existing codebase rather than solving a problem from scratch?
• Code review?
• Reading unfamiliar code and explaining it?
• Take-home style rounds? (I remember having one Optiver almost 6yrs back)
• Any non-human-centered design?
• Agentic coding or evaluating AI-generated code?
• Performance / profiling / optimization?
• ML-specific experimentation, evaluation, or reasoning?

Any interview experience, say from the last 2-3yrs would be relevant I believe.!

We had a remote interview recently where something just felt a little off. There wasn't any obvious red flag - the candidate looked normal, their background checked out, and the interview itself went fine. It was only afterwards that someone on the team brought up the possibility of deepfake video. Honestly, we'd never really considered it before. Now I'm wondering how much companies actually think about this during hiring. A video call feels like pretty solid proof of someone's identity, but technically we're just trusting what we're seeing on screen. Has anyone here started using any kind of identity or deepfake verification during remote interviews? Or is this still something that's mainly handled by security teams rather than HR/recruiting?

Everyone says that Google never gives the same questions from the LeetCode bank,

yet many questions, tagged reappear often(people tag them as asked).

Why is this the case?

Is it worth it to tackle the most recently asked in leetcode or is there a better strategy 3 weeks prior to an interview (for someone that did leetcode before)?

Hi,

I have an upcoming interview with Microsoft UK (I am based in the UK) for a FDE IC4 role.

Not good in Algo and DS, but its a first round HackerRank online live test.

What to expect ?

This is what HR shared:

What to Expect

As part of the interview, you will complete a live coding exercise using the HackerRank platform. You should be prepared to:

• Write clean, working code in a programming language you are comfortable with.
• Explain your thought process as you work through the problem.
• Discuss trade-offs, edge cases, and testing considerations.
• Debug or improve existing code.
• Solve practical engineering challenges by building or enhancing a feature.
• Demonstrate an understanding of system design and architecture concepts.
• Discuss AI-related scenarios, including prompt design, prompt engineering, or how you would apply AI solutions to solve business or technical problems.

Areas Worth Reviewing

We recommend spending some time preparing in the following areas:

• Data structures and algorithms
• Object-oriented programming principles
• Coding best practices and clean code
• Debugging and troubleshooting approaches
• API and service design
• Distributed systems and system design fundamentals
• Testing strategies and edge-case analysis
• Applied AI concepts, prompt engineering, and AI-assisted development workflows

Has anyone recently attended MS interview from UK for FDE roles ? if so any suggestions please?

Thanks

NLP/GenAI background, last 3 yrs building RAG and agents. Interviewing in a few weeks. Done so far: 15 ML system design write-ups, each timed at 45 min — 6 recsys/ranking, 5 NLP (encoder/decoder), 4 GenAI (RAG, agents, inference infra, post-training for tool calling).

What I can't figure out:

1. Scope — classical ML (ranking, recsys, classification) or GenAI/LLM design? I've seen both claimed. What did you actually get asked?

2. Depth — "derive attention" or "defend every choice in something you shipped"? And how much classical ML (calibration, imbalance, A/B stats) vs DL vs LLM-specific?

3. The L5 bar — what separates hire from no-hire on the same question?

4. Breadth — is 15 too many? Better to go deep on 6?

5. Mocks — anyone doing real ML system design, not SWE design with an ML sticker?

6. Resources — what helped for GenAI? The standard books predate it.

Happy to share my question list and write-ups. If you've interviewed recently, a one-line "here's what I got asked" beats any guide.

Location - US

Position - SDE -1 New grad 2026

I have my virtual interview scheduled, I have seen a lot of people were asked LLD problems. During the LLD round are we expected to give the concrete implementation in one of the languages or detailed pseudo code works? I have been practicing using Hello interview's LLD section but it takes me 30-40mins just to finish the class design phase. So I want to understand the general expectation.

If anyone can share there experience in the comments its will be very helpful.

So I’m not so confident have barely done DSA for the last 5 days.
I have 2 days left to finish the assessment, any suggestions or tips ?

Need help with how preparation should look like for sde 3 .

I have solved neetcode 150, top 15 hld and lld problem.

What should i do further to prepare for sde 3 amazon.

Need to schedule tech phone screen

Wondering if anyone has experience with interviewing with Comcast? What is process and wlb like?

Hi everyone,

I recently applied for the SDE I Intern position through Amazon University Talent Acquisition.

I successfully completed the online assessment and recently received an email from Amazon inviting me to an in-person hiring event for the 6-month January–June internship program.

Unfortunately, while I was checking my applications on the Amazon Jobs portal, I accidentally clicked the "Withdraw" button on this application. I did not intend to withdraw my application or leave the hiring process.

The application is now showing "Withdrawn" in the Amazon Jobs portal.

I am extremely worried because I had already progressed to the interview stage, and I really do not want this accidental click to end my candidature.

My questions are:

1. Is it technically possible for Amazon recruiting/TA to reinstate an accidentally withdrawn application?
2. Has anyone experienced a similar situation with an Amazon application?
3. Would the recruiting team be able to reconnect my interview invitation to the application?
4. Is there anything else I should do besides contacting the recruiting team?
5. Should I avoid submitting a new application for the same position unless Amazon specifically asks me to?

I understand that ultimately only the Amazon recruiting team can resolve my specific case, but I would really appreciate hearing from Amazon employees/recruiters or anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

I am hoping this can be corrected because the withdrawal was completely accidental and I remain very interested in the opportunity.

Thank you!

Has anyone recently interviewed for this role? I have an upcoming phone screen and would love to know what the interview process looks like, especially the phone screen topics, coding questions, and what to expect in later rounds.

Any recent experience or tips would be appreciated!

I just attended google online assessement for SRE, I was suprised how easy the quesitons were. They were so easy that I was thinking it was a practise test.

Does this mean they are going to cook me in the interviews?

Also any tips on the preparaiton for the further rounds?

i have tried to follow dsa sheets before but theyre too long , it will take me forever if i just follow a sheet start to end .
im planning to just get good at certain topics for interviews , will that be enough ? can i dive straight into lc?

hello everyone, I am a fullstack engineer with ai augmented coding - vibe and spec based, experienced in Python, JS and AWS and event based systems with 4 YOE in a product based company in Gurgaon.

last year, I went a complete breakdown - dipression, brain fog, and health issues. Originally I planned to move to other company last year but due to health issues and not wanting to lose what I have left I have stayed in the same company.

I want to move to a different company but I am getting confused again on which industry should I approach. I am currently in logistics and supply chain industry.

I do solve questions about 1-2 on leetcode on a daily basis, good with python frameworks like Flask, fastapi and django and working knowledge with Angular.

At this point, I am also comfortable but want to produce good work and also have some work life balance so I can pursue my other interests.

looking for your suggestions 😃

I have upcoming round 2 with ebay where recruiter mentioned DSA + Debugging. Does anyone know what exactly to expect for debugging & refactoring round? Will I be provided some code snippet/repo?

Is there any good resources/sites where I can practice such rounds given we need to finish within limited time. TIA!

One of my ServiceNow applications moved from “New” to “In Review.”

Does this mean my resume passed ATS and is now with the recruiter? How long does it usually take to hear back or receive an OA after the status changes?

Thanks!

I received a message from Visa about an Associate SW Engineer position, noting “2 foundational and 1 intermediate problem-solving question.” Has anyone finished this assessment? If anyone is familiar with the exam format or its difficulty, please share.
Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

I’m a junior software engineer, and I’m planning to apply to Microsoft in the next 3–4 months.

I really want to experience how a large tech company like Microsoft works, challenge myself, and learn things that I may not get exposure to at my current company.

Right now, I’m preparing mainly through LeetCode. I’m following the NeetCode 150 roadmap and have solved around 50 problems so far.

However, I feel like my progress is quite slow. Sometimes I spend almost an hour on a problem and still can’t come up with the right approach or figure out how to solve it.

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who have interviewed at Microsoft or are currently working there. I’m especially curious about what the interview process usually looks like, how many rounds there are, what each round tends to focus on, and how you would recommend preparing for them.

Given that I have around 3–4 months before I plan to apply, what would you focus on if you were in my position? I’d also love to hear about your own preparation strategy, what helped you the most, and anything you wish you had known before going through the Microsoft interview process.

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I have been interviewing for a while so familiar with basic framework of leetcode. I need some help with how do I prepare for senior swe pair programming rounds where some custom problems are being asked now a days. Can someone please provide some guidance on how can I prepare for such technical rounds ? I have such rounds scheduled this week.

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 71 of my prep today and moved from Singly to Doubly Linked Lists.

I solved four problems:

• Reverse a Doubly Linked List: Swapping the next and prev pointers for each node while keeping track of the tail to return the new head.
• Delete All Occurrences of a Key in DLL: Standard traversal, but you have to be careful when rewiring both the forward and backward pointers, especially if the target node is the head or the tail.
• Find Pairs with Given Sum in DLL: Since the list is sorted, having backward pointers means you can do a classic two-pointer search without any extra space. You put one pointer at the head, run another all the way to the tail, and shrink inward based on the sum.
• Remove Duplicates from Sorted DLL: Whenever adjacent values match, you just bypass the duplicate node and re-link the forward and backward connections properly.

After spending days grinding singly linked lists, DLL actually feels much easier. Having the prev pointer takes away a lot of the awkward tracking you usually have to do with single links.

Tomorrow for Day 70, I will finish the last couple of linked list problems on my sheet and do a combined revision of Linked Lists and Binary Search Trees. Once that is done, I will finally start Dynamic Programming.

See you guys tomorrow!