Google interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview
SDE - 1
Google
1 rounds | 1 Coding
problems
Rejected
Interview preparation journey
Journey
After years of trying and facing rejections since college, I finally received a call for a Google interview in July. I worked hard to improve my coding skills, solve problems, participate in hackathons, and build projects. Each rejection motivated me to learn more, and this opportunity shows how dedication and consistent effort can pay off.
Application story
I applied multiple times through Google’s careers website during college but faced rejections. In July of this year, a recruiter contacted me after my resume was shortlisted. I updated my LinkedIn profile and strengthened my resume by adding relevant projects and achievements. The interview process was well-structured, with clear communication from the recruiter at every step.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I was rejected because I struggled with some advanced problem-solving questions during the interview. However, it taught me the importance of deeper preparation and identifying gaps in my knowledge. This experience motivated me to improve and refine my skills further for future opportunities.
Preparation
Duration: 2 months
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, Dynamic Programming, System Design, Object-Oriented Programming, Problem Solving Techniques
Tip 1: Practice at least 50 coding problems across various coding platforms.
Tip 2: Focus on deeply understanding the fundamentals of Data Structures and Algorithms.
Application process
Where: Linkedin
Eligibility: Min 1 years of experience, (Salary Package: 32 LPA)
Tip 1: Highlight key projects and achievements that demonstrate your problem-solving and technical skills.
Tip 2: Keep the resume concise and tailor it to the role, focusing on relevant skills and experience.
Interview rounds
01
Round
Easy
Face to Face
Duration45 minutes
Interview date18 Oct 2024
Coding problem1
The interview was scheduled in the afternoon, so it wasn’t late at night. The environment was professional and calm, with clear communication from the recruiter about each step of the process. There was a technical screening round, followed by a behavioral interview. The interviewer was friendly, patient, and focused on evaluating my problem-solving abilities and technical knowledge.
1. Rearrange string
Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
You are given a string of lowercase characters. Your task is to rearrange (reorder) the string in such a way that no two adjacent characters are the same.
You have to return the rearranged string. If there exists more than one solution you can return any of them.If there is no such string you have to return “NO SOLUTION”. If your returned value is correct the program will print ‘CORRECT’ else ‘INCORRECT’.
For example :
If we are given a string "aabb", then the possible solutions are:
(i) abab
(ii) baba
We can see no two adjacent characters are the same in both strings.
So both (i) and (ii) are valid solutions.
Problem approach
Step 1: I first checked the frequency of each character in the string to see if any character appears more than (n + 1) // 2 times. If it does, I immediately returned an empty string because it's impossible to rearrange the string without having two adjacent characters the same.
Step 2: The interviewer then suggested a more efficient approach. I used a max-heap (priority queue) to prioritize characters by their frequencies. This allowed me to always select the most frequent character first.
Step 3: I then started building the result string. I picked the most frequent character, added it to the result, and decreased its frequency. If the character still had remaining occurrences, I placed it back into the heap.
Step 4: I repeated this process until all characters were placed into the result, ensuring no two adjacent characters were the same. The interviewer was happy with the solution.
Here's your problem of the day 
Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company
Skill covered: Programming
Which SQL clause is used to specify the conditions in a query?
Choose another skill to practice
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