Practice-style review intended to help you prepare. The process emphasizes problem-solving (DSA), clean coding, and behavioral fit. Expect medium-hard algorithm problems, clear communication, and one lighter design/architecture discussion for interns.

1. Recruiter screen (30 minutes)

Type: HR/fit + logistics.

Questions: Walk me through your resume, why Google, availability, basic internship logistics.

Tip: Keep answers concise, show impact (metrics), and be clear about dates.

1. Coding phone screen (60 minutes, shared editor)

Format: One or two coding problems in a shared editor (CoderPad).

Example problems (practice):

• "Find the longest substring without repeating characters" — implement sliding window, O(n) expected.
• "Given a binary tree, return the maximum root-to-leaf path sum" — DFS recursion, handle negatives.

What they look for: Correctness, clear explanation, edge cases, time/space complexity.

Common outcome: Pass if you communicate tradeoffs and produce working code with small bug fixes.

1. Virtual on-site: Three 45–50 minute interviews

Round A — Coding (Array/String)

Sample: "Given an array of integers, return the length of the longest subarray with sum = k."

Approach expected: Hashmap prefix-sum or two-pointer if nonnegative. Explain complexity O(n).

Evaluation: Problem-solving clarity, code structure, handling edge cases.

Round B — Coding (Trees/Graphs)

Sample: "Serialize and deserialize a binary tree" OR "Lowest common ancestor in a binary tree."

Approach expected: Recursive solutions with clear invariants. If iterative, justify stack usage.

Round C — Design / Systems-lite + Behavioral

Design sample (intern-level): "Design a simple pastebin service supporting create/read and short URLs."

Expectations: High-level API, data model, choice of database, scaling considerations, and a few tradeoffs (index vs hashing). Not heavy on microservices; focus on thinking and clear tradeoffs.

Behavioral: "Tell me about a time you disagreed with a teammate", "How do you learn new tech?" — use STAR format.