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PhD Software Engineer Interview Experience

January 20, 2026
Positive ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I applied online. The process took two months.

  • One or two rounds of virtual interviewing including behavioral, research discussion, and technical interview.
  • Then was flown out to one of their campuses for two in-person interviews including a technical interview and a research discussion.

I was rejected after this phase, but the next steps would have included meetings with team leaders for team placement.

Questions

The in-person technical interview problem involved clever usage of hashmaps and hashsets.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 7 interview experiences for the Google PhD Software Engineer role.

Success Rate

14%
Pass Rate

Google's interview process for their PhD Software Engineer roles is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive43%
Neutral57%
Negative0%

Candidates reported having very good feelings for Google's PhD Software Engineer interview process.

Google Work Experiences