Software Engineer · Onsite · Coding

Google — Software Engineer ✅ Passed

Level: Mid-Level

Round: Onsite · Type: Coding · Difficulty: 4/10 · Duration: 120 min · Interviewer: Very Friendly

Topics: String, Data Structures, Algorithms, Stream processing

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Interview date: 2026-02-15

Summary

Round 1: Coding

Question: Implement a stream check function to identify and remove specific words from a character stream.

Round 2: Coding

Question: Perform operations on metrics like diagonal symmetry, 90-degree rotation, and eigenvalue calculation, with follow-ups for sparse and 3D metrics.

Details

This was my first time participating in an onsite interview, and I was quite nervous. The entire process was smooth. A recruiter helped schedule the interview, arranged transportation (plane tickets, hotel, or local commute), and explained the day's agenda.

Both interviewers were very talkative and enthusiastic.

Round 1:

I had to write a stream check function. Given a character stream and a set of words to check, the function should return a word if it exists in the stream and remove it from the stream.

Round 2:

I was asked to perform operations on metrics, including checking for diagonal symmetry, rotating by 90 degrees, and calculating eigenvalues. The follow-up questions were: what if the metric is sparse? What if it's 3D?

The questions weren't difficult. I mainly prepared graph, tree, and dynamic programming problems, but the actual questions were simpler than I expected. Writing code on the whiteboard doesn't need to be bug-free. The interviewer was happy to discuss the solution with me rather than just testing me. Overall, it was a good experience.