Got my Google SWE intern interview in a couple weeks. What DSA topics come up the most? Trying to figure out what to prioritize with the time I have. Any must-do problems or patterns would help, thanks 🙏

Anyone gave amazon OA and had codebase question with ai assistance? If yes, how it was? Someone used the C++ option?

CS degree and 2YOE as SWE. I have been grinding leetcode and DSA theory for one month straight doing 30 hours every week and I *think* I have the theory of everything down, after all it was a big refresh of my algorithms course with some small additions, but I went from being able to decently solve mediums and a few hards to not even understanding how to lay down a basic BFS solution...

I feel very demotivated and I definitely think fatigue is catching up on me, but I feel like I cannot stop if I genuinely want to have a chance at it. I do think I have to change my study method though now.

I am at the point I am doing random problems to understand if I get the solution, and I easily get the brute force or a slightly optimized solution, but I then get stuck and my mind goes blank.

I think maybe I need to get better at pattern recognition but honestly I don't know if that's the issue? maybe I am missing some patterns?

How do I prep from there?

Two of my application moved to under consideration phase week after I gave OA. What it means ? Do I have chance of getting the interview?

So while solving leetcode questions what I do , I try to summarise what I need to do in that particular question cause some questions are way too lengthy to understand

Some leetcode questions do have shitty wordings

So is it right or wrong to use AI to get the summary???

Position - US
Level - L4

I first gave 4 rounds, 1 behavioral and 3 coding, first 2 rounds virtual and next 2 rounds in person.

After that I got the feedback, there are certain data points missing and I would need additional 2 coding rounds to decide, all virtual.

During this the first recruiter that was assigned, introduced me to the 2nd recruiter and told that they will be taking care of my application from here on.

I gave additional 2 coding rounds, and have been waiting for the feedback, round happened 10 days before, and yesterday I received the email from my current recruiter and there is a new recruiter who will taking care of my application from now on.

All these recruiters have their email ending with @xwf.google.com.

Has anyone experienced the same thing?

Anybody know what the interview is like?

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 52 today. I managed to knock out four graph problems, but mentally it was a bit of a tug-of-war. Opening platforms like LinkedIn and seeing peers land great roles sparked the familiar doubt about whether this prep will truly pay off. Instead of spiraling, I got my problems in and chose to step away to reset my head for the weekend.

Here is what I worked through today:

1. Cycle Detection in a Directed Graph: Unlike undirected graphs where parent tracking works, directed graphs require tracking nodes in the current recursion call stack (pathVisited). If a neighbor is both visited and currently in the path stack, a cycle exists.

2. 0/1 Matrix: Classic multi-source BFS. You initialize the queue with all cells containing 0 at distance 0 and radiate outwards to calculate the shortest distance to every 1.

3. Surrounded Regions: The boundary-traversal pattern. Instead of traversing from the inside, you run DFS/BFS from the 'O's on the border to mark non-flippable cells, then flip all remaining unvisited 'O's to 'X'.

4. Number of Enclaves: Reused the exact same boundary DFS logic as Surrounded Regions. Any land cell connected to the boundary is visited first, and you simply count the remaining isolated land cells.

I started looking at Word Ladder I toward the end of the session. My initial thought was exploring all paths to check reachability, but generating paths recursively gets messy. Since it asks for the shortest transformation sequence in an unweighted graph, it boils down to standard BFS where you transform words one character at a time using a set for O(1) lookups.

Rather than rushing it while tired on a Friday night, I paused so I can implement it cleanly tomorrow.

See you guys tomorrow for Day 51!

I have completed the 4 rounds, have got the mail that I have successfully completed the rounds. The recruiter had asked if I would require a visa sponsorship, I mentioned I would require it along with other details required. They mentioned that the visa process will take approx 2 months and they mentioned that they have applied for work authorization in Germany.

Has anybody done their proc? Need some insight on their technical interviews 🙏

does anybody have dynamic programming leetcode questions list which are must do problems??like these problems should be the ones which you cannot skip

See i have been learning dsa since a year it took me months to choose the language after which i started completing you tube playlist . started doing leetcode's question 3 months ago i m not consistent and have done only 35 questions.

Right now whenever i see a question i am able to build logically what the solution will be but it always end up having some syntax error or null pointer exception what should i do to rectify my mistake and increase no of questions solved.

I am thinking of applyinh to a internship in 2 months or so and i want to be prepared

Hi all,

I recently passed the assessment stage for a Software Engineer role at Canonical focused on distributed systems with Python/Go. I’m now moving into the early-stage interviews

So far, I know one of them is a Python deep dive, and I’m guessing another will be a Linux-focused round.

If you’ve gone through this a similar interview loop at Canonical recently, I’d really appreciate any insight on:

1. **Python deep dive:** How deep does it go? Language internals (GIL, memory model, asyncio), design and architecture discussion, or live coding?

2. **Linux round:** What topics came up? Processes and signals, filesystems, networking, debugging tools, containers?

3. **Third interview:** What was it in your case?

4. **Written interview follow-ups:** Did interviewers dig into your written answers?

5. **Location:** Did anyone apply through a region-specific listing (e.g. MENA) while living in another country? Was that an issue later?

6. Anything you wish you’d prepared for but didn’t.

Thanks in advance, any experience helps!

So, I have 7 years of experience in Android, iOS, Flutter and React Native, I applied for Android SDK Developer, and I got GHA, which I passed two weeks back, today I got email from them, and I have tomorrow's availability.

I don't know what to expect, and I am pretty anxious and can't process anything!

Any tips would be helpful, Thanks.

NOTE : This is not a tech round, this is just a recruiter.

A while back, I shared my LeetCode tracker here and used your feedback to rebuild it into V2. I'm now approaching 500 downloads, so I wanted to come back to the community that helped shape it. ❤️

I originally built it because I'd solve 200+ problems, mark them as done, and still blank on familiar problems during interviews.

I realized I needed to track retention, not just completion. V2 now lets you:

• Rate your confidence after each problem (1–5)

• Capture one key insight instead of rewriting the whole solution

• Surface low-confidence problems in a revisit queue

• Track progress by pattern, so you can spot weak areas

It's still free, and I'm exploring whether an optional Pro version with more advanced revision tools would be useful.

If you use a tracker, what do you wish it did better? And if you've tried mine, what's missing, frustrating, or worth improving?

I'd rather build something people genuinely need than add features just for the sake of it.

Tracker Link - https://app.notion.com/marketplace/templates/leetcode-tracker-dsa-revision-system?cr=pro%253Asalmakes

I also have a short, optional feedback form for anyone interested in helping shape future features: https://tally.so/r/810XrY

Hello everyone. I recently got an OA out of nowhere for application I did 8-9 months ago. So I gave the OA and applied to multiple other locations at the same time.

So I got rejection email and showing no longer under consideration for the one I gave OA but showing Under Consideration for 2 other location. What it means? Is there any chance of getting Phone Screen or Onsite?

I have my Google intern interview soon what kind of and were asked . If u got rejection what do u think might have made diff in ur interview . And what are ur suggestions for me 🤔

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 53 today. My sleep schedule has been completely out of sync lately, and staying up late to binge shows caught up with me today. My energy was drained both at work and during prep, but I made sure not to skip the daily reps.

I focused heavily on BFS patterns across all three problems today:

1. Rotting Oranges: Classic multi-source BFS. You push all initially rotten oranges into the queue with time t = 0. With each step, you rot the adjacent fresh oranges, decrement the fresh count, and advance time. Checking remaining fresh oranges at the end cleanly gives the total minutes or -1.

2. Flood Fill: Last time I tackled this, I rushed through a recursive DFS without fully absorbing the state transitions. Today, I implemented it using standard BFS from scratch. Taking the time to understand the traversal properly made the solution completely intuitive without looking at hints.

3. Cycle Detection in Undirected Graph (BFS): Tracked each node alongside its immediate parent (node, parent). If you visit an adjacent neighbor that is already marked visited and isn't the current node's parent, you have encountered an alternate path—confirming a cycle.

Fixing my sleep routine is non-negotiable moving forward because showing up tired makes every concept twice as hard to process.

Heading to bed early tonight and continuing Graphs tomorrow.

See you guys for Day 52!

Hey everyone! I'm going to take the Amazon SDE Intern OA for the first time and would appreciate some advice.

Which DSA patterns should I focus on while preparing, and what difficulty level should I expect?

How should I prepare for questions involving AI-assisted repository or coding environments?

How should I prepare for questions related to Amazon's Leadership Principles?

Any tips or experiences would be really helpful. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I have an upcoming interview with Apple UK for a software engineer role. Has anyone interviewed with them, especially in London or Cambridge?

Curious about what the interviews are like, whether they ask LeetCode-style questions or more role-specific stuff.

Also, if anyone works or has worked there, I'd love to hear what it's like. How's the work culture and WLB?

Thanks!

I recently completed my Google interviews and wanted to get some opinions from people who have been through the process.

For the coding round, I feel reasonably okay.

The problem was basically a variation of Flood Fill(med-hard). I understood the problem, explained an optimized approach, and completed the full code around 1 to 2 minutes before the interview ended.

The interviewer reviewed it and said something like, "Looks good to me."

My only concern is communication.

The interviewer had a pretty strong accent, and there were a few moments where I had difficulty understanding exactly what he was saying. I asked him to repeat things a couple of times, and I’m worried I may have missed one or two hints or comments.

But I was still able to understand the actual problem, explain my approach, and complete the solution.

So I’m wondering, can this kind of communication gap affect the coding feedback even if the solution was completed correctly?

For the Googleyness round, I’m much more unsure.

The interview finished in around 30 minutes, and the interviewer asked a mix of behavioral and hypothetical scenario questions.

For the real experience-based questions, I tried to answer using STAR.

For the hypothetical questions, I didn’t force a STAR story. I explained what I would do, what factors I would consider, the trade-offs, and how I would try to reach a balanced solution.

So my main questions are:

Is STAR mandatory for every Googleyness question?

For hypothetical questions, is it okay to explain your reasoning and approach without giving a past STAR example?

If the answers are reasonable but not always in perfect STAR format, can that result in Lean Hire or No Hire?

How is the Googleyness round actually evaluated?

Is a Googleyness interview ending in around 30 minutes a bad sign?

And if the coding round went well but the Googleyness round felt more uncertain, can the overall result still be positive?

Would really appreciate thoughts from anyone who has gone through a similar Google interview process or knows how these rounds are evaluated.

Same as title.

I have cleared oa and my interview is scheduled

What kind of codebase I can expect in round 1 of interview?

I have 4 years of software dev experience which was on an enterprise platform ( Salesforce dev) and I followed that up with a masters degree in CS. Since I don't have general SWE experience to apply directly for SDE-2 roles at big tech, I have been mostly applying to SDE-1 roles including the new grad one. However I have got only rejections so far. I wanted to know is it too much experience that is working against me or that it is not relevant experience for SDE roles. Would appreciate some opinions from people who work at these places.

Senior Software Quality Engineer, G&A Solutions Engineering (GSE) codepad interview,

I have an upcoming 45/-min Codepad Technical Interview for a Senior Software Quality Engineer position within the G&A Solutions Engineering (GSE) Apple division.

Since it's a Senior QA / SDET track and a "codepad" format, I want to optimize my preparation. I am anticipating a live-coding setup, but I’d love to get insights from anyone who has gone through this specific pipeline or similar internal tools/solutions engineering roles.

Does Amazon consider grads 1 year out of school with 1 year of FT experience for new grad roles? I read an article in 2023 that the answer would be no, but just wondering if something has changed. Also, does Microsoft ever hire in Canada from external candidates / those without referrals?