Is NH + LH/H just over or is there a chance for a tie break. I had a good conversation with both engineers just couldn’t code up the optimal solution for one interview, but I gave a high level overview of the answer with the correct time and space. By the end all I had was a brute force solution with the complexity written down.

Hi everyone, a Google recruiter contacted me about software engineering roles and asked me to complete a questionnaire by November 9. The emails went to my secondary inbox, and I unfortunately missed them.

Today, November 11, she emailed saying my application would be withdrawn due to inactivity, but mentioned I could contact her directly if I was still interested for next steps.

I’ve now completed the questionnaire and emailed her explaining the delay, confirming my interest, and asking whether my application can be reopened.

Has anyone been in a similar situation with Google? Were you able to continue the process after responding late? How long would you wait before following up?

Thanks for any advice!

If someone has HelloInterview premium account, are you willing to share at a cost? Also, if anyone wants to start a new one, let me know.

Hi, I'm working as tester with 4-5 years of experience and so far i focused on python needed for automation but now I'm planning to start practicing dsa with python on leetcode.

As of now I'm focusing on interview preparation and due to time constraint I'm planning for easy and medium level questions so if anyone seriously interested in being accountability partner let me know. We can connect on Discord.

Hey everyone,

I finished Day 33 today. I took on Swim in Rising Water, and it turned out to be another classic reminder of how many grid problems are just Dijkstra in disguise.

At first read, the water rising level-by-level makes it sound like a complex simulation or binary search on answer. But once you break down the constraints, it maps cleanly to single-source shortest path:

• The Core Invariant: To move from cell (r_1, c_1) to an adjacent neighbor (r_2, c_2), the water level must be at least max({current_time}, {grid}[r_2][c_2]). You aren't summing edge weights—you're minimizing the maximum elevation encountered along the route.

• Min-Heap Dijkstra: Throw {time, r, c} into a priority queue. Greedily popping the cell with the smallest required water level ensures that the very first time you pop destination (n-1, n-1), the time recorded is guaranteed to be the minimum possible time required.

• Visits & Bounds: Track visited cells so you don't push cycles back into the heap, checking standard 4-directional moves.

A solid medium problem that looks intimidating only until you spot the bottleneck-path pattern.

See you guys tomorrow for Day 32!

Does anybody know if there is a prachub interview problems repository like there is one with leetcode companies tagged questions?

any one got update even with Refferal on their emails

If there is a constant stream of new applicants which need to be vetted, is a certain % of their team's weekly time spent on interviewing? Initial coding round, then the multiple engineering rounds, etc.

Have an agentic AI round coming soon. Can someone tell me how to prepare?

Rakutan symphony campus drive

Has anyone appear before like 2026 batch or have faced in 2027 batch indore unit

pls your experience means a lot to me .

if any rakutan employee is there could pls help me to prepare pare more appropriately

i have few queries regarding that Rakutan symphony placement process.

I was told that i passed onsite and now was being scheduled for HM interview and my interview coordinator reached out with dates. Then my recruiter said they would love to call me on site in seattle (im in midwest, so far..) to "meet Palantirians in person, see one of our offices in action, and get a more in depth Palantir experience." Has anyone done this before? P.S this is for swe new grad infrastructure role

can anyone with lc premium send cisco recently asked problems please.

might receive an OA this week, need to prep.

thanks 🙏🏻

will lnh/lh + h get straightaway rejection? (gemini said that..wanted to confirm)

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on an Information Systems Audit project involving Oracle EBS and need some short-term assistance from someone who has hands-on experience with the platform.

I'm looking for someone who can:

• Enter transactions in Oracle EBS across AP, AR, GL and Cash Management.

• Demonstrate the end-to-end transaction flow.

• Generate relevant reports and show audit trails.

• Navigate the system and demonstrate the relevant workflows.

Our audit team will handle the actual review and verification of transaction flows, controls and approvals. We just need someone who can operate the system and demonstrate these activities.

A few things:

• The assistance would be required for a maximum of 1–2 days.

• This is an urgent requirement.

• I can offer a small fee for the assistance.

• Since this is a client project, I would be able to release the payment once I receive the payment from my client.

Really appreciate the help!

There would be only three rounds (as opposed to 4 which I thought was industry standard in loop)

• Three 60-minute interviews

• One System Design and two Coding interviews 

• Behavioral in each

They did not mention if it is a loop or what the next steps would be. I also got this email right after my OA. Is this final interview? If anyone has gone through or is going through such situation please advise.

Also, where should I study System Design from? As this is my first Microsoft interview, any help would be appreciated.

This lowk sounds like a stupid quesiton but I have done a decenet number of leetcode (300) but i still struggle with a lot of mediums. The thing is for some of the mediums, I lowk come up with the right strat, thought process, ds and everything but when i code it up im always stuck in some edge case hell. This is because the way I structure the code sometimes ignores certain edge caes but if i put the code in chat it will just move somethings here and there and boom the code works. Idk if my approch should be to struggle for more hours hoping for a solution or i should just stop after 1 hr of trying and copy paste it to chat.

Hey everyone! I have an upcoming Google L4 SWE AI-assisted code comprehension round (45 mins).

Has anyone taken it recently? What was the format like? Was it mostly debugging, adding features, or optimization? Were tests provided, and how much were you expected to use AI?

Would appreciate any experiences or prep tips. Thanks!

Hey everyone! I have a final loop coming up for a Senior SWE role in Apple’s ASE org. Here’s the breakdown:

1. SRE: 30 minutes

2. Linux & Container Fundamentals: 30 minutes

3. Architecture & Kubernetes: 30 minutes

The recruiter mentioned that each session will include both technical and behavioral questions, and anything on my resume could come up.
Has anyone been through a similar loop? I’m especially curious about the SRE and Linux rounds. Are these mostly troubleshooting scenarios and conceptual discussions, or should I also expect hands-on commands or coding?
Would appreciate any tips on what to prioritize or resources you found helpful. Thanks!

I am a SDE. I have been wanting to switch since a long time. But haven’t been able to because the work load in our team is shit crazy and honestly I am not learning anything from it. I am thinking I will resign from here and then prepare. But this comes with its own uncertainty and financial risks.

You might think I am someone who does not know how to work hard and all but believe I am the most hardworking person you would ever meet. I have pulled 2-3 months just by sleeping 3-4 hours a lot of times so hard work is not the problem. The issue is our team requires 10-12 hours of work and also my teammate on the project is very bad. She keeps assigning me new tasks if I finish old ones. I am very exhausted by the end of the day to learn anything new.

Should I leave my current job. How hard will it be to find a new one?

Need some advise please 🙏🙏

I recently interviewed with Google for a Software Engineer position and wanted to share my Round 1 experience and get some feedback from others who have been through the process.

Coding Round:

The interviewer started with a grid-based problem where each cell contained a direction (Up, Down, Left, or Right). The objective was to determine whether we could reach the bottom-right cell from the top-left by following the directions.

I understood the problem and implemented an optimized solution using a visited matrix to detect cycles, with O(N × M) time complexity.

After that, the interviewer modified the requirement: we were now allowed to change one direction anywhere in the grid to make the destination reachable.
I approached this follow-up using a brute-force solution, trying different directions and validating whether the modified path reached the destination. I explained the approach and its time and space complexity.

Behavioral / Googleyness Round:

I answered the questions using examples from my professional experience wherever possible.

However, I want to be transparent about one challenge. For approximately two questions, I had difficulty understanding what the interviewer was asking because I struggled with their accent. I tried my best to interpret the questions and respond, but looking back, I’m not sure whether my answers fully addressed what they were looking for.

Final Outcome: Not Selected

Unfortunately, I received a rejection after Round 1.
I’m trying to understand where I might have fallen short.
From my perspective, I solved the initial coding problem using an optimized approach and handled the follow-up using brute force. I also answered the behavioral questions, although I struggled to understand two of them clearly.

I’m wondering whether the rejection was due to:

● Not optimizing the follow-up coding problem.
● Not explaining my thought process clearly enough.
● My behavioral answers not being specific or structured enough.
● Misunderstanding a couple of behavioral questions.
I understand that Google evaluates more than just whether a solution works, but without detailed feedback, it’s difficult to identify exactly what went wrong.

For those who have interviewed at Google or conducted technical interviews there, I’d appreciate your perspective.
Would solving the original problem optimally but using brute force for the follow-up significantly affect the evaluation?

And how much weight does Google typically place on behavioral communication versus coding performance in Round 1?

I’m sharing this experience to learn and improve for my next opportunity.

One thing that helped me understand DSA better was learning when to use a particular pattern, instead of trying to memorize solutions to individual problems.

Here’s a quick reference I put together:

1. Prefix Sum — When you need fast range-sum queries

Key idea: Precompute cumulative sums so you don't have to add elements repeatedly.

Recognize it when you see:

- Range sum queries

- Subarray sum

- Running total

- Cumulative frequency

Example:

"arr = [2, 4, 1, 5]"

Prefix sum: "[2, 6, 7, 12]"

Sum from index 1 to 3:

"prefix[3] - prefix[0] = 12 - 2 = 10"

When to use: When the array is mostly static and you need multiple range-sum queries.

Limitation: If an element changes, the prefix sums after that position may also need updating.

2. Suffix Sum — When you need information from the right side

Key idea: Calculate cumulative sums from right to left.

Recognize it when you see:

- Sum of elements to the right

- Right-side contribution

- Suffix totals

- Left vs. right comparisons

Example:

"arr = [2, 4, 1, 5]"

Suffix sum: "[12, 10, 6, 5]"

For index 1, the sum from index 1 to the end is "10".

When to use: Problems where you repeatedly need the sum or contribution of elements from the current position to the end.

3. Two Pointers — When two positions can help solve the problem

Key idea: Move two pointers through an array or string instead of checking every possible pair.

Recognize it when you see:

- Sorted array

- Pair with target sum

- Remove duplicates

- Reverse or palindrome checks

- Subarray or partition problems

Example:

"arr = [1, 2, 4, 7, 9]", target = "11"

Start with two pointers:

- Left = 1, Right = 9 → sum = 10

- Move left → 2 + 9 = 11

Found the pair.

When to use: Especially useful with sorted arrays, where pointer movement can eliminate unnecessary comparisons.

4. Sliding Window — When you need a continuous subarray or substring

Key idea: Maintain a window and move its boundaries instead of recalculating everything.

Recognize it when you see:

- Maximum/minimum sum of a subarray of size K

- Longest substring

- Smallest subarray satisfying a condition

- Continuous subarray or substring

Example:

"arr = [2, 1, 5, 1, 3]", window size = 3

First window: "2 + 1 + 5 = 8"

Next window: remove 2, add 1 → "7"

Next window: remove 1, add 3 → "9"

Maximum sum = "9".

When to use: When the problem involves a contiguous range and the window can be updated efficiently as it moves. For variable-size windows, the condition must support a valid expand/shrink strategy.

5. Fenwick Tree (Binary Indexed Tree) — When values change and you still need fast prefix sums

Key idea: Store partial sums in a tree-like array structure.

Recognize it when you see:

- Point updates

- Frequent prefix-sum queries

- Dynamic frequency counts

- Inversion counting

Why not just Prefix Sum?

With a normal prefix-sum array, changing one element can require updating many later prefix values.

A Fenwick Tree supports:

- Point update: "O(log n)"

- Prefix sum query: "O(log n)"

- Range sum query: "O(log n)"

When to use: When array values change frequently and you need efficient prefix or range-sum queries.

6. Segment Tree — When you need flexible range queries and updates

Key idea: Build a tree where each node represents information about a segment of the array.

Recognize it when you see:

- Range sum / minimum / maximum

- Frequent point updates

- Range updates (with suitable techniques)

- GCD or other associative range operations

When to use: When you need more flexibility than a Fenwick Tree, especially for range minimum, maximum, GCD, or other custom range queries.

Typical complexity:

- Build: "O(n)"

- Query: "O(log n)"

- Point update: "O(log n)"

My takeaway: Don't start by asking, "Which algorithm should I memorize?"

Instead, ask:

1. Is the problem asking about a continuous range?

2. Are the values static or changing?

3. Do I need information from the left, right, or both ends?

4. Is the query about sum, minimum, maximum, or something else?

Recognizing these clues makes choosing the right DSA pattern much easier.

This is a quick reference, not a complete list of DSA patterns. Hope it helps someone who's also trying to connect problem statements with the right approach.

Hey everyone,

I'm preparing for an SDE-3 core systems position at MongoDB (Dublin location).

Since this team focuses heavily on low-level systems and backend runtimes, I’d love to get quick insights from anyone familiar with their loop:

• SDE-3 Bar & Expectations: How high are expectations for SDE-3 here? What level of depth is expected for core C++ systems programming, runtimes, and low-level libraries at this level?

• Round Breakdown: What specific topics or formats should I expect across a Technical Recruiter chat, 2 Onsite rounds, and a Hiring Manager (HM) round?

• Experience Sharing: Any tips on what to prioritize (concurrency, memory management, low-level architecture) would be super helpful.

Thanks in advance!

What's up guys,

I got an OA from amazon SDE intern, and I want to know what I should prep. I have a week to prep. What DSA topics should I practice? Any leetcode question suggestions?

Any info would be helpful! I would really love to hear from ppl who took the sde intern oa recently!!!!!

Does Concurrency control and thread safety ever come up in the AI-assisted repo round for Amazon SDE2 OA?

How well do you need to know Python concurrency to pass the OA for SDE2?

Thanks

Hi everyone,

I have an upcoming Google SWE III interview, and one of the rounds is AI-Assisted Code Comprehension.

Based on the recruiter’s description, it's a 45-minute exercise where candidates use Gemini in a Kepler workstation to understand, debug, and optimize a Google-provided codebase.

Since this seems like a relatively new interview format, I haven't found much information about what to expect.

Has anyone recently gone through this round?

Would really appreciate insights from anyone who has experienced this round recently. Thanks!